Page 85 of Try Line Hearts
Reflexive. Easy. A smile he’d been using since he was seventeen.
“Nah,” he said. “Too busy being a public menace.”
Laughter broke the tension. The moment passed.
But something stayed lodged under his skin.
Because it was true. And it wasn’t.
Because the man who had left him sore and loose and humming last night wasn’t a hypothetical.
Eli had woken up with Lucas’s weight still ghosted along his spine and wanting to sayyesand choosing not to felt like swallowing glass.
He drifted away after that, toward a quieter corner, watching Lucas across the room—mid-interview, posture immaculate, hands folded neatly. Lucas smiled when expected, nodded at the right beats, deflected questions with practiced grace.
He didn’t look once in Eli’s direction.
Professional. Sensible.
Eli hated how much it stung.
They broke for lunch at a café down the street—concrete floors, too many plants, long tables pushed together. The team took over, noise rising as soon as food appeared.
Eli sat near the end, listening as conversation turned to the last match. Someone argued about whether Lucas’s offload had been instinct or calculation.
“Both,” Eli said without thinking.
They looked at him.
“He does the math,” Eli added, shrugging. “But he trusts it.”
A murmur of agreement. Respect.
Someone said, “You know him well.”
Eli held their gaze for a beat. “We play together.”
It was true.
It wasn’t enough.This is not enough.
Lucas was pulled away early by PR. Eli watched him go, watched the space open around him without anyone noticing they were doing it.
Power,Eli thought. Quiet. Unquestioned.
He wondered what it would feel like to be chosen openly. To have someone saythis is minewithout worrying about headlines.
The afternoon dragged. More smiles. More questions. More carefulness.
By the time they were released, Eli felt scraped thin.
He skipped the bus back and walked instead, phone heavy in his pocket. When it buzzed—Lucas—he stopped in the middle of the pavement and answered.
“Hey.”
“Where’d you go?” Lucas asked.
“Needed air.”
