And he wanted me. By the time I was in class, I might as well have just spent the time at home. No, if I had, then I wouldn't have found out that Roman was planning to turn down a shot at the league because he didn't want to leave me. I was madder that he would stay because of me than that he hadn't said anything about it. He couldn't do that. When would this ever happen again for him? This wasn't something he could gamble with.
I was nervous getting back to my apartment that afternoon that I would still find him there. After combing all the rooms and finding them empty, I was relieved. I didn't know what the hell I would have said to him if I found him. I probably would have brought it up, and we'd have ended up fighting.
I didn't want to fight with him. There was no fight here. There was only one right answer to what he had to do.
He had been waiting for the opportunity to play his whole life and he was choosing to stay here for me. Part of me loved him for it, but that wasn't important. I had come to realize that there was no good enough reason for him to say no to the team. Nothing mattered enough for him to pass this up. Not even me.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Roman
"I don't fucking know why we're friends." Don shook his head, taking a swig of his beer. He was squinting into the setting sun from where we sat out on his porch.
"Because no one else can stand you," I shot back.
He lifted the cat that had jumped up into his lap and put it back on the ground. It just jumped up again. There were a lot of cats on Don's family property. Some of them their cats, some that had wandered onto the property and just not left since they started being fed. Before they figured that they should have gotten the lot of them neutered and spayed, one of them had managed to drop two litters of kittens. Once in a while, Don would have them in the house, but mostly they hung out outside. One really old, big one with just one eye had fallen asleep near my foot.
"I have plenty of friends," he said. "You think I wouldn't have been able to replace you if you left again?"
"Good thing you don't have to put out that lonely hearts ad now."
"Like I said, I don't know how the fuck we're friends."
"You should be a lot happier about the fact that I'm staying. Maybe I should fucking leave."
"I wouldn't let you stay because of me, and you shouldn't stay for the reason you're doing it, either."
"I don't expect you to get it," I said, taking a swig of my beer.
"You're right. I don't."
"One day, when you meet the right girl, you will." He snorted.
"The girl who's gonna make me give up my dream just to be with her? No thanks. Wherever she is, she can stay there."
"I'm hopeful for you," I said, laughing.
"I'm not. You just had to go find her again after last year," he said.
"It would have happened sooner or later."
"Yeah. Wish it was later. You're really doing this?"
"Tonight. I'm calling the coach and telling the offer is great and all, but I can't take it."
"What will you say when he asks why?"
"Why the hell would he ask me that?"
"To talk you out of it. Maybe you'll listen to him if not to me."
"It won't work," I said simply, having another drink.
"You're an idiot," he said.
"You told me that already."
"I swear. Don't tell anyone we know each other. I can't be seen with you," he said, smirking at me. I knew he was kidding. It didn't matter what he thought. He wasn't the one who this was going to affect.