Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains (Victoria and Elijah) novel Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Victoria

The kitchen was warm, smelling of garlic, toasted sesame oil, and the spicy broth of the instant noodles I had just finished fixing.

I stood by the stove, leaning my hip against the counter as I turned the burner off, watching the steam slowly rise toward the exhaust fan. It was a massive dinner for one, but I had made enough for two anyway.

Adele had discovered about an hour ago that we were completely out of milk, eggs, and the specific coffee/creamer she needed to survive our early morning study sessions.

Despite the forty-five-minute drive we had ahead of us tomorrow, she had grabbed her keys and headed down to the twenty-four-hour grocery store at the corner. I had told her I’d have dinner waiting by the time she got back.

Ding-dong.

The chime of the doorbell cut through the quiet apartment. I blinked, setting down the wooden spoon. That was fast. She must have forgotten her keycard for the main lobby again.

I walked down the short hallway, pulling my oversized sweatshirt down over my wrists, and unlocked the deadbolt.

I swung the door open, already opening my mouth to tease her about her memory, but the words died in my throat.

It wasn’t Adele.

Miles was standing on the welcome mat. He looked completely unprompted, dressed in a pair of gray fleece joggers and a plain black t-shirt that looked like it had been pulled from the bottom of his fresh laundry basket.

His dark hair was a total mess, sticking up in three different directions as if he had been running his fingers through it for

hours.

The moment his eyes met mine, his lips curved into that familiar, slightly dazed smile he always wore when he was trying to look completely casual.

“Hey, Tori,” he said, clearing his throat.

My chest tightened instantly, a familiar, cold caution creeping up my spine.

For a fraction of a second, I wanted to just slam the door and pretend I hadn’t seen him. But Miles hadn’t done anything to

I forced the corners of my mouth to lift into a faint, weak imitation of a greeting and stepped backward, swinging the door wider to let him inside.

“Hey, Miles,” I murmured.

He walked past me, the faint scent of laundry detergent and fresly cologne trailing in after him.

He walked into the small living room with the familiarity of someone who spent half his life lounging on her furniture, dropping himself onto the centre of the fabric couch.

He leaned his head back against the cushions, letting out a long breath.

“Adele isn’t actually here right now,” I told him, staying near the archway of the kitchen. My hands were tucked securely into my pouch pocket, my fingers twisting together nervously.

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Chapter 109

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“She stepped out to the grocery store around the corner to get some stuff for breakfast. She should be back in twenty minutes or so.”

Miles looked up, nodding easily as he rested his ankle over his knee.

“Yeah? That’s fine. Thanks for letting me know. Mind if I just hang out for a bit until she gets back?”

“Go ahead.”

I turned back into the kitchen, the warmth of the stove suddenly feeling suffocating. I reached for a ceramic bowl, using a pair of tongs to dish a massive portion of the spicy noodles inside.

My hands were shaking slightly, the plastic tongs clicking against the side of the pot.

I grabbed a pair of wooden chopsticks from the drawer, took a deep breath to steady the uneasy flip-flop happening in my stomach, and walked back into the living room.

The early 2000s sitcom Adele had introduced me to was still playing on the TV, and Miles was locked onto the screen right where I’d left it before heading into the kitchen to make my noodles.

I sat down on the far end of the couch, leaving a wide, intentional gap of cushions between us.

I pulled my knees up under my sweatshirt, resting the hot bowl of noodles on my thighs, and focused entirely on the screen.

Miles let out a soft chuckle at a line from the show, the sound rich and easy.

The noise pulled my attention away from the television. I glanced at him sideways, my chopsticks frozen in mid-air.

“I see Adele finally succeeded in introducing you to our comfort sitcom,” he pointed out, his eyes still fixed on the screen, though his smile had softened into something a bit more private. “She uses this show like medicine whenever finals week gets too brutal.”

I didn’t laugh. I just lifted my lips in another weak nod, looking back down at my food.

“Yeah. It’s funny.”

I twirled a small cluster of noodles around my chopsticks, bringing them to my mouth and chewing slowly.

For the next five minutes, neither of us said a word. The canned laughter from the television filled the space, but it felt incredibly empty.

In all the months I had known Miles-through every group hangout, every late-night diner run, and every study session- we had never once sat in an awkward silence.

He was always the one making a sarcastic comment or breaking the ice with a joke. But tonight, everything felt altered.

There was a heavy, invisible barrier sitting right between us on the sofa, and I knew exactly what it was made of

Miles was Elijah’s best friend. He was the one who shared his condo with him sometimes, the one who knew his secrets.

And right now, looking at the quiet profile of his face, a dark, sickening thought crossed my mind.

He had been in on it. He had probably sat across from Elijah for weeks, watching the two of us form this fake alliance, knowing the entire thing was a construction.

“Don’t you want to address the elephant in the room, Victoria?”

My chopsticks stopped halfway to my mouth, a single noodle slipping from the wood and splashing back into the bowl.

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