Page 11 of The Do-Over
“You didn’t want to come to the party after the game.”
She laughed. “There must be a hundred girls in the senior class alone who would have had no interest in that party. You jocks really do think everyone wishes they were you.”
“No, I don’t!” he protested. “I don’t think that. I really don’t. I guess I’m just used to the idea that when I invite someone to a party, they’re going to say yes. You were different. I wanted to know more about you. That’s all.”
“Did you go back to the party?” she asked. “After the Waffle Shack?”
“No,” he said.
“So you didn’t want to go either.”
“But I would have gone,” he said. “If I hadn’t had dinner with you, I would have gone to the party. The reason I went home was that I wanted to think about the time we’d spent together. I wanted some time to myself.”
“I don’t get it,” Thea admitted. “You skipped the party so that you could go home and think about having dinner with me at Waffle Shack?”
“Well, yeah.”
“But why?”
He sighed. It was obvious to her that he was frustrated, but she didn’t understand what she had done to cause it.
“I’m not trying to bother you,” she said.
“You’re not bothering me,” he said. “I just…I don’t know how to say these things. I’ve never had to put them into words before!”
To her great surprise, she found herself feeling sorry for him.
They were only a block away from her house, but instead of turning down her street, she walked past it.
“Let’s take the long way,” she suggested, and Rob nodded gratefully.
