Page 37 of Game Changer

“Lis–”

“AJ, what was so damned important that it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” she asked.

No, I can’t take the sad and disappointed tone. Scream, shout, be angry and mad. Don’t come at me with the sad and heartbroken. I feel like you’re stabbing me in the chest right now. I was doing a good thing! I was being a good friend…

Bullshit.

You were panicking and hiding. Chickenshit.

“Well, if you’d let me get half a sentence out, I’d tell you,” he retorted hotly. “His girlfriend, well, his fiancée, broke up with him earlier. He was with her for six years. She’s been seeing someone on the football team behind his back. He was in a bad way, Lis, and I’ve known him since high school. I couldn’t say no to him.”

I feel like that sounded exactly as pathetic out loud as it did in my head.

“He broke up with his fiancée?” she repeated slowly. “And you had to babysit him?”

“Lisa, it’s not like that. He’s a good friend and he needed me!”

And I needed to not be seen with you in public spaces when I have a wife.

“And what about me, hmm? I flew halfway across the planet to see you, AJ. You could have made time for me.”

“I –”

Yeah. She’s got you there.

Cutting him off, she continued. “It’s not like he doesn’t have a whole hockey team that can take him out and get him drunk. He’s so plastered he doesn’t even know who he’s talking to. Jeremy could have handled it, or anyone that wasn’t you. You could have gone to see him tomorrow, or worked around him and slotted me insomewhere. But you flat-out canceled our first date, AJ, and not eventome. To Chelsea’s answering machine, which you knew she’d pick up first!”

Damn. She’s right, that was a chicken-shit move. She’s going to cry and she’ll probably punch you if you try and put your arms around her. Look how badly you hurt her, you asshole.

She continued. “I’m not here forever, AJ,” her voice cracked. She turned to look at him, her eyes glistening.

Fuck it. Put your arm around her. It’s worth the potential black eye.

He tentatively slipped his arm around her shoulders. He didn’t interrupt her as there was really nothing he could say. He’d made the wrong choice and hurt her; he didn’t want to say something stupid and make the situation any worse.

“I have to go home at some point, it’s taken us seven months to meet for the first time, and god knows how many more it’ll be before we find a second time. I’m overwhelmed, AJ. I’ve met your sister, your best friend, I’ve met your teammates… I want to find a place in your life while I’m here! I want to spend time with you. I could have come out with you. I’m not expecting you to share every minute of every day with me… but... I…”

Her voice trailed off and she turned her head away from him.

This was not how things were supposed to go.

Guilt overwhelmed him. He pulled her closer, wrapped his arms around her and said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

I really am.

She nodded slightly, and they sat still for a few minutes, in silence. “Our first fight,” he began, breaking the silence. “Does that mean we get to make up now?”

Groan. Really? Let’s hope she can find the funny in that and doesn’t think you’re a perv who just wants in her pants.

Ah! A smile. There you go, pretty girl. No more tears.

She lifted her head slightly to look at him, he tilted her chin and she closed her eyes. He moved towards her.

At long last!

“There you are!”

Stephanie. Lisa groaned. Audibly. AJ smiled.

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