Page 19 of Pitcher Us
Not allowing myself time to chicken out, I wrap my arms around his waist. “Thank you,” I whisper.
I count one then two before his arms finally hug me back. “You’re welcome, Callie.”
Chapter 10
Will
“Chai latte!” a girl behind the counter calls.
Stepping up, I grab my drink and take the first sip to prepare for the heavy snow that’s been falling for days now.
“Oh, excuse me, sir?” The girl behind the counter walks back up with a bag in her hand.
“Yeah?” She blushes as I turn and face her.
“You’re friends with Callie Reyer, right? You live in the same building?”
“Uh, yeah…we do.” I’m not sure if I should be alarmed by these questions. I’m used to being recognized, but not exactly for my affiliation with a fiery red head.
“Great! She called in a ginger tea, but our delivery guy just left and forgot her order. Could I trust you to bring this to her? I sealed it up and gave her a coupon for next time. I could wait for him to come back. I didn’t want her?—”
“I'll take it to her,” I say, cutting her off. I probably should’ve hesitated, given I’ve been avoiding Callie over these past few weeks. After our…hug…moment on Thanksgiving, things have been a little awkward.
We ran into each other in the hallway the next day and we tried to have a conversation, but it was like neither of us knew what to say. She’s my teammate's little sister. My neighbor and co-worker. And that’s all we will be, so my first plan in making sure it stays that way was avoiding her. But here I am again bringing her this tea because I can’t stand the idea of her having to travel out in the snow to get it or hell, waiting on the delivery guy to come back.
Taking the bag from the girl she thanks me incessantly, which isn’t necessary. She doesn’t realize that she asked me to do the one thing I’ve been dying to do for three weeks now—take care of Callie…as her friend.
The walk back to the apartment only confirms my decision to bring this drink to her. I know if they would have called and asked if she wanted to wait, she would have tried to walk in this mess. Thick snowflakes have been falling all morning. It’s actually kind of beautiful, that is until the wind chill hits. I can hear her now saying she’s freezing her freckles off. I can’t have that.
As I reach her door, I can hear the Christmas music playing so I knock a little louder to make sure she hears me.
I hear some shuffling around, then the music turns down a bit, then more shuffling right before I hear, “Shit!”
“Callie?”
She opens the door with her hair piled up in a bun and freckles not covered up by any makeup. This is my reward in itself.
“Hey, Will. What’s up?” Her voice sounds off as she favors her right leg.
“You okay?”
Scrunching her nose, she pouts. “I just rammed my toe into my coffee table.” She stands up straighter trying to come offstrong. “I’ll survive though. Is everything okay? I was kind of hoping you were my ginger tea.”
I hold up her bag. “This one?”
Her eyebrow quirks as she takes the bag and walks back into her apartment leaving the door open for me to come in. “Was the multi-million-dollar contract not enough? Had to take a job as a delivery man?”
I chuckle. “Only for you.” That came off stronger than I intended. “I was at Spilled Tea this morning and the girl behind the counter knew we were friends so she asked me to bring it to you. Apparently, the delivery guy forgot yours.”
That soft smile tugs at her lips. “You went to Spilled Tea?”
“I like the chai lattes, okay?” I admit. “You were right, it’s better than coffee.”
She lets her smile grow slightly before taking her first sip.
Not wanting to stare, I look around her place and notice the absolute disaster state it’s in. “What the hell is going on here?”
It looks like Santa threw up and didn’t stick around to clean it up. There are tangles of lights piled on the floor, three boxes of what looks like different sets of ornaments, a box of stuffed Christmas decor, then one long box which I’m assuming is the tree.
