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He shrugged. “I don’t…have a whole lot to be thankful for right now anyway. Hayes? Give us a minute?”
“I got you.” He walked into Amara’s bedroom and closed the door, giving them some privacy.
Ryan and Amara stood face to face. “Ry, I’ve hated not talking to you, but what you said really hurt me.”
“I’m sorry. I was completely out of line, and I’m sorry. I’m gonna say some things and then I’m just gonna leave real quick because I suck at goodbyes.”
“This isn’t goodbye, Ryan.”
“For now it is. Listen, I’ve got a rough two weeks ahead of me, and as much as it kills me to say this, Amara, I can’t talk to you for these two weeks. At all. Not a text, not a phone call, not FaceTime, nothing. I want these next two weeks to be like we never even met.”
“Oh. Wow. Speaking of things that hurt.”
“Amara, stop. We broke up, but you keep leading me on, making me think there’s hope when there’s clearly not. I love you, and I’d get back together with you yesterday. But that’s not what you want, so you’ve gotta give me some space. I’m sorry, but I have to leave now.” He picked up all three of his bags and wrestled them out the door. “Tell Hayes I said bye.”
The door closed, and she stood there staring at it for a few moments, hoping he’d come back in and take it all back.
But he was gone.
And as much as it hurt, she knew it was probably what was best for both of them.
“You OK, babe?” Tyler came around the corner and put a hand on her shoulder.
She nodded. “What other choice do I have?”
Wrong Room (29)
“Biggest party night of the year, and this is it?” Dani bitched, looking around the half-empty bar. It was already 11:30, so if it was going to get super-busy, it would’ve done so by now.
“Don’t complain. I’d much rather it be like this than a bunch of drunken idiots falling all over the place and puking in the bathrooms.”
“Yeah, but those drunken idiots are mostly hot college guys who usually end up shirtless. Oh wait, I forgot. You’re too good for that. Too busy banging hockey gods.” She poured a couple of beers, set them down at the end of the bar, opened a tab, and strutted back over to Amara with crossed arms. “So, you gonna tell me what happened to your face?”
“Shit,” Amara said, turning to check it out in the mirror behind the bar. “My makeup didn’t cover it all?”
“I mean, I’m right up on ya, so I can see it. It better not have been one of those boys. I’ll kill ‘em.”
“No, God no. Neither of them would ever.” She let out a huge sigh and filled Dani in on the events of the past few days: Tyler’s call-up, the fling in the arena bathroom, the fight with Jenna, the Gilgo Beach incident, and Ryan being sent to Worcester.
“Damn. And he said he didn’t want to talk to you at all, for two weeks? That boy’s heart is destroyed. Easy to understand why.”
“What do you mean?”
“Baby girl, you know how he feels about you and you’re still banging him? You’re giving him all kinds of mixed signals.”
“He was always Mr. ‘I can have sex with the whole planet and not feel anything.’ I just thought…I don’t know what I thought.”
“You’re messing with his head. I know you don’t wanna, but you’ve gotta stop banging him. He’s never gonna heal if you keep leading him on. Don’t you want him to move on, to find his happiness? Then you gotta let him.”
“I know.” She took her phone out of her pocket and checked, half-expecting to see a message from Ryan, but there was nothing.
“So, baby face is back home?”
“Yeah. He came by today for a bit, right as Ryan was leaving.”
“You’ve got the whole apartment to yourself. Maybe you should ask him to keep you company?”
“I was actually thinking about it. I wanna get with him again so bad I can taste it.”
