With These Words

“So, I’m confused,” I stared into my black coffee. Kyle’s phone calls, as lovely as they were, were taking a toll on my sleeping habits.

“About?” Haley sipped her ginger tea.

“You. Clearly.” I was happy that Haley and I were able to get together and talk, even if it meant giving up my lunch break for a cup of coffee. It had been awhile with my crazy work schedule and her wild partying.

She laughed. “What do you want to hear? That Austin and I are dating?”

“Well,” I swirled my coffee around and smiled. “You two have been spending an awful lot of time together.”

“As friends,” She added quickly.

“Seems like more.”

She sighed and leaned back against the plush chair of the coffee house. “He, obviously, wants to pursue a relationship.”

“And you?”

“It’s like I told you before…He loved his ex and then one day…bam! It’s over.”

“But that doesn’t mean that he’s going to do that to you.”

“Yeah,” She smiled momentarily. “But it’s hard, you know? It’s like every time we hang out, he proves to me a little more that he’s serious and he’s not going to hurt me.”

“But you’re still hesitant?” I asked.

“Yeah,” She nodded and looked up at me. “I mean, you wouldn’t be?”

I shrugged. “It’s hard to say. I get where you’re coming from…but at the same time…well I don’t know.”

She sighed. “It’s just weird.”

I nodded and took another sip of my steaming liquid.

“He’s coming to Kyle’s tonight,” She added. “Are you going?”

“I can’t,” I frowned. “I’m working the late shift tonight.”

“Bakeries have late shifts?” She smirked.

“Don’t even ask,” I shook my head. “It seems pretty pointless to me.”

“Well that’s dumb,” She added more sugar to her tea. “You’re going to miss game night.”

“That’s tonight?”

“Yep,” She nodded. “Monopoly edition.”

“Same teams?” I thought of poor Kyle being on Jonathan’s team.

“Well if you’re not going to be there, I’m not sure,” She shrugged. “Austin and I will probably just adopt Caleb for our team.”

I nodded, still feeling disappointed that I was going to miss game night. I hadn’t seen all the guys together for awhile.

“Speaking of Kyle, how are you kids?”

“We weren’t speaking of Kyle,” I told her.

She laughed. “Well now we are.”

I rolled my eyes. “We’re good.”

“You two seem pretty happy to me,” She mused.

“Yeah,” I brought my coffee cup to my lips. “We’re just hanging out.”

“Looks like dating to me.”

“Well you’d have to ask him about that,” I took a long sip.

“You guys are weird,” she rolled her eyes. “I mean, it’s not like everyone can’t see what’s up.”

I shook my head and poked at the empty sweetener wrappers on the table. “Like I said, you’d have to ask him.” The clock in the corner caught my eye. I noted that I left now, that would give me eight minutes to make it back to the bakery on time.

“What?” She glanced over her shoulder at the clock. “Do you need to go?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I probably should.”

She finished off the last sip of her tea and scooted her chair back. “I’m glad we got a chance to catch up.”

“Me too,” I admitted honestly. Haley and I had grown closer over the past few weeks. It was definitely something I hadn’t been expecting.

“I hope you and Kyle determine whatever you need to determine,” She smiled lightly and stood up.

“Yeah,” I follower her lead. “You too.” I grabbed my purse from the floor and made my way to the front door. “Have fun at game night,” I told her as I pushed open the heavy glass door. “I hope Jonathan doesn’t get to crazy.”

“We all do,” she laughed.

I told her goodbye and she headed for her tiny red car that was parked by the curb.

I dug my phone out of my pocket as I headed back towards the bakery. No missed calls. No new messages. I figured I should probably tell Kyle sometime that I wouldn’t be attending game night.

Instead, I found myself dialing Caleb’s number. After all, he was my team mate for these game night events.

“Hello?” He picked up after the fourth ring. “Who is this?” he yawned loudly.

“It’s me,” I replied quickly. “Did I wake you up?”

“Georgia?” He yawned again.

“Yeah,” I kicked an empty pop can that was sitting on the sidewalk. “I’m sorry, I did wake you up, didn’t I?”

He laughed. “I was just taking a little nap.”

“Caleb, it’s like two in the afternoon.”

“I’m tired,” He defended himself. “Me and Austin were up late last night.”

“Let me guess,” I smirked. “You were doing some mega important band stuff?”

“Something like that,” he spoke casually. “So to what do I owe this grand pleasure?”

“I was just calling to tell you that I wasn’t going to Kyle’s tonight,” I paused outside the bakery before I went inside. “To game night,” I clarified. “I just didn’t want to leave you hanging…”

“Wait, seriously?” he sounded surprised. “Why aren’t you coming?”

“Late shift,” I pulled open the bakery door.

“Why would a bakery need a la--”

I sighed. “It’s weird, I know. But I have to work it.”

“Well who’s going to be my partner?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Join Austin and Haley’s team,” I suggested. “Or Kyle and Jonathan’s.”

“I’d rather be with my winning team mate.”

I laughed. “We won once, and that was only because somehow I got this magic stroke of luck that helped me guess your crazy drawings.”

“Ok, cleary I was drawing an elephant.”

“Doubt it,” I slipped my apron over my head. “So do you think you’ll manage with out me?”

“If by manage, you mean lose? Then yes.”

I laughed. “You’ll be fine. Man up, Caleb.”

“You can’t even come late?” He asked.

“My shift doesn’t end until nine, then I have to clean and lock up.”

“I could come help you,” he offered.

“But then you’d miss out on game night. I heard it was monopoly.”

“So?” I heard the crumple of a food wrapper in the background. “I’m sure it’ll take like fifteen minutes.”

“I’ve seen how you scrub bowls,” I protested. “Let my call Kyle and maybe he can pick me up later.”

“For the record, Kyle has like no experience with cleaning. Like none.”

“I’ll call him when I’m done. Or maybe, I’ll just take the bus straight to my house.”

“Or maybe, you could just bail on this so called ‘late shift’ and help me kick everyone else’s butt in monopoly?”

I sighed. “If I could I would.”

“Did he come see you this morning?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah,” I leaned against the front counter. “Only for like five minutes though.” I recalled Kyle’s quick entrance, his awkward side hug admist the crowd of customers, and his hurried ‘I’m just here to pick up some cookies. I lose a bet with Kent’ speech.

“Ok, well you should call him I guess,” He sounded weird.

“I’m sorry about not being there tonight.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I could picture his friendly smirk. “You’ll come later if you can?”

“I’ll try,” I sighed.

“Good. I’ll try to buy us all of boardwalk,” he told me before hanging up.

I smiled to myself and then scrolled down to Kyle’s name. As the familiar dial tone filled my ear, I punched in and headed behind the counter.

“Hello?”

“Hey, It’s me,” I told him.

“Ah,” he sounded frustrated. “I’m sorry, I can’t talk now.”

“Why?” Kyle never turned down a conversation.

“Jonathan and I are the middle of working on some stuff.”

“Oh…” my voice trailed off. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I am,” he told me. “Can I call you later?”

“Yeah,” I nodded to myself. “Sure.”

“Ok, cool. I’ll talk to you then.”

“Wait!” I stopped him from hanging up.

“What?”

“I can’t come to your house tonight,” I told him. I had almost forgotten why I had called him in the first place.

“You can’t?” He sounded disappointed. “I was going to come surprise you after work…”

“I have to work the late shift.”

“For real? No game night?”

“Yeah, it’s lame,” I sighed.

“when does your shift end?”

“Like nine…nine thirty…” I heard Jonathan yell in the background.

“I have to go,” he sighed too. “Can I come get you after your shift?”

“You don’t have to,” I told him. “I heard it was monopoly and I’d hate for you to miss it.”

He laughed. “I’ll be there at nine, ok?”

“Bye,” I smiled.

“Later,” he hung up and I slipped my phone back in my pocket.

It was going to be a long night. Two shifts was two shifts too many.