Markus
“MARKUS!” HER TONE left no question as to why she was here. But I was expecting it; it was just a matter of time before she found out. Ava and her big brother, Bryce, were twins, and one rarely did something without the other one knowing.
This being the exception.
It was a dynamic that puzzled me at first, then drew me in, giving me a window into a world I didn’t understand but craved. Bryce was my college roommate, big, laid back and a gentle giant who turned into The Hulk on the football field. We were fast friends, he being the brawn and I being the brains — marketing brains. It was a friendship that turned pro when he was drafted, and Prestige Group recruited me. It was a match made in heaven, launching both of our careers. But you couldn’t be friends with Bryce and not get to know Ava, and the more I got to know her, the harder I fell. But sometimes, it was just not meant to be. No matter how much you want it.
And right now, staring at her beautiful and furious face, I know she’ll never forgive me.
Because I wasn’t letting Bryce play it safe.
But I knew it was worth the risk; so did her brother. But he was all she had left; their parents had died five years ago. No way would she ever see past the risk to see the reward. She’d simply see the x-rays, the physical therapy needed, the chance that her brother would never recover.
But he would recover. I knew it. He knew it.
But she’d never forgive me, even when I would, without a doubt, be proven right.
As she stomped into my office, my throat burned with the knowledge that things would never be the same. To her, I’d picked my career over her brother’s safety, his life.
But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Because what she didn’t know was that whenever it came down to it, the first person I thought of wasn’t him; it was her.
It was always her.
Just because I knew she was off-limits didn’t mean I didn’t wish she wasn’t.
And today… today I’d just sealed my fate.
As her caramel eyes burned through me, tears making her long lashes sharp spikes as she blinked, causing angry tears to slide down her face, trailing along her wide and expressive lips, she shook her head.
Writing me off.
And without another word, she simply turned and walked away.
Out of my life.
But you can’t lose what you never had…
No matter how much you wanted it to begin with.