I gaped at him. “Are you for real right now?”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” He held his hand out.
“You can’t be serious.” Why were men so awful? And why was Madison so evil for that matter? I needed to get a new best friend.
“I am because you’re not telling the truth.” Sam smirked, the left side of his mouth pulling up slightly higher than his right.
With a huff, I unlocked my phone and handed him the picture Madison had pulled up before.
The smile briefly melted from his face. Then he handed the phone back and checked his watch.
“We’d better go if we’re going to make the next session.” He grinned again, but it didn’t reach his eyes this time. “You ladies coming?”
I rolled my own eyes before following. Madison grabbed my arm and whispered, “Well, if you had any doubts, that should take care of them.” She gave me a knowing look and set off to catch up with Sam. And it was all I could do to take my phone back and follow miserably behind.
19
Coward
Derrick
Islowed to a jog as my workout music turned into Amy’s ringtone. If I was honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer it. Because there was no telling what the outcome might be. Jessie had been gone to some warehouse thing all day, which meant I’d had Jade to myself, and I had work in five hours. Did I really want to deal with this right now?
The phone rang again, and I knew better than to ignore it again. Slowly, I came to a stop and answered.
“Hello?” I’d barely been running. Why did I sound so breathless?
“Hey, Derrick.”
Well, she sounded…not angry. That was a start.
“Hey.” I ran a hand through my sweaty hair. “I wasn’t sure when I’d hear from you.”
“Yeah. About that. Look, I’m sorry for being so snappish. I was coming down with the stomach flu when I called you but didn’t know it until about an hour later. Not that it excuses it, but I just wanted you to know. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“I’m sorry you were sick.”
“Yeah.” There was a long pause. Giving up on my morning run, I sighed and walked over to one of the little ponds just off the trail. “What’s up?”
“Oh! Right. I got your gift.” She giggled.
“My gift?” I racked my tired brain, trying to remember when I’d sent her a gift.
“The pink chinchilla?” She chuckled again. “You swore you couldn’t top the checked fish, but I think you’ve officially found the ugliest stuffed animal in the entire world.”
I chuckled, too, as I remembered. We had an ongoing competition to see who could find the ugliest stuffed animal. The contest dated back to before we were dating. Man, it felt good to laugh with her again.
“Now you can look at it every night before you go to sleep,” I said, stretching my calf muscles.
“Oh, no. It’s shoved under my bed where I can’t see it. That thing gives me the creeps. Its eyes are just…no.”
We laughed for a few more minutes, reminiscing about the beginning of our competition, then fell silent once more. I decided to take advantage of the break and try again.
“I was just thinking,” I said, taking a deep breath, “I know you’re busy. And I know you’re trying to finish up all your projects before the wedding. So…what if Jade and I came to visit you instead?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. My grandma has relatives staying with her for a while, so you couldn’t use her guest room. You’d have to get a hotel, and I don’t know if that would be good for your sister—”
“Amy, my sister has Down Syndrome, not a severe immunodeficiency. Hotels are fine. Besides, I’ve got a buddy of mine who says he’ll let us stay with him.”
