Page 51 of The Do-Over
After a moment, a voice picked up. “Rob? What the hell happened to you?”
“What do you mean?” Rob managed.
“You were driving in the snow, and then the call cut off. I tried to call you back, but you didn’t answer. I’ve been worried, you know! For all I knew you were lying in a ditch.”
“Oh,” Rob said. “I did crash. I’m sorry. I should have…called you back.”
“Damn right you should have! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.” More or less. “I’m in Deer Ridge now.”
“You’re at the hotel?
“Well…no. I’m staying with a friend.”
“A friend? In Deer Ridge?”
“Yeah, Thea Cortez, my…” He hesitated. It was so strange to refer to her this way, and yet it was the most accurate thing he could say. “My high school girlfriend.”
“Oh, the sexy one?”
Had he said that to this Bradley person? He did think Thea was hot, but it was hard to imagine himself talking about her that way to someone who didn’t even know her.
But then again, I don’t know who Bradley is to me. We might be really close. Maybe I tell him all kinds of things about my high school love life. Maybe he’s the person I confide in now.
He glanced at Thea.
She was looking away, her face hidden awkwardly in her hair, and he realized that the sound coming out of the phone might be loud enough for her to hear.
He cursed inwardly. What would she think if she had heard that?
And Bradley didn’t stop there. “Are you going to be rekindling the old flame this week?”
“I—” Rob didn’t know what to say.
“Think about it,” Bradley urged. “You’re not married. How long has it been since you’ve even been on a date?”
Rob had no idea what the answer to that question might be, of course. “A while,” he said.
“Years,” Bradley said. “If you can get some action while you’re in Deer Ridge, I say you go for it.”
“Just…take it easy with that,” Rob said, moving away from Thea and hoping against hope that she hadn’t heard any of what had been said.
“Yeah, yeah, all right,” Bradley said. “Well, look, how’s your car?”
“Pretty banged up.”
“Do you want me to come to Deer Ridge and drive you back to Chicago?”
“No,” Rob said. “You wouldn’t be able to get here now anyway. The snow’s too bad. Until they plow the roads, nobody is getting in or out.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.”
“Keep me updated, okay?”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
“All right. And—seriously, you should take advantage of your time with that Thea girl. I’m checking out your social media page now, and I found an old picture of you from high school that has her tagged. She is hot. If she looks anything like she did back then—”
“Goodbye, Bradley,” Rob said firmly.
