10 Seconds Left in Overtime (Anderson Series #1)

Her

I was so angry that Alley pretended not to know me during the exam.  I played along looking for the right opportunity to call her out, but all I kept thinking was if I did that I might scare her off.  I couldn't handle another 6 years of radio silence.

6 years ago when I realized she had heard my conversation with those jackasses in that hall.  I didn't know what to say. 

Suddenly it all made sense, the early flight home, the not telling me about Western.  She just wanted to get away as fast as she could because the one person who she trusted not to hurt her did just that.

I went to Boston for training camp a few days after she left and tried to channel that anger towards myself into tryouts.

It worked and I made the team first year.  The first call I wanted to make was to her to tell her everything, but I realized it would go unanswered. 

I felt like a piece of me was missing with her gone, so I turned to random hook ups and drinking to try to fill it, but no luck.

The anger thing worked for me for a while and I was living the dream, but I was tired of being angry and the meaning less hook ups.  I wanted my best friend back.

I tried going to see her dad when I would head home for the holidays.  I tried to ask him for her new number and how she was doing.

He just told me she was good and thriving, but he didn't feel right giving me her number. 

He told me "Son, you were the one man outside of me who she trusted not to hurt her and you did.  Words may just be words, but they cut much deeper than any knife."

If he only knew how much I wanted to take them back.  To have her back in my life.  I would have given it all up to do that.

So when the night before my appointment I was out with one of my regular hook ups and I saw her in the restaurant with that guy, on what I only assumed as a date, my heart skipped a beat.

At first I thought I had completely lost it and was imagining things, but I heard that laugh, that unmistakable laugh and I knew it was Alley.

She was no longer that 18 year girl who left our small town to make her dreams come true, but this beautiful woman who lit up the room.

I watched her excuse herself to go to the washroom and I saw her douche of a date call his buddy and tell him she was a sure thing. 

I excused myself from my I guess date for the night and walked over to the table.

Right away the guy recognized me and was shocked I was talking to him.  I said, "Sorry I couldn't help, but over hear your conversation and you need to treat women with a little more respect.  Your date defiantly isn't a sure thing." 

He looked at me and told me it was none my damn business and that she is lucky to have gotten dinner out of him. 

He then proceeded to tell me that thick girls don't have the pick of the litter and that she'll be grateful to suck his dick. 

Well that was it for me and I lost on him. 

"Seriously man? This is how you treat a woman as great as Alley. She deserves a lot more than a guy like you," I said to him and that all too famous Anderson anger starting to show.

"How do you know Alison? She doesn't seem to be the type of woman you hang around with," he says with a smirk.

"None of your business how I know her. You need to just leave and never call her again," I say now towering over the guy and my fist clinching at my sides.

"I am paying good money for this dinner and I expect to get something out of this," he says standing up and getting in my face.

By this time I am seeing red and just want to get this dickhead away from Alley as soon as possible.

I proceeded to grab him by the jacket and nicely escort him out of the restaurant and told him again, if he knew what was best he would lose Alley's number.

I went back in and my date wasn't too happy.

"What the hell was that all about?" she asked me.

"Nothing, the guy was just being a dick and disrespecting his date. I had to step in," I say trying to signal the waiter to get the check.

"Oh that woman was his date? He seemed a little out of her league," she says giggling.

"Seriously, you know nothing about that woman. So please just sit there and look pretty. I like you much better that way," I say to her.

She sat back and sulked in her chair as I got our cheque and paid for dinner.

I watched as Alley came back to an empty table and sighed.  I saw that look of defeat and self doubt in her face. It was the same look I saw the day she told me we needed a fresh start. 

I wanted to go over and let her know I was there and what happened, but like a coward I sat there as she paid the bill and left. 

I dropped off my date at her house and she was more than pissed off that I wasn't going to stay for some fun. I didn't care though, I wasn't in the mood for any of that.

I went home alone that night and wondered how long she had been in Boston.  Was it just a vacation or a premiant thing?

The next morning when I went to my appointment and she walked into the exam room time stood still.

I was expecting her to realize it was me, but she played it off as she didn't know it was me. 

I thought if I joked around with her, she would drop the act, but no, she kept it professional.

I saw a glimmer of the old Alley when I took off my shirt.  She was always one for the abs. 

When she touched my arm a heat surged through my body.  A warm feeling of familiarity and home. 

I knew she felt it too and knew this whole pretending not to know me was an act.

When she shook my hand at the end of the appointment, I didn't want to let it go.  I didn't want to lose her all over again. 

I left and half way down the hallway I turned back around to call her out and get my friend back.

After I left the second time I felt something different for Alley.  When I hugged her it felt right, like she was my other half. 

I shook that feeling away for the moment and focused on taking her somewhere amazing for our date.  I smiled to myself as I walked past the front desk.

There's 10 seconds left in overtime and I'm on a breakaway.  I need to make this one a goal.