They both grabbed their purses and got up, with excitement written all across their faces.
“Really?” Blondie asked.
“No, not really,” he said, shaking his head. “You two have a good night. I hear there's a defenseman for another team running around here somewhere. Maybe he'll take you home?”
The girls pouted out their lower lip, clearly saddened by Oliver's denial. Girls that wanted Oliver for his fame and money were a dime a dozen, though. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the attention, because he did. It was just that, right now, he really needed to get home, and these women didn't matter to him.
Those girls couldn't have cared less about how hard he worked to get what he had in life. All they wanted was a piece of Oliver Lance so that they could talk about that “one crazy night in the club”. He'd done it before, sure. But not tonight. Not after countless shots and glasses of champagne. His king- sized bed in his mansion was the only thing that rea
lly sounded appealing in that moment.
“You ready, Ollie?” Sean asked.
Oliver turned back around and nodded. “Yeah, let's go.”
VIP security made an opening for them to exit. “Do you guys need to be escorted out? The club is a lot busier than it was when you first got here and everyone has been drinking.”
“We'll be fine,” Sean answered. “Thanks, though.”
Oliver followed Sean through the crowd. A few girls screams in excitement and ran toward him, but Ollie shrugged them off. His focus was keeping his stomach from emptying its contents onto the floor and that was about the only thing he could think about. From the VIP section to the front door of the club felt like a million mile march. He got asked by at least five people for an autograph and had two girls lift up their shirts to expose their breasts to him. Being king was pretty nice, but Ollie wished he hadn't drank so much that he couldn't enjoy it.
He was glad when they got outside to the cold air. Late February's winter grip felt good against his skin, and helped him feel less like the world was spinning out of control under his feet. The valet ran and got Oliver's black Bentley, pulling up to the curb within minutes. Sean took the keys and got into the driver's seat, while Oliver slid into the passenger. The noise of the hollering fans faded into the distance as he closed the door.
“You aren't going to puke, are you?” Sean asked, putting the car in drive and pulling away from the curb.
“I'd never throw up in my own car,” Oliver said, not even sure if he was telling the truth. “Now if we were in your car, it may be a possibility.”
“Very funny.” Sean punched Oliver in his upper arm.
“Hey now, that's my money arm,” Oliver said, rubbing the spot that Sean had just hit. “Without that, we won't be going to nice clubs any more and getting bottles all night. You better treat it nice.”
“I still can't believe you didn't want to take that waitress home,” Sean said. “Man, if she were looking at me like she was at you, I'd be all over it.”
“That's what you don't understand, Sean. Sometimes the fun part is just knowing that she would go home with me. I don't always have to act on it to get the pleasure from it. You know what I mean?”
“I actually have no fucking clue what you're talking about,” he said, with a chuckle. “You've gone from throwing thousands of dollars around at a club and having women all over you, to getting all philosophical.”
“Whatever, man, you'll understand when you get older,” Oliver said, his eyes half closed.
“I'm older than you, Ollie. You need to learn to respect your elders,” Sean said, hitting Oliver's shoulder once again with a closed fist.
As the two made their way down the main street in the center of town, they passed by a number of loud clubs. The sound of the music would increase as they got near and then fade out as they passed. It created a dizzying Doppler effect that certainly wasn't helping Oliver's nausea. He closed his eyes completely and focused on his breathing. As much as he hated to admit it, he definitely couldn't party like he used to. There would be no way he'd be going home at this hour if he were still twenty two.
The blood-curdling roar of screeching tires filled the air. He heard Sean yell something and opened his eyes, just in time to look over to his right. A car's headlights were pointed straight at them. He knew immediately that the car wasn't going to be able to stop before impacting his door. The vehicle was going too fast. The headlights got brighter as they neared their final destination. Time slowed down, enough for Oliver's life to flash in front of his eyes. He thought about his brother and his mom and his football team.
I'm going to die, he thought. God, no. Not now. Not right when everything is going so perfectly.
He squinted and turned away as the car t-boned the side of them. The sound of exploding glass and crumpling metal filled his eardrums as his world turned dark.
It was his last memory of that evening.
Chapter 2
Elsie
“It's a unique opportunity, and given your history with sports medicine, one I think you'd be perfect for,” the woman in a power suit told Elsie. “So, are you interested?”
Nikki Roberts asked the question with the same seriousness in her tone that she'd been using for the entire interview. When Elsie had scheduled this interview for a potential new patient, she hadn't quite been counting on this. This lady meant business.