Page 64 of Delay of Game

November

Alice

The call goesstraight to voice mail for the third time as I pace around the furniture store, drawing the attention of everyone around me.

He didn’t come.

Jordan promised he’d be here to help me, and he didn’t come. My eyes burn with unshed tears, and I do my best to keep them at bay. I refuse to cry in front of all these people who are just trying to get their Black Friday deals.

My phone vibrates in my hand and hot anger takes over as soon as I see Jordan’s name on the screen. “Where the hell are you?” I bite out, moving to a corner of the store.

“Alice,” he says quietly, and pauses for the longest time. “I’m sorry, something came up and I can’t join you today.”

I scoff and shake my head even though he can’t see my disappointment. “Can’t or won’t?”

Jordan exhales and I can’t tell if he’s exasperated with me or disappointed in himself, but I don’t care. He promised me this one thing. After telling me again and again how he wants to make things right, now he’s bailing at the last second.

“Al, I’m so sorry, I will make this up to you?—“

“Don’t bother. I won’t be counting on you any longer,” I say, and hang up the phone. A tear escapes me, and I cover my mouth to stop myself from sobbing in the middle of the store. I glance at the bookshelf that would have been perfect for my bedroom and decide to let it go. There’s no way I could unload this thing by myself and bring it into my apartment, even if I did manage to get it into my car.

I make my way out of the store without drawing any more attention to myself and rest my head on the steering wheel once I make it into the Jeep. My phone buzzes and I glance down at it.

Ash

how is furniture shopping going?

I love Ash to death, but this is not the time to check up on me. I wipe my tears and call him.

“Hey,” he tries to say enthusiastically, but I can tell he’s tired as hell.

“You sound awful,” I snort.

“Rude,” he mumbles.

“I’m sorry, I’m just being bitchy because Jordan bailed on me.”

“What do you mean?”

“He just called saying hecan’tcome help me. Like he went on and on about how he wants to make things up to me and that he won’t let me down again, and then he just fucking bails. I’m so over it.”

Ash is quiet on the other end for too long and I pull the phone away from my ear just to make sure I didn’t accidentally hang up on him. “Ash, are you still there?”

He sighs, and I can picture him pinching the bridge of his nose. “He still hasn’t told you, has he?”

“Still hasn’t told me what?”

“About his injury,” Ash says quietly, and I can hear him shuffle something in the background.

Injury? Did Jordan get injured recently? Coaching? My mind runs through all the details of last week and even yesterday. He seemed fine at dinner.

“What injury?” I finally ask.

“The one from January, when he shattered his hip.”

My eyebrows pinch in confusion as I try to think back. That can’t be right, he had a minor injury in January, which was why he couldn’t come home when Val was born.

“I was the only one who knew at the time how bad it really was,” Ash says, and takes a deep breath, “and it was really bad, Al.”

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