Page 14 of All the Promises We Break

“Let me call you a cab. I don’t want you on the train this late.”

“I’ve got it, man. I’ll take her home. Give me a sec, Hayles. I’ll pack up.” He tosses the pillow and it hits me in the chest.

“Thanks, brother. I won’t worry then.”

Maybe he should be afraid. Then I wouldn’t be alone.

Chapter Five

Wes

I try to make the goodbyes seem normal. On the inside, I will confess, I’m as awkward as the kid who got caught making out with his girlfriend by his parents walking in.

I try to play it off to Hayley that the kiss was nothing. It meant nothing. Does she buy it? I know I fucking don’t. She lit me up like fireworks on the Fourth of July and the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center all in one. I thanked the universe multiple times for that pillow.

Hayley and I stand quietly at the elevator doors that head to the street. We ride silently on the train to my stop. We say only a couple words while we get in the car at my building then head to her parents’ house. Of course, the one time she’s not staying in her on-campus apartment is this very night. That would have been an extra train stop or two. This is twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes of us reaching for the radio at the same time. Twenty minutes of the radio gods saying we know what you did on every station we tried to listen to. Finally, she found thehockey network and left it there. I will never hear the end of period horn the same way again.

I press the code into the box for the gate to open to the driveway. My headlights trace the line of the concrete and solar lights to the walkway leading from the garage to the house. Hayley can’t get out of the car fast enough. The door slams and it rattles my body.

Fuck, I sigh.

Opening my door, I meet her in the illumination the headlights offer against the garage. “Wes, just let me go in the house.”

I press the palms of my hands against her shoulders. “No. Not until this isn’t weird.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“Look. The first place we ever met is right here. The rim is still in the same place. Let’s shake it off. Unless you’re not willing to be beaten?” I leave her in the glow to find my favorite ball resting in the lockbox at the base of the hoop. A couple of good bounces later, I pass it to her.

She stops it with her foot before bending down to pick up the ball. “This doesn’t solve anything.”

“Who says it has to? Play. You remember. Unless you don’t want to break a nail?”

That does it. She drops her tote bag from her shoulder and dribbles toward me. Hayley takes a shot, and it sinks right in. “You were saying?”

“Inbound it to me. My turn.”

We get into an actual game of one-on-one. She hasn’t lost any of her moves. I even test her to see if she’s gotten better at going to her left. As it turns out, she has. She manipulates right around me with skill and grace. I offer a spinning layup as my fair play.

I come down hard and growl “That’s how you do it.”

She giggles. “Maybe… in high school.”

“Oh really? Give me the ball and I’ll show you again.”

“I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Give me the ball.” I start to block her. She goes to her right; I go to my left. She goes to her left, I go to my right. She’s boxed. There’s nowhere for her to go. My hands cover hers over the ball. We laugh, struggle, and fight for it until the ball falls to our feet. There’s nothing left between us.

Oh yes there is.

I take her face in my hands and without hesitation, pull her lips to mine. The kiss on the couch coming out of sleep was nothing compared to this. My fingers wind up into her hair. The pads of her fingers press into my biceps, cupping over my shoulders. I tug on her lower lip with my teeth as I feel the heel of her shoe rubbing up and down my calf. Over the engine, I can just barely hear the low moans coming from her.

Her hands slide over my shoulder blades, pulling me closer. Closer. She’s not pushing away. She’s not asking what happened. She knows. She knew then. She was asking herself the question out loud. I’m the first one to back away. I know if I don’t, I won’t. She doesn’t deserve that.

“Hayley. I have to go. I mean I really have to go.”

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