Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Screenshot that
Ruby
Light filtered through my partially open drapes as I stretched out my legs.
It was early on a Saturday morning, so the house was dead silent.
Jaz had spent the night at a hookup’s place.
Bri was probably still asleep after working six straight night shifts – just like me.
And as a bartender, Daisy was forever getting home at absurd times too, so she was likely out cold as well.
Picking up my phone, there wasn’t one notification. Not even from Noah. He’d headed out with his friends last night to celebrate a frat brother’s birthday. He’d mentioned the guy’s name, but I’d already forgotten it.
On the times I’d visited him in Miami, I’d gone to a few parties with his teammates and frat brothers. But if I was being honest, I hadn’t really enjoyed myself. One guy spent the entire weekend hitting on me, not fazed by the fact that I was there with his teammate.
When I brought it up to Noah, he brushed it off as just a dumb guy thing.
Maybe it was, but it made me uncomfortable.
Besides, while Evan and the rest of Ryker’s friends might joke around, they never actually hit on me or crossed any lines, and unlike Noah’s douchey frat bros and water polo teammates, they didn’t owe Noah any loyalty or respect.
With a few minutes to spare, I tried FaceTiming Noah. We hadn’t spoken properly in days. Some weeks it was like our schedules didn’t align at all.
As I’d been walking into the hospital yesterday afternoon, he’d tried calling.
Knowing I didn’t have much time, I’d sent it to voicemail.
My whole shift I’d been so run off my feet that I’d barely managed to scoff down food, let alone check my phone.
By the time I was leaving the building and finally had a chance to call him back, he’d messaged to say he was on his way out.
I watched the screen impatiently, praying he’d pick up, but the call went unanswered. With a groan, I dropped my phone onto my bed before slipping my hands beneath the covers to save myself from trying to call him again. And again. And again.
I was so fucking over long distance.
With my eyes fluttering shut, my fingertips instinctively found my warm skin. I slowly trailed them along my torso before reaching my bare inner thigh.
I’d fallen asleep last night reading a spicy novel – Bri’s latest recommendation.
While the sex in it was totally far-fetched, it had wound me up before I drifted off, and I’d dreamt of athletic cowboys fucking me on the back of a horse.
Absurd, I know. But it’d been a while and I still had weeks to go.
Just as I was slipping my fingers beneath the elastic of my underwear, my alarm sounded.
Of. Fucking. Course.
Grumbling, I threw back the covers. I’d set it for the latest possible moment, which meant I had no time to waste. I needed to shower and pack stat.
*
By the time I emerged from my room with my suitcase, Bri and Daisy were awake. They were hanging in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. Bri had even made me a coffee.
“You’re the best,” I told her, rolling my suitcase to a stop so I could take it from her hands.
She winked. “Duh. What time are we leaving?”
I checked the time on the microwave. “Maybe in ten minutes. Are you sure you’re still good to take me?”
“I have an appointment that side of town anyway.”
After chugging my coffee and devouring some breakfast, we hit the road. There was barely any traffic this early on a Saturday, which I was grateful for. Nothing worse than rushing through security and running to your airport gate.
Even though the sun was shining, it brought no warmth with it. Knowing it would be just as cool in Philadelphia, I’d dressed in an oversized knit set, a thick trench coat, and an orange beanie. It kind of appeared as though I was wearing pyjamas, but I was too toasty to care.
Just as Bri merged onto the freeway, Noah finally returned my call. Bri politely turned the radio down as I picked up.
“Morning, babe,” Noah mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
He was still in bed, his hair a rare mess as he rested against his pillow.
“Hey. Good night?”
He yawned. “Was okay. Feeling pretty shit now though.”
“Get up and shower. You’ll feel better.”
He rolled onto his side, taking his phone with him. “What are you doing?”
“I’m on my way to the airport. Bri’s driving me.”
When we pulled up to a red light, I shifted the camera so that he could see her.
Bri lifted her hand in a wave. “Hey, Noah.”
Noah ignored her, frowning instead. “Why are you going to the airport?”
“To see Ryker.”
“Since when?”
“It was a last minute thing. I told you–”
“No, you didn’t.”
I hesitated, quickly thinking back. Hadn’t I?
Noah’s gaze drifted away as his attention caught on something beyond the screen. He squinted when his bedroom light was turned on, before angling his phone as he spoke to someone in the background. Probably his roommate.
Beside me, Bri elbowed my forearm while discreetly muttering something under her breath.
“What?” I subtly whispered back.
“Screenshot that,” she mumbled.
“Huh?”
A horn tooted, startling Bri and me. The light had gone green. Bri ignored both that and the car behind us, while pointedly gesturing to my phone.
With a roll of my eyes, I took a screenshot, even though I had no clue why. Satisfied, she finally accelerated through the intersection, purposely avoiding the guy beside her hurling abuse through his window as he sped past.
Once the light switched off, Noah returned his attention to me. “You have a spare weekend and you’re flying to Philadelphia?”
“I didn’t have a spare weekend, I worked yesterday,” I reminded him. “I’m only going because it’s Ryker’s Senior Night and his family had to pull out last minute.”
Senior Night was a chance for teams to honour players finishing their final season. There was a pre-game ceremony, where each senior and their family received a framed jersey and mementos from their time at college.
I’d been at Ryker’s Senior Night in high school, and it felt fitting being at this one too.
“So you have to go instead?” Noah bit.
I’d waited over twenty-four hours to speak to him, and this was what he wanted to focus on?
“If you’re going to be grouchy, I’m hanging up.”
“I’m sorry, Ruby,” Noah muttered, exhaling heavily. “It’s because I miss you. I’m sick of playing phone tag and going days without speaking.”
I sighed. “Me too.”
In the background, I vaguely registered a female voice talking, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying.
It was more than likely Noah’s roommate’s girlfriend. I’d never met her before. His roommate spent more time at her off-campus place than he did at their frat house, which I sure wasn’t complaining about. It meant whenever I visited Noah, we always had the room to ourselves.
“Sorry,” Noah said. “Some chick had the wrong room.”
“Did she just open your door?”
“Yeah. I must’ve forgotten to lock it last night. I was so wasted.” Noah sat up, the blankets pooling around his waist. “I’m going to take a shower. Call me later?”
Before I could answer, he’d disconnected the call.
Knowing the moods he got into when he was hungover, I decided to let it drop. Bri didn’t though. When she pulled up at the next light, she held out her palm.
“Give me your phone.”
I handed it over. “Why?”
Opening my photos, she pulled up the screenshot she’d forced me to take, then kept zooming until she was focussed on one of Noah’s pillows. Not the one he’d been lying on, the other one.
She pointedly thrust my phone back in my face.
“What?” I asked.
“There’s a dent.”
“Okay?”
She gaped at me. “It looks like someone’s been sleeping on it.”
I groaned. “God, not you too.”
I didn’t want to get into this. Not again. Her lack of faith in Noah was frustrating. Why did both my best friends have to think the worst of him?
“What’s with people always jumping to crazy conclusions?”
“People?”
“First Ryker, and now you. Isn’t the most likely explanation that Noah was lying there?”
After a pause, Bri’s toned softened. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ve been dealing with fuck boys for so long that I forget they’re not all slime balls. Blame being single and a lack of sleep. This residency year is kicking my ass.”
Being able to relate to that, I gave her a pass.
The years of study certainly hadn’t prepared us for the exhaustion that went hand in hand with nursing.
While I loved it, sometimes I resented it for the bags it caused beneath my eyes, and the events I couldn’t make because I was on shift, and the people I missed because my roster kept me too busy.
*
A security guard lingered near Tori’s Range Rover, which was parked in the pick-up zone, muttering in frustration and throwing his hands in the air.
She either hadn’t heard him over her music, or she was purposely ignoring him.
He thumped on the passenger window, trying to get her attention, so I walked around to the driver’s side instead.
Slowly peering up from her phone, Tori’s lips curved into a grin once she realised it was me.
“Do you know this girl?” the security guard snapped.
“Ugh.” I shifted uncomfortably. “She’s my Uber driver.”
He huffed. “This isn’t the zone for Uber drivers. Particularly ones that sit in a pick-up area for more than twenty minutes.”
Yikes.
Shooting Tori a look of concern, she quickly unlocked the car.
Though rather than get any closer to the angry security guard, I jumped in the back seat instead.
It wasn’t until he was completely out of view and Tori was merging onto the freeway that I climbed over the centre console and slipped into the passenger seat.
As always, her car was a chaotic mess. I had to shove a heap of clothes off the seat to clip in my belt, and there was a stack of empty Starbucks cups at my feet. I may not live Noah-level clean, but even this was too much for me.
“How does Brady put up with this?” I teased.
“Easy,” Tori returned. “I give the best blow jobs.”
Brady had met Tori the first week of freshman year and they’d been dating ever since. It was nice having her around whenever I came to visit Ryker. She was like my Phil-U bestie.
Her white-blonde hair was freshly cut an inch shorter than her jaw, and she was dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and a cropped singlet, like a 90s icon.
She didn’t fit the stereotypical football player’s girlfriend vibe, but her and Brady were so obsessed with each other you couldn’t deny that they were soulmates.
“Ryker’s going to be so excited,” she yelped, wriggling giddily in her seat.
This was a fly-in-fly-out trip. I had fifty hours off between shifts, and forty of those were being spent here.
I hadn’t planned on coming until yesterday morning, when Ryker called to say his parents had bailed because Savannah and the twins were sick. I knew he’d hate the idea of having no family here.
I’d booked my flight so last minute that I hadn’t even had a chance to tell Ryker I was coming. When I’d mentioned that to Tori, she’d decided it would be fun to surprise him. So here we were.
“He probably won’t even be excited,” I said.
“Are you kidding? He was whining last night that he wouldn’t see you until Christmas.”
Christmas was just over a week away. I had to wait until New Year’s Eve to see Noah. His family were travelling interstate to spend Christmas with their extended relatives.
I’d asked him to spend the holiday with mine and Ryker’s families, and he’d asked me to fly with him and his parents to Minnesota. Given it was obvious that neither of us were going to budge, we’d let it go with the promise we’d spend New Year’s Eve together.
I already had my flight booked for Miami. I’d used my miles so it hadn’t cost a thing.
Fourteen days until I’d see him. And according to Tori’s nav system, fourteen minutes until we’d arrive at the Phil-U Athletes’ Centre.