“So what the hell happened with what I thought I had with Wesley?” I ask Taylor.
It’s Monday, and we have a rare day off from practice because we just had the conference competition yesterday and everyone needs a break. And I need some Taylor time.
I’d done my best to put Wesley out of my head and concentrate on our competition all weekend. Somehow the routine came together and my marvelous squad executed it perfectly.
Because we took first place at the State competition, we get to move on to Nationals. Now that the weekend is over, it’s time for me to figure out what’s going on with Wesley and me.
“I don’t know,” Taylor answers, as she takes a bite of gelato ice cream. We’d walked to a place off campus, to enjoy the remainder of the sunny day and to feel carefree for once. “But why didn’t you just ask him?”
I shrug, and blush.
“I know that seems like the obvious thing to have done,” I tell her. “And I did consider calling him even though Christian had told me not to. But I didn’t want to be that girl, you know?”
“You mean one who speaks her mind?” Taylor laughs.
“Very funny. I just didn’t want to annoy him.”
“I understand,” Taylor concedes. “And the weird thing is, why didn’t he call you? He knew you had said you would be at the Frisbee game or at the bar afterwards, and then he just went home, without even telling you that the plans for where to meet had changed, or that he’d decided not to go for drinks anyway.”
“Yeah. I mean, clearly he didn’t want to talk to me. And it gets worse…”
Taylor looks at me with anticipation, but I immediately regret having brought it up. I feel too stupid to even confess to Taylor how bad things are between Wesley and me.
He must have never really liked me at all. I should have listened to her from the beginning, and not had sex with him.
“What?” she asks, a look of concern in her eyes.
“Nothing.”
I eat my gelato, wishing we could both forget all about it.
“Come on, Chelsea. Tell me. You know I’m here for you.”
“You were right,” I burst out, trying my best not to cry. “He’s just a player. He just wanted to fuck me and forget me.”
“Woah,” she says, getting up and putting her arm around me. “That’s not true. I know there’s a real connection between you guys. I saw it, at the cabin.”
“Well, maybe there was, but there isn’t anymore. It’s over.”
“How do you know?” she asks.
“Because I texted him earlier today and asked him to meet me at our spot at the pool. And he didn’t. He wasn’t there.”
“Well maybe he…”
I can almost hear Taylor’s brain ticking as fast as mine had been, trying to come up with some plausible reason he would stand me up, and not even answer my text.
“He didn’t have football practice,” I tell her, before she can suggest that. “I know from my dad that the football team had off today too. They have half a week off from games and practices, to rest up and get ready for the second half of the season.”
“Well, I guess it isn’t looking good,” Taylor says. “But maybe there’s some explanation…”
But just then, I see something that seals the deal.
I grab Taylor’s arm and nod in the direction of the bar and grill across the street, where Wesley is pulling out a chair for someone, as they sit down to eat on the patio. And that someone is a girl I’ve never seen before.
She’s beautiful. Tall, fit, curvy in all the right places. And Wesley is gazing at her as if he adores her.
“I guess that solves that mystery,” Taylor says, but then her joking tone turns serious. “But I’m sorry, Chelsea. Really, I am.”
I stand up to leave, choking back tears, but also feeling furious.
“Let’s just go,” I tell her. “You can finish your gelato on the way home, right?”
I start walking in the opposition direction of the bar and grill, before Wesley can see me.
“Sure,” she says, hurrying after me and holding onto her plastic bowl of gelato. I dump mine into the trash can, suddenly having lost my appetite.
I know that if I stay here, I’ll either cry and look like an idiot out of sadness, or I’ll go over there and confront Wesley out of anger. Both options would create a big scene, and I just want to go home.
Back to my life before Wesley Reynolds.
Before I thought I had finally found love.