Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (29 page)

I blame this on Megan, and of course if
Megan is to blame then Jake has to shoulder some of it as well. I told them
both I didn’t want a boyfriend. If they hadn’t felt compelled to hook me up
with hot-guy Brock, I would be ignorantly going through life, not even knowing
he existed. And then he would still be walking around with his amused
expression instead of looking sad and hurt.

I mean, come on…it’s not like I was his
only choice. He’s gorgeous, of the drop-dead variety. He could go to the club
alone and leave with three women on his arm if he wanted to, I’m sure. He could
leave with three women with two good kidneys each. That’s five more kidneys
than I have. He doesn’t know how lucky he is that I said no. However he looked
at it, even if he only left with one healthy chick, he was getting double the
kidney. I was doing him a public service, really.
 
That way, when he found out about my lack of
kidneys and the cancer on the one I had left, he’d be spared breaking up with
me like Zack, my last boyfriend did. I realized then that I hadn’t been able to
see him for ten minutes, yet here I was still staring out the window.

I continued my silent rant, but threw
myself on the bed where it was more comfortable instead. I lay there and went
back and forth between, “I did the right thing. I don’t want a boyfriend right
now. I don’t want to set myself up again. Guys aren’t good at dating girls with
cancer. I don’t want to put him in that position,” and, “What the hell am I
thinking?”

 
Finally I pulled myself up off the bed and out
of my pity party. I dragged myself into a hot shower. I was still freezing.
Maybe that’s what happened; my brain was frozen over when he asked me out. Yes,
that’s it; I’ll just call him now and say, “Hi Brock, this is Molly. I’d love
to go out with you. I’m sorry I said no earlier, but my brain was frozen.” That
should do it. I guess I wasn’t quite finished with the pity party.

By the time Megan got back I was asleep.
At least that’s what she thought, so she left me alone and at least for the
night I didn’t have to explain myself. In reality I was playing over the scene
with Zack in my head, the night he sat at my bedside in the hospital and told
me that all of this cancer stuff was really just too serious for him. It wasn’t
me, it was him. Hey, at least he didn’t do it in a text message.

I made it out of the room the next morning
still in luck. Megan was taking advantage of her Saturday and sleeping in. When
I left for work, she still hadn’t stirred. I considered taking her pulse, but
if she woke up while I was doing it, it might look a little weird.

Cassie was waiting for me when I got
there, and the fact that today was going to be the first day I got to work the
coffee machine on my own, really seemed to excite her.

“Hey! There’s my ardent student.”

Ardent? I’ll bet she’s English major. It
might just be me, but I think I would have gone with eager, or zealous…maybe
even devoted. Ardent just wasn’t an impressive word if you asked me, but what
did I know? I’m a liberal arts major.

“Hi Cassie!” I said, trying to sound
ardent.

She showed me a few of the trickier moves
on the machine, and by noon I was flying through those mochas and lattes and
even getting the milks right. If my arm were longer I would have patted myself
right on the back. I was so into the art of creating coffee that I didn’t even
see Megan walk in. She yelled my name, causing me to literally jump in the air.

“Hey, Meggs! Why are we yelling?” I asked
her.

She laughed and said, “Because I said your
name three times. You were so focused on your coffee making.”

“It takes concentration to do it right,” I
said, embarrassed that she had caught me so focused on a coffee machine. “What
are you doing here? Did you just get up and need a cup of coffee?”

She laughed, “Okay, I slept in a little
bit. We didn’t all go home and go to bed early though. How was your walk home
last night?”

“Cold,” I said.

“Really, just cold? Isn’t Brock a
sweetheart?”

“He’s a doll,” I told her.

“Molly, don’t be sarcastic.”

“I’m not, I swear. I really think he’s a
doll. I kind of need to get back to work though, so did you want a coffee…or?”

“No, thank you. Jake and I are going to
try out that new club Aqua tonight. You want to go?”

“Um-no, I don’t think so,” I said.

I was remembering Brock talking about that
guy Joe wanting him to play there.

“Aw, come on Molly. What are you going to
do? You’ll just sit in the dorm room alone all night. Please! You’re turning
into a hermit.” Megan made a pleading face at me, one that she knew I couldn’t
say no to.

“Molly! Two orders waiting!”

It was Cassie, and I was disappointing my
teacher.

“Okay, Meggs. I have to get back to work.
I’ll go tonight, now scoot before I lose my job.”

Megan grinned, “Thanks Molly! You’ll have
a great time, I promise.”

“Yeah, yeah…Get out!” I told her with a
smile.

I made it through the day with only
screwing up one order. Cassie was trying to be supportive, while telling me
what I needed to do better at the same time. I was trying to keep a straight
face. Maybe she wasn’t just an English major; maybe she was going to be an
English teacher. At the end of her speech she said, “I can show you the basics,
but you’ll have to find your own rhythm.” What I saw was a blind Chinese man,
who said, “I can only point the way, Grasshopper. You must walk the path
yourself.” Well, it would be funny if you had grown up with your grandmother
who still watched old re-runs of Kung-Fu every weekend.

Megan had left me a note telling me she
had gone to get Jake when I got home. She said that they were going to eat and
then would pick me up around eight. It gave me time to shower and get dressed.
It was funny, or sad, that I put on the first outfit I picked out and left it
on tonight when I was going to the club, yet for a football game I changed three
times. Could the difference be Brock, perhaps?
Shut-up Molly!

I was ready to go by the time Megan got
there. As I climbed in the backseat, Jake looked back at me and said, “Why
won’t you go out with Brock?”

Megan closed the car door and said, “Jake,
leave her alone.”

“It’s okay, Meg. I can handle him,” I told
her. “I don’t want to go out with him.” So there. I gave myself points for not
sticking out my tongue.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jake said.

“Jake really, Leave her alone.”

“There’s nothing wrong with him,” I said.
“I just don’t want to go out with anyone right now. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, Molly,” he said it with a sigh.
“I just think you’d really like him.”

“Maybe you should go out with him,” I told
him with a grin. In true, girl-got-my-back form, Megan said, “Well, they do
already live together.” Then we both laughed and Jake pouted the rest of the
way to the club.

I had heard about this place; the college
crowd really loved it. I’m not a big fan of clubs. I don’t drink; I can’t
really because of my meds, and I’m not a big crowd girl anyway. I prefer
smaller, more intimate settings. I know I really should be thirty-five instead
of nineteen. My grandma used to tell me that all the time and Megan does still.
From the outside it looked like fun. It was the inside of a converted warehouse
that was red brick and still had an original old wrought-iron fire escape
running up the side. The Aqua sign was blue neon and there was also a giant
neon martini glass with a giant green olive stuck in it.

We paid our cover and got our hands
stamped and went inside. The place was huge, and the first floor had a massive
sunken dance floor and a separate drinking and dining room. People were dressed
really nice. I looked down at my little black dress with the light blue skirt
and hoped I was dressed okay. Megan saw me looking at myself and said, “You
look great, Molly. I wish you knew how pretty you are. Everyone thinks so.” I
smiled at her, because what else was I going to say to that?

“Thanks, Meg,” I told her. Megan took me
by the hand and said, “Dance with me Molly!”

 
I
looked out towards the dance floor where there were about a bazillion people,
and then back at Jake.

“Isn’t that your job, Jake?” I asked him.

“She asked you first. I’m going to get
something to drink. You girls want anything?”

We both told him no, and Megan continued
pulling on my arm until we made it to the dance floor. There was a hip hop song
playing, one that Megan and I used to dance to on our sleepovers and when she’d
come stay with me when I was too sick to go to school. For a few minutes I
forgot everything, except for just being with my best friend and having fun.
For a few minutes…that was when I saw him. I looked back at Megan and she was
grinning from ear to ear. Damn them! I’d been set up. Brock strode in the door
like he owned the place. I would have sworn every female head turned to look at
him as he did. He walked up to where Jake sat and they did their stupid boy
bump thing. Jake wasn’t surprised to see him, and neither was Megan. I looked
at her accusingly, but she pretended she didn’t notice. She just kept dancing.

CHAPTER
SIX

BROCK

I saw her as soon as I walked in. Two
hundred people, most of them women, and she still stuck out. Damn, I’ve got it
bad. She was dancing with Megan, and for a minute, I just stood watching her
from the doorway. I liked the way her hair moved while she danced. I liked the
way she moved her body, and giggled with Megan. She looked happy, and that gave
her a glow that only added to how pretty she was.

When I went over to say hello to Jake, I
could tell she saw me. She gave Jake and Megan both a reproachful look. They
had set her up; the poor girl didn’t know I was coming. I wondered again why
she didn’t want to go out with me. I wasn’t a bad-looking guy. As a matter of
fact, I’ve been told that I’m rather good-looking. I shower every day and I
usually smell really good….I shouldn’t blow my own horn though, I have had one
girl tell me that I was in love with myself. Okay…more than one. But I’m not in
love with myself, really. I just have a good self-image. There’s nothing wrong
with that, right?

“Hey man,” I asked Jake. “You didn’t tell
me Molly would be here.”

“Is that a problem?” he asked. I could
tell he was almost more upset that she wouldn’t go out with me than I was.

“No,” I said, “I like Molly.”

“She likes you too,” he said.

“I know,” I told him with a grin. “Why
wouldn’t she?”

Jake laughed; he knew I was full of
shit…kind of. “I’m going to cut in on your girl and dance with her.”

“You’re going to dance with Megan?” he
said. Molly was right; his head was stuffed with fluff.

“No, dork, with Molly,” I told him,
shaking my head. He was a great guy, but he’d never win a sharp-crayon contest.

I could see the panic in Molly’s eyes as I
approached. It was amusing and hurtful at the same time.

“Hey ladies,” I said when I was close
enough for them to hear me over the screeching loud music.

“Hi Brock!” Megan said, “Hey look Molly.
It’s Brock.” Megan and Jake were really, really bad at this.

Molly grinned; she thought they were as
bad at this as I did. “Hi Brock,” she said, and then to Megan, with an
admirable amount of sarcasm she said, “Hey Megan, I see him.”

I tried to bump Megan aside, but she just
moved over to allow me in, so now we were all three dancing together. Girls
were so weird. You’d never see two guys dancing at a club…I mean at a straight
club. Guys wouldn’t even be comfortable dancing two guys and one girl. Maybe it
was the guys that were weird and not the girls.

The music ended, and as we were walking
away from the dance floor and towards the table that Jake had gotten for us I
suddenly blurted out, “So, we’ve shared a dance, now will you go out with me?”

Before Molly could open her mouth, Megan
said, “She’d love to.”

Molly looked at her, and Megan grinned. I
couldn’t see Molly’s face, and I couldn’t tell from behind if she was grimacing
or not. When we got to the table, still trying to prove I was a gentleman I
said, “Molly, do you want something to drink?”

“Sure, I’ll have water, if you don’t
mind.”

Water? A girl after my own heart. The last
few girls I’d gone out with could drink me under the table. That was…if I
drank.
 
I got our waters, and noticed her
looking at me when I turned back around. Was she checking out my butt? The
commercial about these jeans wasn’t lying.

“Here you go,” I told her.

“Thanks Brock,” she said with a smile. She
was so damned cute.

I sat down and suddenly, Jake and Megan
had the urge to dance. Once they were gone she shook her head and said,
“They’re ridiculous.”

I smiled, “Yes, they are,” I agreed. “You
don’t have to keep the date Megan volunteered you for,” I told her. “I
understand.”