Page 21 of Game Plan

Without my consent, my eyes locked on his, and I lost myself in the blue pools. He smoothed the length of my lower lip with the pad of his thumb, and time stopped. A truckload of memories washed through me. Everything and everyone around us disappeared. It felt as if we were back in time, the last year apart erased.

Not breaking eye contact, I nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for…well…catching me.”

“Mel, I’ll always catch you. Every single time.”

I pressed my cheek into his warm palm and closed my eyes, and for a small moment, I missed his touch, the comfort he brought me, the familiarity between our bodies—everything we once were.

Someone tapped on my shoulder from behind, breaking the spell we were under. My eyes sprang open. Everything inside me was spinning, making me dizzy.

“Mel, table three wants their check,” one of my coworkers said.

“I’ll be right there.” I blinked, trying to evade the power Mason possessed over me and settle my insides. “Thanks again for catching me before I made a fool of myself. I gotta return to work.”

“Can I walk you home when you’re done?”

I shook my head. “I have plans…with a friend…later.”

He hung his head low. “Oh, okay. We should get together sometime… You know…catch up…talk…”

Jayden’s words from the other night played back in my head. Will you…huh…will you go back to him? If you see him, will you rekindle what you guys had if he wants to?

Even though my ex-boyfriend hadn’t said those words, I knew deep down that reviving the friendship Mason and I had once shared wasn’t a good idea—at least not for my heart. After all, he was still him, and I was still me.

I winced. “I’m not sure it would be smart… Anyway, I really have to go. It was nice…huh…bumping into you…literally.”

I scurried behind the bar counter to close table three’s tab, evading the boy who could easily steal my heart again if I let him, no matter how much time had passed since our last encounter. Running away had become my default escape over the last year. Every time things got tough, it felt like the only way out. And right now, it seemed like it was once again my only option, or else I’d get burned.

7

Never say I never warned you

Cassidy was waiting for me, sitting at the bar, when my shift ended five minutes after ten. “Ready to get out of here?” she asked, slurping up the last drops of her virgin Bloody Mary through a straw.

“Yes, please. I need food other than wings and burgers and some fresh air far away from here.”

She jumped off her stool and took my hand, leading me outside. “Follow me, roomie.”

We reached Pizzazz, the Italian bistro located a few doors down from Lola’s. The sign said to seat ourselves, so we chose a small round table, sitting on red metal pub-height chairs.

“Okay, lay it all on me,” my roommate said after the server walked away, once we’d placed our food order. “You have that look. A few weeks ago, I would have said it screamed boy trouble, but since you and Jay ended things, it must be something else.”

I propped my elbows up on the small circular surface and buried my face in my hands. “What if I told you it is boy troubles, with an S, but that it’s way over your expertise, because it’s more complicated than you might think.”

Cassidy planned to do a dual degree in psychology and criminology and pursue a career as a profiler for a government agency, which I found highly interesting.

She checked the time on her watch. “I promised that you’d be in bed by midnight, so we have exactly one hour to go over your case.”

I dropped my hands and chuckled. “My case? It sounds like I’m a criminal mastermind, and you’re my counsel.”

“Exactly. I’m all ears.”

The server brought a basket of fries to our table, and I nibbled on a piece after drowning it with ketchup. “There were two boys tonight.”

“Two?” She coughed and took a sip of the water placed in front of her.

“You’re supposed to listen, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, shutting up now.”