Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (28 page)

I made my way to the concession stand
thinking about Molly. I hadn’t planned on liking her so much, but it wasn’t my
fault. She was so damned cute in her red sweater and little knit beret. Her
poor little freckled nose was as red as her coat though, and she looked
miserable. I considered putting my arm around her, just to keep her warm. But
then I had thought about the hot chocolate and thought being told “No” about
that would feel like less of a rejection.

The line at the concession stand was long
and as I stepped behind a grandpa and his grandkids I heard a familiar voice.
It was Tammy…the stalker.

“Hey Brock.”

 
She
sidled up next to me and said, “I thought you said you hated football.”

This is what I had told her, and in my
defense it’s mostly true. Tammy was a cheerleader last year. I hadn’t gotten
the story about why she wasn’t on the squad again this year, but last year she
used to invite me to the games every time I saw her. I tried making excuses at
first, but when at last I ran out of them I had just straight up told her…I
don’t like football. She had still tried to persuade me, but I had stuck with
my convictions.

“Hey, Tammy. I still don’t like football.
I just agreed to come with some friends.”

“Oh, are you with that girl I saw you with
the other night?” She asked the question like she had some right to know. I
literally went out with this girl twice. She acted like she was my ex-wife or
something. Move over Glen Close, there’s a new stalker in town.

“Yes, actually. Her name’s Molly,” I said.
Just the sound of her name made me smile. “She’s one of Megan’s good friends.”

“Oh,” Tammy said in that holier-than-thou
way Tammy had about her. It suddenly dawned on me; Tammy didn’t like Megan, at
all. Back at the beginning of the summer, after I had brushed her off more than
dandruff off a black coat, she had met Jake. He’d just started here, and Tammy
didn’t know that he was my roommate. They had a class together, and she set her
sights on him. Jake wasn’t interested, but he’s a polite guy, so he didn’t tell
her so…until he met Megan. He came to one of my shows about a week after he’d
met Tammy. Megan was there with a friend, and as they say…the rest is history.
He straight up told Tammy to her face about a week later that he wasn’t
interested. She, of course, blamed Megan for “moving in on him,” and pretty
much tried to have her blackballed from everything on campus. To Megan’s credit,
she didn’t get rifled at all over it. She just kept being her sweet self and
people liked her of her own accord, in spite of Tammy’s jealous protestations.

As Tammy opened her mouth once again, the
guy behind me said, “I’m sorry, but weren’t you behind me?” Tammy looked
embarrassed and appalled that this guy would have the audacity to call her on
it. The guy suddenly became my new best friend. I mean, I actually for the
first time in my life (and hopefully the last) thought about full-on kissing this
guy on the mouth. Tammy looked at me, expecting me to help, so I did. I smiled
at the wonderful man and said, “I think you’re right. She was behind you.” It
may have been the cold, but I swear I saw smoke shoot out of her ears as she
went back to her spot in the long line. By the time I got mine and Molly’s hot
chocolate and turned around to head back to our seats, she had decided to turn
her back on me.
The cold shoulder…how
refreshing
, I thought with a grin.

When I got to our row this time, I didn’t
even have to smile at big boy again. He not only got to his feet to allow me
past, but he pulled his skinny girlfriend up with him. Molly was watching me as
I approached and I handed the cocoa to her and said, “I’m sorry. The line was
ridiculous.”

“That’s okay,” she said, “I stopped being
able to feel my hands and feet so long ago that I wasn’t even sure how much
time had passed.”

I sat down and as I did, her arm brushed
against mine. Okay, the fact of the matter was that her wool coat sleeve
brushed against my leather jacket sleeve. It still gave me a little thrill, and
since it was cheap, I’ll take it. “What did I miss?” I asked her.

Without missing a beat she said, “The
quarterback ran a Statue of Liberty play and the running back went for an
eighty-five yard touchdown.”

“Really?” I said.

“No,” she said with a grin, “I don’t have
any idea what I even just said.”

I laughed, “Wow, you sounded so
convincing.”

“I am looking forward to the half-time
show,” she said, sipping her cocoa.

“Why? Who’s playing?” I asked her.

“Oh, I don’t know, I just have to pee.”

This girl is something else. I was now not
only surprised that I came to a football game, but I was also surprised that I
was so happy about it. I’m sure I must look like an idiot, sitting here with a
grin on my face that looked like I’d slept with a coat hanger in my mouth the
night before. But, I couldn’t stop smiling and she made me not even care about
that.

I pretended that I had to pee too, just so
I could walk with her to the bathrooms. I waited outside for her, and since the
women’s restroom line looked as bad as the concession stand, I was in for a
long wait. As I leaned up against the brick wall next to the bathrooms, I saw a
guy I used to play set with in a club the summer before last.

“Hey! Brock! How the hell are you man?”

“I’m doing well Joe. How are you?”

“I’m fantastic man. I’ve wanted to get a
hold of you, but I lost your number. It’s amazing I ran into you like this! I’m
playing at Aqua and I need a good vocalist. Well, my band has a trial run at
Aqua and if it goes well, we’ll be officially offered the gig. Are you
available?” Aqua was a new night club in town, and it was turning out to be a
really popular one. Even if I wasn’t available I would have said yes.

“Hell yes, I’m available. When?”

Joe laughed, “We start next weekend. I was
going to have a listen to a female singer that my keyboard guy recommended on
Tuesday, and then we’ll probably jam together on Wednesday. The wife sings too
but she doesn’t want to commit to it every weekend. I know you’re going to
school man, but it will all be in the evening. I know you’re good, if I like
the girl maybe we can work out a schedule if we get the full gig.”

I was ecstatic. If it had been during the
day, I was ready to quit school. Not really, but hell yes! I was going to be
singing at the hottest club in town. “Where are you getting together?”

Joe handed me a card with an address on
it. “It’s a storage garage; my brother-in-law owns it. It keeps us from getting
kicked out of our neighborhood, so the wife likes me to run practices there.”

A voice cut in from out of nowhere, “You
got that right. Last time he practiced in the garage I think three people
called the cops.” It was his wife Lyndie. I always liked her. She and Joe had
gotten married young. They weren’t even thirty yet and had already been married
ten years and had a couple of kids.

“Maybe it wasn’t the volume they were
complaining about…if you know what I mean,” I said with a laugh.

“Hey boy, watch yourself if you want to
play with me.” Joe barked, but with a grin.

I said hello officially to Lyndie and we
chatted for a few minutes before they left to go back to their seats. I must
have still been grinning when Molly came back out because she looked around and
said, “What is so dang funny? You’re always grinning like the Cheshire Cat.”

I wanted to hug someone I was so excited,
and I really wanted it to be her. I didn’t go there though, not yet. I didn’t
want to scare her away already. Instead, I told her about Joe and the club.

“Wow, that’s great,” she said, seeming
genuinely happy for me. “Aqua is supposed to be a really fun place.”

“I went there the night they opened. It’s
nice. They didn’t have a very good band though,” I said. I couldn’t help
grinning again, thinking about me and my guitar on the stage.

“I’m happy for you,” she said. “Will you
do me a favor?” she asked as we got close to our bleachers.

“Sure,”
Anything….

“Will you tell Megan I’m going to take off
now? I’m just too cold to enjoy this.”

“Okay…didn’t you ride with them though?”

“Yeah, it’s not that far though, just a
few blocks. I can walk.”

“Or I can give you a ride?” I said.

“On your Harley? Um…thank you but I don’t
think so.”

“Have you ever been on one?” I asked her.
I would love to feel her sitting behind me on Suzie.

“No, I’ve never been on any motorcycle,
actually. A scooter…or Vespa, I guess it was called, once.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” I
told her honestly.

“Maybe another time, when it’s not so cold
and dark?”

“It’s a date,” I told her, excited just at
the sound of it. “I’ll walk you home tonight.”

“But…um, that’s really not necessary,” she
said.

“I’m sure it’s not,” I told her. “But I’d
like to…if you don’t mind.”

“Okay,” she said, resigned. I went and
told Jake and Megan. Megan pointed her finger at me and said, “Be good.” Jake
then pointed his at me and said, “Be great,” with a lecherous grin that earned
him Megan’s elbow in his gut.

Molly was waiting for me at the top of the
stairs. As we passed Suzie on the way out, she asked me.

“Will it be okay here?”

I glanced at Suzie. She looked so sexy
with the moonlight bouncing off her wheels. But she would be okay, and I told
Molly so.

“She?” she said with a grin.

“Yes, her name is Suzie,” I told her. I
knew girls didn’t get it. They didn’t name their vehicles, but my dad and I had
named every one we had ever had.

Molly leaned close then, and I almost
couldn’t catch my breath. Her hair smelled like some kind of flower, and her
breath smelled like chocolate as she said, “You don’t think she’ll get jealous
and run me over, do you?”

I walked her back to her dorm, thinking
that I couldn’t believe that anyone, cute girl or otherwise could have talked
me into leaving Suzie at the football game and walking. We walked fast because
it was so cold. I wanted to grab her hand, but I just wasn’t getting the vibe
from her that it would be okay…yet.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked her
when we were about halfway back.

“I have to work,” she said.

“Cool. Where do you work?”

“At the campus coffee shop,” she said,
“I’m studying to become head barista.”

“I hear that’s a tough title to snag,” I
said, hoping it sounded less dorky to her than it did to my own ears.

She smiled. I guess it didn’t sound too
bad. “You have to see me operate the machine,” she said. “Then you’ll know I
have it in the bag.”

“What time to you get off?” I asked her.

“I work ten to six tomorrow.”

“So what are you doing after work?” I
asked.
Just ask her out all ready. Jeez,
you act like it’s your first time. You’ve asked out like a thousand girls. Why
is this one so different?

“I-Um, I don’t know,” she said.
Okay now, don’t ask another stupid
question…just ask her if she wants to go out with you.

“I was wondering if you wanted to maybe
have dinner or something.”

She stopped walking and looked at me.
That’s a bad sign, right? She can say yes while she’s walking, but for a no, a
person really needs to stop. Damn, it’s cold out here. My nose is frozen, and
parts way south aren’t doing much better.
Come
on, Molly. Say yes, that’ll warm me up.

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea
Brock, but thank you,” she said.
So…is
she thinking dinner is not a good idea or a movie, or going out with me? Should
I ask her, or will that just make me look desperate and stupid?

“Oh, okay,” was what I said. Profound,
huh? I tried to keep a neutral facial expression too. I really didn’t want her
to think I was desperate. She started walking again, for a minute, and then she
stopped and said, “I’m sorry Brock. It’s not you at all. I’m just not looking
to date anyone right now.”

“Oh, okay,” I said again. Hey, it worked
the first time. We made it the rest of the way to her dorms in silence. I was
crushed. I had envisioned asking her out, her saying yes and me…going in for
the kiss at the end of the date. I looked at her now with her full, pretty, red
lips and thought that maybe I’d never get to kiss her after all.

She turned to me and said, “Brock, thank
you so much for walking me home. I’m sorry you have to walk all the way back
now. It’s so cold.”

“It’s okay. You have a good night.”

What else could I say? I walked back to
the football stadium, and I climbed onto the back of the only woman who truly
ever loved me, Suzie. The ride home was cold, but by that time I was numb and I
didn’t care.

CHAPTER
FIVE

MOLLY

I went up to my room and watched out the
window until he was out of sight. I think I really hurt his feelings. As soon
as I said no and I saw his face, I wanted to take it back. I like the Brock who
is always amused and I hated being the person who took that away from him. I
felt mean, plain and simple.