Final Score. Michelle Betham

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СКАЧАТЬ to know who my real friends are.’

      Gary turned around and leaned over the table, his face close to Ryan’s as he spoke. ‘I’m a real friend, Ryan. I was there when you were throwing your life down the fucking toilet, remember? I was there when you were lying in the gutter because you were too frigging pissed to even stand up, or off your fucking head on coke. I was there when you were so fucking low you didn’t think you’d ever drag yourself back up; when you were this fucking close to losing everything, I was there. Me. Your real fucking friend. I was there, Ryan. But if that’s what you want to go back to, you’re on your own this time, you got that? Because I refuse to go there again. I refuse to watch you piss it all away because you still can’t fucking deal with something you should have learnt to deal with a long time ago.’

      Ryan watched as Gary walked back over to the bar. But even after listening to those words and after seeing the look on his best friend’s face, all he wanted to do was get so drunk he didn’t know what time of day it was. He wanted to forget he was losing the only things that mattered to him, and he couldn’t do that by being mature and dealing with it, because he couldn’t deal with it. He couldn’t. Not yet. He didn’t want to.

      ‘On your own tonight, Ryan?’

      He turned his head to see an extremely pretty dark-haired girl sit herself down beside him. ‘Not any more.’ He knew her face, and he vaguely recognised her. He knew he’d probably fucked her once or twice at some point during his time with Newcastle Red Star, but that only meant she was one of many, and he never had been all that great at remembering names.

      She smiled, sidling up closer to him. ‘So, you looking for some company tonight?’

      ‘You offering?’

      ‘Well, you’re a free man now, aren’t you?’

      He frowned slightly, not quite drunk enough yet to have lost the ability to focus as he looked at his pretty companion.

      ‘Your ex-girlfriend,’ she explained, her perfectly manicured, baby-pink fingernails trailing lightly over his tattooed forearm. ‘She’s gone back to her husband, hasn’t she? I saw the press conference earlier this evening on the local news. He’s taking some other manager’s job down south, and she’s going with him.’

      Hearing someone else say those words out loud was like a dagger to Ryan’s heart, the pain almost physical. ‘They’re divorced. He isn’t her husband.’

      ‘Yeah, but, they’re getting married again. He said so, at the press conference.’

      Ryan’s frown deepened. ‘Sorry?’

      She rolled her eyes, her fingernails still running slowly up and down his arm, not that he was noticing. All he cared about was clarifying what she’d just told him.

      ‘Your ex-girlfriend, Amber Sullivan, or whatever she calls herself these days, and Jim Allen. They’re getting married again. That’s what he said.’

      Ryan reached for his drink, draining the last of his pint. Now he needed something stronger that would take the pain away for a lot longer than just a few hours. Something that would wipe away everything he’d just been told and let him believe it was all okay. He needed that. Again. He needed that. Everything he thought he’d left behind, he wanted it back.

      ‘You up for a good time?’ He gently removed her hand from his arm and slid his fingers between hers, his eyes asking her another, silent question he hoped she understood.

      She smiled slowly, and he felt a strange kind of relief surge through him. An excitement he hadn’t felt in a long time. ‘As good a time as you like,’ she drawled, leaning forward so her mouth was almost touching his. ‘You call the shots, Ryan. Whatever you want, whatever you need, I can get it. You know that.’

      He smiled, too, reaching into his pocket for his phone. ‘I’ll call The Goldman. Let them know we’re on our way.’

      She grabbed her bag and stood up, wiggling her hips as she pulled the already-too-short hem of her barely-there dress down over her thighs. ‘I’ll make a couple of calls myself. Make sure we’ve got everything we need.’

      ‘You’re an angel.’ He gave her the full-on Fisher smile, feeling a sense of freedom he hadn’t felt in so long. It was almost exhilarating, as though someone had just opened the cell he’d been locked inside for too many years, and now he was free to do whatever the hell he liked. ‘I’ll meet you in the lobby.’

      ‘I won’t be long.’ She blew him a kiss, and he watched as she sashayed over to the bar, throwing his head back and letting out a laugh that was almost maniacal.

      ‘What’s up with you?’ Gary asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion as Ryan stood up, slipping his jacket back on and pushing both hands through his hair.

      ‘Nothing, mate. Absolutely nothing is up with me.’

      ‘Where you going?’

      Ryan looked at his friend. A friend he knew cared about him. And he’d never forget how instrumental Gary and Debbie had been in making sure he hadn’t gone too far down a road that had almost ruined him, but he could handle all of that now. He didn’t need looking after, not any more. ‘I’m going to enjoy myself, Gary. That’s where I’m going.’

      ‘Ryan…’

      He swung around to face Gary. ‘I can look after myself, Gary, okay? I don’t need you or anyone else hanging over me, waiting for me to do something stupid, I don’t need that. I don’t. I can look after myself.’

      ‘You sure about that?’

      Ryan said nothing for a couple of beats, his eyes boring into Gary’s as a brief but fleeting moment of doubt flashed through his mind. But then he remembered what he’d just been told – Amber and Jim were getting married. Again. And the only sound he could hear was the hammering of that final nail into the coffin of a relationship he knew he could never have now. It was over. And he couldn’t deal with that right now. Not sober. Not clear-headed. ‘I’m sure.’

       *

      ‘Did we do the right thing? Announcing our engagement during that press conference?’ Amber wrapped her arms around Jim’s waist from behind as he slid his tie off, throwing it over the back of the chair.

      ‘We’re doing this properly, Amber. No more secrets, no more lies. No more pretending.’

      She rested her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes as his fingers slid between hers. ‘No more pretending…’ she whispered, trailing off as he slowly turned her around, his mouth meeting hers in a kiss so gentle it was hard to believe he was the same man who’d caused her so much heartache for most of her life. Any sane woman would have walked away decades ago. But she obviously wasn’t sane. And she could never walk away. She’d tried, and she’d tried hard, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t walk away.

      ‘No more pretending.’ He smiled, and she felt her heart dance that dance reserved only for him as his handsome face lit up and those eyes she’d found so hard to trust for so long were conveying nothing but honesty. Truth. Something she’d found so difficult to get from him. Dare she believe that, this time, everything really was going to be okay?

      ‘I СКАЧАТЬ