Shealyn smirked and followed Nicole out of the restaurant to the elevators.
“Oh hey, where’s your game this weekend?” Maggie asked while they waited.
“We’ll be in Connecticut," Shealyn replied.
“Oh, wow, me too!” Maggie smiled. “Maybe we can do this again?”
Nicole’s phone began to vibrate in her hand and when she saw that Ariana was calling she couldn’t stop the smile that brightened her face. “I’ve got to take this,” she said to Shealyn, and turned away from the group. “Hey,” she said softly.
“Is this a bad time?” Ariana replied.
“Perfect timing,” Nicole said as the elevator doors opened. She watched Shealyn and Maggie step inside. “I’ll catch the next one.” Shealyn gave her a look and Nicole smiled.
“Do you need to go?”
“No! You have no idea how happy I am that you called right now,” Nicole said.
The smile on Ariana’s face matched the happiness in her heart. She’d debated whether to text or call Nicole but the desire to hear her voice was too great.
“I wanted to give you time for dinner, but I hoped if you weren’t busy…”
“Ari, it’s good to hear your voice.”
From time to time Ariana’s friends shortened her name, but the way Nicole saidArimade her melt a little inside. “Are you all right?”
Nicole sighed into the phone. “Everything was great up until halftime when we texted. I discovered something about your texts.”
“What’s that?”
“Your texts calm my anxiety.”
“Oh, um, that’s…nice?” Ariana wasn’t sure what Nicole meant. “Why were you anxious?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” Nicole said.
“What happened?”
“Maggie Patterson happened!” Nicole said.
“You know, Cameron and I noticed her hanging around your desk during the game. What was that about?”
“Oh my God,” Nicole groaned. “You saw her! You noticed!”
“W–well,” Ari stammered.
“Well what?”
“I’m not sure anyone else noticed,” Ariana said. “We did because we were looking for you.”
“Oh,” Nicole said softly.
“Yeah, I told you the game was kind of boring, so we were watching you and Shealyn when we could see you,” Ariana said.“I don’t know what your viewers noticed. We know where to look.”
“Oh, Ari, it was awful.”
“What was she doing? Shouldn’t she have been at the scorer’s table?”
Nicole groaned. “We went to shootaround and ran into her. While Shea was talking to a few of the players Maggie asked me out to dinner.”
