It was comical to watch her and Rox together. They were like two peas in a pod, yelling at the refs for missing calls and screaming for the Bulldogs. Maja was a Philly girl through and through, and despite living in Canada now, she’d always rooted for Philly. Rox was a diehard Toronto Wolves fan, but I didn’t think so anymore. Not with the way she screamed for her man and her twin brother.
“You’re gonna come to the bar, right?” Maja asked.
I nodded and pushed my now chin-length hair behind my ear. I was still getting used to having shorter hair. The other girls said it looked cute, except for Dinah, who saw it for the cry for help it was. I may have drunkenly told her what was going on last weekend.
“Come on,” Dinah urged. “Let’s head over to the bar. I’ll drive.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Can I hitch a ride, too? My brothers are going to harass Blaise in the locker room and take too long.”
Dinah laughed. “Sure. Come on.”
The three of us got out of our seats and filed out of the stadium. Maja and I followed Dinah to her car, and she drove us over to Eileen’s Tavern.
We lost Maja when we walked inside the bar, but I froze in place at the front door when I spied both Hal and Ayden behind the bar. I couldn’t bear to show my face here after Blaise and I ‘broke up.’ The pain and the guilt had been too much.
Dinah gave my hand a squeeze. “Come on. Let’s get a drink while we wait for the boys.”
I nodded solemnly, but my nerves built up inside my chest.
Dinah bounced over to the bar, snagging the two barstools that had just opened up. She hopped onto one and immediately started chatting with Ayden. I took a breath and followed her, sliding uneasily onto the barstool next to her.
Hal walked over to me and set down a lager in front of me. He didn’t ask my order anymore; he always knew what I wanted. That used to make me love this bar, but now it made the guilt twist in my heart.
“Hi, sweetheart. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
I took the beer, but he wouldn’t take my money. Ayden snatched the bills out of my hand with a glare at his dad.
“I know,” I said with a sigh.
“Hey, Veronica’s family!” Hal argued and glared at Ayden.
Ayden glared back. “Then I’ll make her pay double.”
I laughed. Ayden giving me shit was a good sign.
“You cut your hair,” Ayden said while he gave me my change.
“It’s not you,” Hal said with a scowl.
Ayden nodded in agreement. “It looks like shit.”
“Wow…you guys sure do know how to compliment a girl,” I said with a roll of my eyes. Did I mention Ayden was kind of an asshole?
“Stop being mean to my girlfriend,” a deep voice spoke up behind me.
I turned around and came face-to-face with the man I had been heartbroken over. Blaise’s blonde hair was getting longer, but he styled it so it was out of his face. His muscular frame was bulging out of the classic black suit he wore. People said men in suits were to women what women in lingerie were to men, and I had to agree. Because I wanted to tear the clothes off of him, even if I didn’t deserve him.
“Blaise…” I started but then stopped because I didn’t know what to say.
“C’mere you,” he ordered in that soft voice that made me melt.
“What?”
“Kiss me already,” he whined and pointed at his lips. He was cute when he was all pouty, and I had missed those puppy dog eyes.
Dinah barked out a laugh next to me at his whining, but I ignored her while Blaise bent down and slanted his mouth over mine. I melted into the kiss and probably would have been in a puddle underneath my barstool if I wasn’t already sitting down.
He pulled away slowly and rested his forehead against mine. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I breathed back at him.
“Can we talk?”
I nodded.
“Finish your beer.”
Dinah plucked it off the bar and handed it to Noah. “Problem solved!” she cheered.
“Go on you two,” Noah urged.
I grinned at them, and Blaise helped me out of my seat and into my coat. He took my hand as we walked outside, and it was so nice holding this man’s hand as we walked on the sidewalk together. This time not faking it for the people around us.
“Where do you want to go talk?” I asked.
“My place.”
“Okay.”
He led me to his car, where we lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. We had a lot to say to each other, but I wasn’t sure where to start.
When I asked Rox to get me a ticket to the game and explained why, that was as far as I thought it through. My brother said I had to make a big gesture, but now I wasn’t sure if showing up to Blaise’s game wearing his jersey was enough. I didn’t know how he was feeling, but he had called me his girlfriend in front of his dad and younger brother, so that had to count for something.
I let myself get lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t realized we were heading into Center City. Wait…
“Blaise, I thought you said you wanted to go to your place?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “We are.”
I cocked my head at him.
“I moved out of my dad’s.”
“You did?”
He nodded. “Yup.”
“When?” I asked.
“Um…two days ago?”
“Two days ago?”
“I honestly forgot I put in the offer until the realtor called me the morning after the wedding that the buyer had accepted. But then you were gone when I came back.”
“Oh,” I sighed out, realization dawning on me of how I broke my own heart.
“And then you texted me asking what we were supposed to tell everyone.”
Dammit. I had ruined it. It had been me who broke his heart. Not the other way around.
“It really hurt, V.”
“I thought you left like everyone else does,” I explained.
I didn’t want to tell Blaise that Olivia picked me up that morning and I cried my eyes out all day. She plied me with chemically made junk food, and I cried because, for the first time, I found someone I thought I could love, but he left me like everyone else. Like my mom did, like Seth, like every friendship I had before I met Liv. Liv doesn’t allow you to stop being her friend, which was what I loved about her.
Blaise pulled down a back alley and into the driveway of a townhouse. The house had a brick facade and a classic Philly style to it. I peered up and saw it had a rooftop deck. Rittenhouse Square was ritzy, and on Blaise’s salary, he could afford it.
He cut the engine of the car, and we quietly got out of it together. He walked me inside his house, and it became clear he had just moved in because while he had furniture set up, everything else looked bare.
Blaise took my coat and hung it up in the closet while I walked into his living room. I froze when I saw the painting of him leaning up against the wall.
My painting.
The one his dad had bought at my art show after he asked why I looked so sad. Until I burst into tears, and Hal pretended like he knew how to handle when women cried. He doesn’t, for the record. Which probably explained a lot about Blaise’s sister Maja.
Blaise saw me staring. “Oh.”