Played (8 page)

"Enjoy them," she responded, taking
off at a trot down the hall.

The vase contained two dozen roses, half of
them red and the other half white with red tips on each petal. They were
breathtakingly beautiful, and of course, they were from Drew. I was getting in
deeper and deeper, but how could I reject his thoughtful gift of flowers on our
first real date? Besides, they smelled wonderful, too. I was still admiring
them when Ri returned with a bag from a nearby sandwich shop in hand.

"Omigod! Whose are they?" she
cried.

"Um, mine I guess. Drew sent
them," I answered. Rihanna dumped the bag on our coffee table and rushed
over to inhale deeply.

"Those are abso-fucking-lutely
gorgeous," she said. "Lucky bitch."

"Ri, are you sure you don't want Drew
for yourself?"

"I told you, ew. No. But, I want a
boyfriend that will send me two dozen roses. Alan's clueless."

"Speaking of Alan," I said,
"Is he going to the game?"

"Nah, he couldn't take the competition
after the game. We're done. I need someone who'll accept my friends, even the weird
ones like you and the future NBA star."

Ignoring her characterization of me, I
said, "I'm sorry."

"No biggie. My peeps will be with
me." She turned to the bag and got out our sandwiches and chips, apparently
done with that subject.

With Rihanna’s help, I put together a chic
outfit, with red tunic-style sweater of course, for my date. As Drew's guest
sitting near the team and only a couple of rows back, I felt I should look
good, so that he'd be proud of me. We had chosen a red with more blue in it
than the actual school color, and the cherry-red seemed to set off my blonde,
wavy tresses a little better than most strong colors. A black midi-skirt,
flared at the bottom, my knee-high boots, and a capacious purse in a paisley
pattern with lots of red in it finished me off.

It was unseasonably warm tonight, in the
high fifties, so my gray wool shawl would be plenty for an outdoor wrap, nor
would I need a hat that would only mess up my hair. Ri pronounced me
'fuck-worthy', something I intended to avoid at all costs, but of course, she
was just being herself.

Promptly at six-thirty, Drew knocked on our
door, and a still pajama-clad Rihanna threw it open and jumped into his arms.
He gave her a hug and a pat on the behind and looked up into the room, to find
me smiling at Ri's silliness.

"Wow, Sugar, you look gorgeous,"
he said.

"Not as gorgeous as these beautiful
roses," I said. "Thank you."

"No problem. Oh, here," he added.
A box I hadn't noticed before was in his hand. In it lay a corsage consisting
of the same white roses with red tips that were in the vase.

"These are so pretty! I've never seen
anything like them," I remarked, while Rihanna labored to pin the corsage
on my shoulder without sticking me.

"The florist said they're called Fire
and Ice. I thought they were pretty, too," Drew answered. Then, addressing
Rihanna, "C'mon, Ri, we need to go. Don't you have it on yet?"

Just then, distracted by his demanding
tone, she jabbed me with the corsage pin and I yelped. "Never mind, Ri,
I'll get it," I said, taking everything from her hands.

"Sorry," she muttered. I felt bad
for her. Ri was the life of the party, so why didn't she have a hot, sexy date
to bring her flowers? Because, her best friend was impatiently waiting for me,
instead, I thought. Maybe if he hadn't met me, he'd have taken Rihanna.

On the way to Drew's car, I decided to make
sure I wasn't getting between them, once and for all. "Drew," I said,
"Why aren't you and Ri together?"

The look of horror he threw me was almost
enough to make me laugh aloud. But, I kept my composure and waited for his
answer. "Ew! That would be like being with my sister," he said, a
shudder wracking his entire body. Now I felt as if I had permission to like
this boy. They felt the same way about each other, and it wasn't romantic in
the least. I still felt bad about Rihanna not having a date for her first
Utah-BYU basketball game, though.

I only learned from Drew once we were on
our way that the team and the school officials were on edge because of violence
that had occurred after the Utah-BYU football game earlier in the year. It
shocked me to know that students from Brigham Young University misbehaved just
as often as students from other places did. They had thrown trash at officials
after the game because they thought they had lost due to a call that the
officials missed. Drew told me that he was having his bench players look out
for me while he was on court, since my seats were only two rows back. It wasn't
unheard of for players to fall into the stands as they attempted to save a ball
from going out of bounds.

Drew settled me into my seat with more than
an hour to kill before the game started. True to my plan, I had brought my
iPad, and was working on some homework assignments as the stands began to fill
around me. When the teams began filing onto court I stowed it away and prepared
to pay close attention to the game. However, there was never any question about
who would win this game. Once again, under Drew's expert direction, his team
moved steadily to victory, with pandemonium in the stands from fans of both
teams.

This was one of the greatest rivalries in
the country Ri had told me, since the schools were located less than an hour by
car from each other. BYU was a church-run school, and of course, University of
Utah was run under state auspices. Many times, the two could be considered
indistinguishable, but in the case of the schools, the rivalry was often called
the Holy Wars. Brigham Young University considered themselves the chosen of
God, and Utah was always out to disprove it.

As soon as the final horn sounded, a couple
of the players who were sitting on the bench at that point hustled me out of my
seat and into the protection of the players exit passage. There I found Rihanna
and the gang waiting to congratulate Drew, who was still on the floor being
interviewed by local media. Once again, he had taken the Most Valuable Player
award.

As soon as he could get away, Drew came
trotting into the passageway and fans immediately surrounded him. Though he was
shorter than most of his teammates, he still towered over Rihanna and most of
her posse. I was hanging back so as not to be trampled. His eyes found me and
lit up, giving me a strange flutter in my chest. Not for the first time, I
thought that he was very good-looking, though completely different from Justin.
In contrast to Justin's dark brown hair and green eyes, Drew's hair was
caramel-colored, and his eyes were blue. I gave him a broad smile and waved.
His answering smile was for me only, and as one Riana’s gang turned to stare at
me.

"Janey, baby!" Rihanna squealed.
"Was that game dope or what?"

"Oh, Ri, you should have seen it from
the floor," I enthused.

"Not on your life. I have no desire to
have my drink spilled in my lap along with one of those players," she
laughed. "Where are you guys going when Drew gets back out here?"

"I have no idea, he didn't say."

"Well we're not going to horn in on
your date," she said. "I'll see you back at the dorm whenever you get
there."

"Okay, you guys have fun," I
said.

Laughing and waving, the group left, which
suddenly made this passageway seem empty, though there were still a few lingerers.
A few minutes later, Drew appeared, looking spectacular in a nice suit, white
shirt, and Utes tie.

"Oh my," I teased him. "Who
are you and what have you done with my date?"

To my surprise, his only response after
laughing was to pick me up and twirl me around until I was laughing
hysterically.

"What now?" I asked.

"I'm taking you to Tiburon, if that's
okay," he said.

"I've heard that place is the
bomb," I said, pleased that we would be going somewhere for which we
weren't overdressed.

Tiburon was everything I'd heard, from the
ambiance to the delicious food. Surprisingly though, what I enjoyed most was
talking to Drew about anything and everything. He was a business major, but I
confirmed that he loved to read as much as I did. I preferred literary works,
probably because of Charity's influence, and he liked action thrillers, but we
had read a few books in common. When we had exhausted that subject, he asked me
what I liked to do besides read. I was enjoying myself so much, that I forgot
to keep quiet about my daughter.

"I think my favorite thing to do, even
more than read, is to ride a gentle horse out across the fields with my
baby," I said. I knew immediately that I had screwed up. Drew's face took
on a frozen expression and he only barely managed not to drop his mouth open.

"You have a baby," he stated.
"Don't you think that would have been an important thing for me to know if
we were going to date?" I became defensive immediately.

"Well, to be fair, I didn't know until
this week that we were going to date, or that there would be any more to it
than this one special occasion. I'm sorry, though. It's just that I didn't want
everyone on campus to know."

"Why not?" he asked. "I know
lots of girls your age who have kids. It doesn't really matter; I just thought
it was kind of a big thing not to have mentioned."

"I'd really rather not talk about
it," I said. "Can't we just have a good time?"

"Sure," he said. Nevertheless,
our easy conversation was at an end. I hated that I had spoiled our good time,
especially on his big night.

Later, as he dropped me off at the dorm,
Drew said, "I meant what I said. It doesn't matter to me that you have a
kid, and I'd like to see you again."

"I'll see you at the game next
Friday," I said. "Rihanna and I never miss one, if we can help
it."

Holding my shoulders and looking intently
into my eyes, Drew nodded once, and then bent to brush a kiss lightly across my
lips. "Good night, Sugar," he said, and then turned to walk away
leaving me staring after him. What was that little flip of my heart all about?

~~~

I was at home and in bed asleep when Rihanna
came in, tipsy and singing off key. She stopped singing abruptly when she saw
me turn over, squinting against the light.

"What the fuck are you doing home so
early?" she said.

I looked pointedly at my clock radio where
the numerals indicated it was 1:30 AM. "It isn't early, Ri," I said.

"Whatever. I thought you'd still be
out with Drew," she slurred. "Where'd you guys go after the
game?"

"He took me to Tiburon for dinner. Then
he brought me home. End of story," I said.

"That's it? No moonlit drive? No
making out in the car? What the fuck kind of date is that?" she spat.

"Ri, I don't understand why you're so
mad. Turn out the light, I'm sleeping." I turned back over giving her my back
and wrapping my pillow around my head to muffle her continued tirade.

I knew I was in for it in the morning, for
refusing to continue a conversation that I had no desire to have in the middle
of the night. Naturally, I woke before she did and crept out of the room
quietly to avoid the coming confrontation. When I got back, she hit me with it
full force.

"You don't understand why I'm so
mad?" she repeated, continuing our conversation as if the intervening
hours had never happened. "Drew's my best friend," she said. "If
I'd known you were going to blow him off like that, I never would've introduced
you." Hurt, I searched for words that would mollify her.

"I didn't blow him off, Ri. I like him
very much."

"Then what the fuck happened?" she
yelled, her anger sparked again. I knew I would have to tell her. If I didn't,
Drew would, and then the shit would hit the fan.

"I screwed up, Ri. I accidentally
mentioned Gracie."

"You mean, you never said anything to
him about her before? What kind of stupid are you?"

"I guess the especially stupid
kind," I choked, tears beginning to roll down my cheeks.

"Omigod, don't cry," she
commanded, as if I could turn it off like a faucet. "He'll get over it;
it's not that big a deal." I couldn't help but feel she was wrong, but at
least she stopped yelling at me.

In fact, we fell back into the same pattern
of group get-togethers after the games, and Drew made a point of sitting next
to me, squeezing my shoulders at every opportunity and teasing me mercilessly.
The night of the game after the BYU defeat, he scraped back his chair and
announced that the team had been put on a curfew, and he'd have to leave. Rihanna
and the others were going to the bar after this, and she asked if I was going,
too.

I was torn. I was hoping Drew would take me
to the dorm, so I could find out if my gaffe had ruined any chance of
continuing our friendship. If he didn't intend to, I might as well go with the
others. Before I could figure out what to say to leave it open, he spoke up.

"Janey, unless you want to go with
them, I'd like to take you home." That settled it. I accepted and followed
him away from the table, looking back just once to see Ri holding both thumbs
up in a gesture of approval.