Page 56 of Halftime

Shit. Her team had a bad game, and I should have done more to reach out to her. So what if the guys would’ve given me grief for needing to speak to her? I hadn’t wanted to use their phones because I didn’t want them to have her number. Not that I thought they’d have tried anything with her, but because who the hell knew what stupid stuff they’d send her. Now I thought I should have risked it.

I’d apologize as soon as I saw her.

* * *

Cellphones are important for more than music and messaging and looking up stupid shit online. Mine was my alarm, and unsurprisingly, it didn’t reach out from the bag of rice and wake me up. We’d gone to bed late because of the party, and it was Sunday, our day off, so without any annoying noise, I slept in.

I couldn’t even call Faith to tell her I was running late, so I had to do some quick calculations. I sniffed my pits and decided I could skip a shower. I pulled on some clothes, not paying a lot of attention to what I was wearing, anxious to see Faith. I grabbed the baggie full of rice and phone and ran, literally, to find her in the campus dining room we’d planned to eat in. I hoped she didn’t think I’d stood her up.

We were back together, but it was still kind of new. I didn’t want to mess things up, not again, and this whole fuck up since the game last night wasn’t good. Faith was just leaving the dining room when I ran up, and I knew I was in trouble. I pulled out the rice bag with my phone, wanting to present my excuse before she could get any more upset.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, Faith! I’m so sorry! My phone got soaked in beer, so I couldn’t call you, and that meant I didn’t have an alarm, so I slept in.” I was panting so hard I wasn’t sure she’d understood me. Her expression was closed, her arms crossed.

Damn it, I should have sent a text without waiting for her game to be over. Texting her when she was upset about a bad game would have been so much better than this extended silence. I knew it was too easy for her to take something like this the wrong way because of how screwed up her parents were. I should have borrowed anyone’s phone.

She stared at me for too long.Shit.But sometimes things happened. She had to give me a chance. She had to. After last time, she’d let me explain, right?

“I swear, Faith, I’ve been trying to get this thing working since right after I got home last night. It’s not my fault. I totally meant to call you.” I waited, trying to read her expression, but she wasn’t showing much.

Finally, she shrugged. “Okay, let’s eat.”

I felt the air rush out of my lungs. I was so relieved she wasn’t going to cut me off without a chance to explain like last year. I could tell I wasn’t totally out of the woods, so I refrained from kissing her. For now.

She must have eaten already, because she grabbed a table while I got some food. Well, a lot of food, because hockey took up a lot of energy. I shot glances her way, but she just stared at the table, face closed off.

I was sweaty from running over, and I’d dressed in such a hurry that my T-shirt was on backwards and the tag was irritating my throat. I couldn’t very well strip off my clothes to fix it, so it just made me irritable. It was a shitty start to the day, but I could turn it around. I just had to explain to Faith, then we could go back to the hockey house, and I could shower and put my clothes on right and things would be good. We could hang out today like we’d planned to do.

I shot another glance at Faith and told myself to be patient. This was the first problem that had come up since we’d gotten back together. I should be relieved that she hadn’t totally freaked and was giving me a chance. But part of me was annoyed. I’d done nothing wrong. In fact, Cooper had only started horsing around, causing me to lose my phone, because I’d been trying to get a hold of her. I could already tell these next few days until I got this one replaced were going to be a pain. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the powers of rice to fix it after it had spent five minutes in cheap beer. It had been about twelve hours since I’d rescued it, and the stupid thing was still dead.

As I returned to the table, I forced myself to calm down, slow my breathing, and figure out what I was going to say. Faith might be mad I hadn’t messaged her, and I understood why she was a little touchy about it, but we had to be able to get through things like this. Maybe this would help her trust me going forward.

I set my tray on the table across from her and then pulled out the rice baggie again. After I sat down, I opened the bag so I could access the phone and try to turn it on. Nothing happened. Great. Fucking great. I swallowed a gulp of coffee, irritated that Faith hadn’t said anything yet.

I nudged the phone. “This fell in a cup of beer.”

I took a mouthful of eggs, because I was definitely hungry. Hungry was better than irritated.

Faith picked it up, examined it, and tried to turn it on as well.

I swallowed. “You’ll be shocked to hear that it was Cooper’s fault.”

Her mouth turned up just a bit. Okay, we’d get through this.

“I’m sorry, Faith. I was actually going upstairs to call you when Cooper decided I couldn’t leave the party, and that stupidity resulted in my phone dropping in a cup of beer. I know your game was a bust. How’s the team doing? How are you?”

I could be a good boyfriend. I liked being in a relationship, and I was willing to do the work.

She shrugged. “Coach put me in during the third. We were down six zero. It was too late.”

I understood. I’d been able to catch the score and knew Faith had shut the door, and the team had scored a couple of goals. If she’d been put in earlier, it might have changed things.

“I’m sorry.” Sorry that her coach still didn’t trust her, not completely. I wasn’t going to mention our game. No one needed someone else’s success rubbed in, and it seemed like Faith had not gotten over the team’s loss yet. She was taking it hard, still quiet and frowning.

She nudged my phone again. I ate some more, since I was hungry, and I thought it was up to her now. I’d apologized for not reaching out. I’d asked about her game. I didn’t know what else I was supposed to do.

“You okay?” Something was obviously wrong. Was it the game and her coach? How upset was she that I hadn’t called? I was trying to be understanding, but this was a little much. Maybe I needed to be more patient.

She glanced up at me, her expression not a happy one. She looked…pissed. But I had no idea why.

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