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“All my patients are taken care of,” I tell Dr. Murphy, leaning back in the chair and opening the notecard.
Ellery,
* * *
I’d love to show everyone that you’re my girl. You’ll find my jersey and some stickers with my number to put on your cheeks. I hope I’m not stepping too far over the line. I’ll see you up in the stands wearing my jersey tomorrow.
Bradley
* * *
I stuff the card back in the envelope. I can’t do this. I mean, I’ve been wearing Cooper’s number forever. My mind floats back to the very first game I wore it and how what was originally a joke turned into a ritual. Back when I thought there was still a chance for us to be something more.
* * *
We were still in our junior year, and Cooper was still pushing me to date him. I was unsure. What his dad had said made a lot of sense. Cooper had a football career to fulfill, and I wasn’t going to get into medical school if I kept spending all my time with him. Putting off our career goals in the name of something that could be fleeting felt shortsighted.
We’d often go to the coffee shop where we’d say we were going to study but ended up people watching out a window. Cooper would do these little voices like he was narrating the conversations we couldn’t hear. He even had voices for dogs on leashes.
He had this way of bringing me out of myself, out of my head. He made me smile. Made me not take everything so seriously. It made me eager to see him when we weren’t together. I was falling for him, and it scared me because I’d never liked anyone as much as him.
We were sitting in the coffee shop when a girl walked by wearing his jersey. It was oversized and might have been her boyfriend’s, but it made me wonder.
“Do you like the fact so many people wear your number?” I sipped my coffee, looking at him.
“I don’t really care. A lot of girls do it because they want my attention.”
“The girls on this campus definitely want your attention. Have you seen the sneers I get? There was one girl at the student center the other day who asked if we were dating. She was near tears, and her friend just looked at me. I felt bad for her. Except when I told her no, her eyes got that dreamy look in them. One day you’ll find a girl in your bed, uninvited. Some stalker.”
He laughed. “Then do me a favor and wear my jersey and paint my number on your cheek tomorrow?”
“No, I’ll probably get jumped.” I laughed.
“You wouldn’t be the only one, but you are the only one I give the good tickets to.”
“I’m probably the only one of them who watches the game.” I leaned back in my seat.
The next morning after my lab, I rushed home to get ready to go to Cooper’s game. When football games started taking precedence over everything else in my life, I didn’t know. His dad was right—our lives were weaving together, and we were just friends. What would happen if we brought sex and love into it? I couldn’t imagine not wanting Cooper every second of every day. So being just friends definitely made more sense, even if Cooper made it really hard.
“Something came for you. I put it on your bed,” Bryce hollered to me from the bathroom.
“Thanks.”
I went into my bedroom, and sure enough, there was a box on my bed. It didn’t have a shipping label on it, so I didn’t know who it was from.
“What is it?” Bryce peeked her head in, her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.
“I haven’t opened it. Who dropped it off?”
She shrugged. “Some freshman football player.”
“So it’s from Cooper?” I sat on the bed and dug through tissue paper. I laughed when I pulled out the jersey and held it up to Bryce. “It’s his jersey.”
Her eyes widened, and she bit her lip. “Mark my words—you guys will have sex before the end of the semester.” She walked back to the bathroom.
“It’s just a joke. Because of all the girls who wear his jersey. He thinks if I do, some of them will lay off. But I don’t think so.” I couldn’t say it wasn’t tempting though. To be known as Cooper Rice’s girlfriend wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
“You’re doing it!” Bryce shouted from down the hall.
