Given Time

?8?

His lip curls up. "Only you hate it."

The path suddenly gets busier with people, so Tanner grabs my arm and pulls me to the side so that we're standing at the side of the hockey stall. As soon as we're out of the way, I pull my arm free of his hand. Tanner notices my hasty reaction to him and shakes his head.

As we stand by his stall, one of his teammates grabs his attention and informs him that they've got two pages of names listed for tryouts so far. Tanner seems elated, while I'm amazed at how many guys want to play the sport. I remember when I used to attend Shawn's matches at our school and found it boring. At the time, I tried to play the supportive girlfriend and cheer on for him at nearly every game. Though, before the game got halfway through, I would lose interest and busy myself with my phone or talk to my friends if they came along.

"Aren't you bored with playing hockey yet? You've been doing it since you were little," I ask curiously.

He snorts. "Are you serious? I love it!" He tosses the remainder of the fliers he's holding onto the stall and looks back at me.

"I'm lucky that after all of those of years of playing it for fun led to a scholarship."

I let out a strangled noise. "Wait! You got a scholarship?"

Tanner looks at me with a confused expression and grips the back of his neck. "Yeah. I thought you'd already know that through your dad."

It's possibly true that my dad could have spoken about it in the past, but whenever Tanner's name was brought up in my home, I quickly drowned them out. I shrug my shoulder. "It probably just slipped my mind."

As if on cue, Zara arrives at my side and links her arm with mine. "Hi, roomie!"

I sigh in relief, knowing that I can leave this fair now and get away from Tanner. "You all signed up?" I ask.

"Yep." She juts her lower lip out. "You should have joined up with me. It would have been fun to do pole fitness together."

Tanner suddenly chokes on a laugh. "Leah doing pole? Now that I'd pay to see." He winks at us both. "Especially if there are loads of girls in some tight little number shimmying around a pole."

I gag while Zara laughs. "Sorry to disappoint, but it's not that kind of club."

Tanner shrugs his shoulders. "Shame. Anyway, don't I get a hug, gorgeous? I haven't seen you in ages," Tanner asks Zara with a lopsided grin.

My mouth drops open as Zara walks towards him. "Of course you do," she responds, going in for a hug.

"But if you call me gorgeous one more time, I'll injure your leg so you won't be able to play hockey anymore," she adds, grinning.

"How do you know my roommate?" I burst out in confusion, looking directly at Tanner as he releases Zara from his hold.

"She's Jake's girlfriend," he responds. But from seeing the even more confused expression on my face, he continues. "He's in my fraternity. She stays up at the house every so often."

I feel as if my head is about to explode. Zara knows Tanner, and probably well from the sounds of it.

"Oh, for fuck's sake! Why, out of all the people I could have had as a roommate, I get the one who knows you!"

"It's kind of funny if you think about it," he responds with a ghost of a smile on his lips.

"No, it's not!" I yelp as Zara bends over, laughing from my rant.

With them knowing each other, this may mean I'll be seeing him a lot more than I originally wanted to. Blowing out a breath, I run my hands through my hair wondering how I seem to have the worst luck in the world.

"Wait. So, how do you two even know each other?" Zara wheezes out between her fit of giggles.

"Our dads are close friends," Tanner explains evenly.

"Oh. I'm guessing you two aren't," she guesses correctly as she looks at the two of us.

"That's right," I say just as Tanner says, "We're working on it."

I scowl at Tanner, annoyed. Why can't he see I want nothing to do with him?

"Ah. Well, have fun with figuring that out," Zara says, continuing to laugh at our expense.

"I think we're done here now," I tell them, eager to leave. "Tanner, you can get back to handing out those fliers. Zara lets head back to the dorm and watch that movie you told me about."

"Yes ma'am," Zara salutes, standing to attention theatrically.

I groan at her obvious playful mood. Taking her arm, I quickly lead her away from Tanner and out of the fair.

"Bye, Zara. Bye, Le-Le," Tanner calls as we leave.

I groan at his stupid nickname and throw my head over my shoulder and give him a look of pure fury, yet all that's written across Tanner's face is amusement.

What do guys think of Zara and Tanner already knowing each other? Do you think this will help or worsen the situation? 🤔

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