Page 46 of Pitcher Us
Beck shakes Adam’s shoulder. “Reyer, Anderson, you guys are going to love this. Callie was just telling us how she snuck out of her date.”
“You what?” Will slides into the seat across from me. God, it’s so good to see his face.
Adam finally lets me go and comes around to my side. “You stole my seat, scoot over.”
I try to scooch over but my brother is huge. “Adam, go find a new seat.”
Adam and I push and elbow each other to get the chair, until Mateo snaps. “Okay, children, enough. We need the story, Cals.”
I huff and give up, letting Adam take the larger portion of the chair. I’d really rather not talk about my fuck up of a night, but it doesn’t seem like they are going to let this go. “There’s notmuch to tell. This guy was awful and kept talking about his glory days in his fraternity. Halfway through a glass of wine I couldn’t handle it anymore, so I bailed.”
Beck boos next to me. “Come on, Callie Bear, paint us a picture. How’d you escape the bastard? And do we need to hunt him down and teach him a lesson?”
“He probably needs one but not from doing anything to me. I saw the warning signs with flashing lights.” I spend the next five minutes recapping my exit from my not-a-date, and everyone gets a good laugh when I tell them about my “lady stuff” excuse. Well, everyone but Will. Will only stares at me with this blank look.
I tell myself it’s because he doesn’t have the same emotions toward me as I do him, but deep down that doesn’t exactly feel right. I know I haven’t made up these moments between us—I couldn’t have.
Not that it matters now, I keep forgetting the whole point here—we date, and I lose my job. And at that my heart sinks into my chest.
With my arrival the guys agreed to let this bar be the end of their crawl so, according to the time on my phone, we only stay another hour tops. It felt a lot longer with the cold shoulder I was getting from Will. I tried to not pay him any mind, but I’m not that strong yet.
With him being one of the DDs, he had to take some of the guys home. Thankfully, Mateo’s wife, Avery, said she would come get him so I could ride with Will. Dropping off the three other players only added to the eternity of this night, but now weare finally riding up the elevator to our floor and we only have one drunk catcher left.
Getting out my spare key for Adam’s place, I get his door open while Will leads him inside to the couch. As his head hits his throw pillow he’s practically out already.
“Is he going to be okay here?” The sister in me wants to stay here and make sure he’s okay, but Will nods.
“He’ll be fine. The morning might be another story, but sleeping it off is what he needs.”
“Okay, well…” I grab one of the throw blankets and lay it over top of him. That helps my conscious a little bit.
“Come on, Callie, he’s good. I promise.” The softness in Will’s voice feels like a weight off my chest. Maybe it was the crowded bar that was keeping him quiet.
I follow him out, hitting the lights, and locking the fucking door. Goodness knows I would never hear the end of that one.
Will shoves his hands in his pockets as we make our way down the hallway. “So, the date?”
Ugh, it wasn’t a date! “Going out was a mistake. Definitely one I don’t intend on repeating.”
Will nods slowly.
I don’t know what to say. How do I explain to this man that I don’t want to date anyone else but him, but I can’t date him because then I would lose my job? And at the same time not come off as crazy because he’s agreed before that we’re friends. Now here I am walking down this dreaded hallway, and I don’t know what to say or how to act because not a single thing about this makes sense to me.
“Callie,” Will says softly as we reach my door.
“Yeah?” God, I need him to follow this up with some sort of sign because I’m going to go insane.
He sighs. “Good night.”
Soul shattered.
I force a big fake smile on my face. “Right, good night. Thank you for the ride home.” Spinning on my heels I reach for my doorknob and let that smile fall with the twist of the knob because, yeah, I didn’t lock my door again. I’m hoping to get in my place quickly and put this whole night behind me.
Swinging my door closed, I don’t look back until I hear a loud thud and next thing I know, Will’s stepping into my apartment. “Fuck, Callie. I need to know what’s going on in that head of yours.” He shuts the door behind him and closes the distance between us until he’s just a small step away.
Too stunned to speak, I manage to sputter out, “Wh-What?”
“Because you are the only damn thought in mine, Callie. I hate that you went on a date tonight. I hate that I’ve barely spoken to you in weeks. I hate that I haven’t gotten to hear your rambles and long-winded explanations. And I fucking hate the idea of only ever being just your friend.
