What Are The Chances (Phil-U #2)

47 We’re getting ice cream

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

We’re getting ice cream

WILL

I’d felt this numbness before, and I’d seen it on my best friend recently. It felt as though I’d been transported back to the days following my breakup with Riley, when the thought of cheating on her made me sick, when recalling her face as she’d thrown open my bedroom door made my heart crack, and when the realisation we were over made it difficult to breathe.

As dark as it may sound, it wasn’t the fact that Riley’s mum was dead that shook me. It’s that I hadn’t been there for Riley when it happened, and I’d been too busy getting my dick sucked to be around when her mum’s diagnosis worsened.

I hadn’t even known her mum was sick in the first place. Had Riley tried to tell me? I didn’t remember much from that time, only the influx of hockey practices and games and meetings.

Coach Hall had been on my ass about preparing for the Combine. How had that been my focus when Riley was looking after her mum on her own?

Her dad wasn’t around and she’d never mentioned siblings. Riley must’ve been so lonely going through that alone. She must’ve been scared, and she clearly hadn’t trusted me enough to tell me the truth, which fucking hurt. Or had she tried and I’d been too caught up in hockey and my future to notice? Both options were hard to face.

“Will! ”

Shaking off the dark web of thoughts, I snapped back to reality. Based on the exasperation exuded into my name, it wasn’t the first time it had been called.

When I glanced up I found Tripp glaring at me.

“Can you move?” he grumbled.

I was standing between him and the fridge. There was an empty carton of juice in my hand. How long had I been standing here?

“Yeah.” I blinked. “Sorry.”

Passing him the empty carton, I moved out of the way. Tripp stared at it, his jaw gaping like I’d handed him a dirty jockstrap.

“What’s up with him?” I overheard Ryan murmur when I walked out of the room.

“I don’t know, but he’s been a fucking zombie all day.”

I fell onto the couch in the living room. I didn’t trust myself in my bedroom alone. I’d spiral.

Just as I flicked on the TV Grace and Levi strolled in, dressed like they were heading out. Grace was in so many layers she looked like a marshmallow.

“Where are you off to?” Ryan asked from the doorway.

“Ice cream date,” Levi answered.

Grace momentarily glanced my way before grimacing. “Actually. I kind of don’t want ice cream anymore. I don’t feel like dessert.”

Levi’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you fucking kidding me, Hughesy? You’ve been banging on about this all day, so much so that I’m craving ice cream now as well, and now you’ve decided we’re not going?”

She smiled sheepishly. “Take Will.”

Levi gaped at his girlfriend sceptically. “On an ice cream date?”

Grace took her boyfriend’s hand and dragged him from the room. Without the distraction of them, I focussed on the TV. A Devils versus Ducks game was about to start, though before the puck dropped, Levi stomped back in.

“Get up, Caufield. We’re getting ice cream.”

I didn’t budge. “I don’t want ice cream.”

“Don’t fucking care. I do. Get dressed.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but the thought of fresh air actually sounded appealing. Apparently the thought was also tempting to Tripp and Ryan. By the time I ambled outside to Levi’s car, they were already buckled in the backseat.

I was clueless where to go around here for ice cream. Luckily Levi, the new model boyfriend, had an idea. We were the only people inside the ice cream shop. Not surprising. It was on the brink of snowing outside .

I stared at the cabinet, eyeing off the flavours. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d eaten ice cream. It’d been so long I’d convinced myself I didn’t like it.

“He’ll have the same as me,” Levi told the girl behind the counter.

I had no idea what that was, but whatever sounded good. After each securing a cone with two scoops, we settled in a booth in the corner of the shop. It was too cold standing outside, let alone standing outside with ice cream.

“Wait,” Ryan called out before anyone could manage a lick. “Let me get content first. I’m doing an ice cream date TikTok.”

I sighed. Of course he was. After waiting for Ryan to get the shots he needed, I licked the first flavour. Based on the pink colouring, I was guessing it was strawberry. It was sweet, but I’ll admit I didn’t hate it.

Levi nudged his elbow into my bicep. “Alright. Spill, Will. What the fuck is up?”

I exhaled, not knowing where to start. I guess the beginning was the best place.

“I started sleeping with Riley again.”

Levi frowned. “You already told me that.”

I cleared my throat. “I mean repeatedly.”

“Nice,” Ryan smirked at the same moment Levi cautiously said my name.

I offered Levi a casual shrug. “You told me to loosen the reins.”

“That didn’t mean hook up with your ex.”

Tripp gave Levi a nonchalant glance. “Well it paid off, didn’t it? He’s been gold the past few games.”

I squared my shoulders, gesturing helplessly. Tripp had a point.

“It’s not a problem now while he’s killing it on the ice,” Levi said. “But if things change, if things go to shit with Riley again, then he’ll become a fucking liability out there.”

I grimaced. “About that. Things kind of went to shit last night.”

Levi groaned. “What’s going on between you two? Is it just sex?”

Slowly, I shook my head. It wasn’t. At least not for me. It never could be with Riley. After the first night on her couch, I think I’d known I was fucked from then on. I couldn’t do things halfway with her.

Levi seemed confused. “I thought she was dating Tanner Holbeck?”

I guess he’d jumped to the same conclusion I had after our game.

Ryan nodded his agreement. “I thought something was going on when I saw him picking Riley up the other night.”

That was news to me. I still wasn’t convinced there wasn’t something going on there, but Riley had assured me they weren’t together, and I trusted her.

The conversation died off when two girls walked into the ice cream shop. I lost Tripp entirely. His gaze shifted to track the movement of them .

“Fuck,” he whisper-yelled, slinking in his seat. “That girl’s from my class. I’ve been trying to hook up with her for weeks. Of course I’m running into her while I’m on a manly fucking ice cream date with my friends.”

“Steer into the skid,” Levi said. “Go buy her dessert.”

An optimistic look of curiosity shifted Tripp’s face. “You think that’ll work?”

“Fuck yeah,” Ryan agreed. “You’ll practically be on a date without asking her on a date.”

The logic was a bit of a stretch. Tripp didn’t seem to think so though. He edged out of the booth.

“She’s with a friend. Come wingman me.”

Ryan didn’t need convincing. He slipped out of the booth, following Tripp.

Once they were gone I shuffled around, sitting opposite Levi instead of beside him. He was watching me guardedly, as though waiting for me to fill him in on the rest of the story. We both knew it was longer than I had let on.

“Riley’s mum died,” I told him. “The night of our draft party she wasn’t blowing me off. She was with her sick mum.”

The look of pity on my best friend’s face was slightly sidetracked by the ice cream in his hand. It was stealing all his masculinity.

“I thought I hated myself for cheating on her, but that was nothing in comparison to how I feel knowing I wasn’t there for her,” I admitted.

When I thought of Riley alone at the hospital, and again at the funeral, it made me want to puke and punch something simultaneously.

Levi sighed. “I get it. When I think of Grace getting the call her parents had been in an accident, it makes my head fucking spin.”

“That’s crazy,” I told him. “You didn’t even know Hughesy then.”

He dropped his shoulders. “Doesn’t mean I like the idea of her going through that without me.”

I’d made my way through the strawberry layer of my ice cream. I was onto the cookies and cream scoop. It was fucking delicious, and it was definitely helping my mood. No wonder people binged this after a breakup.

Levi rested his forearms on the table. “Riley clearly doesn’t hold this against you if you’ve started things up again.” He fixed me with a serious glare. “Do you want her back?”

“Yeah. But I don’t deserve her.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Will. Yeah you fucked up in the end, but Riley had her faults too. You wouldn’t have accepted her missing the draft party so easily if she hadn’t dodged hockey your entire relationship.”

He was right, but that didn’t make me feel better. I doubt anything would at this point. Except maybe more ice cream .

“Take it from someone with experience royally fucking up a good thing. Apologise. Explain you were a fucking idiot. She’ll hopefully come around.”

I’d given Levi similar advice after Grace learnt of the bet Levi had orchestrated with Ryker Richardson. I’d also vowed to be there for him if she didn’t forgive him. Thankfully Hughesy had. I wasn’t confident I was going to get as lucky with Riley.

“You’re not going to try and talk me out of going there again?”

“Nah,” Levi said, crunching into his cone. “I know a lost argument when I see one.”

Despite everything, I found myself laughing softly. That was as close to a blessing as I was going to get from him.

Whether it was the miracle of ice cream or simply talking it out, I felt immensely lighter when we eventually slipped out of the booth and pulled Ryan and Tripp’s attention from the double date they’d somehow managed to land themselves on.

Hovering by the counter, Levi handed me his keys. “Feel free to warm the car up. I need to get Grace something to go.”

My eyebrows lowered. “I thought she didn’t want dessert.”

“I think her exact words–” Levi attempted an Australian accent that was so bad I couldn’t help but laugh. “ Will needs an ice cream more than I do. But if you don’t come back with something sugary, don’t bother coming back at all .”