1: unplanned photos

Sofia POV

"Do you really need to marry her?"

The voice stopped me cold. Ruby's voice. My best friend. My roommate. The person who'd held my hair back more times than I could count and knew the names of every person who'd ever hurt me. I froze halfway to the door, close enough to hear, too afraid to move closer and too afraid to leave either.

"Yes. I need this partnership secured for my father. But don't worry, I have a plan," Adrian said, easy, like he was discussing a merger and not a person.

"And what's that plan? I hope it doesn't involve hurting my best friend."

That confirmed it. No doubt left. Just Ruby, on the other side of that door, talking about me like I was a line item two people were negotiating around.

"No one's getting hurt," Adrian said. "I rush the marriage, secure my father's company, and in two, three years I file for divorce. Clean. Simple. She'll barely notice the difference."

"What?" Ruby's voice came louder now, cracking at the edges. "Isn't it enough that you're marrying her without loving her? Now you want to use her for your own interests, and you think that's simple?"

"Isn't that what you want too?"

Silence. Long enough that I held my breath along with it.

"No. Never." A pause, and when she spoke again her voice had dropped, something breaking underneath it. "I already feel guilty enough that I can't tell her you were the high school boyfriend I've talked about for years the one I still think about, the one I compare every guy to and never tell her why. And now you want me to stand here and let you rope me into this selfish plan? I want you, Adrian. God help me, I do. But not like this. Not by hurting her. I'm done here."

I didn't wait to hear anything else. I ran down the stairs, out the side entrance, past a receptionist who called something after me I didn't catch. I didn't stop until I was two blocks away, breathing hard, my heels loud against the pavement in a way that felt like the whole street could hear exactly how fast my life had just come apart.

I wasn't ready to go home. Ruby would be there eventually, and I had no idea yet what my face would do the second I saw her  whether I'd scream, or cry, or say nothing at all and let two months of silence become three.

I let my legs decide where to go, the only place I could think of once betrayal and gratitude had finished pulling me in opposite directions: a bar with a name I didn't bother reading.

I'd been dressed for a party. Vicky's  my childhood friend, her place, a night I'd actually been looking forward to for weeks. Then I got the news Adrian was in town early, a full day before he was supposed to meet my father, and something about the timing itched at me enough that I decided to stop by his office first. I told myself I just wanted to plead for more time before the wedding. More time to breathe, and figure out how to survive a marriage I'd never asked for.

But I never made it through Adrian's office door.

Four bottles in, I let myself go over all of it again and again, like picking at a wound to see if it still hurt the same way each time Adrian, who'd never wanted me, only what I represented. Ruby, who'd known for two months and said nothing, and was still the only one who'd fought for me at all, even quietly, even too late. I didn't know which one I was angrier at. Maybe being drunk was the only way to hold both at once.

Two men approached my table at some point. I registered them without really hearing them, the way you register weather changing outside a window. After that, nothing  until I woke up in my own bed, Ruby sitting beside me, my head heavy enough to feel like it belonged to someone else.

"Don't rush getting up," she said, holding out a cup of coffee like nothing between us had shifted. I took it without a word, watching her over the rim, waiting to see if she'd say something else. She didn't. She just stood and walked out of the room, and came back a minute later with my clothes over one arm.

Something from the night before surfaced in pieces while she moved around the room  a voice, low, telling me to stay put. Not the two men. Someone else. I couldn't hold onto the shape of his face, just the strange, useless certainty that I'd heard that voice somewhere before I was ever drunk enough to imagine it.

I wanted to ask her something  about the office, about what I'd heard but the words wouldn't come, not yet, not with my head still splitting and the coffee barely touched. I let it sit for another day. One disaster at a time, I told myself, not knowing yet how wrong that estimate would turn out to be.

"I already ironed your dress. Remember tomorrow's your first day with the boys."

I nodded slowly, grateful for one more night before I had to be anyone's coach, anyone's daughter, anyone's anything.

******

The next morning came too fast anyway.

"Shit." I found strength I didn't know I had left. An hour later I was standing in front of Coach Peter.

"Good morning, sir. I'm so sorry I'm late," I said to the man who was finally helping my dreams come true. His expression didn't change cold and unreadable.

"Sofia. How could you let me down like this, knowing how I'm risking my job to get you a shot at yours." There was something close to fear in his eyes.

"I'm really sorry I came late. Believe me, I'd never put your sacrifices to waste." I was still confused about why thirty minutes had turned into this.

"How long have you been in a relationship with him? You could have at least told me." His question pulled me out of my own head entirely.

"Hmm? Whose relationship?" I had never been this confused in my life. I'd dreamed about this day for years. I never expected it to start like this. Coach Peter's face only got harder.

"Sofia, I don't have time for this. In the next few minutes you're going to be on a call with the board and probably your father." Nothing he was saying was adding up.

Buzz buzz buzz. My phone kept vibrating, nonstop. I looked down messages from my sister, my mom, Ruby, even Adrian. A cold feeling ran through me. I looked back at Coach Peter, who was acting like his career was on the line.

"Sorry, sir  one minute." I tried to open the messages.

"Good morning, Coach." A tall guy interrupted, and Coach Peter's attention snapped to him, which gave me the chance to step aside. Something about his voice snagged at me even before I placed his face  familiar in a way that had nothing to do with the headlines I hadn't opened yet. I didn't have time to chase it.

Mom: Sofia, how could you hide this from me?

Adrian: You shameless woman. Days before our wedding, you do this to me?

Lily: ohh my sister finally having a tease of fun with a handsome captain.

Ruby: Are you okay? How's it going there? Don't mind what people are saying.

The messages kept coming, all at once, until my head and my chest were both full of the same static none of it adding up, all of it landing like a nightmare I hadn't woken up from yet.

I called Ruby immediately. "What is all this? What are you talking about? You're scaring me."

"Hey  calm down. I know the comments are harsh, but they're not true."

"What comments? Ruby, I don't have time for this. Send me whatever it is."

"Just calm down."

"Ruby. Send it."

My phone buzzed seconds later. The second I opened the picture, it nearly fell out of my hand. It was him the guy who'd just walked in, the one talking to Coach Peter right now. I looked up. He was mid-conversation, laughing at something, completely unaware.

I looked back down at the headline: *Jay's New Toy.* Under it, the photo of my face clear as day, in a club, falling onto him, his mouth at my cheek. I locked the phone and looked up again, and this time our eyes actually met. We both went still.

I called Ruby back. I still couldn't remember most of the night. "How did I even get home?"

"Okay, slow down. You got home around midnight. The guy in the picture brought you back. I thought you two were friends  he seemed to know you already." The second she said it I looked back at him, still watching from across the rink, his expression somewhere else entirely, like he was working through something I couldn't see.

I dropped the call and walked over to him.

"Coach has been called inside. We'll probably be going in soon."

"That's all you have to say? Who are you, and why are you suddenly showing up in my life dragging drama with you?" Something flickered across his face disappointment, maybe  but he didn't say a word.

"What are you playing at? Are you that desperate for attention that you'll use a stranger for it?" I paused, almost crying out. "This is supposed to be my first day with the team, and you ruined it already."

"That wasn't the intention. At least be grateful I kept you safe."

"You're sorry? Do you have any idea what this is going to cost me"

My phone rang again before I could finish.

"Sofia, I actually think this might be God handing you a way out," Lily said, before I'd even gotten a full sentence in.

"Lily, can we talk later? I'm about to face Dad."

"No, no  that's exactly why I'm calling. Adrian's father is threatening to walk over this. Dad's going to fight it, though  you know how he is about the company, he's not letting go of that deal without something to replace it. A scandal alone won't be enough to get you out of the wedding. You'd need something that looks solid."

"Solid how?"

"I don't know, make it official with him, even if it starts as a cover story. He's one of Dad's favorite players. It might be the only thing that actually gives you leverage."

I hung up without answering her, my mind too loud to hold one more idea right now. I took a step back, still staring at him across the rink, the word *cover story* sitting strange and cold in my chest, not yet a plan  just a door I hadn't decided whether to walk through.

The door opened. Coach Peter stepped out, his face unreadable. "You two  come in."

My whole body went cold.