Sj Tilly

Hannah Maddox Lovelace. The captivating football player I met in college. The one I only knew for a week. A week that was… life\-changing. Until my phone rang, and I had no choice but to go home. I left Maddox a letter, putting my feelings on paper, giving him my number, hoping he’d call. But he didn’t call. He never called. He got drafted into the professional league and lived like a king while I stayed home and struggled to stay afloat. I may have followed his career, but now that he’s retired from football, I’ve forced myself to stop thinking about him. And it’s okay that I won’t ever see him again. That week in college was fifteen years ago. I’m not in love with Maddox anymore. I might even hate him. Maddox Hannah Utley. The name that’s haunted me since my senior year of college. The girl who caught my attention with her wide eyes and freckled nose. Who spent one week twisting up my insides until she stole a piece of my heart the night we got locked inside the campus library. The girl who disappeared without a word. It’s the name of the girl I’ve been trying to forget for fifteen years. And it’s the name looking up at me from the résumé in my hand. Because Hannah Utley works for the company I just purchased. And that makes her mine. Whether she likes it or not.

I’m so sick of watching the world spin by. Of letting people think I’m plain and boring, too afraid to just be myself. Then I see him. John. He’s strength and fury, and unapologetic. He’s everything I want. And everything I wish I was. He won’t want me, but that doesn’t matter. The sight of him is all the inspiration I need to finally shatter this glass house I’ve built around myself. Only he does want me. And when our worlds collide, details we can’t see become tangled, twisting together, ensnaring us in an invisible trap. When it all goes wrong, I don’t know if I’ll be able to break free of the chains binding us, or if I’ll suffocate in the process.