As I towel off, I grab my phone. Instead of sending out the group message that we’re having people over, I pull up her number. My finger hovers over her name and I decide to call instead of text. Hearing her voice last night, soft and unassuming, was nice.

“Hello?” she answers sounding rushed and agitated and I immediately feel like an ass for calling. Who calls unannounced these days?

“Uh, hi. Sorry, did I catch you at a bad time?”

There’s a pause. “Joel?”

“Yeah. Did I not come up on caller ID?”

“Sh– crap,” she exclaims quietly away from the phone. “I didn’t check before I answered. I assumed it was one of the other moms calling to get an ETA.”

I’m completely thrown off my game. She sounds busy and uninterested and now I feel like a chump. I decide to go with short and concise. “We’re having people over tonight and I wanted to invite you.”

“Oh. That’s nice, but I can’t. I’ve got twenty hungry kids and their moms pissed that I forgot it was my turn to get snacks for soccer practice and if I don’t find something gluten, nut, and dairy free and get it back to Russell Field in the next hour I’m going to get blacklisted.”

I feel her exasperation through the phone and can perfectly picture her standing in the grocery store pacing the aisles. “I gotta go. Thanks for the invite though.”

She hangs up leaving me holding my phone up to my ear and feeling like an idiot. She’s done nothing but tell me how unavailable she is, and I just keep pushing. I don’t know what it is about this girl that I can’t just accept we’re not at similar points in our life to have anything beyond flirting over coffee. It’s been a long time since I cared enough to pursue someone like this and the knowledge of how that ended alone should have me running the other way.

I dress quickly and then shoot off a few texts to invite more people over. The guys are already downstairs when I head to the kitchen. Grabbing my keys and an apple from the counter, I do a quick survey of the liquor laid out. “I’m gonna go get supplies. Any preferences?”

Z and Wes shake their heads. Nathan speaks up. “I think we’re good, man. We can probably get by on what we have.”

“Never hurts to have too much,” I throw back as I head out the door.

It isn’t until I’m pulling up to Russell Field that I start to re-think my decision to interfere. I stare out to the kids running around, moms huddled together watching the kids intently. I sit in my car and wonder if this is possibly the worst idea I’ve ever had. I’ve all but convinced myself to turn the car around when I spot her. Standing off on her own looking out of place and even from my car I can tell anxiety rolls off her in waves.