Page 21 of Cupid Games

“I was really disappointed in how Brian acted tonight,” she said, “but let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about what happened after you left college. Where did you go? You know I looked for you.”

She looked for him? Why?

With a sigh, he gazed at her and drank his glass of wine. What the hell was he doing here? And why did it feel so right?

“After you told me that you were leaving to join the Seattle Miners, I made the decision to go find my destiny. My classes were finished and there was no one to watch me walk across the stage. So I left. I spent the summer attending basketball camps and trying to earn a spot on a professional team. I traveled across the country and saw much of the U.S. until I realized that no one was going to hire me to play professional ball. Then I started looking for a job as a coach. I was shocked when I was accepted here in Cupid. Mr. Townsend hired me.”

She twirled her wine glass.

“I searched for you. I called you. I did everything I could to find you,” she said. “You leaving left me devastated.”

Shocked, he stared at her. What did she expect? She clearly chose basketball over him. Why was she so shocked at his leaving?

“After I received the contract, I had hoped we could work something out,” she said. “I hoped that you would go with me to Seattle.”

Sudden anger rushed through him. “You never said that,” he told her. Now she was going to blame this on him?

“That’s because you left,” she responded. “You walked out and I never saw you again. When you learned I made the pros and you didn’t, you were furious with me.”

That was true, but it wasn’t because she was offered a professional team. It was because she never mentioned the two of them going somewhere together. Suddenly, she was making plans on where to live and how to get her stuff there and nothing was said about him joining her. Nothing.

“You never asked me to join you,” he said, his voice tense.

“Yes, I did,” she replied. “You ignored me. It was like you were so angry at me, a woman had made it and you hadn’t. When I said something about us going together, you never responded. And then you were gone. What was I supposed to think?”

It was true that he’d been livid. Not because her dream was coming true, but because he was not good enough. The poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks had once again been left out in the cold. The big leagues didn’t draft him, but they had Emily.

But he didn’t remember her ever asking him to go with her. Never.

“I don’t believe you,” he said.

“Of course, you don’t,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me how you were feeling?”

Oh, yes, he was going to admit to her that he’d had his hopes and dreams destroyed when he wasn’t drafted. She was riding high and he was in the depths of despair. Those really didn’t go together well.

Just then the food was delivered and the atmosphere at the table had gone from friendly and cordial to stifled. It was all Zach could do not to ask for a to-go box and leave.

So how was he going to get her to accept his Cupid challenge? After this conversation, he was once again ready to give her a very short coaching career.

“How’s your food?” he asked, trying to control the anger coursing through him.

“Delicious,” she responded. “So I guess now you’re mad at me again?”

He gave a little chuckle. “Never was mad at you to begin with.”

“Bullshit,” she said.

The woman was direct.

“No, I was upset because I thought you were leaving me,” he said. He didn’t mention to her that he had already purchased the engagement ring and set up where he would propose to her.

He didn’t mention that he hoped they would both be drafted and have to decide which team they were going to play on.

And then she got her offer and that was the end of that.

“I wanted you to go with me,” she said softly.

So softly that he wanted to upend the table and go roaring out of the restaurant. It had to be a lie. It had to be.

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