The day drags on, sometimes silently. But the times we do talk—they’re magical. I feel like I have Chase back and it’s these moments I’ll take with me when we leave this locker room.
Chase rummages through the bag Carter left us, searching for something among the snacks. Then, out of nowhere, he lets out a whooping laugh, the sound so infectious that I can’t help but join in, even though I have no clue what’s so funny.
He shifts where he’s kneeling and looks back at me, a devilish grin on his face. "Want to play some Uno?" He holds up a deck of cards, and I can’t help but smile.
"Hell yeah, finally something to do."
"I'm going to get us some drinks and chips, and we can sit on the mattress and play." He stands up, heading toward the fridge, before pausing and looking at me, adding with a smirk, "Just don’t make a mess with crumbs."
Then he fucking winks at me.
My heart soars. Chase just winked at me. I don’t even care that it isn’t flirtatious—just that he did it.
I move over to the air mattress and straighten out the sheets, making sure to knock some of the crumbs I notice from mysandwich earlier today before Chase sees them. This may be my hint to stop eating in bed.
I crawl on, taking a spot as Chase heads toward me with soda cans and chips in hand. He gives me a can, and I reach down, setting it on the floor. He drops the chips beside us, then sits down, crosses his legs, and opens the cards.
He deals them out, and I draw first. "Reverse, reverse, skip, draw four," I announce proudly, changing the color to blue.
Chase holds his cards eye level, tapping his finger along the edge of them before slamming down a draw four. "Green," he declares loudly, smirking when he sees I have nothing to counteract it. I take the required number of cards from the deck as he plays his next card.
He throws down two skips and a draw two.
"Fuck," I mutter as I pull more cards from the deck.
We go back and forth, battling it out, until he suddenly grins, "Uno!" He throws down a card of the same color we’ve been playing.
I look from his hand to mine, groaning at the six cards still clutched between my fingers. None of them helping to add cards to his hand, other than attempting to change the color. "Yellow," I announce proudly.
His face drops, and I grin, happy to have gained an upper hand. Chase reaches toward the deck for a card before shifting slightly, slamming down another draw four. The final card in his hand.
Well played, Chase. Well played.
"I win!" he proclaims, puffing out his chest.
"Yeah, yeah. Rematch?" I ask.
We play for hours, talking the entire time. Nothing heavy, just light, easy conversation. It feels good just being close, just talking to him without seeing hate reflected back at me.
But as the time gets late, Chase begins to yawn.
"Are you tired?" I bite my lip as I wait for his answer.
"Yeah," his voice comes out groggy and soft.
I want him to rest, but there is one more thing I need to ask, knowing Carter will be back to let us out in the morning. "Tomorrow… do we go back to how we were? Since coming home?"
Chase sits there for a moment, quietly, as he gathers up the cards and places them back in the box. Finally, he blows out a breath, then looks up at me.
"I have so many reasons to hate you, Blake. To never speak to you again. But I have one good reason not to. No matter how badly you hurt me, I love you, Blake, with all my heart. Getting back to where we were won’t be easy, and I won’t say there won’t be problems or that it will work. But I love you too much to throw what we had away. All I ask is that we take it slow. We don’t rush."
My heart swells and I try to contain my excitement. "I’d like that, Chase. Can I hug you?"
He nods, and I lean forward, wrapping my arms around him as tears stream down my cheeks. He wants to try. He’s letting me in.
We pull apart, our eyes locking. "Can I kiss you?" I know I’m pushing it, but fuck, I just need to kiss him.
He nods again, and I press my lips to his. He doesn’t open his mouth at first or kiss back, but slowly, he starts warming up to me. It isn’t full of ravishing desire, but it is full of love—gentle, tender.
