Page 40 of Playing to Win
Chapter 14
“That’s so romantic.” Cassie was perched on the toilet, listening to Callie’s version of the day as Callie stood in the shower, letting the water rinse out the shampoo as she tried to get the barbeque sauce out of her hair for the fourth wash of the night. She was about to admit defeat before the water ran cold.
“He isn’t ashamed to tell you he watches Bambi, he talks about his family, he tells you that you make him twitterpated, he bonded with your dad…I’m telling you, Cal, you better not let this one go. And don’t even give me some mumbo jumbo crap about how all athletes are losers,” she said before Callie could even say anything in return. “He’s different and you know it.”
“Okay, okay. He’s different and I do know it. Happy now?”
She pulled back the shower curtain to see Cassie smiling smugly from her perch on the toilet.
“Extremely,” her friend replied. “Does he know about Matt yet?”
“No.”
“When do you plan on telling him?”
“I don’t know. It’s not exactly a conversation I can throw out there.”
“Why not?”
“Well, because the whole, my high school sweetheart who I thought I was going to be with forever cheated on me in college with three girls at the same time after an away game because he thought I wasn’t coming to watch might be a bit awkward.”
“Or it might shed some light on why you’ve been so opposed to dating athletes.”
“Whatever. Can we change the subject now?”
“Fine,” Cassie said in a pouty voice.
“Stop sticking your tongue out at me, too.”
“How did you know I was doing that?”
“Because you revert to elementary school tactics when presented with something you don’t like.” Callie stuck her head out of the curtain again. “Case in point.”
“Okay, fine. Since you’re making me change the subject, my only question is does Kyle have a friend?”
Callie laughed. “That, my dear, I do not know.”
“Well, tell him I prefer blonds that are intelligent. And not too tall.”
“Want to just make a list for me to take to him?”
Her friend’s face brightened. “That would be great! Do you think he would take it?”
“Kidding, Cas! Totally kidding!”
“Oh. Well, you didn’t have to get my hopes up.” Callie rolled her eyes. Only her roommate would think she could take Kyle a list of her desired attributes and he would roll out Mr. Right on her doorstep. She loved her, but for a genius, Cassie could be pretty stupid sometimes.
“Hey,” Cassie said, changing the subject, “You never told me what you wanted to do for your birthday.”
Callie inwardly groaned. Her birthday was in two weeks and she had totally forgotten. Every year her dad and friends tried in vain to pull some big surprise something or other for her and every year it was a big, fat flop. Last year, because she was turning twenty-one, Aria’s dad had closed his bar to the public and had a surprise bash for Callie and her friends. Only one of the girls on the squad had brought her loser boyfriend, who had gotten extremely drunk and had snuck a liquor bottle and a set of matches from behind the bar and lit his hair on fire. For what reason, no one knew. That definitely put a damper on the evening.
The year before, they had rented the Blazers’ Ice Hockey Center for another surprise party. The center provided the cake, invitations, drinks, plates and utensils for the party. They even told her friends Callie would get a t-shirt and asked for her size. Aria, however, failed to mention to the people on the phone that the birthday girl wasn’t a child, so the small t-shirt they ordered was a small that might have been big enough to cover Callie’s boobs, which weren’t that big to begin with.
The day only got better when, on her first time on the ice, the front of Callie’s skate got caught and she face-planted. Hard. Her eye immediately started swelling. By the time the cake was brought out, it was swollen shut. Her dad still had the picture of them singing her happy birthday with her holding a bag of frozen french fries over her eye.
“Nothing. I don’t want anything. Just wish me a happy birthday, buy me a new comfy sweatshirt, and call it good.”
“Nuh uh. No can do, Cal. We’ve managed to screw up so many of your parties, we have to make this one a success. Maybe lover boy will have some good ideas this year.”
