Page 34 of Made For Me

Dylan scoffs at me and then it sets in. He gasps and snaps his finger. “You like a girl,” he reasons, making Cooper laugh out loud. “Oh my God, you like a girl and you’re stringing her along.”

“Of course, he would get it.” I point at Dylan who’s like a mini version of the both of them.

“Who does he like?” Dylan ignores me and looks over at Cooper, who just shrugs. “Who is it?” he waits for someone to answer him. When no one does he snaps, “Oh my God, who is it?” He taps the arm of the chair. “Is it someone we know?”

“Don’t you guys have to get to work or something?” I ignore his question but he doesn’t take it as ashut up.

“How well do we know her?” Dylan looks at Cooper, who crosses his hands over his stomach, just smirking. “I mean, there really isn’t anyone except…” His eyes go big and then his head snaps around to look at me. Shock all over his face, his mouth opens wide and he slowly lifts his hand to his mouth. “No,” he says in a whisper, “didn’t you guys bang on the beach in Hawaii?”

“That’s what I said.” Cooper looks at me.

“We never banged. It was all talk,” I finally say.

“She wanted your hammer,” Dylan goads, trying not to laugh as he puts a fist in front of his mouth and I flip him the bird. “Didn’t Franny buy her a hammer for her birthday that year and she made Wilson shape the handle into a dick?”

“He nearly cut off his finger doing that.” Cooper now can’t stop laughing. “And it was a group project.”

I get up now, not interested in talking about Julia since I haven’t been able to talk to her since she left my house. “I have to get to work”—I look at them—“and so do you.”

Leaving them in my office, I walk down to the gym, seeing Tristan there as he works on his stretching. “How are we feeling?” I ask him. He just shrugs, but I can see he’s very frustrated with this whole not-playing thing. “It could be a lot worse,” I say, and he rolls his eyes at me. “I’m not kidding.”

“Are you going to say it could be a lot worse if I cut off my leg?” he asks, and I just laugh at him.

“I’m not that dire.” I look around. “You could have been sent down to the farm team,” I explain, and he gasps. There is nothing worse in this world than being a rookie who everyone is watching and then being sent down to the farm team. It literally fucks with their heads so much and the media makes so much fuss over it. “See, told you it could be worse.”

“Do you think I’ll be able to skate next week?” he asks quietly, and I just shrug.

“We can try,” I say, not willing to rain all over his parade today. “Let’s work out, yeah?” I urge him and we work out side by side.

It’s four hours later when I finally get a break to sit down. I grab my phone and see I still have nothing from Julia. Am I surprised? No. Does it bother me? Yes. I’m sure she is going nuts at work, especially after yesterday, and I wonder if she called the lawyer. The fact I don’t know any of this burns me to the core.

Me: Hey, just checking in. Call me when you get a minute.

I put the phone down and then get up, bumping into Michael, who is walking from the locker room with his head down as he types something on the phone. “Hey,” I greet and he looks up.

“Have you heard from Julia today?” I ask. I’m waiting for him to ask me why I need to speak to Julia. I also did not think this through, and if he asks this, I have no answer for him.

“She’s at my house,” he says, and now I’m the one who is confused.

“It’s a work day,” I say out loud and look down at my phone.

“Guess you didn’t hear?” he says, and the blood rushes out of my body.

“Hear what?” It comes out more harsh than I want it to.

“She got fired.” I don’t know what I was expecting, but it sure as fuck wasn’t this. “Well, they are calling it a sabbatical.” He shakes his head and all I can think of is how Julia must be feeling. “I call it her being the fall guy.”

I walk away from him as he’s speaking, feeling sick to my stomach. I don’t even know I’m headed toward the car until I’m getting in it. Instead of texting, I call her, I’m expecting her to send me to voice mail.

I’m definitely not expecting her to actually answer. “Hello.”

“I just heard the news. They fired you?” I hiss between clenched teeth.

“Wow, your family is slipping.” She laughs. “This happened three hours ago.”

I close my eyes and lean back on the headrest. “Are you busy for dinner?” The words come out before I can process them.What the fuck are you doing?my inner voice screams.What I should have done a long time ago.“Pick you up at seven.” I’m not even waiting for her to answer me. “Text me where to get you.” I’m about to hang up before she tells me no. “And if you don’t text me, I’ll just show up at Jillian’s after I go to your house.”

She gasps. “See you later.”

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