Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

MAX

"Kissing only in public," Ivy said. I parked a street away from my house, not wanting to throw her to the wolves before we even knew how to handle the situation. We sat in my car, the indoor space feeling a bit suffocating and her jasmine scent tickling my nose with every little move she made. "Just when it's needed, otherwise we can rely on PDA. You good at that?"

"The best." I flashed her a cocky smile. "Trust me, my hands will be all over your body, baby."

Ivy mimicked a gag, and I laughed. "Yeah… I think I became immune to that kind of talk."

"No worries, I'll be fully respectful." I winked, before I propped my foot up on the car door pocket. "That leads me to my point, not that you do that, but what's mine is mine. No flirting and no cheating. You have an agenda with someone, fill me in. I can be a jealous boyfriend."

"That I heard."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I was an obsessed little puppy when it came to Thalia, and I took my jealousy to a whole other level. But she quickly matched my psycho level, and everyone forgot my possessiveness. Or so I thought.

Love was supposed to make you feel calm, levelheaded and safe. Not possessed and obsessed.

And I was done with the toxic love.

"Just for my image," I explained. "Don't want to be dragged into any drama with you cheating and people messing with my game because of that. Let's keep it mutually respective."

"Are you a business major? You sound like you are conducting a business arrangement."

"I'm not, actually. I study psychology… and you can wipe the shock off your face."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "I was always curious about happiness. How it works, what makes people happy and how our brain decided we are happy. I wanted to learn more."

"And did you find it?" She tilted her head, some messy strays of hair falling over her face.

I resisted the urge to tug on them, fisting my hand. "Still searching."

"You know… we need to know some stuff about each other, if we are going to sell this," she mentioned, as if I didn't know. But I sure as hell wasn't going to be the one opening up first.

I nodded. "But we can stick to the hooked up, started dating and still getting to know each other timeline. What's important is that we entered into a relationship after one hookup and we are already exclusive. That's a rushed timeline, so we need to find an excuse. I don't date and you… just came out of a relationship. People will immediately think it's a fluke."

Ivy crossed her arms. "Maybe we can say we texted over the summer? Met while surfing?"

I almost choked on air. "Surfing? I don't surf. I know I look like an all-American dream, but I'm from Arizona. I hike most of the times."

She grimaced. "I do kite-boarding… I could teach you."

"Not a chance. I want to play professional soccer and not kill myself chasing uncontrollable waves."

"Do you like video games?" she tried another angle. "I study computer science, hence people assume I'm a nerd because girls shouldn't know how to code. Minecraft is my favorite videogame."

"I play FIFA on my Switch when I travel. That's about it."

Ivy exhaled. "We must have any interest that overlap… like… what do you like to do in your free time?"

"Free time?" I asked jokingly, glancing out the window. My life has always revolved around soccer ever since I decided I wanted to go pro. It was my whole personality, there wasn't really much else. "Play soccer? Watch soccer? Work out? Run?"

"Running is good!" She looked at me with a newfound spark. My chest felt a strange tug looking at her expression, but I brushed it off and focused on her words. "I run too… or used to. Okay, so maybe we met on a running trail."

"In California?" I asked back with a raised brow. "I still spent most of my summer in Arizona. One of the only times I was running there during the summer was when I did the Santa Monica half marathon."

"You ran it?"

I nodded, shrugging. "The guys dared me to sign up when I was complaining that I needed to work toward something to keep me motivated over summer break. It wasn't too bad, I ran it in an hour and a half."

"That was beginning of July… that gives us enough time to say we met there and hung out from there onwards."

"You were there?" It was my turn to sound shocked.

Ivy nodded. "Yeah… it was a huge fail. I haven't run or trained since dating Ander. After we broke up, I wanted to just pick up where I left off, but it wasn't that easy. Let's just say it was a humbling experience."

I thought about it for a second, but there were so many people, it was impossible for me to remember her. "Why did you stop running if you enjoyed it?"

Ivy turned to look out the window, her shoulders tensed.

I nudged her gently, keeping my voice light and calm. "What happened with the deep stuff?"

She scoffed, still not turning toward me. "Ander got jealous and told me to stop running as I was a better runner than him. I was so stupid, I wanted to please him. So, I took up kite-boarding actively, and while I love it, it's not really the same. Running… helps me work through things, it relaxes me. For kite-boarding, I need to be fully present. I can't get out of my head and just let my body take me. If I do that, I end in the mouth of the wave."

I watched her sad eyes reflect in the window and I wasn't sure what the appropriate response was to such a heavy confession. I always knew Ander was a dick, but with every new thing Ivy shared, he was burring himself deeper and deeper in my eyes.

"Ivy…" I started, not even sure what I wanted to say, when my stomach rumbled loudly, interrupting my non-existing sentence.

She glanced my way over her shoulder, and I gave her my sweet boyish smile. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

A small chuckle escaped her, and a fait smile played on her pink lips. Warmth spread in my chest from being able to bring her back from her bad memory.

"Me too," she whispered.

I nodded, and dropping my foot from the door pocket, I started the car. As the engine roared up, I turned to her and extended my hand. "I think we should shake hands. To seal the deal."

"We met in July on the half marathon, texted through the summer and now are exclusive. No kissing in private and full display of PDA," Ivy recited as she wrapped her small fingers around my hand, and we shook on it.

"Happy to do business with you."

"You still haven't told me your reasons," she said as she dropped my hand, and I replaced her warmth with my sticky steering wheel.

"There are still many things we haven't discussed," I diverted, knowing full well I was going to have to get into the full Thalia story, but not wanting to ruin the mood. "But let's start with food."

"Food sounds good." She nodded, her eyes glued to the road. "I think I should know more about you and your soccer… like when did you start playing? What's your goal… things like everyone knows. That's more important than your favorite color."

"Green," I replied without thinking. "Like the freshly cut grass. That's also my favorite smell."

She smiled. "Mine is yellow… like goldish yellow. And my favorite smell is… the smell of sea. Like the salty air. Or freshly baked cookies, could bottle that up… but they only make seawater scented candles, not cookie ones."

I grinned, reminding myself to look for a freshly baked cookie candle for her. It would make a cool gift.

"Am I supposed to bring you flowers and gifts and shower you with attention?" I asked uncertainly. I did the whole balloons, roses, gifts and dinner dates with Thalia, and it was stressful finding the right thing she wanted. Whenever I messed up, she was a bitch to me.

"Gosh no. That's okay… not even Ander did those things. I don't need that. Just the public display is enough."

My chest felt a weird tightness from her words. She deserved to be showered with flowers and gifts.

"Guess your love language is act of service and words of affirmation," I muttered to myself.

"What's that?"

"Sorry… just came out. Not trying to analyze you. But sometimes I can't help it."

"What's your love language?" she asked. "And what are love languages?"

"Words of affirmation, gifts, quality time, act of service, and physical touch. Like everyone has a different way of expressing and interpreting love. For example, if I express love with quality time, but you interpret love with gifts, we would have a problem in our relationship because you would think I don't love you. That's why many relationships get literally lost in translation."

Ivy was silent for a moment. "I do appreciate compliments, but as for act of service…" Her gaze travelled to my face and I felt it scorching my skin. "I don't know. Nobody has done anything nice for me really… just you."

The bar was set pretty low for me to be an amazing fake boyfriend. It should have excited me; I was going to play at the World Cup and win best fake boyfriend of the year award with minimal effort.

Yet, the thought of someone being dismissive over her angered me. I didn't understand how could someone not like her. I could see myself being friends with her.

"Noted," I croaked out, my voice hoarse.

"What are yours?" she asked, curiosity coloring her voice. "Let me try and guess."

I chuckled. "Give it a shot."

"Hmmm… you sounded very dismissive over gifts and you don't look like words of affirmation would mean so much to you, otherwise your ego would be already inflated."

I tried not to laugh at her assessment. "My ego is doing just fine."

"Exactly. Probably quality time. Since you are always so busy with soccer, you making time for someone is already a big thing, instead of you watching soccer in your free time."

"Great way to make me sound like a soccer-obsessed jock."

"Bet you were a jock in high school," she muttered. "You are now."

"Actually, no." Ivy side-eyed me. "I'm not that tall, so I was teased a lot over being short. I actually sucked at soccer and everyone told me I couldn't make it. Joke's on them now."

"Thank you for telling me." She rested her hand on my upper arm and gave it a gentle squeeze.

I didn't want to point out that this was all online and if she ever read an interview or a summary of me, she would have known. They called me Potter as I was this skinny little kid that no one believed in at first, but with time, I changed everyone's perception of me. It was my ability to control the ball that everyone found magical.

I flashed her a small smile. "You're welcome. But if you want to know more of my soccer, just Google me."

Ivy made a face. "That sounded like something Ander would say."

"I'm not that good talking about myself." I shrugged. "Especially not compliments. So, if you want to make up your mind and have your own opinion on my soccer, check it out online."

She was silent for a long moment, head bent over the phone as I drove us toward my home.

"How come you play for the national teams when you are playing in NCAA?" she asked suddenly.

"Easy, I don't get paid."

"Ander is not playing for them," she said. "Are you better than him?"

"No. Sanchez is not playing for them as he doesn't want to do it for free. But I do it for the experience and exposure. And it's not mine to decide who is better. There are more qualified people out there to do so, like the National Team Coaches and all the soccer agents. What I think is irrelevant and subjective."

Ivy hummed as if my words got her thinking. "You're not competing with him."

"The only person I'm competing with is myself. That's all that matters and what I need to focus on. I don't need to compete with someone who is in the same place as I am. Sure, we might be picked for the same position, but we are both better suited for different type and style of teams with the pros."

"Wow… you sound like you have this all figured out," she remarked.

I laughed. "I don't, but I told you already… Sanchez means nothing to me. The rivalry between our universities is fun and keeps the players engaged, but we've been having the upper hand for years."

Ivy nodded as I slowed down, and a lane of white houses lined up on either sides of the car. She shifted next to me.

I wanted to reach over and comfort her, but I wasn't sure about our rules with touching in private, so I refrained.

Instead, I said, "You got it right. Quality time and physical touch are my love languages."

Maybe that's why every time she reached out, I felt a jolt of electricity run through me, and that was why I wanted to touch her so badly.

She flashed me a small smile, but it vanished as I stopped the car and turned to look at her. Her teeth sunk into her lower lip and she eyed the simple three-story white house with the Titan's flag hanging from the balcony.

"Will you tell your teammates the truth?"

I contemplated my reply as my eyes fell on my home where my team had gathered. "Just Derek and Maddox, the rest of them won't need to know."

Dex and Maddox already knew, as well as Kaia. That was enough. I just needed to believe they trusted my judgement to not hold this against me. I could only hope this won't be the reason my team loses faith in me as a leader.

Ivy nodded. "Hold my hand?" she asked quietly.

I reached out, brushing her loose strands of hair out of her face. "We agreed… full PDA package."

Her smile that I grew to crave made an appearance, and pride swelled in my chest at being the reason for it.

I winked and rounded the car, before opening the passenger door and offering her my hand. "Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." She carefully placed her hand in mine, her cold fingers wrapping around me like a life vest, and warmth spread through me from our touch.

I tugged her to my side as we walked toward the house. "Game on," I muttered into her ear as we made our way to the front door.

The shiver passing through her body was written off to the chilly wind, but I couldn't help but notice her cheeks turning pink.

I hid my smile as a spark of happiness swelled in my chest. But I didn't have time to analyze why I was feeling happy by her cheeks changing color or why I even cared that I affected her. I shouldn't. Ivy's been through a rough breakup with a narcissistic bastard who probably left her with a long list of issues that I haven't even started uncovering. I knew how emotional damage looked like, and this girl showed all the symptoms. Yet, my silly little heart decided to care.

The door swung open, and my best friend's grim face welcomed me.

"What the hell did you do?"