Page 58 of Playing Dirty

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Not loud.

Just… there.

Between us.

I didn’t know what to say to that.

So I said the first thing that came:

“That’s weird.”

A faint half-shrug from him.

“Yeah.”

Silence again.

But different now.

Less distance.

More awareness.

He stepped back slightly first this time.

Not leaving.

Just creating space before it got worse.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.

It wasn’t a question.

It never was with him.

“Yeah,” I said.

He hesitated for half a second like he wanted to say something else.

Didn’t.

Then walked away.

And somehow—

that felt louder than everything else in the gym.

Ten

CHAPTER TEN

MASON

I didn’t go straight to the locker room.

I should’ve.

Instead I stood by the tunnel entrance with my towel still over my shoulder, staring at nothing in particular while my heart did that annoying thing it only ever did around one person lately.

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