The Games We Play

Lacey and Derek drove home after the hockey game and went back to Lacey’s apartment. She was so used to Derek coming over and staying the night that she had bought a pull-out couch in order for him to sleep on something that actually resembled a bed.

They walked inside after parking the car and Lacey immediately went to make herself a protein shake. “You know that I hate you sometimes,” she said to Derek as she mixed the powder with the milk in a glass. “You didn’t have to embarrass me like that in front of Jon.”

“I didn’t do anything but point out the obvious,” he shrugged. “You can’t tell me that you don’t have feelings for the guy.”

Lacey felt herself blush. “Well, yeah of course I do, but it doesn’t mean that you can make a sign and let him see it! That was so humiliating! And when did you even have the time to make that?”

Derek’s stare was flat. “Do you really think it took me that long to make a sign out of a piece of paper? It took me like, thirty seconds. Pretty sure I had it finished by the time you came out of the bathroom. Besides, it’s not like Jonathan doesn’t like you back. You’re acting very much like little kids, both of you. With this whole ‘I’m going to avoid my crush’ deal. How old are you? Grow a pair!”

“I physically can’t, I’m a woman,” she reminded him. Derek rolled his eyes.

“You know what I mean.”

Lacey bit her lip and tapped her fingers along the kitchen counter. “Isn’t the guy supposed to make the first move, anyway?”

Derek rolled his eyes again. “What year is it, 1935? Why can’t the girl make the first move?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

He sighed and plopped down onto the couch. “Well, hopefully one of you will do something soon because if I have to watch the two of you flirt anymore, I might actually throw up in a bucket and chuck it at you both.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“And necessary. Trust me.”

Lacey was about to make a counter statement when her phone vibrated in her sweater pocket. She pulled it out and saw that she had a text message from Jonathan. She opened it and read it.

This is gonna sound really random, but do you want to go out to dinner with me sometime?

Lacey looked over at Derek, who smiled at her expectantly. “Who was that?”

Her cheeks flushed. “No one.”

She quickly replied:

Win game two and I’ll think about it.

She put her phone away and joined Derek on the couch as he flipped on the TV. Something in her demeanor must have changed because he immediately caught on to what had just happened.

“Let me guess, Jonathan just texted you and asked you out on a date.”

Lacey turned to him, wide-eyed. “How the hell did you know that?”

Derek smirked. “Oh, trust me, I just know. I’m very good at reading people and plus, men aren’t always that creative. I figured since you and Jon are both chicken shit when it comes to actually talking to one another since you’re both crushing on each other pretty hard, that he’d ask you out in a way so that he wouldn’t have to do it in person.” He paused. “And plus, with the text message thing, I guess it’s easier if you were to reject him, too.”

“I told him that I’d go out to dinner with him if he wins Game Two,” Lacey said, nibbling absentmindedly on her thumbnail. “You think they’ll win, right?”

Derek laughed. “Oh, God. You should have just given him a straight yes. Not this ambiguous bullshit.”

“But now he has more of an incentive to win,” Lacey noted.

Derek gave a half hearted nod. “I suppose so. Not that the Stanley Cup isn’t enough incentive or anything.”

* * * *

The final buzzer sounded and as she was sitting on the couch in her living room, Lacey bit back a smile. Derek was over again as usual, eating all the food out of her fridge. From the kitchen, he could hear the sound of the Blackhawks fans going nuts. He poked his head into the room.

“They won, didn’t they?”

Lacey nodded, trying to keep a serious face in front of her friend.

Derek wiggled his eyebrows. “You know what that means.”

“Shut up, Der,” Lacey declared, trying her best not to let Derek see that she was a bit excited. “It’s only dinner.”

“I don’t get why you’re trying to talk yourself out of being pumped for this date,” he stated at last. “I mean, I’m not a chick or anything but if I was, and if I were I’d be totally hot by the way, and if the captain of my city’s hockey team asked me out on a date, I’d be damn excited. You look...well, bored.”

Lacey bit her lip. “Remember that talk we had, Derek?” she asked, turning to face him. “My relationship track record isn’t exactly the best.”

“So one boyfriend cheated on you and the other broke up with you because you were too focused on soccer,” Derek shrugged, taking a huge bite of an apple, the juice dripping down his chin slightly. “I didn’t like them anyway.”

Lacey shook her head. “The point was that Luke found a reason why he wanted to cheat on me and I was stupid enough to not see it. And we only dated for five months! And as for Danny, how pathetic is it that I feel the need to push my personal life aside just so I can help my soccer team win games? Look at the common factor here, Der. It’s me. I’ve never broken up with a boy in my life, they’re always the ones to dump me. And I don’t know, I really like Jonathan. What if things don’t work out and he ends up breaking up with me too?”

Derek shrugged. “Sometimes there are just risks that you have to take.”

“I guess,” Lacey agreed with a sigh. “When did you know that you and Kenzie were going to work out?”

Derek shrugged again. “I wasn’t sure right away. I mean, our first official date or whatever consisted of her coming to see one of my games and then going out for a snack at a diner afterwards. I’m not exactly who you’d call Mr. Smooth.”

Lacey laughed and sank into the cushions. “I just don’t want to get involved with Jon and then have everything blow up in my face like it did with every other relationship I’ve had,” she confessed. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him or any of the other guys on the team as my friends.”

“You are over thinking things way too much, Captain,” Derek mused, ruffling her hair. “Jon’s asking you out because he wants to know more about you. Just go out with him, be yourself, and don’t text at the dinner table.”

“Why would I be texting?” she chuckled. “It’s not like I’m going to be asking you to help me formulate things to say. I may be unlucky when it comes to dating, but I’m not completely hopeless, you know.”

“Never said you were,” Derek grinned. “But I will say this much. You really need to get laid.”

He ducked as Lacey threw a cleated shoe at his head.