Page 148 of Begin Again Again

“Like with girls?”

Derek’s black eyes were unblinking. “With everything. Have I ever tried to make it work with anyone? No. Because I don’t give a shit. I never see it going anywhere. I don’t think I’m even trying anymore.”

Byron stared at him. “Take it things aren’t great with Trace?”

“Things are the same as they always are. Cheers…” Derek tilted his glass skyward, draining the port.

Byron followed suit. “Cheers.”

When he was done, Derek looked around the room. “You should sell this place.”

“Like, the house?”

“How pissed are you? Yeah, the house. I know you hate it.”

Byron looked up at the high, eggshell white ceiling. He’d never said it out loud, but he did hate the house. It was a museum to the man he’d never been. Too big and expensive. Too tied to Audrey and his dad. “I do hate this place.”

“So, sell it. She’ll go in a second.”

But then he wouldn’t be on the property ladder. Then he’d have to deal with estate agents. Then he’d have to tell his dad he was selling…

Byron could feel Derek watching him. Practically hear him smirking. “Don’t say it.”

“Okay. I won’t.” Derek put his glass on the coffee table. “Beer?”

“I definitely don’t want another port.”

Derek grabbed the last of the Panheads sitting on the coffee table and cracked them open. “Fuck it, I think I’ve got five minutes until the port takes me under. I’m just gonna say it—sell the fucking house, BT. Sell the house, move to Perth with your girl. I’ll come visit. It’ll be good.”

Byron accepted his beer with a scowl. “I have no idea what I’d do in Perth.”

“Go to the beach.”

“Yeah, thanks for the free advice, bloke. Can I get your take on 2021 stock options next?”

Derek stretched out his legs and yawned. “Okay, here’s a question. Say you were still in the game—”

Just the thought stung.

“—would you give up footy for her?”

It was a question Byron had posed to himself before, and the answer was much harder to deny with Derek watching him.

“Of course, you wouldn’t,” Derek said. “None of us would. So why can’t she do that? And why can’t you be the one who moves things around for her?”

“Because I’m a pig?”

Derek shook his head. “Nah, mate. You’re playing scared.”

“I never play scared.”

“Maybe not in the game, but you are now. You’re not trying to win; you’re trying to not get injured.”

Byron took a swig of Panhead. “I never had to try to make things work before I fucked my leg. I decided I wanted something, and I got there, every time.”

“Well, hoo-roo, bloke. That’s literally no one else’s experience.”

“Fuck off. When did you bomb?”

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