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“What do you mean?” Stacy asked, her demeanor shifting instantly. One second she’d been so happy to hear from him, and then she turned cold as ice.
“Everything seemed cool, but now I can’t get her to talk to me.”
“Why do you want to talk to her? Thought you were done with her.”
“What?” This was going exactly the opposite of what he’d hoped to hear. “Why would you say that?”
“That’s what she told me. She said you got all weird and now when you talk it’s all awkward. She was pretty broken up about it, too. She tried to act tough, but I could see it. Why do you care?”
“Because I do, all right? Thanks for the information.”
“Whatever,” Stacy said with a sigh and hung up.
Bryan frowned at his phone and couldn’t help feeling that she was kind of a bad friend.
Maggie was at home doing some research for work when her cell rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but it could’ve been a client so she answered.
“Hey,” Bryan said. Just the sound of his voice sent that thrill followed by the sting of how he’d treated her.
“It’s late,” she said. “Is this work related?”
“Don’t hang up,” he said quickly. “I wanted to see if you wanted to come to New York and watch my next game?”
“Can’t,” she said, keeping her tone flat.
“Busy.”
“Look, I’m not trying to buy you, okay?”
“What’s the matter, one of your other women can’t make it? Am I your second choice, or farther down the list?”
“I just talked to Stacy.”
“What?” Maggie asked. She couldn’t have put more irritation into the word than she did.
“No, not like that. You weren’t talking to me and I didn’t know what to do. She said I hurt you? I don’t know what I did.”
“That’s just it. You didn’t do anything. It was like you couldn’t wait to be rid of me, and then every time we talked it was just like you had something better to do. I’m giving you your space, okay? I’m not one of your drooling little fan girls. You don’t have to pull away. I’m already gone.”
“No, wait,” he said, “it’s not like that. It’s been weird, yeah, but not because of that. I like you. I normally would’ve kicked you out, yeah, but I didn’t want you to go.”
“You didn’t stop me when I said I should go,” she said, setting down her work so she could focus on the conversation.
“Maggie, look, I don’t play games. You say you have to go, I assume you have to go. I don’t want you around, I tell you I don’t want you around. If you do something try to see if I’d do something or act a certain way, you’re going to be disappointed. I don’t play that. I wanted you to stay before, and when I was trying to talk to you after, it was weird. It felt… like I’d already lost you. All before I’d really had a chance to have you, even. I mean, that night was great, right?”
Maggie sighed. Could she really have misunderstood everything? Even just considering it made her scared. Was he dragging her along? “Yeah,” she admitted reluctantly. “It was. I really thought…” She bit off the words, scared to put too much of her heart on her sleeve.
“Thought what?” he asked softly.
“I really thought you liked me.”
“I do,” he said. “That’s why it’s so weird between us. I don’t know what to do. I can’t treat you like I treat girls. I, I dunno, I respect you.”
Maggie chewed on her lower lip for a second and tucked her hand under her other armpit, as though giving herself half a hug. “Really?”
“Definitely. Now look, I’m inviting you out to New York because the city is awesome, and I want to see you. I want to spend some time with you. I… I miss you.”
“Really?” she asked, this time feeling moved by his words.
