Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 115308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
I smirked but decided not to torture her. “First one to ten laps buys breakfast!” I shouted before racing toward the opposite end of the pool.
“Hey! That’s a three-meter head start!” I heard Maia yell back.
When I reached the end of the pool, I waited for her to catch up. “I can’t help it if my big-dick energy propels me through the water.”
Maia burst into laughter, and I leaned into her unconsciously. Her sweet smile was life. “Believe me, you do not have big-dick energy.”
Affronted, I clasped my chest in feigned outrage. “How dare you?”
She shoved me playfully. “Big-dick energy is when you’re quietly confident. You’re as quiet as football fans on game day.”
“Fine. I have loud big-dick energy,” I said loudly.
“Trying to have a quiet swim here, mate!” the other bloke in the pool yelled over at us.
He was just pissed because I was with Maia. “Apologies, mate. I have loud big-dick energy,” I whisper-shouted at him.
Maia made a choking sound, and she gave the guy her back as she shook with laughter.
My cheeks hurt from grinning. Finally, I drew her into my chest with a less than platonic one-armed hug. “Ready to race again?”
Her expression turned contemplative. “I don’t know. I don’t think you ca—loser buys breakfast for a week!” She suddenly dove into the water ahead of me, her arms swiping through the pool like blades as she front-crawled her way to victory.
By lap five, merely because I had almost a foot on her, I would have overtaken her.
But there was no bloody way I was letting her pay for breakfast.
Breakfast consisted of coffee and smoothies. Maia had somehow managed to do a full face of makeup and fix her hair by the time our orders arrived. She came out of the women’s locker room to find me chatting with the blond from earlier.
The blond had made the approach, but it was only polite to flirt with her for her bravery. I respected a woman who went after what she wanted.
We exchanged numbers as Maia appeared.
Maia gave the blond an awkward smile that made me feel like shit. I hated when she caught me flirting with other women, but at the same time, she was engaged to someone else.
The blond gave Maia a smug smirk that instantly made me delete her number from my phone as she walked away.
An arrogant man might think this encounter was the reason Maia was quiet.
But one, Maia had made it clear we were just friends. And two, something had been off with her for a few weeks now. I’d tried multiple times to find out what was going on, but she always turned the conversation back to me. The only time her eyes lit up was when I made her laugh. I was worried about her.
I pushed again for the hundredth time. “You know, you can talk to me,” I told her as we finished up.
I was known as the life of the party. The fun guy. A good laugh. But there was more to me than that. I cared about my friends and family. Would do anything for them, including having the tough conversations. Thankfully, my sport had begun to realize the importance of mental health and there was less stigma around talking about our feelings now. So, I was there for those who needed to unload whatever shit was on their chest. I didn’t waste that energy on people who didn’t matter, so most people never witnessed that side of me.
“Same, you know.” Maia considered me as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She wore small diamond hoops today. She also wasn’t wearing her engagement ring, though she always took it off to swim. The absence of it felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. “You usually leave for training by now. Why are you dragging breakfast out?”
Because the new owner was a dick and in turn, the gaffer was riding my fucking arse all the time.
I shrugged.
“Baird … what happened?”
“You haven’t seen the papers this morning, then?”
Maia frowned. “You know I don’t read that crap. Is … is there a story in it about you?”
“I went to a house party at the weekend. I got a little fucked up and someone took photos.”
She yanked her phone out of her purse, and I almost regretted telling her as she googled me. I knew the photos she’d find. Me, clearly shit-faced, on some stranger’s couch with two half-naked girls sprawled across me.
Maia’s shoulders tensed as she stared at the photo. “Did you take anything?”
Something like shame heated my cheeks. I’d never had anything harder than weed.
Until this weekend. “I …tried some coke.”
She sucked in a breath.
It wasn’t something I was intending to do again. I just wanted to let loose a bit. Unfortunately, this was the fifth story about my partying that had made it into the papers in the last six months.