Team Tomás (The Saints Team #2) (13 page)

I guess if we had gone the whole
way, if he had come inside me, it would be memorable for the pleasure and the
pain. I wished we had. As some poet said, maybe Tennyson or was it Shakespeare,
no Tennyson I think, whatever...
Tis better to have loved and lost, than
never to have loved at all
. At the moment I didn’t feel that way because
the pain was too much, but in a week’s time, or two, or a month, maybe I’d
agree with him.

Chapter 24

I had all the photos I needed and there were some
super cute shots of Ed instructing some of the kids in technique and a great shot
of them all chasing Ed, and then sitting on Ed as he lay flat on the ground
underneath them. While Ed wrapped it up and spoke with the sports teacher, I
braved a glance at my phone. I had turned it on earlier, but avoided looking at
it until the job at hand was done. I guess I would have been disappointed if Tomás
hadn’t tried to call again—which was pathetic I know because I told him not to—but
he had. I thought it would be easier if we didn’t talk and just moved on,
instead of dragging it out and prolonging the agony for me.

I thought a lot about it
overnight, about whether I could just have sex with him, keep it casual, no commitment,
and enjoy having him take my virginity. I know guys can do this—separate sex
and emotion—but I wasn’t sure I could. As much as I wanted him, I didn’t think
I could be his casual fling. I hadn’t the heart for it; I was either all in, or
all out, so to speak. Maybe if I didn’t care for him so much I could just have had
a fling and walk away.

I saw two missed calls and two
text messages from him this morning, and another call and text from last night.
There was a call and text from Mia and I texted her back to say I was at work
and all was well. I replied to Cassie’s text message confirming I would
definitely be moving in tonight and I’d arrive with my car packed full of gear
just after six or so. At least Tomás wouldn’t know my new address and wouldn’t
surprise me with a visit.

I took a deep breath and opened Tomás’
first text message. His call and the text came in last night just after I sent
him the text saying
: It wz fun & thx 4 the G8 D8s. C U around the club maybe.

TOMÁS: Don’t do this Cookie. I beg
U 2 let me explain

I sighed. I couldn’t think of any
explanation that would satisfy in my head what I had seen. I opened his second
text message.

TOMÁS: I am falling in luv with U

Holy crap.
I promised
myself no tears especially since I was at work. Ed appeared and I jumped up,
grabbed my bag and camera and followed him to the car, blinking furiously to
clear my eyes.

What did I say to that? Why was
he with her, why were they all over each other if he was falling in love with
me?

*****

We got back to the office and I was looking out for Tomás’s
bike as we drove in. It was gone and I breathed a sigh of relief—I didn’t want
the drama at work. I thanked Ed. It had been fun spending time with him and I parted
ways with him at the door while I lingered outside the office to call Dane and
thank him for the flowers. I dug his card out of my bag and called. It went to
message bank and I breathed my second sigh of relief in minutes; I was too drained
to turn on the charm this afternoon and I didn’t want him asking me out just
yet. If I could just have one drama at a time thanks Universe, that’d be
appreciated. Being heartbroken took so much energy.

Not saying being asked out by a
gorgeous guy is a drama—I don’t want to piss off the universe and the love karma
vibes—I just wanted to be in a good head space if it went that way with Dane.
Phew, glad we got that sorted. I left a message: “Dane, hi, it’s Alice here.
Wow, well thank you. What a gorgeous surprise… I didn’t even present and I get
flowers! Um, I’ll try and catch you later and hey, thank you again, you’ve made
my day.” That should do it for now.

I walked back into the building
and turned left down the hallway to our marketing area. I was accosted by the
scent of the flowers as I entered our partitioned area. They made the office
look quite lovely.

“You two look beautiful with those
flowers beside you,” I said, teasing Sasha and Kay and appreciating the scene.

Kay chuckled.

“It helps that we were beautiful
to start with,” Sasha piped up.

“Ain’t that the truth?” I agreed.
“I got some great pics that I’ll stick up online now. Want me to send you some
words and a few shots for the newsletter too?” I asked Sasha.

“Please.” She nodded,
enthusiastically. “By the way, you had a visitor.”

Here it comes.

“Oh?” It’s hard to make that sound
nonchalant when your heart is beating like a drum and the pain in your chest is
so overwhelming that it clouds all rational thoughts.

“Tomás the Latin lover was looking
for you.” She smiled. “He didn’t look happy even after the great game on
Sunday.”

“He was very polite and charming
though,” Kay said, with a dreamy look.

That was my Tomás, charming.

“What did he want?” I asked. I
tried to keep it cool. “I’ve only got three players at events this week and
he’s not one of them... yet.”

“He didn’t say,” Sasha said. “He
just strolled in with that leather jacket on and those well-fitting jeans and
looked at your desk expectantly. Then he said our names...”

“Rolled off his tongue like
honey,” Kay said and fanned herself.

Good grief.

Sasha continued, “He asked where
you were and admired the flowers.”

I cringed. I didn’t want to ask
questions but I desperately wanted to know what Sasha and Kay told him. Sasha
filled in the blanks without me having to stage an inquisition.

“I told him they arrived for you
this morning,” Sasha said, “and he seemed pissed by that, didn’t he Kay? I
think his jaw sort of locked.” She tried to impersonate him and I couldn’t help
but smile and shake my head at her.

“What?” she said. “It doesn’t hurt
a guy to know he has competition.”

This wasn’t going to be good, but
then again, maybe that would help him move on.

 “I don’t think I’m in Tomás’s
league,” I said.

“Not slutty enough?” Sasha said,
and we both grinned.

“Yeah that’s it,” I agreed. “Nice
girls come last or something like that.”

“I wouldn’t know.” She shrugged
and gave me a wicked smile.

Yeah, I believe Sasha wouldn’t
know; she was a strange one and I suspect she was into some strange stuff too.

“His girlfriend has just arrived
from Buenos Aires hasn’t she?” Kay piped up.

Sasha and I both turned to look at
her.

How the hell did she know that?

She continued like the proud
source of all good gossip. “Yesterday at the game, I heard some of the WAGS
mention it when I was working in the VIP marquee. They said that the two of
them had been going out since school but one of the wives said he wanted to
come here by himself first before bringing her to live here.”

“Looks like she’s checking up on
him,” Sasha said.

And he didn’t think to mention
that to me when he was sucking me! Fucking men. My phone rang again and I
looked to the screen and it was Tomás. I turned it on silent and let it ring
out.

Get stuffed Tomás, preferably
by your girlfriend.

Chapter 25

“You’re here!” Cassie screamed as she opened the door
and I stood there with an armful of clothes and a suitcase.

“Here and deaf now,” I said, and grinned.

“Hi
Mr.
Peterson.”
She opened the door wider to let me and my dad in. “Isn’t this exciting? Our
first flat together! But we’ll be really sensible about it, Mr. Peterson.” She
caught my eye and reeled her enthusiasm in.

“I’m sure you will be Cassie,
clever young women like you two,” Dad said. “I’ve just come to help with the
move in and check your security.”

“Sure,” Cassie said. “My folks got
someone in to put better security on the windows. I think we’ll have more
trouble getting out than someone will have getting in.”

Dad chuckled and did a quick look
around. He looked for smoke alarms too; an occupational hazard.

We took my first lot of stuff
through to my new room. It was a bit bigger than my current room and absolutely
bare except for a double bed. A large built in wardrobe featured mirror doors
and there was a three-drawer chest next to the bed.

“Perfect!” I exclaimed and dumped
everything on the bed. We went back for a few more loads out of my car and
Dad’s, and then he said goodnight with a reminder that I was coming for dinner Thursday
night. We agreed we would do that every week, it made the parting easier. I
watched him drive away and for a moment wanted to run behind him; I’m guessing
he felt the same and was just waiting for me to signal him to stop. I sighed
and went back inside; moving out was inevitable I guess.

As I entered, Cassie had two
glasses of champagne poured.

“It’s a double celebration.” She
grinned. “You’ve moved in and I’ve met someone.”

I hope my face looked happy enough
for her. I really was happy for her but while I was in so much pain it was hard
to get there.

“Who? What? How? And thanks,” I said,
taking the champagne and clinking my glass against hers.

“To moving in, welcome,” she said,
in a toast.

“To housemates and friends,” I
agreed. We moved to the living area and I collapsed on the other end of her
huge L-shaped couch.

“I met him twelve days ago, but
who’s counting. I just kept him to myself for the first week... you know how it
is?” she asked.

Did I ever. If Tomás could stop
coming into the office it would be easier to keep it to myself.

“I get it,” I said. “So?”

“I met him at the commerce ball at
college and then we hooked up again for an official date last week and it is
going wonderfully well,” she gushed. “So even though you’ve just moved in, you
might have the place to yourself a few nights a week, if you know what I mean.”

I knew exactly what she meant.
“You’re going to stay over at his place and have wild, passionate sex?” I said,
bluntly.

“Got it in one! We did it on the
weekend and it was good, so good...”

Kill me now, please, anyone.

“Anyway, his name is Rick—it’s
actually Patrick, but everyone calls him Rick—and he’ll be here tomorrow night
to pick me up; you can meet him then.”

I looked at Cassie and she was
alive with excitement, probably the way I was last week in the glow of Tomás’s
potential love. With her glossy red hair and pale blue eyes, she was quite a
catch and every bit as nice on the inside as she was on the outside.

“Good on you Cass, you’re such a
good catch and no doubt he knows it.”

She leaned over and squeezed my
hand.

“Thanks Ali. But he is the catch,
trust me, he’s gorgeous.”

I knew all about gorgeous. I was
the expert on it; I had seen it first hand and had it in my hands and my mouth
only two nights ago. Aaaggh, move on, I scolded myself. Not every thought I
have has to lead back to Tomás, or I’ll be buried in them!

“So, what’s he studying?” I turned
my thoughts back to Cassie and her new guy.

She cleared her throat and looked
a bit sheepish.

“Oh... he gate crashed the
commerce ball but isn’t a student?” I asked. “No big deal.”

“Um, not quite, he’s a lecturer in
the school of commerce, but I’m not doing commerce so it’s not as if I’m doing
one of my teachers,” she said.

I laughed and teased her. “Going
out with the teacher, ooh...”

She smiled and bit her lip.

“Cass, even if you were in his
class, so what? You’re both grown up, this isn’t high school. How exciting!” I passed
my glass over so she topped us both up. “To Cassie and Rick, and to our new
housemate status.”

“It’s great to have you here at
last, Ali.” She clinked my glass for our second toast and we swallowed
bubbles—Cassie was on top of the world, I was in hell.

Another glass later I bade Cassie
goodnight as I went to unpack and she went to call Rick. I entered my new room
and closed the door... on the bright side, I could wallow without Dad
scrutinizing me and worrying. I found my stereo, put it on softly and began to sort
my gear out. It was going to be good here, good in a weird way—I couldn’t wait not
to cook if I didn’t want to or just to buy Cup Noodles if I felt like it. No
rush to get out of the bathroom since Cassie and I each had our own now, and I
could come and go whenever I wanted… not that I couldn’t before but Dad still
clock watched and worried. Plus I would have a little bit of dating privacy if
I dated again, ever.

 I cleared the bed and lay down on
top of it. Mia was going shopping with me on the weekend—it was an away game
and she didn’t have to be at the game and I didn’t have to work—and we’d get
serious about doing up my room with lamps, bedspread and curtains.

My phone rang and I groaned, then
I noticed it was Dad.

I swiped and answered. “Miss me
already?” I asked.

Dad chuckled. “Of course,” he
said. “Love, Tomás was just here looking for you.”

“Ah, right, sorry about that,” I
said.

“That’s perfectly alright. I told
him that you had moved into your own place now but I didn’t give him the
address, I said that was up to you.”

“Thank you Dad, he didn’t get angry
about that did he?” I hated the thought of my father facing off a tall, fit guy
like Tomás.

“No, not at all, he was very
polite. He said he’d call you. Is everything all right with you and him?” Dad
asked.

I didn’t want to lie so I applied
the side stroke swimming technique and paddled around the question.

“I just want a bit of space
between work and home and dating. Don’t want them all falling in on each
other,” I said.

“Good thinking,” Dad said. “All right,
well leave you to it. Remember you can always come home.”

“Thank you, Dad. Love you.”

“Love you too,” he said, and hung
up.

Tomás, Tomás, Tomás, just be
with your girlfriend and stop trying to see me. Where is she while he’s on his
bike running over to my place?

I closed my eyes and thought about
Saturday night when Tomás and I played after hours at his place; me with my
kitty ears on and Tomás with his magic tongue. It was so good and how did it
get to be this bad only a few days later? How was he going to keep his worlds
apart?

Then my phone rang again and my
heart rate raced, only this time it was safe, it was Dane.

“Hi Dane,” I greeted him.

“Alice, miss me?” he asked.
“When’s our next conference together?”

I laughed. “Hey thanks again for
the beautiful flowers, they really are breathtaking and you shouldn’t have.”

“The pleasure was mine,” he said.

“So, did I miss anything when I
left early Saturday night?” I asked, regretting now that I had left the
superhero themed ball early to go suck on Tomás... even though he had lit up
his whole house for me. Seriously, shut up!

“Hell yeah, it was wild,” Dane
said.

“Really?”

“Really. You remember Kelly?” he
asked me.

“Of course, she was a bit keen on
you,” I teased him.

“I don’t know about that,” he said
modestly, “but you know how she came dressed as Poison Ivy, who technically
isn’t a superhero but a villain but that’s not important to the story... still
with me?”

I laughed. Dane was just what I
needed. Sexy, sweet and really single.

“I’m with you. So what happened to
Kelly?”

“Well she sort of became her
costume... poison ivy. I don’t know whether she had a peanut or shellfish
allergy or something but not long after you left she broke out in these hives
and we had to call an ambulance.”

“Good grief, is she okay?” I
asked.

“She is now. They gave her a few
shots of whatever they give you for that sort of thing and released her from
hospital the next morning,” Dane said.

“Did you send her flowers?” I
teased.

“No, Alice,” he said and nothing
else. It wasn’t said harshly or negatively just solidly if that makes sense.
“But that’s not all,” he continued.

“There’s more?”

“Yep, you remember that lady who
did the presentation on events for kids?” Dane asked.

“I do, I sat next to her for a while.
She’s very nice.”

“Well she was dressed in a Thor
costume, a female version and I don’t know how or why but she got into a fight
with Supergirl and hit her with her fake hammer. Luckily it was only Styrofoam
but then Supergirl threw her drink over Thor girl and it was on. It was insane.
Wonder Woman broke it up.”

I was laughing as I pictured it in
my head. “Well, I expected that,” I said. “Who else would have saved the day?”

Dane laughed. “How has your second
week on the job been so far?” he asked.

He was so lovely and sincere and
such a good listener. We talked for about thirty minutes and then I was so
tired, I had to wrap it up. I haven’t slept much over the last three nights
with the conference, a night at Tomás’s and then last night when I was crying
over Tomás.

I thanked Dane for calling, hung
up promising to friend him on Facebook and then I must have fallen asleep on
top of the bed.

About an hour later the phone rang
beside me, startling me awake. I grabbed it and answered—force of habit not
wanting to wake Dad or Ryan, but now I was in my own room in my own place and
didn’t have to worry about that.

I heard the person on the other
end of the line draw a sharp breath. I quickly looked to the phone.

Fuck, fuck, fuck
, I had
answered a Tomás call. Should I hang up?

“Al…iss.” I heard him say. His
voice was raw and husky.

I took a deep breath. “Tomás. What
do you want?”

He made a guttural sort of sound.
“I am desperate to see you.”

I didn’t have anything to say... I
couldn’t think of anything. I wanted to see him more than I’d wanted anything
in all my twenty-one years of life that I could recall, but I needed more pain
like I needed a hole in the head... the hole I’d have after the lobotomy for
agreeing to see him. Wow, another totally weird though, sometimes I really
worried myself.

“I came around to see you today at
work and at home and you were gone,” he said.

“I went to a clinic with Ed, and
I’ve moved... in with Cassie.”

There was a silence on the line.

“Who is she Tomás?” I asked. I bit
my lip, waiting for the reply.

“She’s my girlfriend but I need to
explain it to you...” He rushed the words. “She was, is, but...” He was talking
quickly, his words tripping over his accent. “But it’s not what you think...”

“I think she’s your girlfriend,” I
said, and I hung up on Tomás. There was nothing more to be said.

Moments later he sent a text.

TOMÁS: Fck Alice, hear me through,
4 us, pls.

ME: Tomás U have a girlfriend, U
can’t have 2.

Technically, he could have as many
as he liked I guessed, but he wasn’t counting me amongst the number. What a
dick, who did he think I was? Some virgin who can’t get a date? Yeah the virgin
part was correct but that’s where the similarities ended, buddy.

I was on fire now, I took a deep
breath and put my phone on silent. I was sure I would sleep tonight, I was too
exhausted not to and now I was cranky as well. It was kind of comforting to
know that Tomás didn’t know where I lived and I didn’t have to keep my ear
tuned for the purr of a motorbike engine. I just needed to sleep and not think
about him for a little while.