Page 107 of Center Ice
When we’re done eating, Graham is chasing Ivy and Iris around the living room while Lauren and Jameson take care of the dishes. Jules excuses herself and heads to the bathroom, so I turn in my chair to face Drew. His hand drops from where he’s been playing with my hair while staring off into space.
“What’s going on?” I ask him quietly.
“I can’t talk about it right now.”
“I haven’t seen you in days, and you show up here and act like a totally different person, and I’m supposed to…what? Pretend like everything’s fine?”
“Maybe I should go.” My stomach drops at the despondency in his voice.
“Drew,” I say, grabbing his forearm where it’s now folded across his chest. “What the fuck?”
“There’s just a lot going on right now, Audrey. And I can’t talk about it with everyone around.”
I think back to last weekend and how happy Drew was to have me at the hospital with him when his mom fell. And how earlier this week, before he left for Tampa, Graham and I went with him to visit his mom when she came home from the hospital. We’d felt like a family, and Graham clearly loved getting to spend time with his grandmother.
I know Drew’s worried about her, and even the Apple Watch with the fall detection feature that he got her isn’t taking that worry away. But this is more than that.
“Is something going on with the team?”
He stands quickly, and his chair scraping along the terracotta tiles makes a screeching sound that has all heads turning his way. “Sorry, I have to head out,” he says as I sit there in stunned silence, staring up at him. But he doesn’t even look at me. He gives Graham a hug goodbye, asks Lauren to tell Jules that dinner was delicious, nods at Jameson, and then heads out the door. Jameson is hot on his heels, and even though he slams the door behind him, we can hear their raised voices.
I glance at the living room, wanting to see if Graham has noticed any of this going down, but he’s playing with the twins, blissfully unaware. So I cross the kitchen to where Lauren stands near the sink. “What the hell is happening?” she whispers.
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling Jameson does.” I watch as my brother shoves his hands deep into his pants pockets, exhaling a deep breath that crystalizes in the icy air while he watches Drew drive off. He doesn’t turn to come back in immediately, but when he finally does, he looks up at us watching him through the window, and his shoulders slump.
“What the hell was that all about?” I ask as soon as he steps back inside.
“I hate to say this, but as his agent, I really can’t tell you. You need to talk to Drew about it.”
“Hard to do when he just left without telling me what’s wrong or even saying goodbye.” There’s a bitterness in my voice that I don’t like. I hate this feeling of us not communicating, of him saying that he loves me and wants forever with me, and then turning around and icing me out like this. This isn’t how relationships are supposed to work.
“Maybe…” Jameson pauses, then looks between me and Lauren. “Maybe you should go after him. I don’t think this is the kind of thing that you should wait on.”
“I have to see if Jules can watch Graham.”
“Just go,” he says. “If she has other plans, one of us can stay.”
The look of concern on Lauren’s face has me worried. “Sometimes,” she says, “we need to bury our pride and step up to fight for the relationship when the other person can’t. I don’t know what’s going on, but Drew obviously isn’t in a position to fight for you guys right now.So you need to.”
Next to her, Jameson nods in agreement, so I nod back. They have the best, strongest relationship I’ve ever seen. This is probably an area where they have some experience, so I need to trust that their advice is right. Because even though I don’t know what’s going on with Drew, I know that what we have is worth fighting for.
He’s been the one fighting for us all along, so maybe now it’s my turn.
Audrey:
I’m at your door. Can you buzz me in, please?
Iwait outside, standing at his door for a few minutes, and there’s no response. But I know he’s in there because I checked that his Jeep is parked in his spot behind his building, and I can see lights on through the top-floor windows.
I hit the button to call him, and I’m surprised that he answers on the first ring. “Hey.”
“Did you see my text?”
“No, I just stepped out of the shower.”
I couldn’t have been more than five minutes behind him. How do guys shower so fast?
“Can you buzz me in?”
