Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Brady grins. “It’s why I’ll make a great agent. I’m not going to make your ego bigger than it already is.”
“What if my ego needs a boost?”
“Since when does Peyton Miller ever need an ego boost?”
“Since Levi said he only wants to be friends and then turned up to my game on a fucking date.” And there it is. The real reason why this Levi situation is really getting to me. Him blowing me off … hurts.
“Ooh, yeah, ego smashed,” Brady says. “Have you spoken to him recently?”
“Not at all. He said he wants to be friends and then basically ghosted me. Although it’s not like we’re on each other’s socials or have each other’s number.”
“You haven’t gone to see him?”
“I don’t know his apartment number, and even I know it’s creepy to hang outside the entrance to his building waiting for him to come home. I’ve taken the long way to classes by walking past the law department, but that strategy hasn’t worked yet.”
“I have a really good and novel idea. It’s really easy. Are you listening?”
I already know whatever comes out of my brother’s mouth next will be the obvious choice.
“You could add him as a friend on socials. Follow him. Uh, online. I don’t recommend you actually follow him because yes, that would be creepy. But maybe you should swallow your damn inflated pride because of all the attention you’ve gotten from everyone during the entire course of your life and put in some effort for once.” He mock gasps. “What’s that like? Having to actually work for something.”
“Fuck off. You know I—”
“Besides football. Face it, Pey, you’ve never had to try to make friends. Sure, some of them proved to be users, but you still never had to work for it. Maybe Levi is on a date because he asked to be friends and then you sulked for two weeks like a little bitch.”
“Are you going to call me a little bitch when I’m paying you twenty percent of my millions and millions of dollars?”
He shrugs. “If you’re acting like one. Yes.”
“Then I hope for my sake Uncle Damon doesn’t retire for another twenty years, and you’ll never become my agent. I think I’ll be ready for retirement around forty-two.”
“Nope. You have to beat Tom Brady’s record for most Super Bowl wins and the record for the oldest quarterback to still be playing—whoever that is now. Dad depends on you to defend his honor.”
“I still can’t believe he named you after someone he didn’t like.” Then again, that’s Dad for you.
“Please. He did it so that when we both became hotshot football players in the NFL, the most famous Brady would be me. Not Tom.”
“That … actually checks out.”
“Of course it does. It’s why he was so disappointed when I quit playing. His evil plan that was decades in the making had gone to waste.”
“At least I’ll still be the most famous Peyton.”
“Exactly. Peyton Manning who?”
We make it back to our apartment, and as soon as I’m dressed again, we head back out. We live close, Shenanigans being down the hill from our house and on the beach, so it’s a five-minute walk.
Five minutes where Brady won’t stop asking me questions about Levi.
“So what are you going to do about Levi?” Brady asks.
“Put in the effort to be his … friend.” I wince.
“Even if you want to jump him.”
“I don’t want to jump him.” Okay, maybe I do, but also … sex with a dude. It’s been a while since I even thought about it, let alone contemplated the logistics.
Rutting against Levi when we were eighteen was one thing. That was instinctual. More than that? I wouldn’t really know where to start.
“Sure, you don’t. Because no one ever thinks about jumping the dude who gave them their sexual awakening. Never happens.” We reach the bar, and Brady holds the door for me.
“Thought about it, sure, but it’s not like I can act on it.” I glance around the crowded bar, looking for my teammates.
“Because of public perception?” Brady asks over the noise. “You know it’s not going to be a huge deal to come out.”
“It’s not just that. Levi is a complication that I don’t need when the draft is in six months.”
“A complication you don’t need, sure. But he is a complication you want.”
“Stop getting in my head. Levi is off-limits. Levi is—”
“Here,” Brady says.
My gaze snaps in every direction. “What?”
“He’s here.” He points behind me.
When I turn, Levi’s gray eyes meet mine across the room. His smile fades.
The dude he’s with has his back to me, but when he looks over his shoulder at what Levi’s staring at, the side of his mouth turns up, and I can’t be sure because I don’t hear it, but I swear his mouth moves and says, “No way.”