Chapter 6

“Dinner tonight?” I heard Jordan’s voice ask over the phone. I smiled. He’d just gotten back from Vegas and I hadn’t seen him yet.

“Dinner sounds great,” I told him.

“Okay, I’ll pick you up at 7.” I hung up the phone, happy that I was going to get to see him. At 7 on the dot, he pulled into my driveway and I got into the car.

Jordan and I walked into the restaurant. We walked up to the hostess stand and they recognized us immediately. Just before we were taken to our seats I felt a blast of air and knew that someone had come in the door behind us.

“Amelia?” I heard someone squeal in delight. I cringed at the voice before turning around.

“Hey, Ileana,” I said. I saw Corey standing next to her doing his best to avoid my eyes. We hadn’t seen each other since the night at his house.

“You guys know each other?” Jordan asked from next to me.

“Yeah, Jordan, this is Ileana and Corey,” I introduced them. Ileana’s smile grew while Corey just looked annoyed as Jordan shook their hands.

“How do you guys know each other?” he asked looking over at me.

“Well, I’ve known Corey for years since high school. He also plays for the Ducks and when I went to a game with Brianna I met Ileana,” I explained.

“You guys should have dinner with us!” Ileana exclaimed. Corey’s head shot up in a panicked look.

“Oh, no, we couldn’t intrude on your night out,” I told her.

“Nonsense. It’s rude to turn down an invitation from friends. We’d be delighted,” Jordan cut in.

He turned to tell the hostess that we were going to need a table for four. She happily obliged. I rolled my eyes as I noticed Jordan checking out her ass as she walked away. When I looked back towards Corey and Ileana I could see Corey giving me one of those I-told-you-so looks. Gee, thanks, Jordan for doing that in front of him, I thought. We were soon seated at a table.

“It’s so funny that we ran into you tonight. Corey and I have never been here before,” Ileana said as we began to look over the menus.

“Well, you’ll definitely enjoy it. It’s one of my favorite places. I’d recommend a dish or two, but you really can’t go wrong with anything,” Jordan told her.

I kept my head buried behind my menu and I noticed Corey was doing the same thing. Ileana and Jordan kept the conversation going until the waitress took our orders. At that point Corey and I had nothing to hide behind.

“So, Amelia, Corey and I just went and saw Stay Classy. It’s not exactly Corey’s type of movie, but I made him take me. I loved it,” Ileana said to me. I smiled politely at her and tried to supress the giggle that was just below the surface when I heard she made Corey go.

“Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” I glanced over at Corey who was focused on his glass of wine, no emotion on his face at all.

“She’s really great, isn’t she?” Jordan asked with a smile on his face. He took my hand in his and kissed it. Corey’s eyes shot up and he looked annoyed when he saw it happen.

The food arrived and conversation halted for a few minutes as we all began to sample our dishes. It didn’t take long for Ileana to start talking again. I noticed that she and Jordan really did all the talking. They were obviously flirting with each other, which was annoying. I threw in comments every once in a while, but Corey had said about two words the entire dinner.

“So, Corey, you’re from London just like Amelia?” Jordan asked him. Corey looked over at him for the first time all night and shook his head.

“No, I’m not. I just played juniors there,” he explained.

“So how did you two meet?” Jordan continued. Corey sighed and I wanted to stab myself in the eye with an ice pick. I’d be very happy if no one ever asked that question ever again.

“I moved there while I was still in school. We ended up going to high school together. She dated my friend Scott,” he finished.

I saw a tiny smile play on the corner of his mouth and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing when our eyes locked. For just a second, all the anger I’d felt toward him since seeing him again melted. This was a look we’d shared many times before, secretly telling each other how we really felt without divulging it to the people around us. In that second I saw the anger and pain in his eyes fade as well.

Not long after the bill came and Jordan picked up the tab. We all got up from the table and made our way out of the restaurant. We said our goodbyes and I got into Jordan’s car.

“Corey’s not a real talkative guy. He didn’t seem to like me too much,” he commented. I shrugged.

“He never was much of a talker,” I lied.










Corey had been less than thrilled with Ileana when she invited Amelia and her boyfriend to have dinner with them. After the party at his house Amelia was the last person he wanted to spend any time with. Who the hell had she thought she was to judge his relationship with Ileana?

He wasn’t shocked by what she’d told him. Some of the guys on the team and their wives had made it clear they didn’t like Ileana, but it didn’t matter. Corey wasn’t going to marry her, he was just having a good time. It wasn’t like he was the only guy on the team dating someone like her.

He hadn’t even met Amelia’s boyfriend yet before he judged him. He just knew that he didn’t like him based on the shit he’d heard about him. He could care less about celebrity gossip, but Ileana loved it and so it was hard to avoid it all. Jordan was a playboy and he didn’t like that Amelia was with someone like that. She left him and ended up dating that asshole?

As they sat through dinner and he listened to Jordan talk he knew that his instinct had been right on. Before they’d even sat at the table he’d watched Jordan practically eye fuck half of the girls in the restaurant and Amelia seemed oblivious to it all. Then as he listened to the conversation he couldn’t help but feel that Jordan was as fake as they came.

In fact, Corey had the distinct feeling that Jordan had been hitting on Ileana the entire time. They did most of the talking and Jordan’s eyes never left hers unless Amelia spoke up, which she didn’t do very often. Corey had wanted to punch Jordan the entire dinner for both hitting on Ileana and for doing it in front of Amelia.

The only part of the night that didn’t seem like a complete disaster was when Jordan had asked him about how he knew Amelia. He’d mentioned Scott on purpose to see Amelia’s reaction. It was hard not to smile at the look on her face. For just that second he’d forgotten how much she’d hurt him.

“Corey, let’s go to bed,” Ileana called down to him from the bedroom.

He groaned, knowing just what she wanted. He wasn’t exactly in the mood. Even so, he knew better than to turn Ileana down. If he did, she’d throw a fit and he wasn’t in the mood for that either. He turned off the TV and walked into the bedroom. She smiled up at him from the bed and he suddenly wished he’d brought her home to her place before coming back to his for the night.