Freddie rubbed her nose on her sleeve. “It’s the hormones. Whenever we see someone crying, we start. And it’s not limited to crying either - cute stuff, tiny stuff, my favorite cupcake…. It’s really fucking annoying. Sorry.”
I laughed. “That’s okay.”
“Emerson, what’s wrong? Why were you crying?” Wolfie asked again. “Is it Drew?”
I nodded, the tears starting up again.
“Come on, let’s go and get coffee and you can tell us about it.”
I looked at them, both dressed in workout gear. “Were you headed to a class?”
“Yes, but this is more important.” Freddie linked her arm in mine, marching me down the street and into the nearest coffee shop.
Considering I was nearly a foot taller than her, she could move me with surprising strength.
We walked past the counter and sat down at a table.
“What did he do?”
The waitress walked over and took our order. Freddie rolled her eyes dramatically when Wolfie asked for both of theirs to be decaf, then turned back to me, staring and waiting for my response.
“He didn’t do anything,” I sighed, “Not directly, anyway.”
The coffees were placed in front of us and I took mine, stirring it while they sat there in silence as I told them what happened. Repeating it only exacerbated the nausea bubbling up in my belly.
I could see them holding back their tears as they listened.
Wolfie reached over and stroked my arm. “Emerson we’re so sorry you heard that, we honestly know how you feel. Neither of us came from a hockey background, or even an American sports background, so it was a real wake-up call for us too.”
I shrugged.
“I get it. I do. My brother plays baseball and I’ve seen what happens when they’re out and partying, especially after a game. It’s just that I never expected to hear it like that. I haven’t told anyone at work yet because I wanted to keep it to myself for a while, but now I’ve heard them all talking about him like he’s a piece of meat, I’m embarrassed to tell anyone.”
I dropped my head.
“We’ve practically spent every night together for the last few weeks, ” I rolled my eyes, “and it sounds so dumb, but I just wanted to be special.”
“It’s not dumb, Emerson. You are special. The hockey girls that hang out are… well…”
“Disgusting,” Freddie interrupted.
Wolfie pursed her lips at her.
“Yes, in a word. And they’re easy for the boys, but they aren’t who they want to go home with at the end of the day. Look, you really need to talk to Drew about how you feel, because only he can help with this. But what we will say is that since we found you in class a few weeks ago, it’s like we’ve got the old Drew back.”
My brows knotted together. “What do you mean?”
“Drew is one of the best guys we know. He’s sweet, funny, kind, and he has a heart of gold. But since you guys met in Vegas and he lost your number, for a while he was super angry but then he stopped with that, and for the last, I don’t know how long, he’s just been sad and empty. It was like his heart had broken.”
I looked at them, hope blooming and pushing the jealousy away slightly. I wanted to believe everything they said.
Freddie put her coffee down. “Yeah, but the past few weeks he’s been so happy. Even Coop mentioned it when he came back from practice the other day.”
“Yeah, Jas did too.” Wolfie pulled a face, wincing as she rubbed her belly. “Sorry, this baby is kicking me a lot today.”
“The skanky girls will never go away, so you need to decide whether you trust Drew enough to make peace with it.”
They were right, I did need to trust him, and really, he’d never given me any reason not to.
