“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asks her. His gaze falls to where my hand is around her wrist. “You’re here with Brayden?” At that, Deanna yanks her wrist from my hold.
“I’m sorry; I was just leaving.”
“Like hell you are. You’re fucking both of us?”
Deanna goes rigid. The few people around us fall silent, and I’m pissed with Zane for saying such a thing in front of everyone.
“She didn’t know,” I tell him.
“Yeah, right,” he scoffs.
“I didn’t!” she insists. “He told me he was a financial analyst. I just found out ten seconds ago that he played hockey and I tried to leave before I saw you.”
“That’s true,” EJ adds to help her out.
“But you knew I played. You never watched a game?”
“No. You said you played; I never thought much about it past that.”
“So, it’s a coincidence that you’re fucking both of us?”
Deanna notices Zane has garnered even more attention. “Never took you to be like this,” she says quietly before pushing her way past him. Everyone else moves out of her way.
As I go to follow her, Zane grabs my arm. “How long have you been seeing her?”
“She’s karaoke girl. That was the night I met her. I can promise you, she didn’t know.”
He curses under his breath and turns as if he’s going after her.
I grab his arm and pull him back. “You can stay.”
He opens his mouth to argue, but I walk
away. Deanna stands by the street with her arms wrapped around herself. I call her name and she turns to face me. I wave her over to my car. I’m not walking back in there.
“I’m sorry, Brayden. I swear I didn’t know.”
“Don’t apologize to me; I believe you.”
“Why did you lie about your job?” she asks, the hurt now coming through in her tone. “I mean, Zane didn’t hesitate, so I’m confused.”
I sigh. “Well, for one, I only thought we would be a one-time thing. Short-term at the most. I normally lie if it doesn’t appear that the girl recognizes me because you never know what people’s motivations might be. You never know if they are going to be more enamored with your job and career than you. Considering things are normally short-term and don’t turn into relationships, I haven’t had any issues with lying.
“I brought you here because I planned to tell you. It was getting more difficult to lie and annoying, too. That’s why I was late yesterday. I had to leave practice early and I was still late coming to meet you. I was wearing a suit last night because that’s what we wear to and from games. And I won’t lie, this changes things. Zane being the other person. We’re teammates and we work together. We can’t—”
“I cut things off with him yesterday. I haven’t slept with him since right before Halloween. Though I’ve seen him a few times since, that was the last time I actually slept with him.”
“You—” I try to wrap my head around this. She stopped things with Zane yesterday? “Were you planning to tell me that?”
“No,” she admits, glancing out the window. “I didn’t know if things would change and if they would, if I wanted them to.”
It’s been about two weeks that she’s only slept with me, but only since yesterday that she decided to end things altogether with Zane. Huh.
“Does it change things?” she asks when I pull into her driveway.
I sigh. “Let’s go inside.”
She nods. I sit in the middle of the couch while she takes Otis outside. Deanna sits at the end and pats so Otis will sit between us. She’s putting an actual barrier between us.