Page 59 of Ice Contact

“Are you okay?” he asks. “You sound like something’s got you worried.”

Shit. This man can read me like a book, even over the phone.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” I lie. I’m kind ofnotokay.

“Olivia. Don’t lie to me. I haven’t known you long, but I can already tell when something’s up.”

I sigh, pacing back and forth in my living room.Here goes nothing.

“Okay…so, I got a call from David Green today. He said Zack talked to him and explained everything. They…they are giving me my anthem job back.”

Hayes gasps, and I can hear his smile through the phone. “Olivia, that’s great! I’m so happy for you! Wait…why is this bad news?” he asks, both excited and confused.

“Well, because I would be back in an official capacity with the Riders, I would no longer be able tofraternizewith the players. Which would mean-”

“Which would mean no fraternizing with me,” he says, finishing my sentence.

My heart drops into my stomach, and I wonder if his is doing the same. There’s a long silence, not even the sound of the road is breaking it. I want him to say something. But he doesn’t. I bite my lip, trying to hold back the tears threatening to fall.

“Are you still there?” I finally ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Yeah, I’m here. Just…thinking…I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to lose you, but I can’t ask you to give this up for me.”

“I know. I…I don’t know what to do either. I love you. Like,love you,love you,” I pause for a moment, tears burning my eyes. “Listen, I will tell David I’m not coming back. I can still sing at Walt’s. I can still sing other places and keep writing songs. What I can’t do is let you go.”

“No, I can’t let you do that,” he says with a sigh. “Listen to me, okay? We’re going to figure this out. I feel horrible you’re in this position; you shouldn’t have to choose. I’m going to go run my errands super-fast, and I’ll be there as soon as I can. We’ll come up with a plan. Together. Okay?”

“Okay,” I say, choking back tears.

“Do you want me to come over now? I can get this stuff done later,” he asks.

“No, no. I’ll be fine for a couple of hours. I need to get dinner started anyway.”

“Okay. I’ll pick up some ice cream. I think better with high quality vanilla ice cream,” he says, and for some reason, that makes me smile through the disappointment of this situation. “I’ll be there in a couple of hours, then we’ll come up with the best plan in the history of plans. I love you, Olivia.”

“I love you too.”

And I do. I really do love this man.

As I take the chicken out of the oven, I realize it’s almost six o’clock and a knot forms in my stomach. Hayes still isn’t here. He said he’d be here at five after stopping to get ice cream.Maybe that took longer than he expected? I don’t actually know what his other errands were. I bite my lip, rubbing my palms down my thighs.Maybe he got caught up at one of those.Glancing at the clock, my chest tightens. Surely that’s it. It’s not because he doesn’t want to be with me anymore.He said he loved me, right?Maybe I imagined that. The pause he had was really long.Did he just say what he said after that to placate me?Oh God, I’m fucking spiraling here.I should call Maggie; she can always talk me down from a spiral.

As I pick up the phone, there is a knock on the door.Finally.My muscles relax, my body able to take its first deep breath in minutes.Thank God he’s here. I open the door with a smile, which quickly fades into shock and annoyance. Standing at my door with a bouquet of flowers is not Hayes.

“Cayden, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Hi Olivia. Can I come in?”

What in the actual the fuck is he doing here?

“No. You cannot come in. This is not a good time,” I say sternly.

“I just wanted to come here and tell you I miss you. Things didn’t work out with Shay, and I wanted to apologize for leaving you at the game and for breaking up with you and for the shitty things I said at the gala. Honestly, I haven’t been happy since we broke up and I realized I don’t want to lose you.”

“What the hell, Cayden? You barely wanted to spend time with me, you got me fired from my anthem job, andnowyou say you miss me? You called me clingy in front of my boyfriend and a lot of my co-workers. And now that you don’t have access to my hockey tickets, you suddenly miss me? This is too much. I can’t handle this right now.”The fucking audacity of this guy.

“Please Olivia, just let me come inside,” he says again, almost pushing his way through the door.

“NO,” I snap, pulling the door shut fully stepping out onto the porch. “You are not coming in here. I told you, this is not a good time. And there will neverbea good time.”

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