Page 15 of Break Point
“No,” he breathes out without looking back.
Wait!
I wish I could tell him to turn around, but the words melt in my throat.
He’s gone.
What if he doesn’t come back this time?
1 Oh, no, daughter. Really?
2 See why I don’t want you to have a boyfriend?
CHAPTER 5
A SIGNIFICANT DOLLAR AMOUNT
YOU’VE GONEthrough this before,I tell myself as I make my way back to the apartment.
Liam will cool off.
He’ll talk it out with his friends and then he’ll call you in a few days.
At which point, I’ll have a new coach who’s not Henry, and everything will go back to normal, or turn out for the better. Because this time, I vow to open myself up to Liam. I won’t mess it up. I’ll ask him to be my boyfriend if I have to, if that’ll show him how serious I am about us.
My phone buzzes the second I step out of the elevator. One glance at the screen earns a sigh. I answer as I head toward PH-A.
“Hey, Mom. What’s up?”
“I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“Ah … no?” I glance at my watch to check the time.
It’s around seven p.m. Of course, I’m awake. Her question can only mean one thing: it’s gin o’clock on Upper Mountain Avenue, which explains why she doesn’t know the time of day.
“Congrats again on your almost-win yesterday,” she says to get the conversation started. I stop cold, realizing it’s best not to take this call inside my apartment with an audience. “I wasn’t expecting you to make it that far in your US Open debut, so good for you.”
Her tone and how she says things with this underlying bite make me want to throw my phone out the window.
“Thanks?”
A few seconds of awkward silence fall between us.
“That little racket outburst at the end was painful to watch,” she says. I can hear her sipping what my gut tells me it’s not her first gin of the day. An ordinary Sunday.
“No wonder Elliot finally decided to jump ship.”
She laughs. I don’t.
She smooths her expression and continues, calm as ever.
“I’m sure you’ll win the US Open in a few years once you learn to rein yourself in and let things go. Like that ball you swore was in.”
Oh no, she didn’t.
“Chad’s one of the most respected chair umpires in the game, but I know how you get. You fixate. On things. On people.”
Oh. My. God.
