"Why?" The question comes out in a soft whisper.
"Because." She shrugs her shoulder. "There is really only one person I want to date right now."
I start to get up from my chair, but she holds up her hand to stop me. "Don't say anything right now." She puts her shoulders back, and I could not want to kiss her more. "It's one thing to be shut down when you're asking a guy on a date." She smiles through the tears trying to make a joke. "It's another when he does it to your face, so . . ." She takes a step forward and opens her purse, taking out a white envelope at the corner of my desk. "If you show up, great." She looks at me in the eyes. "If you don't, I'll understand." She nods at me, turns, and walks out of my office.
I get up, ready to chase after her, but don't want to cause a scene in the office. I walk out of the office just as she walks around the corner with her head down. She makes eye contact with no one, and everything inside me burns. I walk back to my desk and grab the envelope, pulling it open.
A baseball ticket slides out, and I laugh. When we were in college and wanted to get out of our head, we used to buy tickets to the baseball game where we would eat hot dogs and drink beer until the very end. Our seats were all the way at the other side of the stadium in the nosebleed section, and every single time, she brought a baseball glove in case.
"Well played, Shelby. Well played." I shake my head and sit down at my desk.
Chapter 32
Shelby
I sit down in the seat, watching the baseball game that started thirty minutes ago. My leg bounces up and down as the minutes tick by. My stomach rises and falls every single time I think I see him walking to me, but then it turns out not to be him.
My hands shake as my phone pings, and I look down, seeing it's my sisters.
Clarabella: Is he there yet?
Me: No.
Presley: What are you going to do if he doesn't show up?
I put the phone down, not even able to think about what I'll do if he doesn't show up. My eyes are watching the game while I replay the scene this morning over and over in my head. He looked exhausted, and all I wanted was for him to take me in his arms and kiss me. It's been a week since he last kissed me, and at night, if I close my eyes tight enough, I can still feel his lips on mine. I left his office, and I could barely see in front of me. My eyes were filled with tears, and only when I was in the safety of my car did I let the sob come out. I spent the whole day pacing in my office, watching the minutes go by, and it felt like hours. When it was finally time to leave, I changed out of my office clothes and put on black tights with a white T-shirt. Exactly what I used to wear when we would go watch the games together. My jean jacket is rolled up at the sleeves with a baseball hat on my head.
I look at my watch again and see that another thirty minutes have gone by. The pit of my stomach falls when another thirty minutes go by, and it's pretty clear he's not showing up. I put my head down as a tear escapes, running down my cheek. I fucked it up so bad, I think to myself when I wipe the tear off my cheek only to have another escape. I look up and see that the game is literally almost over. This was stupid. I pushed myself on him too much. I should have waited for him to come to me. I regret every single thing that I did the last two days. Camping out almost at his house to catch him. Leaving only to go to sleep and then racing back over. When I saw him get back home, I almost got out of my car and ran over to him. Instead, we had this stupid plan to woo him, which only pushed him farther away.
I feel someone sit next to me, and I look up to see him. "Is this seat taken?" he asks, and I see that he's wearing exactly what he used to wear. His blue jeans and white shirt with a brown jacket.
"That depends," I say as the tears escape me, and I look at him, the smile filling my face.
"On?" His leg is pressed against mine, and a shiver runs through my body. He takes a second to look around. "It's really empty up here."