Playing for Keeps

Moral Hangover

Lily POV: 

I groan as I reach over to my phone that has been ringing non-stop for a while. My body feels like it was hit by a truck and left to rot. The moral hangover is slowly creeping its way into my system, enough to make my heart sink. Before giving myself time to go through each and every detail of last nights saga, I answer the phone to whoever has been calling me like crazy. 

"Hello?" I croak out. The other end is silent and for a minute I think I might have not gotten to the call on time. "Hello?" I repeat.

"Ah Hi. I'll take you're not ready to play?" the voice on the other end says. I look at my phone as I am still half asleep and can't register who it is. Jack. I sit up straight suddenly remembering last night, when Jackson Merrill walked me to my uber and before closing the door, he called me Winnie. 

This is what I need to snap back to it. My heart begins to race and I can feel my breathing become ragged. "You there?" he says again. 

"Ah yeah, is this why you've been calling like a maniac?" I ask.

"Not sure what you mean, this is my second time calling" he says. I can hear his uneven breathing on the other end. I need to ask him if..

"Why don't you see who was calling you and then call me back so we can play, say in an hour?" his voice cuts into my thoughts.

"Ahhh, yeah yeah. I'll ring you in an hour" I reply before hanging up. I sit on the side of the bed and stare at one of the shoes I was wearing last night. I didn't drink enough to forget what happened, though I am regretting that now, but I drank enough where I am now dissociating into my thoughts. 

My phone ringing again snaps me out of it. I look down and see its Tanya. With slumped shoulders I go to pick it up, I love Tanya but I know she is about to tear me a new one. 

"Hello?" I whisper.

"Oh my god you're alive!" she yells into the phone. 

"What are you talking about T?" 

"I've been trying to get a hold of you since last night! you had me worried." So it was Tanya calling me. "Lilz, I was scared something happened to you. You left angry and by yourself I.. I'm glad you're ok" More memories of last night come flooding in. How Josh had reacted to Jackson's flirting, how Tanya had reacted, and that I had stormed out of there not before Jackson reached me and I- in my anger and stupidity- told him to meet me at the bar next door. I hit the side my head a few times to snap me out of it.

"I'm fine, just sleeping sorry to scare you" I reply with a sigh. 

"Lilz are we good? I know what happened yesterday was stupid but-" I cut her off before she can make any excuses for Josh's behavior because I know she will.

"T, no. Josh acting like I was stepping out on him was uncalled for, that was our first official date for fuck's sake! We are good, but please know I will not be going on another date with him" 

"Fair enough. Lilz what did Jackson say when he followed you out? he went back and left a bit after you, waving at us as he was leaving.." He did what now? that cocky motherfucker. I chuckle unconsciously "Lilz what did he say?" 

"He asked if I was leaving, I said yes. Then I left. end of story" I say as calmly as possible even though I am not calm. In fact I am freaking out as I can feel his hand on my shoulder and caressing my cheek. 

"Liliana, I know you that is not it, is it?" busted. 

"T I just woke up, I have to get my thoughts together before I can make sense of what happened last night. That was what he told me though, honest truth." 

"Ok, but Lilz I love you, you can trust me. I saw the way he was looking at you, even before I went to bring you back to the table, not in a creepy way but... never mind." 

"T, tell me" I say through gritted teeth. He had already seen me before I bumped into him, so was that his plan?

Tanya sighs loudly, and I swear I can hear the gears in her head working. "He had been watching you for a while before you bumped into him. Glances here or there, but they were.. full of of something, not creepy but more like yearning." 

"oh." was all I could say. 

"I'll be over around 6 so we can talk, I'll take chinese?" she says.

"Yeah see you later T, love you." I say as I hang up. 

What was going on, I didn't understand anything. I throw my head back and groan.