"You didn't have to take me out tonight, Cole. I know you must still be riding the high after your win. I would have understood if you wanted to still celebrate with your teammates," I tell Cole as we sit in his truck in front of my house.
The Gladiators crushed the championship game yesterday, four goals to one. Last night, he celebrated with his team. Today, for my birthday, he took me for dinner and a movie date.
“After spending so much time with those guys the last few months, I'm glad to leave the team behind. There's no one more important than you. I'm sorry I couldn't spend your actual birthday with you. I haven't had a chance to ask you how your night out with the girls was. Did you have fun?"
"Yeah, the concert was surprisingly good. Did you know your coach's son played in a band? He's a drummer."
"No, I didn't. Isn't his name Tanner or something like that?"
"Talon,” I correct him. “We hung out with them after the concert. They're talented."
Cole turns to study my face, which feels like it's on fire. He hands me a small gift bag.
"You didn't have to get me anything," I tell him.
"I'm sure that, as your boyfriend, it's a requirement. And more than that, I wanted to get you something."
He pulls out a small box from the bag, a jewelry-type box.
"No freaking out, it's not like that." He says before I open it. Inside the box is a pendant, a light blue stone caged inside a white gold heart. It's aquamarine, my birthstone.
"This is beautiful Cole. Put it on me." I turn in my seat so he can get the chain around my neck and clasp it.
I turn back to him and give him a long kiss.
"Now tell me what's going on."
My eyes shoot up to his in shock. "What?"
"I know I haven't been around much lately, and I'm not sure if that's it, but something is different. If we're going to do this long-distance thing, we need to communicate. So out with it."
Damn him for being so observant.
"You're right. There is something we need to talk about. A couple of things."
I look down at my hands in my lap. I can't look Cole in the eye while having this conversation.
"After the concert, we hung out with the band, like I said, and I drank a little. Then I went outside with Talon, and we talked and kissed," I croak.
Silence.
More Silence.
Unable to take it anymore, I look up to find Cole's face blank.
"What does that mean?" he asks me quietly.
"I don’t know. I kissed someone else, and it felt…good. I didn’t mean for it to happen."
"Are you done with me? Do you want to end this?" He begs.
"No, that’s not what I want. I love you, Cole, and I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't. But maybe we don't need to decide our whole lives right now," I clarify.
He nods, "I understand that. What do you want to do? You want to date around, have an open relationship and we date other people?"
"I don't want to date around, but I'd like to explore this connection. It feels important. And that sounds horrible of me."
"Just for clarification, you want to date me and this Talon guy?"
