2. Stone
Isucked in my breath as I positioned my shoulders under the bar. The metal dug into my skin as I straightened my legs and lifted the weights off the hooks. I mentally counted as I squatted in rhythmic fashion until I completed the set and racked the bar.
My muscles throbbed as I left the power cage to grab my water bottle and a towel to wipe the sweat from my face.
“Nice,” Theo, the team’s trainer, said as he clapped me on the back. I was trying to max out today, so he made it a point to hang close to me.
“Yeah,” I said as I tipped my water bottle and squeezed water into my mouth.
“Facing those demons?” he asked, fiddling with the clipboard he was holding.
I clenched my jaw as memories involuntarily flooded my mind. But as quickly as they came, I pushed them away. Not wanting him to know that his question got to me, I shrugged and set my water bottle down. “Something like that.”
“Well, you’re a beast. If you keep this up, I think another Super Bowl is in the bag,” Theo announced, and the entire gym erupted in cheers.
“That was never a question. We will kick ass,” I said as George and Jayden came up to me and offered me their fists. The Tennessee Tigers were coming off a Super Bowl win, and I couldn’t wait to see what we did this year.
“Check it out,” Jayden said as he waved toward the TV, which showed Priscilla George interviewing me.
The guys whooped and hollered before they glanced over at me and wiggled their eyebrows.
“Man, Priscilla is looking fine,” Jayden said as he gripped my shoulder before sucking his breath in between his teeth. “Please tell me you’ve finally locked that down.”
My body tensed at his words. I stepped to the side, not wanting to address what he was asking. Sure, it was no secret that Priscilla was interested in me. The way she smiled at me. The way she leaned in close when she was interviewing me. And the way she texted me late at night asking to come over. I wasn’t an idiot; I knew what she wanted. But I wasn’t interested in Priscilla.
At least, not in the way she was interested in me.
“I’m turning up the volume,” George said as he approached the TV.
The gym grew quiet as Priscilla’s voice filled the air.
“Everyone wants to know the plan for the Tigers this year,” she asked. Her perfect white teeth glinted in the sunshine.
“We’re going to dominate,” I said, glancing at the camera and smiling. Hayden, my assistant, had dressed me in a black suit with a grey button-down shirt and white tie that day, and I looked good. I would be lost without her.
The gym erupted into cheers. A smile crept over my lips as I nodded, feeling the energy that came from being around my team.
“So many people credit your success to luck. You just happened to be at the right place at the right time. What do you have to say to those people?” Priscilla tipped the microphone back to me.
My face fell just like it did on screen. I swallowed against the lump that had formed in my throat. Thankfully, I managed to pull it together in the interview and say something poetic about how luck is a mixture of tenacity and grit before changing the subject.
But standing here in the gym, my entire body felt numb as my thoughts slipped back to high school, standing in the Kings’ house while Mr. King glared down at me. Something happened that night. A shift in fate. And suddenly, I was the one with all the lucky breaks.
I went to the University of Texas. I played my heart out and got drafted after college to the Tennessee Tigers, the best team in the league. Two years in and the team won the Super Bowl, and I got the coveted title of MVP.
Sure, I lost my best friend the night I got the scholarship. After I moved back with Dad, I avoided Cayden. I didn’t want to tell him that his dad was a dick and let him know what his dad had asked me to do. I told myself I didn’t want Cayden to have to pick between me and his father, when what I really feared was to hear the same words from my best friend.
Cayden didn’t seem to have an issue with casting me aside. We stopped talking and hanging out, and we even retired the podcast we’d started. It was like we went from best friends to strangers overnight.
Emerson tried to talk to me once or twice, but I just walked away from her. She didn’t deserve to get caught up in the mess that was my life, and the best thing I could do for her was encourage her to move on. I focused on my grades and football and that was it. I was going to go to Texas if it was the last thing I did.
Anger boiled in my gut, so I turned my back on the TV and focused on lifting weights until my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I worked hard to keep my past locked in a box in the back of my mind. That’s where I kept the memories of people who I’d thought had my back only to find out how easy it was for them to walk away from me.
The only person that mattered in my life was my grandmother, who was currently on a cruise around the world. She came back into my life after graduation and stayed. She never asked me to do anything for her. She loved me unconditionally. Other people were a distraction that I didn’t need.
Especially the guy who’d sworn he was my best friend, but when I got what he wanted, he’d dropped me like we didn’t have years of friendship behind us.
“He still gets under your skin, huh?” George asked as I returned the dumbbells to their rack and pushed my hand through my hair.
“Who?”
He shot me a look that said, you know who. “Cayden.”
I inwardly groaned. I’d gotten drunk one night and told George everything about my past. I hated that I’d been weak that night and that now he knew my deepest, darkest secrets. I shrugged and picked up my water bottle and towel. “I really don’t think about him. He used to be my friend and that’s it.” I clapped George on the back. “You just focus on throwing the ball to me, and I’ll focus on getting it to the end zone.”
I could tell that George wanted to say more, but I really wasn’t in the mood. I shot him a quick smile before I nodded toward the locker room. “I’m gonna shower,” I called over my shoulder as I walked toward the door.
I made my way to my locker. I set my water bottle on the top shelf and grabbed my shampoo and soap before heading to a shower. I let the hot water beat across my back as my thoughts returned to Cayden.
It had hurt more than I cared to admit when my best friend—basically my brother—decided to turn his back on me. I didn’t know what his dad told him, but I heard through friends that he thought I’d cheated him out of the Texas scholarship. Even though we’d spent so many years together, one look of pure betrayal from him and I’d known our friendship was over.
And with the dissolution of our friendship, my relationship with Emerson was gone in a puff as well. She’d looked confused when I walked away from her when she’d tried to talk to me. That girl haunted my thoughts in more ways than one, but when Mr. King told me to leave and never come back, I complied.
I walked away from the King family. I walked away from the family that had been my sanctuary from my drunk dad and his angry fists. It hurt more than when my parents walked away from me. I’d expected my mom and dad to leave. I’d never expected the Kings to do the same.
I pounded my fist on the tile next to me as I cursed under my breath. I grabbed my shampoo and aggressively washed my hair. I spent too much energy keeping my mind on the game, and at the mere mention of Cayden, I spiraled.
Why wasn’t I stronger?
By the time I was coming out of the shower with a towel wrapped around my waist, the other guys had filtered into the locker room. They were all in a different state of undress. I kept my focus on my locker as I dressed. Just as I was pulling my black t-shirt over my head, my phone buzzed.
“Who’s that?” Ezekiel asked. His locker was next to mine.
I grabbed my phone. Poppy’s name flashed on the screen along with the text message icon. I groaned as I set the phone down. “My neighbor.”
“Ooo!” Ezekiel said as he punched me in the shoulder. Isaac, a lineman, inquired what had happened, and Ezekiel was more than happy to tell him that I was sleeping with my neighbor.
I shot him an annoyed look. “It’s not that. She’s interested, but I’m not.” Ezekiel pursed his lips and lowered his eyelids. A look that told me, sure. I shook my head as I turned my attention over to Isaac. “She wants more, but I’m not interested.”
Isaac didn’t look like he believed me either, and I realized that this was an effort in futility, so I grabbed my phone and swiped it on. As soon as I located her text message, I started reading out loud. “Hey, Stone. Just wanted to let you know that I’m subletting my apartment. I have a chance to go to Europe to photograph the migration of birds, so I won’t be around. Hope you keep an eye on my apartment and that we can connect when I get back.” I sent a quick thumbs-up emoji before I closed the text and glanced up at Ezekiel and Isaac. “See.”
“Ooo, she wants to connect when she gets back,” Ezekiel said before he started simulating humping. I tossed my sweaty shirt at him, which landed squarely on his head. He yelped and tossed it to the side. “Come on, man. You’re the only one of us not in a relationship. When are you going to find someone?” Ezekiel sighed. “I’m tired of my girl always talking about how you should date one of her friends.”
“He’s just tired of hearing his girl call your name at night,” George said as he walked up to us and dropped his arm around Ezekiel’s shoulders.
Ezekiel tossed George’s arm off his shoulder and turned to land both palms squarely on George’s chest and shoved him. “Say that again,” Ezekiel said as he followed after George, who had to stumble back to catch his balance.
George simulated punching Ezekiel, but instead of landing a blow, he wrapped his arm around Ezekiel’s neck and pulled him over, so he was bent at the waist. We all stepped back so they could finish their tussle. It ended with both of them laughing and high fiving before turning their attention back to me.
“I’m good, guys,” I said as I slipped on my leather jacket and grabbed my wallet from the small tray on the top shelf and stuffed it into my back pocket. “Girls are a complication that I don’t need in my life.” I grabbed my motorcycle helmet from the bench in front of my locker and tucked it under my arm. “I’ll leave the heartbreak to you guys.”
I shot them a grin and then made my way through the locker room. When I got out to the parking lot, the sticky summer evening air hit me like a wall of water. I could feel my skin prick under my leather jacket, but I swore to Gran that I would wear it no matter the weather. She hated that I rode a motorcycle, and agreeing to wear the jacket was the only way I could calm her nerves, so I did it.
Once the wind hit me as I sped down the road, wearing a leather jacket wasn’t too bad. Plus, the sun was beginning to set.
I made a quick stop at the grocery store and picked up some protein bars and milk. Then I rode home and parked my motorcycle in the garage before heading toward the elevator with my plastic grocery bags in hand.
The doors opened on the fourth floor, and I stepped out. My keys dangled from my fingers as I unlocked the door and walked in. Just as I moved to shut the door, my thoughts returned to Poppy’s text. I glanced at her door as I shut mine, wondering when she was leaving and if the person subletting her apartment had already moved in.
I liked my anonymity, and I didn’t want someone to let the public know that I was living here. I’d agreed to stay in Gran’s apartment until she got back, so she didn’t lose her lease. I didn’t want to have to leave because reporters or football fans wouldn’t stop showing up.
Maybe I should just offer to sublet it from her. It might be nice having this space all to myself. I shut the door and turned to bring the groceries to the kitchen. Once the milk was put away and the protein bars were stuffed in the cupboard, I headed over to the couch and plopped down.
I slipped my phone from my pocket and checked my email. A smile spread across my lips as I saw the unread email from Gran. She sent me one every day. I clicked on it. It opened up, and I read all about her day yesterday. What she ate, the games she played, the puzzle that she and her best friend, Rose, were putting together. She was tired of being at sea and couldn’t wait to get to the next port.
I was happy that she was happy. I wanted the best things for her.
Just as I closed the email and set my phone down, I got another notification. I picked my phone back up to see that Poppy had texted me again. I rolled my eyes and contemplated not reading it but then felt bad.
Poppy wasn’t terrible. She was a good neighbor. We watched each other’s apartments just like she’d done with my grandmother. She even gave me access to her doorbell camera to keep an eye on things when she would leave for long photography excursions. I just got the impression that she wanted something more than I was willing to give her.
Or any woman.
I swiped my screen on and read her message.
Poppy: I found someone to sublet! She’s a sweet girl, and I hope the two of you will get along. Just keep an eye on her so that she doesn’t burn my place down. Thanks, Stone.
I nodded as I typed back.
Me: Will do. Have fun in Europe.
She texted me a heart-eyed emoji. I set my phone back down and glanced around the room. My gran’s cat, Oscar, was curled up on the edge of the loveseat next to the window that overlooked the street. The sun was low enough to cast its rays through the drapes and spill across Oscar’s orange fur.
I leaned back on the couch, letting my legs relax in front of me. My eyes began to close when my phone chimed once more. I sighed, sat up, and grabbed my phone, anticipating another text from Poppy. But it wasn’t. It was Hayden, my assistant.
Hayden: Anything you need tonight, Boss?
Me: I’m good. Have a great night.
I tipped my head against the back of the couch once more as I closed my eyes. No need to have her come here when I didn’t need her.
I wasn’t sure if any of the guys were going out tonight, and I contemplated texting them but decided against it. They always drew attention when we went out. If I went out by myself, I could slip into a bar and avoid being recognized. Right now, a cold beer and some stale peanuts sounded divine.
I glanced at my watch. After I took a quick nap, I’d head out. It’d be dark by then, and that was when Nashville came alive.