Chapter 9
CHAPTER
NINE
ELLERY
I’m mid-shift on Saturday when Jennifer from the intake desk calls back. I happen to be looking up something about a patient, so I answer the phone.
“Hey, Dr. Wallace, sorry to bother you, but a package was just delivered for you.”
“Oh okay. I’ll be out to get it in a second.”
“Thanks. If I get a chance, I’ll walk it back, but Olivia called in sick, so I’m by myself.”
“It’s honestly no problem.”
I leave my computer and head out to the intake desk. It’s a big box, and I’m worried about what it could be. “Thanks, Jennifer.”
“Let me know what Cooper sent you!” She’s smiling wide.
Cooper has fans everywhere.
“I’ll let you know, but I’m not sure why he’d send me anything.”
I head into the back. It’s not unheard of for me to get things from Cooper. In fact, he sends things to the whole department all the time. Food mostly, especially on holidays.
A mystery box though? I’m stumped.
Things have been kind of weird between us lately. Maybe this is Cooper’s way of clearing the air.
Alice and Hayes walk over, arguing about something, and stop to watch me open the box.
“Jeez, Cooper makes every other boyfriend look horrible,” Hayes says.
“He’s my best friend, not my boyfriend.” I slide my fingernail across the tape on the top of the box.
“Exactly. The fact that someone’s best friend does all this, what does that say about boyfriends?” Hayes rolls his eyes and wheels his chair over to one of the computers. “And now I’m going to school Alice and prove her wrong.”
“No, you aren’t.” Alice looks at the box, then at me. She gestures excitedly with her hands. “Open it.”
I open the box to find a dark blue Grizzlies jersey, but it’s not Cooper’s number. I lift it out of the box, and a notecard falls to the floor. I think my stomach falls to the floor with it.
“That’s not Cooper’s number,” Hayes says. “Man, are things getting serious with the new guy?”
“What the hell? I’m offended for Cooper.” Alice picks up the notecard before handing it to me.
“This Bradley guy knows he’s got big shoes to fill. I mean, we’ve come to expect things from the man in your life,” Hayes says.
I stare at both of them for a beat before opening the notecard.
“Oh, look. Another glimpse into Dr. Wallace’s love life. Do let me sit here and gawk over the gossip.” Dr. Murphy leans on the desk, placing his chin in his palm and staring at all of us with a creepy smile.
“We just wanted to see what was in the package.” Alice smiles.
“Hey, I’m researching something on the computer actually.” Hayes buries his head back in the computer.
“All my patients are taken care of,” I tell Dr. Murphy, leaning back in the chair and opening the notecard.
Ellery,
I’d love to show everyone that you’re my girl. You’ll find my jersey and some stickers with my number to put on your cheeks. I hope I’m not stepping too far over the line. I’ll see you up in the stands wearing my jersey tomorrow.
Bradley
I stuff the card back in the envelope. I can’t do this. I mean, I’ve been wearing Cooper’s number forever. My mind floats back to the very first game I wore it and how what was originally a joke turned into a ritual. Back when I thought there was still a chance for us to be something more.
We were still in our junior year, and Cooper was still pushing me to date him.
I was unsure. What his dad had said made a lot of sense.
Cooper had a football career to fulfill, and I wasn’t going to get into medical school if I kept spending all my time with him.
Putting off our career goals in the name of something that could be fleeting felt shortsighted.
We’d often go to the coffee shop where we’d say we were going to study but ended up people watching out a window. Cooper would do these little voices like he was narrating the conversations we couldn’t hear. He even had voices for dogs.
He had this way of bringing me out of myself, out of my head. He made me smile. Made me not take everything so seriously. It made me eager to see him when we weren’t together. I was falling for him, and it scared me because I’d never liked anyone as much as him.
We were sitting in the coffee shop when a girl walked by wearing his jersey. It was oversized and might have been her boyfriend’s, but it made me wonder.
“Do you like the fact so many people wear your number?” I sipped my coffee, looking at him.
“I don’t really care. A lot of girls do it because they want my attention.”
“The girls on this campus definitely want your attention. Have you seen the sneers I get? There was one girl at the student center the other day who asked if we were dating. She was near tears, and her friend just looked at me. I felt bad for her. Except when I told her no, her eyes got that dreamy look in them. One day you’ll find a girl in your bed, uninvited. Some stalker.”
He laughed. “Then do me a favor and wear my jersey and paint my number on your cheek tomorrow?”
“No, I’ll get jumped.” I laughed.
“You wouldn’t be the only one, but you are the only one I give the good tickets to.”
“I’m probably the only one of them who watches the game.” I leaned back in my seat.
The next morning after my lab, I rushed home to get ready to go to Cooper’s game.
When football games started taking precedence over everything else in my life, I didn’t know.
His dad was right—our lives were weaving together, and we were just friends.
What would happen if we brought sex and love into it?
I couldn’t imagine not wanting Cooper every second of every day.
So being just friends definitely made more sense, even if Cooper made it really hard.
“Something came for you. I put it on your bed,” Bryce hollered to me from the bathroom.
“Thanks.”
I went into my bedroom, and sure enough, there was a box on my bed. It didn’t have a shipping label on it.
“What is it?” Bryce peeked her head in, her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.
“I haven’t opened it. Who dropped it off?”
She shrugged. “Some freshman football player.”
“So it’s from Cooper?” I sat on the bed and dug through tissue paper. I laughed when I pulled out the jersey and held it up to Bryce. “It’s his jersey.”
Her eyes widened, and she bit her lip. “Mark my words—you guys will have sex before the end of the semester.” She walked back to the bathroom.
“It’s just a joke. Because of all the girls who wear his jersey. He thinks if I do, some of them will lay off. But I don’t think so.” I couldn’t say it wasn’t tempting though. To be known as Cooper Rice’s girlfriend wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
“You’re doing it!” Bryce shouted from down the hall.
I held the shirt up in front of me. I really wanted to wear it, joke or not.
So that day, when Cooper came out of the tunnel and looked up at me, I had on the jersey, his number painted on both cheeks, and my hair pulled back.
Our eyes found each other and locked. This little thing sprouted in my stomach, taking life, because what I saw in his eyes wasn’t anything I’d seen before.
When he got drafted, he sent me his jersey for his new team, and it’d been like that for as long as I could remember.
I stare at Bradley’s jersey, wondering how on Earth I can show up with it on. Luckily, I’m called into a room. I shove the box in the cabinet below, pushing off that decision for a later time.
Bryce and Adeline are already seated at the fifty-yard line, both of them wearing their husbands’ jerseys.
Bryce has taken it to a whole new level with earrings, clips for her hair, and necklaces.
Everything has Miles’s number on it. Adeline is alone, so she must have opted not to bring Clover today.
I have my beer and popcorn, my must-haves for a game. As I slide through the row, Adeline and Bryce look up to see me coming.
“What the hell?” Bryce says.
Adeline doesn’t say anything, but her mouth is hanging open.
“What are you wearing?” Bryce whispers when I get closer.
“Just stop.” I look around, the feeling of betrayal hitting me from every direction.
But I’m not dating Cooper, I’m dating Bradley, and he deserves to know I support him.
If the roles were reversed and Bradley was wearing some other girl’s number, I’m sure these two would have something to say about that.
“Okay.” Bryce mimes zipping her lips shut.
Adeline looks over and pats my leg. She really has that whole mom thing down. “I get it. And I’m sure Cooper will understand.’
“Oh no.” Bryce shakes her head. “He will not understand. I mean, you needed one of those half-and-half jerseys made. Don’t be surprised if Cooper climbs up here and tears it off your body.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re so dramatic.”
She turns toward me. “Do you even like Bradley this much?” She runs her hand down my arm.
“Hello, you’re my friend. You’re supposed to have my back.”
Her face softens, and she opens her mouth but shuts it. “You’re right, but I can’t help but hurt for Cooper. He’s my friend too.”
I swallow the guilt that’s threatening to suffocate me.
“Guys,” Adeline says, but what else is she going to say?
She doesn’t know the entire story. No one does.
Bryce is our closest friend, and I think she’s becoming as confused as I am.
“Here they come! I hope Damon’s not upset, but Clover is breaking a tooth, and she’s not very cooperative.
She would not have made a good cheerleader today. ”
“He’ll be excited to have you to himself for a night. I’m assuming Miles and I are by ourselves after the game?” Bryce sips her beer. “Because Cooper is going to disappear, and you’ll be busy with Bradley.”
“We’ll go out,” Adeline says, but then Damon comes to the wall like he does before every home game.
“Alone tonight?” He waggles his eyebrows.
Adeline laughs and bends down to kiss him. “She’s at my parents’.”
He bites his lip and stares at her as though he could take her right here and now. God, what it must feel like to be wanted by a man like that.
“We’re going out after the game,” Adeline says.
He kisses her quickly on the lips.
“Siska! I’m going to bench you!” Coach Stone yells like he does every home game.
“No, we’re not.” Damon winks at Adeline, then moves to jump down off the ledge but stops when he notices what I’m wearing. His eyebrows raise, and his mouth hangs open. “Oh shit.”
As he lands on the ground, I blow out a breath.
I look at the field and see Bradley looking at me with such a big smile that, for a second, I’m glad I did it.
Then I glance behind him. Cooper stands there, his hands nestled in the warmer at his waist. He doesn’t show any reaction but turns away and goes to talk to one of the coaches.
“Ugh, I need another beer,” Bryce says. “This takes me back to childhood when Mommy and Daddy would fight.”
“Grow up, Bryce,” I say. “I had no choice.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You always have a choice.
And I don’t blame you. If I were you and Miles were Coop, I would’ve pulled this shit a long time ago.
At some point in the very near future, one of you is going to have to admit your feelings to the other before you keep bringing innocent people who will only get hurt into the mix. ”
“I’m not pulling any shit.” I stand. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
“Want me to come?” Adeline asks.
“No,” I say sharply, then feeling bad, I turn around. “Thank you though.”
I hear Adeline talking to Bryce about calming down, and Bryce tells her she’s been dealing with this crap for almost ten years.
I don’t know, maybe Bryce is right.
When I reach the bathroom, I pretend to go and wash my hands, then I move to an empty station without a sink to check my makeup.
At this point, our friendship isn’t going to hold up.
It’s inevitable we’ll meet other people who mean something to us someday, and we’re doing a terrible job of navigating that change.
Things are going to come between us. Just like this stupid jersey.
I stare at Bradley’s number and feel sick to my stomach.
And if that’s the case, what was the point of us not crossing the line so we wouldn’t ruin our friendship?