Alpha Billionaire Series

MARK

About a month later...

with a grunt, I dove for the ball, smashing it out of Peyton's hands.

I'turned and ran down the court dribbling as I went. I was wide open. I took the shot.

“Loser,” David taunted as the ball bounced off the backboard. And back into the court.

That had been a crappy shot. All of my shots had been crappy lately. I caught the ball on the rebound and attempted to take another shot.

“Foult” Jeff called my illegal move.

I hurled the ball at him. It hit him heavily in the chest.

He grunted. “What's wrong with you?”

“What the hell's wrong with you?” I yelled back.

David came up to me and squeezed my shoulder. “Hey, chill out man. This is a friendly game, remember.”

Ishot a glare at him. We took positions. I waited for Jeff to throw the ball back in. He feigned his first throw and then shot it toward Peyton.

Ijumped in front of Peyton knocking the ball just as he was about to grab it. I slammed my shoulder into him, knocking him over.

He sat on his ass in the middle of the court. “What the hell has gotten into you, Mark?”

“Language,” Jeff reprimanded us like we were school children and not adults.

“Iam so tired of you and your language.” I took the ball and dropped it on the floor next to Peyton before storming off. I did not have the patience for adults who could not handle light swearing. We were not professional ball players; this was a pick- up game for fun.

Basketball was supposed to ease my tension and help my body and mind to relax from the stresses of my job. This was only adding to the building aggravation that was my life. I slammed through the doors into the locker room, banging the locker door open. I pulled out a towel and wiped the sweat from my face with a growl. I twisted the cap off my water bottle and poured water into my mouth. Some of it ran down my throat, some ran down the sides of my face, soaking my shirt.

“Mark?”

I didn’t turn when I heard Peyton's voice.

“What's up with you lately? You seem to be really on edge. Is there anything you need to talk about? You know, I'm willing to listen.”

I rubbed at my brow and shook my head. “No, no, not really” I let out a long deep breath. I turned to look at him. I wanted tc tell him that I was fairly certain his daughter had caused irreparable damage to my wellbeing, but then I would have to adm that I had been dating Brooke. And somehow, I thought that it would be even harder to deal with that suffering in silence.

“I broke up with that woman I was seeing. I guess I'm taking it harder than I had expected.”

“I'm sorry to hear that. Karen wants you to come over for dinner. She charged me with making sure you knew you were expected tomorrow.”

Igrunted. I didn't know if I was up to one of Karen's little dinner parties. Almost immediately, I realized that dinner with Peyton and Karen meant that there was a high possibility that Brooke would be there.

The tension that had been building in my chest eased at the thought of seeing her again. It immediately coiled hard around my ribs and squeezed. If I saw her at her parents’ house, would I be able to keep from begging her to talk to me? I couldn't even talk to her so far to clear the doubts that she had against me in her mind. She had blocked my phone in the past few weeks. If only she had been open to sit and fix things between us. How could I repair the damage that had already been done without talking things over?

I considered for a moment about saying no, I wouldn't be available. That would mean I'd have to make up some lie. Once I started lying to my friends, I'd have to keep lying to them over and over again to cover my tracks. And then I would forget what lies I had told. It was better just to not start lying, to begin with. What kind of friend was I that I considered lying just tc getout of a free meal?

I'sat on the bench with a heavy drop and a groan.

“That actually sounds like a nice idea. I need to get out of my routine. Tell Karen I would love to come for dinner.”

Peyton dropped his hand onto my shoulder and squeezed. “I'll let her know you'll be over tomorrow night.”

I nodded. “Tomorrow night sounds good.”

After that, he left me alone. I sat and stared at the empty locker room trying to figure out what I was doing with my life? I wasn't close to having any kind of epiphany when David burst through the doors.

“What the fuck was that all about?” he demanded.

Ishook my head. “I don't even know.”

“Well, you've pissed Jeff off. I don't know if you're going to be welcome back here anymore."

Ishrugged. I didn't have time. I didn’t have time for men with fragile egos. Tempers got heated in the middle of games all thy time. What did he expect?Text © owned by NôvelDrama.Org.

I hung the towel around my neck and stood. “I'll go and apologize.”

The next night I found myself standing on the stoop of the DeBoise house. I couldn't quite bring myself to push the doorbell Did I want Brooke to answer the door? How disappointed would I be if Karen answered the door instead? How disappointed would I be if Karen had another single woman to set me up with?

I contemplated turning around and leaving like a coward. I was thinking like a coward. I rang the doorbell. To my surprise, Peyton answered. He was usually playing video games or deep in discussion with another dinner guest, not doing door duty, “Hey, come on in"

I'stepped in and held up the bottle of wine I always managed to bring.

He took it from me. “This is fantastic. Let's go give it to Karen."

I hadn't noticed any other cars in the drive. I didn't see anyone else, not even Brooke. “Who else is expected?” I asked. Peyton shrugged. “As far as I know, it's just you."

“Karen has no hidden agenda. No secret dating games?” I asked. My tone might have been a little sharper than the intended sarcasm.

“You're late” Karen said as we stepped into the kitchen. “I was beginning to wonder if you were even going to show up tonight.”

“Sorry about that” I felt adequately scolded. “I did have to stop and get wine.”

“Well then," she smiled. “All is forgiven. Everything is ready and everyone's here. We might as well start eating. Peyton, honey why don't you take in the salad.’

“Can I help?” I offered.

“No, we've got it," Karen said.

Iled the way into the dining room from the kitchen. Three places were already set. I stared at the empty chair where Brooke would normally sit. I had a sense of constricting emotion in my chest. I shouldn't ask, but I had to know.

“I haven't seen Brooke around lately. Did she get a new job?” I asked.

“I don't know if you remember she was applying to graduate schools this spring” Karen said.

I nodded, vaguely remembering that cover-up story well. She used it as one of her excuses to sneak around with me. She told her parents she was doing grad school research, or writing application essays with her friend, but she was really with me. It looked like she really had been doing both, applying to graduate school and seeing me.

“She and her friend were both accepted into a programme, and they moved to Chicago."

Ifroze for a second. Uncertain that I had heard her clearly. “Brooke is going to graduate school in Chicago?”

She hadn't said anything about either of those to me. Was that why she had gotten so upset? Had I somehow missed an important goal for her?

“What is she studying?” I asked.

Karen gave a little shrug. “It's an MBA program. So, business, I guess. I don't know much beyond that.”

“I didn't realize she was interested in business management,” I said casually. I wanted to find out more information. But I wasn't exactly certain how to approach it without sounding too nosy.

“Well, we didn't know she was interested in that either," Peyton said. “The girl has had focus problems when it comes to school. Who knows if she'll follow through? I thought getting her to graduate was the end of higher education for her”

“We didn’t know she had lofty goals until she announced she was moving to Chicago with her friend, and that they would both be attending this program.” Karen sounded slightly bitter about the whole thing.

“Is she liking it?"

“As far as we can tell,” Karen started. “She seems to be liking it. It fits in with her schedule.”

“50 she's got a job?” I could stop myself from asking more questions. I needed all the information on Brooke that I could get Iwas like a dry sponge soaking up all the moisture it could find.

“Peyton has a colleague at Chicago Memorial and managed to help her get a similar job there that she had at your hospital” I nodded and paid attention to everything they could tell me about Brooke. I barely paid attention to the food I ate. I may have dated Brooke, but I clearly had known nothing about her, no wonder she had been upset with me.