I open my contacts and scroll down to M and click his name. My finger lingers on the call button. My heart starts to speed up, and my mouth suddenly goes dry. My leg starts to bounce up and down. I just press his number, and then hold my breath. Not one single breath. One ring, two rings, three rings. I take the phone from my ear and hold it out to make sure that I got the right number. Then I hear his voice.

“You’ve reached Mark, leave a message.” His husky voice makes my nipples peak against the cold silk kimono. I contemplate hanging up, but then he has caller ID, so he’ll know it’s me anyway.

“The one time I call you, and I get your voice mail. Is this a sign that I shouldn’t call you?” I laugh, looking down at the card. “I got your package,” I say. “I mean, not your package package, but the coffee package.” I close my eyes and cringe. “Anyway, this is me calling you. Your move, Private Mark,” I say and hang up.

What the fuck was that? I think to myself. Where was the sassy girl? It’s like I got stage fright. I look down at the phone and expect it to ring, but it doesn’t. It also doesn’t ring after lunch, and when I go to bed that night, it still hasn’t rung. I check my outgoing calls to make sure I actually called, and when I see that I did, I wonder why he hasn’t called me back. Should I call him again, or should I wait? I’ve never had to go through this, and this moment right here reminds me why I don’t do these things. “Just forget him,” I tell myself, turning off the light and falling asleep. Except my dreams don’t forget him. Instead, they torture me.

Chapter Six

Mark

“You need to come out more in the crease,” the goalie coach, Pierre, tells me. “You can block more angles like that.” I nod at him and skate back to the net, pulling my mask back down on my face. My eyes watch the puck the whole time—right, left, right, left, right—and I know he’s going to shoot it. I’m expecting it, but he doesn’t, and just like that, I know he’s going to wind it up and try to slap it in. I move over to the other side where I see the puck aiming for, and I block it with my blocker. The sounds of it bouncing fills the arena.