Page 42 of Halftime

“Of course, I did. I sent her a text and asked how she was. She didn’t respond.”

Just like last time. But this time, I wasn’t frantically reaching out every way I could to try to speak to her. I’d done that once. Doing it now would be desperation on a different scale. There was no misunderstanding to clear up. Faith had disappeared on me. Again.

“Did you call her? Go see her?”

I pushed myself up, letting the book close. “What’s the point, Coop? She didn’t even answer the text. She doesn’t want anything to do with me. I’m not going to push myself on her. Once was enough.”

Cooper didn’t understand any of this because he wasn’t the one texting after hooking up. He didn’t do that, as far as I could tell. He was the one avoiding texts or calls or any repeats. Why the hell he thought he could help with my problems, I didn’t know.

Okay, he’d helped before. But I’d be happy if he’d just butt out now.

“What if the text didn’t go through, or it somehow got erased before she read it? What if she replied, and her answer didn’t go through to you?”

I could feel my jaw drop, and I must have looked like an idiot. “I didn’t think of that.”

I wasn’t sure what to do. If Faith had decided to cut off communication, then I didn’t want to be the desperate guy following her around, stalking her and begging her to reconsider. But what if she hadn’t gotten the message? What if she’d answered and thought I was ghostingher?

Cooper glared at me. “Honestly, the two of you are worse than Romeo and Juliet. If there was any poison around here, you’d both be dead.”

What was it with Cooper andRomeo and Juliet?

“How do I find out what’s happened? Should I go over there?” Now I wanted his advice. If there was a chance that Faith wasn’t repeating what happened last year…

“What are you going to say to her?”

I shrugged. I hadn’t even thought of this thirty seconds ago. It wasn’t like I had an essay written out to guide me. “I don’t know.”

“Then maybe you’d better not head over just yet or wewillhave someone putting a dagger in their chest. The way you two make getting together as difficult as possible, it’s going to happen yet. Tell you what, the girls’ hockey house has a party tomorrow night. Faith should be there. I’ll talk to her, try to figure things out. You be there in case there’s a chance for you, and try not to look like a sad sack, ’cause that’s not going to help anyone.”

On the one hand, the smart move was probably to be direct and for me to talk to Faith and not use Cooper as an intermediary. On the other hand, I had no idea what to say. What if she had gotten my text? Then I’d be embarrassed and feel totally stupid, like I didn’t understand what not responding was supposed to tell me. If she didn’t get it, should I apologize for not following up?

And on the other hand, if I was allowed three, Cooper had done pretty well so far. He was right. Faith and I did have a history of making things difficult. That was something we needed to fixifshe wasn’t trying to make me disappear from her life.

Cooper might not be interested in a relationship with a girl, but he was doing pretty well helping me. I’d have to ask him about that sometime. But I wasn’t going to risk pissing him off right now.

“Sure,” I agreed, and he left the room muttering under his breath.

Cooper had told me to make sure I knew what I wanted with Faith. Not hearing from her for most of a week had clarified it. I wanted to be friends with her, at the very least. And if we could be more, be together? I wanted that. More than was probably good for me.

I had second thoughts while getting ready for the party. More like thirtieth or fortieth thoughts. I’d been wavering back and forth ever since I talked to Cooper. I’m not sure why I was placing so much trust in him. It wasn’t like he’d ever been in any kind of relationship as far as I knew, certainly not since he’d been at Moo U. Instead, he’d been single-minded aboutnotbeing tied to anyone.

Cooper had gotten Faith to listen to him about what had happened last year, which was more than I’d been able to do. Holding on to that thought, I did what he told me to do. I made sure I looked nice for the party, and once I got there, I didn’t immediately try to find her. I wanted to, but I was also worried about what she might do if she saw me. She might ignore me or refuse to look at me, and I was pretty sure I couldn’t handle that.

The parties at the women’s hockey house were a little different than ours. They tended to have a more equal balance of the sexes, and more on offer than kegs and chips. I’ll admit we were pretty lazy in our party planning.

My gaze started to roam the room, and I reminded myself I wasn’t supposed to look for Faith, so I shouldn’t look for my teammates, either, in case she was talking to them. That didn’t leave me with many options. I hoped Cooper would do whatever he was going to do quickly. Maybe I should just grab a drink and hide in a corner until I found out what Faith had said to him.

I made my way to the kitchen and got some beer, but there was a kind of mixed drink there as well—vodka and some juice. Not like it was a huge effort, but it was more than we ever did. I grabbed a handful of chips, because even though I appreciated that they had more variety of snacks available, I liked the boring stuff. With my cup of beer, I headed into the next room, which had some new faces. Mostly women, but no one I’d met before. There were no tall blondes, so I was safe in this room for now.

I wasn’t one of the most noticeable guys on the team, but I had been playing well this season, and I guess people were starting to recognize me. The girls in this room did, at least. I found myself the filling in a pretty girl sandwich, if five women and me could be called that? I could tell they were impressed I was on the hockey team, and that wasn’t something I liked, not in a girlfriend. But since Faith had disappeared after we’d had sex, and then hadn’t reached out to me, my ego enjoyed the confidence boost. It was hard to stay in a bad mood when attractive women were acting like you’d made their night. They were focused on me and it seemed like everything I said was interesting.

With the beer and the attention, my mood began to change. I wasn’t a troll. If Faith didn’t want anything between us, that didn’t mean I was going to end up alone, or drink poison, or whatever other gloomy scenario Cooper was dreaming of.

I didn’t like that Cooper was getting into my head. I answered questions about what it was like to play hockey and to explain icing, which I swear was posted somewhere online as a question to ask guys who played hockey, because everyone asked me that. I enjoyed the attention, because damn it, this was a party, and I deserved to have a bit of fun. Of course, that was as far as it went. I was still hung up on Faith, so I wasn’t going to be an asshole and use anyone to make me feel less of a loser.

I didn’t ask any of them out or respond to the veiled offers I got. If I’d wanted, I could have gone to someone’s dorm room—not to study—or had my dick sucked in the bathroom. Not the first time I’d had offers. I had pretty well reached my limit and was about to excuse myself to go get some more beer and look for a teammate or some reason to escape when I felt a finger loop into my belt loop and tug.

I turned to ask what the hell, becausecome on, but once I saw who the finger belonged to, I froze. I could do nothing but stare as the sounds of the party faded away.

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