Page 10 of Scoreless Nights

“I’ll get with Jackie and make the plans, you just be ready!”

“What should I wear?” I lifted my shoulders a little, being silly while pretending to be sexy. “I have a little black dress that I think you will adore.”

“Ohh,” she laughed. “And we will definitely find a reason to wear that. I say we call that your celebration dress for when you land one of these jobs. For Wednesday, let's go casual. No promises, yet, but I think I have an idea, and I want to surprise you.”

My smile was hurting my face. I had never had a friend surprise me with anything. “You got a date.”

We hugged one more time and I started my drive back to Cruz’s house. I called my mom on the way, just to tell her I had been browsing the stores, and that she didn’t have to worry about me. She even told me I sounded happy, and it madeherhappy to hear me so full of joy.

“It's Miami,” I shrugged, even though she couldn’t see me. “There isn’t anything not to love.” Thankfully, she kept our chat short and I was able to turn the music up for the rest of my drive. It helped me think and clear my head, and I felt the stress I always carried slowly fading.

By the time I got back to Cruz’s place, I had decided that as soon as I knew about my job interviews, I would tell Angel more about me, the real Lillian Harris.

When I walked toward the elevator and made my way to the twelfth floor, I realized I had a strut that I hadn’t had earlier that day. I felt confident, and didn’t think there was anything that could ruin the day I had with Angel.

Then I opened the door to the apartment and saw Cruz. He was shirtless, with sweat dripping down his chest, and loose shorts hanging low on his waist. He had a backward baseball hat on and was barefoot. There was a woman next to him, quickly sliding a shirt over her head to cover a sports bra as they awkwardly saw me standing there.

“Oh, um,” I tried to save myself and looked toward my bedroom door. “Sorry to interrupt. Um…I’m gonna…” Before I could finish my thought, I ran and shut the door tightly behind me, then leaned against it and slid down to the floor, trying to get my breathing under control.

It wasn’t what I walked in on that had me close to hyperventilating, it was the image of Cruz that would probably forever be ingrained in my brain. The way he stood there with his sweaty, athletic body, his chest heaving, and the hat on backward. Cruz had always been attractive, and time had obviously been good to him, but it wasn’t okay that I had thoughts and feelings about that, especially considering who he was.

ChapterSix

Cruz

Ididn’t know what Lillian was doing in her room, but she had been in there ever since she’d awkwardly run across the living room while avoiding eye contact. That moment was exactly why I didn’t want her to stay with me. What she thought she saw, and what was actually going on, were two different things. And despite trying not to care, it bothered me that she assumed I would bring someone home to fuck in the living room, knowing she would be there.

I wasn’t that big of a dick.

It had been three hours. My teammates and I were supposed to be meeting at a club, but all I could think about was knocking on Lillian’s door and telling her about my friend Erin. I had even practiced subtle ways to tell her that Erin was into chicks, without making it seem like I was worried about what she thought.

Erin Rhodes was a fairly new friend, who I met through a teammate, Rhys Peyton. While he was trying to land his girl, Ash, I played the role of his wingman and entertained her best friend, Erin. I tried several times to get in Erin’s pants, because she was a smoke show, but once I realized I wasn’t hertype, we clicked on a friend level. Ash and Erin both played soccer for Miami University, and Erin was getting ready to start pursuing her pro career. As her friend, she had asked me to help, which involved a few workouts and study sessions.

When Erin was leaving my place, she laughed, knowing what Lillian assumed, and knowing it would bother me. She even sent me a text later asking if it was all okay yet, and when I sent her a mad-face emoji, she just sent a crying-laughing one back to me.

“Um,” I stood outside Lillian’s door and held my hand in the air to knock. “Lillian?”

The door opened before I could even touch it and she looked at me with her big blue eyes.

“I ordered a pizza,” I mumbled, then waved behind me toward the direction of the kitchen.

“Thanks,” she nodded. “I’m not hungry, though.”

Her stomach made a funny noise in the quiet space around us and I looked down, then back up. She looked mortified, and I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Sure.”

“Okay,” she shrugged. “Kind of hungry, but just trying to give you privacy.”

“She left hours ago,” I scoffed. “But the pizza just got here.”

Walking away, I left her to decide to come eat, or not. I didn’t really care.Yes I did.But I was glad that she knew Erin had left, and I was relieved when she started following me toward the kitchen. There were already plates on the bar, so I spun the boxes around to face her so she could grab what she wanted.

“I thought you saida pizza. Are you expecting company?” She asked as she sorted the seven boxes of cheesy goodness.

“I just didn’t know what you would like,” I shrugged, then took a bite of my own slice. “Ordered a little of everything.”

The way her cheeks lifted up slightly made me fixate on her lips for a minute. Her eyes were scanning over each box as she lifted the lid to see the contents. Once she had two pieces on her plate, she looked up, and caught me staring.

“Thanks,” she whispered, shyly. “I was planning on leaving to grab something, but this is really nice.”

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