GROUNDING 🏈 Nick Bosa

#NINTEY SIX.

When I return home, Mark was still up. He was sitting in an armchair, reading a book with a glass of whiskey placed beside him.

"Hey, Lili.." He says, as he takes off his reading glasses and places them onto the side table.

"Hey." I reply, starting to walk upstairs.

"How was your night?"

I shrug. "It was alright."

He clears his throat and picks up the glass of whiskey. "I noticed my bottle was gone."

"Oh, crap." I say, palming my forehead. "I meant to replace that weeks ago."

"I don't care if you took it, but just ask next time. It's not a big deal."

"Right." I give him a crooked smile.

"Lili.." He stops me again.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asks as he pays close attention to my awkward body language.

"I'm fine." I give him a better smile. "I swear."

*

The following Saturday after practice it was my turn to go pick up the pizzas for the team.

As I'm waiting for my name to be called for my order I scroll through instagram, not paying too much attention as to who or what was around me.

"Liliana." The guy at the front counter yells.

The boxes of pizza were all stacked up into a tall tower and I knew I was going to have to make a second trip back in to get the rest.

The boys ate a lot.

As I turn around with half the boxes in my hands, I nearly drop them all onto the floor when I get a sight of who was standing behind me.

"Joey?" My voice quivers and my heart sinks.

He smiles widely. "Lili?!"

"Oh, my god. Joey?!" I laugh with tears stinging at my eyes.

I stare deeply at his face and immediately feel like I had fireworks going off inside my body. It seemed like it had been years since I seen him. I worried I was about to burst into tears in the middle of the pizza shop.

"You cut your hair?" I ask, not able to take my eyes off of him. Everything in the restaurant went blurry and he was the only thing in focus.

"Yeah." He replies smiling, and running a hand over his head. "Wow, Liliana... you going to eat all those pizzas?" He jokes staring at the stack of greasy boxes in my arms.

"It's for the team." I say nervously, still locked into his eyes. I think I forgot how attractive he was, because I felt my ovaries humming as he stood stoically in front of me.

"You need help?" He asks.

"Yeah, thank you." I reply as I watch him take the other boxes off the countertop.