Page 59 of Football AU
There were so many things that I needed to do, things that had fallen by the wayside because I’d been too focused on work and writing my silly little stories. I stretched and started toward the dirty clothes laying around my bedroom floor.
I had picked up a few shirts when I heard my phone buzz across the room and saw it light up out of the corner of my eyes.
Liam
Are you busy right now?
My eyes widened as I read the words on the text notification. My heart pounded in my chest, and I felt blood rush in my ears. I drew in a deep breath, and I opened the message.
I read it again, and then I read it another time to make sure that this was real. Liam Lowe was texting to ask if I was busy right now.TheLiam Lowe.
My fingers shook as I wrote my reply:
No. Why?
I looked at it and sighed. I could be so eloquent when I was writing fiction, but the moment it came to reality, that was what came out? I hit the backspace and tried again. After three failed attempts, I typed out the same message again and hit send before I could quadruple guess myself.
I stared at my phone. It was like that old saying: a watched pot never boils. Except in this case, a watched text never replies. I felt like I was watching it for ages, waiting for the tell-tale dots that said he was typing or even the little indicator that said he’d read it.
Nothing came.
Because this was the real world.
He must have meant to text someone else. Maybe that message was meant for Jonesy. That made a lot more sense than Liam Lowe texting me in the off-season. Or at all.
Liam
Do you want to get coffee?
There had been nothing to indicate he was typing. Nothing to show he’d gotten my text. It was justthere, like magic. I put my phone down and pinched my arm. It hurt. I wasn’t dreaming. I pinched the same spot, and I watched as the skin turned red.
This was the real world.
And of course, I typed:
Yes.
Maybe this wouldn’t turn out like one of my stories, but for the first time since I caught my ex-boyfriend with his dick in someone else’s mouth months ago, I was feeling that small flutter of hope for something that wasn’t related to the Scorpions’ winning streak.
The End (For Real This Time)
