Break of Dawn

14 | wine flu

DRINKING WINE WAS NEVER a good idea.

Not in Rory's world anyway.

The night before, she and the girls had finished off two bottles of some fancy-ass wine Ivy had bought on an online sale. They had went into the late hours of the night watching Ru Paul's Drag Race, eating an inhumane amount of popcorn and drinking pinot noir.

Even though Rory hadn't even drank that much, wine always had a way of messing with her system. Two glasses of red gave her a worse hangover than a full night of tequila shots, so it was safe to say that Friday was gonna drag on for her.

On top of the killer headache, she had also woken up late and didn't have time to wash her hair, which resulted in a greasy looking high ponytail. There was also the fact that she hadn't had time to pick an outfit and had gone into work with the first pair of jeans and sweater she'd found. Luckily, there was no real dress code at The Grant - most the guys who worked there were always dressed in polo shirts or sports attire - so her light denims and oversized sweatshirt looked almost professional.

Mr. Clay had asked her to arrive earlier because they needed to go over the details of the team's trip the next day. Rory had been just lucky that her first away game planning happened to be an overnight one. Arranging traveling plans for fifty-eight players and the whole entourage of coaching and supporting staff was not a task for the weak.

She spent most part of the morning going over everything with Quincy. When they had finally finalized all the details, and Rory set down at her desk, she received an email informing that head coach Wagner had made a change in the roster.

By the time noon rolled around, Aurora was, on top of everything, exhausted.

So, of course, that had been the moment Collin Whitaker decided to show up at her door.

She felt his presence before seeing or hearing him. The prickly feeling on the side of her cheek telling her there was someone watching. She looked up from the computer, glasses perched on the nose and hair knotted in a bun, and there he was. Aurora had - admittedly - done a bit of drunk stalking on his Instagram the night before, but not even looking at his pictures for twenty minutes straight had prepared her for seeing him in person.

It was just unfair how handsome he was.

Dressed in the killer combination of grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt, he looked like he'd just got out of a shower, face slightly flushed and hair still damp "Hey, can I come in?" His voice was deep and slightly husky - because of course he also had that going on for him.

She nodded and tried to covertly fix her hair, pulling the loose strands from her face.

"You look different with glasses" He pointed out, stopping short of reaching the chair in front of the desk.

"Yeah, didn't have time to put on contacts this morning" She shrugged, trying to look anywhere but his blue orbs that were trained on her face.

"It's a good different, don't think it could ever be a bad one" Rory could feel her cheeks turning crimson while she chewed on her bottom lip.

The guy couldn't possibly be flirting with her while she looked like she didn't own a mirror - or a shower, for that matter. Rory wasn't normally prone to diffidence, but her personal history with him wasn't helping the case.

He propped his hands on the back of the chair, his tattoo-clad arms bulging - and she thought there was no way he was doing that without the intention of showing-off.

"You can take a seat if you want" She spit out, trying her best not to look at his biceps. Or his triceps. Or the way his white shirt was dangerously riding up near the waistband of his sweatpants.