The Player | SPORTS ROMANCE | 18+

Chapter 14

TITUS REYES

Why did it hurt so much? Why did her words wound me? Why did each one feel like an individual stab to my heart?

Why did she hate me so much? What did I do to make her so horrid toward me?

What had changed in the past six years for her to treat me like this?

I followed Sal almost as soon as she stormed out the door, determined to give her a piece of my mind and finally get some answers. This whole time, I had been forced to listen to her go on and on about me, complaining, and trashing me in whatever way she saw fit. But enough and was enough. She had pushed me over the edge, and I couldn't deal with it for a moment longer.

Giving her a taste of her own medicine was the least of what she deserved after the horrid way she had treated me since we ran into each other yesterday evening.

Her voice stopped me at the top of the stairs, rendering me a listener as Ava probed her for some answers.

"Is your face so flustered because you just had a quickie? I didn't know you were into football players. Where did you even meet him? And why have you been holding out on us when you had such juicy information the whole time?"

"We didn't have a quickie, and we barely know each other. Titus Reyes is the most despicable man I know. He's as bad as a person can get and I never want to see him again so please, next time, don't put us in the same room if you can help it."

"Are you okay, Sal?"

"I don't want to talk about it. I just want to get home."

"Get in the car. I'll drive you home."

"No." She paused. "Thanks for offering, but I'm going to walk home. I need to clear my head."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

It felt like a rock was sitting on my chest, weighing me down as I watched Sal walk away with her head hung low and her arms wrapped around herself like she had only herself to rely on. I hated that she felt that way but even more, I hated that I made her feel that way.

It wasn't what Sal had said about me to her friend that bothered me, but the way she said it. Like she was genuinely hurt and upset by me.

Did me not calling her really mean that much? Did I do something else?

"Sal won't be happy if she knows you heard all that." Ava murmured, stepping out of the car.

"No, I doubt she would be." I sighed and came to a stop on the bottom step in front of the house. "I don't know why she hates me so much."

"Me neither."

"You have to know something." I insisted, this feeling of not knowing starting to drive me crazy. "You two look like you're friends. She must have mentioned to you before why she can't stand me."

"Sal is one of my best friends." Ava confirmed with a small, barely-there nod. "But if I'm completely honest, she's never mentioned anything about you before. I didn't even know she knew who you were. We were talking about you being back in town the other day, and she acted like she didn't even know who you were. I'm as stumped as you are."

My frown deepened at Ava's explanation.

Why would Sal pretend she didn't know who I was? Was she ashamed of me? Was she ashamed that she had slept with me? Surely not. It just didn't make sense.

In the past, women lied about knowing me or sleeping with me for clout. I had never had a woman lie about not knowing who I was. Especially not after we had slept together.