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LOTTIE opened the door to the back training room to find Roy on the massage bench with Dr. Archie working on his right leg. "There you are. I'm surprised to find you in here. Weren't you terrified by this room when it was haunted?"
"No," Roy denied, looking up to balance on his forearms. "And we sorted that, remember?"
"Yeah. Lost my favorite pair of shoes," Lottie pouted. "Sorry about Blankie, by the way." Roy just shrugged, watching her as she stood in the doorway. Lottie shuffled awkwardly on her feet, her nerves refusing to allow her to stand still. "Is now a good time?"
She looked at Dr. Archie pointedly, and he took the hint. He grabbed a pair of earbuds out of his pocket and put them in his ears. "I can't hear anything with these on," he assured her. He made a show of putting on a podcast and turning the volume all the way up.
"Is he sure?" Lottie asked, eyeing the earbuds with skepticism.
"Arch, you think all the royal family are lizards, right?" Roy asked, raising his voice a bit to test him.
Lottie's eyes widened in surprise. "Does he really think that?"
"No," Roy chuckled. "But he does listen to a fuck lot of murder podcasts. Told me about some real good episodes about the Romanovs."
"Ah." She stepped fully into the room, her slippers shuffling instead of clicking like her usual heels on the hard floor. "So..." She bit her lips nervously. "Last night was crazy."
"Right, yeah. It was pretty sloppy," he agreed.
That had not been what Lottie meant at all, and his words only deeper embedded the dagger in her heart. But she promised herself she would at least try. Perhaps she needed to make her thoughts and intentions clearer.
"I could really use a cup of tea to nurse this, uh, sleepiness. Feel like I'm about to collapse." She laughed awkwardly, praying that he got the hint. When he didn't respond, she decided to take the direct approach, no matter how nervous she was. "Do you wanna go get one with me when you're done?" She bit her lip, awaiting his answer. Her palms were sweating and she felt on the verge of fainting. She hoped he said yes.
But that hope deflated when he said, "Not today. I can't. I'm busy."
"He's lying." Lottie and Roy look at Dr. Archie, whose gaze was unfocused as he kneaded Roy's calf. They gathered that he was simply reacting to the podcast instead of accusing Roy of being a liar, but it didn't help dig out that seed of doubt and overall disappointment from Roy's refusal. It was the day after a match and Lottie knew that the guys didn't have a hard training day or any events to do, so it would make sense if Roy was lying.
