Page 67 of Puck Me Twice

“I’d love that, thanks,” Vanessa says in that same light tone, like it hasn’t been a week since she said she needed space and we haven’t talked since.

I take her small wheeled suitcase from her hand, rolling it over to my car as she and Andrews exchange another few words before she jogs after me, falling into step beside me.

“Hi,” she says.

Glancing down at her from the corner of my eye, I see her smile and then hide it.

“Hi?”

“We should talk,” she says. She bites her lip. “Um…”

As we reach the car, I open her door, then haul the bags into the trunk and get in on my side, automatically cranking the heat and her seat warmer.

She’s going to break up with me. She doesn’t want to do this anymore. She wants to get back with Andrews. She’s⁠—

“Sven, I...” She stops, looking down at her hands.

“I don’t want to break up,” I blurt.

She blinks. “Um…”

“I gave you space. I gave you time to get acclimated,” I push on. “I don’t want to break up. However the fuck this started, I’m in this, and you don’t get to avoid me for a week and a half and then dump me in a fucking parking lot.”

Vanessa clears her throat. “I wasn’t breaking up with you,” she says quietly.

“What?”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she says.

“Isn’t that what ‘we need to talk’ means? I know I don’t always pick up social cues, but⁠—”

She shakes her head. “I just… I needed some space to regroup, to think about what I want outside of what I want for you and for us.”

“And?”

“And I found out some things, and I’ve done a lot of soul searching, and… well, breaking up is the last thing I want,” she says. “I’m not ready for marriage, I don’t really even want to consider it right now. It should be out of the equation.”

“Okay…”

“I’m okay with causal. I’m even okay with feelings. I just can’t think about forever, at least not yet.” Vanessa’s eyes meet mine, hesitant. “I like you. I do. And I’m working on my shit. Robby and I—we talked, and I’m working on it,” she says. “I just know I’m not in a place yet where I can think about forever. I want to. It’s just not something I can do right now.”

It feels like I’ve been punched in the solar plexus. The breath has been knocked out of me, but I can keep going.

“That’s okay. We don’t need to…”

“I want to date,” Vanessa declares. She gestures between us. “We went from zero to sixty and then to a hundred in the blink of an eye. I want to pause. I want dates. I want to get to know you, the person, and not just as the hot hockey player. We need to get to know each other.”

“I agree,” I tell her evenly.

She pauses. “You do?”

“Yes. We don’t have a game tomorrow. Can I take you out?”

To my surprise, Vanessa smiles. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

My answering smile stretches from ear to ear.

“Excellent.” I shift the car into gear. “It is a date.”