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“Nothing happened,” I say. A beat of silence passes without even a twitch on Kayla’s stony expression. It’s clear that she doesn’t buy it, and she’s not going to buy it; so, I crumble before even putting up a fight. “Okay, fine. Something happened.”
“Zoey …” my name is sharp on her tongue. “Was it who I think it was?”
I press my lips together, then dip my chin down just an inch in a nod.
Kayla takes a deep breath. “Okay, two things. First of all,” and with that she squeals with excitement, grabbing my shoulder and shaking me hysterically. I laugh and shrug away from her grasp. “Secondly,” then her entire demeanor suddenly becomes cold and serious, and she slaps me hard on the back of my knuckles like a nun dishing out ruler shots in a Catholic school.
“Ouch!” I yelp, pulling my hand away and cradling it.
“What are you thinking! You know the team has strict rules about support staff and players!” She sighs again. “Alright, I mean, I can’t blame you. It’s Liam Newcastle we’re talking about. A walking, talking G-spot orgasm. But still, you’re too far along in your studies to put it at risk!”
“I know, I know,” I say. “But hear me out …”
I tell her the same reasoning I shared with Liam last night. That I think it was so hard for both of us to move past our attraction for each other because we both put way too much hope and expectation into a repeat of what happened on Halloween. It was unfinished business that hung so heavy in the air that neither of us could avoid or move past it. So, we had to take care of that unfinished business.
Now that it’s taken care of—andboywas it ever taken care of last night—we can both put it behind us and act normal around each other.
Kayla takes several thoughtful beats of silence to nod her head up and down, her gaze fixed over my shoulder, a contemplative expression on her face. “It’s a theory, that’s for sure …”
One that’s yet to be put to the test. But I can’t dwell on that fact—I just have to trust that my instincts were right, and that this won’t somehow backfire on both of us.
“We had to do something,” I plead my case. “Staying away from each other isn’t an option, not when we have the same Psych class and definitely not now that I’m spending so much time around the team. And if we let the tension between us simmer, it would have eventually exploded, maybe at the worst possible moment. The best thing to do was to blow it off in a controlled environment, at the right time.”
“And a storage closet in the bar was a controlled environment?” Kayla interrogates me.
I shrug. “It felt right that it should end where it started. This is all about closure, after all.”
“You’re sure he’s out of your system for good?” Kayla asks.
Not really.
“Definitely,” I answer.
Kayla stays silent for a couple more moments, taking everything in. “So,” she finally begins. “Was it as good as last time?”
Heat blazes through my face. “Better.”
Kayla picks up one of her notebooks that sits at the foot of the couch and fans herself with it. “Girl, why couldn’t it have been me who caught Liam Newcastle’s eye? My dad manages a grocery store, there wouldn’t beanythingstanding in between the two of us!”
I laugh, trying to ignore the unpleasant pang that sits in the bottom of my stomach hearing another girl, even though she’s my best friend, talk about Liam.
It’s something I better get over fast. After all, Liam and I are official done. The last period of the last sentence of that story has been typed. We’re just co-workers, colleagues, nothing more.
Nothing more…
That’s what I want after all—but is getting what you want supposed to taste this bitter?
15
LIAM
“Uh, every day. Duh.” Hunter’s expression is deadpan, as if there could be no other answer to the question.
“Everyday?” The voice of Brooke, Cole’s girlfriend, comes from Cole’s phone across the aisle of the bus.
We’re all on the bus about to head to Ohio for our away game. The girlfriends of Cole, Ryder, Grant, and Tristan (Brooke, Candace, Abby, and Kennedy, respectively) are hanging out together and FaceTimed Cole to bid us farewell before we pull out onto the road.
“No way you think about it every single day,” Abby chimes in.
