Chapter 14 Mia
The anticipation I had felt all day came to nothing.
Jett, Gray, and the team returned to the house, but Ash didn’t.
When I finally got the courage to ask where he was, Jett and Gray had exchanged a look, and then Gray had told me that Ash had gone to the sports sciences building to get a slight injury looked at.
I knew there was more to what they were telling me, but I knew I had no room to push it. I couldn’t text him to see if he was okay; that would be weird. I couldn’t ask him when he would be home; that would be weirder.
When would he be home? It had been five days, and one of them he hadn’t even slept in my apartment.
The couples were content to stay home, and I understood that the players were feeling crappy about their loss. Even though it wasn’t the end of the world in my opinion, it meant a lot to them, and I guess that was all that mattered.
The cute backup QB suggested a party. The not-so-cute but still handsome one they called Woods seconded the party. Another one of the team, who I didn’t know, murmured “Mayhem” to Jett, who shook his head, and I looked away quickly when I caught his eye.
“Ash may be a while,” Jett said as he walked over to me.
“Okay.” Looking past him, I looked out the window. “I can walk home.”
Jett looked over his shoulder, and I saw that Gray was watching us. They had some form of weird twin telepathy thing happening, and then Gray nodded. “Casey!” Jett shouted. “Walk Mia home.”
“I can manage,” I said under my breath. Jett raised one eyebrow, and I forced a smile. “But company on the walk home would be great.”
“I agree.”
Overbearing bossy boots.
After saying goodbye to Ava and Quinn, I walked home with Casey, who was the Saints’ corner and spoke the whole way about the game I didn’t understand or care that much about.
“Did Ash get injured?” I blurted out with no finesse at all.
The corner looked at me and then laughed. “Want to know a secret?”
“Always,” I answered promptly.
“The team doc gives him special treatment, if you know what I mean?” Casey was cute, around my height, blond, innocent-looking, with rosy cheeks. Not my type at all.
“No, I don’t know what you mean.” I nudged him with my elbow, playing coy.
“Well, the rumor is she jerks him off.” Casey beamed at me. “Heard she went down on him once, almost got caught by Coach, and that would have been the shit.”
My head was reeling. “The team doctor performs oral sex on the players?”
“Shhh!” Casey put his hand over my mouth and looked around. “So I heard. She definitely jerks him off.”
“She’s a professional!” I exclaimed.
“Yeah, so? It’s not a crime.” Casey looked like he regretted telling me. “She’s got a thing for him. So do most women.” Now he sounded jealous.
“Wow, I seriously did not expect that,” I confessed as my mind replayed the text messages in my head. I had been such an idiot. So much for Quinn saying Ash was discreet. The whole team knew he was hooking up with the doctor. “Wait, isn’t the doctor the coach’s daughter?”
Casey nodded, seemingly happier that I was shocked by his gossip. “Yeah, Coach finds out, Ash’s ass is dust, even if he is a Santo.”
The scorn in his voice made me look more closely at Casey. It seemed not everyone was a Devils fan. After his revelation, I felt less inclined to like them myself. When we got to my apartment, I didn’t hide my surprise when Casey asked me to meet him later for coffee.
“Um, I . . .” I had no words. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
He took a step closer to me. “Or I can come in now?”
Taking a step back, I smiled coldly. “Or not. And no for the coffee, I drink tea.” Climbing the stairs, I opened the door quickly and then locked it behind me.
Creep.
I listened for a moment before I determined the apartment was empty and headed to my room.
I passed Ash’s room, and with the door half open, I pushed it wider as I stepped inside.
His bed was made, his clothes strewn over any standing furniture that would hold them, despite the clothes rack being right there.
On the desk were his laptop and a pair of wired headphones.
My fingers ran over the back of them before I turned around.
Only four days, and the room smelled like him.
He has sex with the team doctor? Did I need to know that? Did it make a difference that I did?
She was so much older than us. Than him. It was just . . . wrong.
Leaving his room, I went into my own and left the door open. I recalled Quinn’s words that Ash was possessive. Yeah, tell that to the team doc. I felt a little bit miffed. No, I was big time miffed. Actually, I was peeved.
At myself? Or at him? Probably him? No, actually I wasn’t surprised at all, so . . . just at myself. Ugh.
What had I been thinking? To get involved with a Devil, who was I? Ava? No, I was Mia Davis, and I knew how to play the field, and no stupid oversized Goliath was playing me.
Looking at my wardrobe, I tapped my foot as I reached for my phone.
“Bea?” I asked. “Hey, it’s Mia. Who’s hosting this evening?”
“Hey, girl, volleyball house, they’re going huge,” Bea told me excitedly over the phone. “You coming?”
“Absolutely,” I told her as I pulled out a little black dress. “Meet you there?”
When I confirmed the time to meet Bea, I checked the time and decided to take a quick nap before my shower and sleep off any lingering effects of my earlier hangover. By the time I left the apartment, there was no sign of my roommate and no text messages from anyone else.
I was on my own, and that made me sad. Forcing the sadness away, I vowed to have a great evening.
Late November was cold at night, and as I walked to the volleyball house with three-inch-heeled knee-high boots on, I regretted my choice of dress.
It was too late to go home and change, and I looked hot.
I wasn’t looking to hook up, but a girl had to be ready for any possibility.
Unlike Ash, I didn’t hop from bed to bed.
Jerkface.
Bea was waiting inside the main entrance for me and quickly told me that Wade was miserable, as yet again he had lost a member of the band. Alex had quit to join some heavy metal cover band.
“Okay, so what’s the plan?” I asked Bea as we approached Wade, who looked like a kicked puppy.
“Get him really, really drunk, and then I’m going to take him back to my room and let him do whatever he wants.”
Squinting at Bea, I looked at her. “Will he, you know . . . be able, if he’s wasted?”
Bea grinned. “No, he won’t, but the idea he’s getting whatever he wants off the menu will perk him up . . . without being able to perk him up.”
I laughed, and it was the first time I had laughed out loud all day. Yes, I needed this, away from the stupid football team and their stupid drama. “I love it,” I said as I opened my arms to give Wade a hug in commiseration and realized he was halfway to being hammered already.
Taking a bottle of beer off Bea, I looked around the party. I felt no guilt at being here. I was going to have a good night. I didn’t need a babysitter.
A few hours later, I was exhausted. My feet were killing me in these boots, Wade had slumped on the couch and was half asleep, and Bea and I had danced to almost every song played.
Not one football player had turned up, and I think the volleyball team were sulking, but the basketball team were here, and I had seen the player, Denzel, who let Quinn make cocktails on Halloween, stare at me a few times.
As Bea went to the bathroom, I perched on the couch beside Wade.
“I have to give back all the advanced money, you know.”
Looking down at him, I saw him staring across the room, not really focused on anything. “What money?”
“I get advances for gigs, and now that Alex has decided to be the next James Hetfield, I have no singer and therefore no gig.”
“I’m sorry,” I told him as I rubbed his arm in commiseration. “You’ll find someone.”
Wade looked up at me. “Why can’t you do it?”
“Do what?” I asked him distractedly as I watched Denzel watch me from across the room.
“Sing!” Wade cried out, causing me to jump in surprise.
“Wade!” I scolded him as I wiped the beer off my leg and glared at him. “I’m right here.”
“You sing so fucking amazingly, Mia, you would be perfect for my band.”
“We’ve had this conversation,” I reminded him. “I can’t.” Then I remembered my mom telling me to get a job. “How much does it pay?” I asked him quietly.
Wade turned in his seat so quickly I had to stand to avoid being knocked off the armrest. “I get four hundred, sometimes five. I keep one hundred for the band equipment, and the rest is a straight share.”
I had more beers than I needed to be able to do this math. “What is that? Seventy?”
“Seventy-five per gig.”
Biting my lip, I looked at his hopeful face. “I can do backing vocals.”
“Fuck backing vocals, you’re the lead singer.”
“Can I think about it?”
“Yes!” Wade was positively glowing.
Nodding at him and hoping he may be too drunk to remember, I turned at the soft touch to my elbow. Denzel stood beside me. “Hi.”
“Hey.” His smile was warm, and I liked it. “Saw you looking over at me. Name’s Denzel.”
“I remember, and I was only looking back at you looking at me.”
His smile became wider as he took a drink of his beer.
His eyes ran over me appreciatively, and I took the chance to take in his jeans and tight T-shirt, showing off his slim frame, but I knew he wasn’t skinny.
His arms had definition, and I did not compare them to any footballers I may have known.
“I was trying to decide if I preferred you blue,” he said playfully.
“I thought it was the assassin that got you hot?” I teased, referring to his obvious come-on to Quinn on Halloween.
“If I remember correctly, I think I said I was hot for blue,” he countered easily.
He had, and then he had immediately hit on Quinn, but I wasn’t one to hold a grudge. “Fair enough.”
“Party’s getting wild,” Denzel said as we saw someone fall over a table.
“Yeah, all we need is Mayhem,” I said and heard the bitterness in my own voice.
“Bullshit,” Denzel scoffed as he took a drink. He looked at me and then past me to Wade, who was now telling Bea I was his new singer, a conversation I wanted to avoid as I saw her look at me in surprise. “Want to get out of here?”
Knowing Bea would have questions and also that Bea would remember that I told Wade I would sing, I nodded enthusiastically.
I was getting very adept at dodge and avoid.
Denzel walked me home, and halfway there, he took my hand. It didn’t feel right, and I was unsure of how this was going to play out, but I let him hold my hand, for now. I knew Ash was wherever Ash was, and we had said no hookups, but if he was out . . . did it count? Did I even want to hook up?
When we got to the bottom of my stairs, I still didn’t know the answer. So, when Denzel turned me to look up at him, I didn’t know if I was going to let him kiss me. Did I want him to?
“So, here we are,” Denzel said as he looked at me and then at the apartment door. “Home?”
Nodding, I glanced at my apartment. Had I left the light on?
“Yeah.” I kept nodding. No, I had switched it off.
“You okay?”
Snapping my attention back to Denzel, I hesitated. Was Ash home? “Um, I think my roommate’s home,” I said as I suddenly felt nervous.
“The blonde?”
“Um, no.” Well, this was awkward. “Ash.”
“Okay, well, I don’t mind if you don’t mind.” He grinned at me, and I felt skeevy because he obviously didn’t know I meant Ash Santo.
“Yeah, we’re not allowed to bring dates home.” Could this be any more embarrassing?
“Oh.” Denzel looked at me and then the apartment door. “Do you want to come to my room?” He leaned down with a conspiratorial whisper. “I’m allowed to bring dates home.”
I huffed out a laugh as my gaze flicked to the apartment again. I really hadn’t left the light on. “Okay, I just need to check something.”
“Sure.”
Climbing hurriedly, I unlocked the door, and my mouth dropped open when I went inside.
My living room was wrecked. Taking a few more steps, I looked around.
The TV was smashed, the couch cushions were on the floor, and the small table Ava and I had made was on its side.
I hurried over to it to check it wasn’t broken.
When I had turned it back upright, I ran to the bedrooms — both of the rooms were ransacked.
“Oh my God,” I whispered as I turned in the spot. I screamed in fright when I saw someone standing there and then realized it was Denzel.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he told me as he walked forward. “What the fuck happened to your apartment?”
“I’ve been robbed.” And then I realized I hadn’t, as my laptop was still sitting where it had always been.
This was because of them. I knew it as sure as I was standing there.
Pulling my phone out of my purse, I called Ava. “Hey, it’s me,” I said briskly. I felt tears threaten. “You need to come home, take the others, and . . .” As I went into his room, I saw that his had been destroyed more than mine. “Someone better find Ash.”
“Why?” Ava asked me with concern.
“Because my home has been wrecked.”