The Love Wager

Hallie

Jack: Can I call you?

Hallie dropped her phone on her desk, sighed, and hated the way her heart was racing at the sight of his name on her phone.

Because it had been two weeks.

Two weeks of radio silence.

At first, she’d been glad he hadn’t texted—she needed a clean break, emotionally speaking, from their games. She’d cried through her shower and halfway to work the morning after their last time, whereupon she decided to nut up and knock it off.

Jack was her very best friend, and that was all that mattered.

But then . . . he never came back. He didn’t call her and he didn’t send a single text.

In her wildest dreams, she wouldn’t have imagined he would just disappear from her life.

She missed him so much it was almost unbearable. She closed out of her spreadsheet and texted: It’s 6pm and I’m swamped and trying to finish so I can leave.

Before she could add to that, her phone started ringing.

“Son of a bitch,” she whispered, just before she answered with a terse, “Hello?”

“Hey. How’s work?”

How could the sound of his voice be so overwhelming? She looked at the wall clock and said, “Great. What’s up?”

“Do you maybe want to get some food tonight?” He sounded serious, and she hated that that was what they’d become: serious people who didn’t talk anymore. “I was hoping maybe we could eat and kind of figure out what’s going on with us.”

Her brain screamed, Where the hell have you been for two weeks?!

She sighed. “I’m behind and have to play catch-up. Sorry.”

“What about tomorrow night?” Jack asked.

She wasn’t sure why she said it, but she said in her breeziest voice, “I actually have a date.”

“Oh.” She heard him clear his throat before he said, “Through the app?”

“Yeah.”

“Still trying to win the bet, then?”

As if. As if she even felt like dating again. And how dare he tease her, like they were friends or something. She tried sounding lighter still when she said, “Of course I am. I need a vacation, Jack.”

“Not as much as I need that World Series ball. Want to get Taco Hut afterward?”

Are you freaking kidding me? She powered down her computer and said, “Sounds good, but I think this date might be a good one, where tacos won’t be necessary.”

“Is that right?” His voice was deep.

She swallowed. “Yes.”

The silence felt loud and slow-moving, and she opened her mouth to say something, anything, when he said, “I guess we’ll play it by ear, then.”

“I guess so.”

“Where’s the date? Charlie’s?”

“Yes, but—”

“See you tomorrow, Hal,” he interrupted, and then he was gone.

She hung up the phone and cursed loudly since her office door was closed. Dammit dammit dammit! Had she lost her mind? She’d agreed to meet Alex to talk, but it wasn’t a date, and she definitely didn’t want to see Jack.

Shit.

She should’ve just told him no, but her brain had shorted out the minute she’d heard his voice.

Jack

“Oh, my God,” Olivia screamed, staring at him like he’d sprouted a second head. “So you haven’t talked to her since that night?”

“Shut the fuck up, Liv,” he muttered, flipping off his sister as she freaked the hell out over his ridiculous situation. He looked at Colin and said, “How do you not bang your head on the wall every damn day for having to deal with her?”

Colin grinned and looked at Olivia. “I find better ways to channel my aggression.”

“I am going to puke.” Jack picked up the bottle of Dos Equis and said, “For real. That’s disgusting.”

Colin and Olivia laughed, and as much as it pained him to admit it, they really were a great couple. Somehow their differences made them perfect for each other.

Fuckers.

“So you’re in love with Hallie.”

“No.” He groaned and said, “I mean, kind of. Yes. Yes, I am.”

Livvie said, “But she only wants to be friends.”

“Maybe not even that.”

“Even though you slept together while pretending to be a couple.”

“I’m sorry—are you going to continue synopsizing my situation? Because it’s really fucking annoying.”

“Sorry,” she said, laughing. “I’m just trying to figure it all out.”

“If you ask me,” Colin said, “this is all about the blond clown.”

“What?” Olivia asked.

“What?” Jack repeated, shocked because he hadn’t even told them about the post-sex conversation. He’d casually mentioned they’d seen him at the airport—that was all.

“Everything was great until she saw the other dude at the airport.” Colin raised his whiskey to his mouth and said, “She obviously either has feelings for him or is trying to figure out if she does.”

That made Jack want to punch something. He’d started to text Hallie about a hundred times since they’d last been together, but every single time he stopped himself, because shit, what if she was already official with Alex?

He didn’t know if she wanted him at all, but something inside him needed to give it one last shot.

Olivia said, “No, don’t listen to him, Jack. I think she doesn’t know what to do with her feelings for you.”

“You guys are no help whatsoever.” He’d stopped by their place solely because he didn’t want to go home and be alone, but he realized as he sat there that he didn’t feel any better when he was with people, either. “I’m going home.”

“You need to tell her how you feel,” Olivia said.

“I think she’s right, God help me,” Colin said. “Just tell her how you feel, because your friendship is already fucked. You will never have it back the way it was before, so you’ve got nothing to lose.”

“Wow, you’re really shitty at this,” Jack said, terrified Colin was right about his and Hallie’s friendship. Ironically, it was what he’d been afraid of from the beginning. “Now I just want to go sob into my pillow.”

“You’ll be fine,” Olivia said, walking to the freezer and opening the bottom drawer. “I just made ice cream cake.”

He set down his beer. Everything sucked, but maybe ice cream cake would make him feel better, right?

Wrong.

Because the minute he looked down at the bowl Olivia set in front of him, he remembered eating ice cream with Hallie on the floor of her living room and the way she’d licked her bowl like a damn cat.

There was no one quite like her, and he was terrified he’d lost her forever.