I let his hand go and stepped back.
“Sorry,” I said.
“For what, sweetie?”
I looked him in the eyes. “We should talk, Mav.”
“That would be a great thing to do. If you want to do that.”
“I know you’re angry with me.”
“Not sure it’s with you, Madison. I think it’s with everything that surrounds you.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Cheers.”
I lifted my glass, nervously smiling at Maverick.
The worst part of all of this?
I really was in love with him.
I couldn’t dothe living room thing.
I knew where that would end up.
Sitting alone, talking, Maverick casually turning on the fireplace. That smile he had that made my life feel perfect. He’d offer to give me a tour of the apartment which was just an excuse to end up in his bedroom. Then I’d try out his bed…naked…
So I looked down at my glass and reminded myself why I was still in his kitchen.
Why it was so hard to look at him.
Mostly because of the way he looked at me.
“I think we both let this get the best of us,” Maverick said.
“It’s more than that, Mav,” I said. “You should know everything. I don’t regret not telling you anything. Just know that. We hooked up for one night. That was the plan, remember?”
“I remember, Madison,” he said. “Or should I say…Grace?”
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be funny. I’m still trying to figure that out. How or why you used a fake name. And how or why I let that somehow get to me the way I did.”
“I’m not a bad person.”
“I didn’t say you were,” he said.
“You’re giving that vibe, Mav. You caught me in a bad moment, talking to my friends, and now you’re throwing that in my face.”
“You had a private conversation in public, sweetie,” Maverick said. “I heard it. What do you want me to do? Pretend I didn’t hear it?”
“Maybe that’s what I honestly want from you.”
“Fine. Just tell me who I am to you then. Am I just some hockey player? Just some goalie? I need to know that much.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t know who you were when I met you. Believe it or not, I really don’t like hockey. In fact, the last time I watched a hockey game before watching that tough road game you had…”
“Wait,” he said. “You watched the away games?”