Rush Me (New York Leopards 1)

“That’s not fair.”

“What happened with Ryan?”

I stared down at my papers. A bust of Alexander stared up at me. His eyes were sultry and far-sighted, and his full lips were carved in a pout. He knew he was beautiful. He knew his curly haired lion’s mane was the envy of thousands.

Or the sculptor knew that he better make the young king stunning, or he’d lose his own head as soon as he finished sculpting this one.

“I slept with him.”

“What?” Eva shrieked. “Oh my God! When? How was it?”

“At the charity auction,” I admitted. “And it was...wonderful. It just didn’t end well.” I tried to fill her in on the details, but my throat choked up on the words. He called me a freak. I called him a slut. I cringed with shame just thinking it. “Anyways, afterwards was awful.”

Eva came down to the floor and enveloped me in a hug. “I’m so sorry. What an asshole.”

I leaned into her, almost laughing. I wasn’t sure he was the real jerk. “Thanks.”

“Um...at the charity auction?”

“We were in a back room,” I defended myself. “Far away.”

She snorted. “Yeah, ’cause they don’t have security cameras in every room in museums.”

I sat upright. “You don’t think anyone...” I tried to swallow, my throat dry. “You don’t think...”

“Shh.” She stroked my hair. “It doesn’t matter. I’m sure no one saw you. Or if they did, they thought it was romantic.”

I wanted to throw up.

“Okay. Don’t think about that. Focus on the present. And you know what we need now? A proper girls’ night. We’ll have Jen and Nanami over and we’ll watch bad end-of-the-world movies where almost everyone dies.”

We scheduled the end-of-the-world for Friday night, and by the end of the week I’d cooled enough to share the rest of the details with Eva. After that, I planned to put this whole football debacle behind me. Which would be easy. I just had to avoid any mention of the NFL ever again.

Except at ten o’clock Friday morning, Abe called.

I stepped out into the hallway to take it, making a face at Laurel as I walked by. “Hi.”

“Hey, Rach.” Abe sounded unnervingly peppy. “So...are we getting together for Shabbos tonight?”

I closed my eyes. “No, Abe. Sorry. I’m busy.”

“I thought we were scheduled into your calendar.” A tiny bit of hurt entered his voice. Fake, right? Hadn’t Ryan told him and the rest about—well, all of it? Why would they want anything to do with me?

“I’m having a girls’ night in.”

“That sounds fun, too. Am I invited?”

“Sorry, Abe.”

“Okay, well, are you at least coming to the game Sunday?”

“I didn’t realize you had one.”

He was starting to sound annoyed. “Course we do. It’s against the Ann Arbor Bisons?” He sighed when I didn’t answer. “I get that you’re in a fight with Ryan or whatever, but that doesn’t mean you have to blow the rest of us off.”

Guilt spiked through me. What kind of friend was I, that I’d been insensitive enough to ignore him simply because I’d been absorbed by my own troubles? “Sorry. My roommate and I were going to do a picnic in the park tomorrow. Want to come?”

“Central Park? Yeah! Don’t they have a zoo there, too? We should check it out.”