Page 20 of Waiting For Fate

Lauren

True that. I’ll bring an extra pie.

Moose

You can’t ignore me forever, Dove. Please just talk to me.

The fucking audacity of this guy.

“Ughhhhh!” I toss my phone onto the couch, grab the bottle of wine from the fridge—not bothering with a glass—and head straight to run my bath.

How is it possible that in the fifteen minutes it takes me to get home from work I receive enough texts to make me reconsider a Xanax prescription. I soak in the tub until my bottle is empty, the water is cold, and my fingers look like raisins. Once I’m wrapped in my favorite plush robe, with my eye masks in place and I’m snuggled into my couch, I finally pick my phone back up. Thankfully there aren’t any new notifications, so I click into the group thread and text back a thumbs up emoji, apologize to Jackson and then stare at my message from Sawyer for at least half an episode of Gilmore Girls before I finally type out a response.

Me

You underestimate my ability to pretend you don’t exist. You should be familiar with the act. You are an expert after all.

I roll my eyes and scoff as I press send and within seconds another text comes through.

Moose

Do I need to prove to you just how real I am, Leah?

Heat rushes to my face and for some reason my thighs start sweating, causing me to toss my phone to the other end of the couch. As if being far enough away from it will make my heart stop racing and cause the text that’s currently on my screen to not be real. I close my eyes in an effort to clear my mind of Sawyer, but instead images from Halloween flood my mind.

His hands on my waist, in my hair and around my neck.

His lips against my ear.

The mention of me screaming his name.

My eyes fly open and I burrow deeper into my fleece cocoon, wishing I’d never responded to his text in the first place.

I haven’t been able to get the text he sent me while I was sitting at dinner with my parents out of my head, no matter how hard I’ve tried. Now he goes and says shit like this?

I’m still pissed at him.

I still want him to know how it feels to be so blatantly ignored you wished you actually were invisible.

So why does everything he says lately make me feel like he can’t see anything but me.

Freaking. Sawyer.

CHAPTER 8

SAWYER

It’s the week of Thanksgiving and the fact that I’ve gone almost an entire month without talking to Leah is about to drive me crazy. Sure, we went years without speaking to one another, but being back in the same city as her is making it a hell of a lot harder to pretend I’m still fine with that arrangement.

I finally got a response from her via text, and because I can’t shake my uncontrollable need to flirt with her, it was a one and done reply.

We have a game in Minnesota tonight then we fly back home tomorrow for the holidays and I’m holding out hope that I’ll finally be able to get her to hear me out.

“Pink tape, Clark? Really?” Matty snickers as we sit in the locker room taping our sticks before the game. “I’m just as committed to my pre-game rituals as the next guy, but that’s a pretty bold statement you’re making, very Legally Blonde of you.”

Not the first time I’ve heard that one.

“Some things just stick man. I like my pink tape. But you don’t have to act like a Vivian about it.” His mouth drops open when I hit him with my stick.

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