Chapter 6 #2
“Look, I am cool with an occasional casual hookup, but based on the number of girls you’ve been entangled with this week alone… I’m sorry.” It turns out there is really no good way to tell a guy you aren’t into being his next slam piece.
“Right.” Rhett skates backward. “Got it. Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”
I’m in the library studying when Elias calls. I prop my phone up against my backpack on the table and accept the video call.
“Hi.” I keep my voice low.
“Why have you not called me back? And where are you?” His eyes scan the background, and I can tell the second he realizes my location. “Unless you’re planning to make a fashionably late appearance at this party, you’re going to need to get a serious move on. It’s already after eight.”
“I’m not going.”
I knew I never should have told Elias about Rhett asking me out.
“Why not? Ronnie sounds like a fun guy. Go have fun.” Even if I couldn’t see his big smile, I could tell how excited he is by his tone.
“You know that isn’t his name.”
“He gave my girl a black eye. He doesn’t deserve real first name usage yet. Plus, hockey boys are stupid. One too many hits.” He raps his knuckles on his head.
“And still, you want me to go out with him.”
“Not with him exactly. There are only two months of college left. Go out, drink a little too much, make bad decisions, let me live vicariously through you.” He sticks his bottom lip out in a pout.
I hum a noncommittal response. “What are you doing?”
He’s holding the phone close to his face, so I can’t make out the background, but it’s dark. Elias is from Massachusetts but lives with a host family in Toronto while he trains with his pairs partner, Taylor. They have a shot at going to the Olympics. They’re really freaking good.
“I’m in bed. I have AcroYoga at five o’clock tomorrow morning.
” The shade of his dark brown eyes is hard to see in the dim lighting, but it’s impossible to miss the giant eye roll he sends my way.
“We could do all the yoga in the world, and it’s not going to make a lick of difference unless Taylor decides to trust me. ”
“You did drop her.”
“It was one time. My wrist was fractured. I was holding her with a broken wrist!” He gets heated, waving one hand around as if he’s holding up an imaginary partner.
“Until you weren’t.” I grin at his playful jaw drop as if he’s really shocked by my words. We always tell it to each other like it is. No bullshit. “All I’m saying is maybe doing AcroYoga together will help rebuild some of that trust. You have to start somewhere.”
“And I’m just saying no one is bonding that early in the morning. Also, you’re one to talk. What about you?” That’s the thing about having a best friend that’s a guy—a guy not at all interested in sleeping with you—they don’t tiptoe over your feelings.
“What about me?” I play it off like I don’t know where this is going.
“You need to enjoy what’s left of college. If work is anything like what I’m doing, it’s a real snooze fest centered around a continual lack of sleep and caffeine. I hate to think of you sitting in the library tonight. Eeeeew. Plus, I think you want to go.”
“What gave you that idea?”
He tilts his head and studies me. “Are you wearing makeup? Hmmm. And is that a new shirt?”
I bat my fake lashes. “Point made.”
He laughs, smiling at me. “My dating life makes yours look pathetic, and I’m training or sleeping twenty-two hours a day. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for me. I need some excitement in my life.”
“You have plenty of excitement without even trying. What about the girl you met at the coffeehouse last week?”
“Well, we’ve been texting…”
And as quick as that, I’ve turned the topic of conversation back to Elias. He very much enjoys talking about himself, and I’m happy to think about anything but Rhett and the party he invited me to.
I had fun with him today. I felt something, and it seemed like he did too, but maybe I imagined it?
I don’t want to be a dumb girl who’s reading more into the situation than what’s there.
But I also know that the indescribable chemistry and connection I had with him is something I haven’t felt in a long time.
It was only an hour and I had to basically force him to talk to me. But once he did, I felt it. There was something else accelerating my heart rate and giving me butterflies deep in my belly. I don’t put myself out there very often, and it will really sting if I put myself out there and I’m wrong.
I close my laptop as Elias chats my ear off and give up on getting any more schoolwork done tonight. I really came here to convince myself I didn’t want to be at the basketball party.
Elias yawns as he finishes telling me every detail of the text exchange he’s been having with the girl he picked up while grabbing coffee.
He’s handsome and charming, and even though I haven’t met him in person, I can tell he’s one of those people that are impossible to resist. But he’s also super picky.
One date, sometimes less, and he convinces himself that it’ll never work.
She has a pet goldfish and those freak him out, or she’s a flight attendant for an airline he doesn’t like.
One time he stopped texting a girl because she had the audacity to wear white pants after Labor Day.
And he is not the picture of fashion. He wears socks with his sandals. He’s not allowed to judge anyone.
“I should let you go,” he says. “And you should change into something far more revealing, call Josie, and then go to that party.”
“Tempting,” I muse.
“I’m texting her now. Better think up a really good excuse or hide.”
“How do you even have her number?”
“We exchanged after your accident last year. In case of emergency.” He says it all so casually. Funny how a few near-death experiences can make a person so blasé about it all.
Elias and I have the same heart condition.
That’s actually how we met. I was scrolling YouTube one day and stumbled upon a video where he was talking about the condition and how it impacts his training.
It seemed like fate to see another figure skater my age dealing with it.
I reached out, we started messaging back and forth, and now he’s stuck with me for life.
My phone pings with an incoming text.
“That was fast,” I say as I read the message from Josie. OMG. I’m jumping in the shower. I’ll be ready in thirty minutes.
“I knew I could count on Josie.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea. I told him no and basically implied that he was a slut. Won’t I look like a bitch showing up now?”
“Please. If you show up looking hot, he’s not going to remember anything you’ve ever said or done.”
“I have too much going on right now.” It’s a last-ditch, bullshit excuse and he knows it. Of course, he calls me on it.
“You need to get laid,” he says loudly.
I duck my head in embarrassment, even though no one can hear him, thanks to my ear pods. He’s not wrong though. “Fine, but if this ends badly, I’m blaming you.”
“I can take it. Call me tomorrow or later tonight if you’re doing the walk of shame.” He makes an X over the left side of his chest.
I do the same and then flip him off for good measure.
Oh, crap. What have I gotten myself into?