“See?” She knows I haven’t even looked at the page.
“You want to be friends?” My heart beats a little faster when I realize that my own voice asked the question. My face is on fire as I watch for her reaction. I’ve never asked to be a girl’s friend before.
She shrugs, biting her cheek. “I guess.”
Lifting the magazine up, I smile behind it.
Chapter Five
Tatum
Slamming the car door behind me I march into Chloe’s house. I feel nauseous, my only remedy is getting back in the car and race back to the gym and slam my fist in Camden’s face. I can’t believe he talked to me like that. Has he always been such an asshole and I was just too blind to see it? Or does he really hate me?
Fucking Chloe and Fiona knew whose gym I was going to. They knew I would run into Camden. They set me up. WHY?
Inside it smells like fingernail polish, and baked bread.
“Ma! I told you I want the acrylic!” Chloe states from Fiona’s manicure table.
“Oh hush, you don’t know what you want.” Fiona tosses her hand at Chloe, with an emery board in her fingers.
“Did you know?” I drop my gym bag to the floor, my nostrils flaring. Both of them focus on me, their faces scrunched in confusion. “Did you know Camden would be there?” I clarify sharply. Chloe’s mouth purses into the shape of an O, and Fiona begins to work on Chloe’s hands as if I didn’t ask anything important.
“Fiona!”
She huffs, dropping her emery board.
“That is the only training place I knew of sugar. Did I know that Camden would be there? I mean, I wasn’t sure, but—”
“So you did know,” I interrupt.
“Look babe. You wanted a trainer, and I knew where one was. How bad do you want your dreams to come true?” Her brows raise as her eyes slowly trail from Chloe’s fingers to my eyes.
“What does that mean?” I sigh.
“It’s simple. How bad do you want to become a professional fighter?”
“Well—”
“Then I suggest you get over that boy and focus on you.” She turns, grabbing a purple nail polish.
Groaning I fall into the couch, knowing she’s right.
“Did you run into him?” Chloe questions.
My eyes closed, I nod. The look of hatred on Camden’s face plaguing my mind.
“What did he say? How did he look? Was he mad?” Chloe interrogates.
Dragging my palm along my face I try to focus my eyes on Chloe.
“He told me not to come back,” I answer flatly. Hearing it a second time hurts just as much as the first. I’m not surprised he said it though. I deserve it after the way I left him.
“Ouch,” she mutters.
“Yeah. Good times,” the sarcasm in my voice thick.
“Go back. Sock it to him,” Fiona adds, applying polish to Chloe’s nail.
“It’s not that easy,” I tell her.
“It is. Grow a spine, sugar,” Fiona declares.
“Ma!” Chloe faces her mother.
“What? Tate is tough everywhere except when it comes to that boy.” I begin picking at my nail polish, knowing she’s right but I don’t want to acknowledge it.
“Yeah, but I broke his heart,” I remind her. The tension between us is all my fault.
“He is a grown ass man, he’s going to walk all over you if you let him. Put your big girl panties on and stomp his ass.” Sitting up I tangle my fingers in my hair.
“I need a drink.” I can’t deal with all of this. It pisses me off how much of an asshole he was, but I still have deep feelings for him. I hate that I hurt him, but when he talks to me like that I want to dig my claws into his face.
“You want to go to Big Pete’s?”
“What’s that?”
“They serve the biggest pizza, and have all the beer you can think of.”
“Is it deep dish?” I can’t help but ask. I’ve missed the deep dish pizza from here.
“No, but it’s still really good.” Chloe nods, blowing on her nails.
I better indulge in pizza and beer while I can. If Thomas is serious about coaching me, my diet is going to get strict.
“Yeah. Let’s do it I suppose.”
“Sweet. You go change, and as soon as Ma is done, we’ll go.”
I look down at my work out clothes. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing? I thought we were just going for beer and pizza?”
She rolls her eyes.
“If you plan on getting laid, you need to get out of the sports bra, girlfriend.”
Fiona laughs.
“I’ll take pizza over a guy any day,” I jab, walking past them.
“That’s my girl!” Fiona praises.
Pulling up to Big Pete’s the parking lot is littered with cars. Seems to be the new hot spot around here. It’s crazy how much this town has changed over the last few years.
The building is made up of red brick, with a small wooden patio to the right. It looks like it used to be a garage with the two overhead doors leading into the building.