Page 60 of Aftersome
“You’re still wearing it,” Mal’s low, staggered voice announced, causing my eyes to immediately open.
Startled by the intensity of his stare, I nearly lost all my ability to speak. His headphones were now hanging around his neck while his eyes were glued onto the jersey I was still wearing.
His jersey.
“Uh, yeah.” I sat up straighter. “Thank you, for giving it to me. Even if you did break into my car.”
His mouth curled and the sight had my heart hammering.
“Didn’t break in, Doe.” He rolled his eyes playfully. “It looks good on you,” he whispered, causing my eyes to widen at his confession.
Did he just tell me it looked good on me? His jersey? His number?
My face went red hot.
“Thank you.” I pushed some pink, flyaway strands behind my ear and tore my eyes away from his.
It was hard to look at him now. I didn’t want him to see that his words had affected me, but I was sure it was rather obvious I was being bashful.
There was a long pause of silence between us. There was obvious tension there, but no longer had I felt the wrath of him. Instead, I felt something entirely different.
Something that had my stomach filling with flutters.
Once the plane had taken off, we both fell into a comfortable stillness where no words needed to be said. Although he lost, although I knew he was in physical pain, he never once took it out on me.
And that’s when I felt his hand. The soft brushing of his pinkie finger against mine as both our hands that were resting on the armrests between us had finally made contact.
I thought he’d pull away from me, and I thought I would have too, but we didn’t.
Instead, for the remainder of the flight, our pinkies stayed connected.
It was a barely-there feeling, but there nonetheless.
And that was when I thought that maybe I had a chance, after all, at getting him back home.
At least, I hoped I did.
22
WREN
Today was Kate and James’s gender reveal party. We’d been prepping all day and night, with the occasional help of James but he was strictly put on balloons and drink duty due to his lack of decorating skills.
They, of course, had an argument over it, but James was quickly able to fix it with a whispered comment in her ear that had her flushing and a kiss that had me blushing.
They had invited the whole team over along with family and friends, so there would be a decent amount of people here. One individual’s presence was still up in the air but a part of me wished he’d make an appearance at least.
“Where are the confetti balloons?” Kate asked James and he stepped into the kitchen with a mouthful of hors d’oeuvres stuffed into his mouth. He paused mid-chew, almost dropping a glob of sour cream and onion dip onto his pink button-up shirt. “Where’s the big bouquet of balloons that I reminded you to get last night after practice? Please tell me you didn’t forget them…”
Her voice hiccuped as if she might cry.
“I moved them into the dining room,” I quickly put it out there before she had a panic attack and to save James from her wrath.
With weary eyes, he started to chew again and made his way over to Kate.
“Baby, you need to relax.” He pulled her into his arms by the fabric of her navy-blue dress and she willingly fell into him.
“I’m trying,” she cried. “I just want this day to be perfect for us.”
