The Player

Chapter 14

Brielle

9:30 AM

I fiddled with my hands nervously as we sat in his convertible. An awkward silence filled the car around

us. Now that I realized how I felt, I couldn't act the same around him. I couldn't bicker with him without

turning beet red, and whenever he touched me even a little, I jumped in surprise. He had tried to make

conversation, but I had given him short answers, afraid that I would say something embarrassing. I was

second guessing everything that I did, and I hated it.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" he asked, taking his attention off the road for a second to

glance at me. I silently nodded my head yes, my face getting flushed once more. He shot me a weird

glance before turning towards the road again.

I settled on looking out the window instead, not wanting to embarrass myself anymore. I zoned out so

much that I didn't realize that we were at the restaurant until Christopher opened my car door for me,

waiting for me to get out.

I tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear, making eye contact with him before quickly looking down at

the ground. "You didn't have to do that."

He flashed me a pearly white smile that nearly took my breath away. "I know, but I like to act nice every

once in a while. Keep you on your toes."

Instead of doing my signature eye roll, I just nodded my head and began walking towards the entrance

of the restaurant.

It wasn't fair. He had never opened the door for me before, and now that I had decided that I liked him,

he wanted to be even more charming than usual?

His quick strides allowed him to get ahead of me and hold the door open. He placed his hand on the

small of my back, guiding me inside. It felt as if his hand was burning a hole into my skin, until I had no

other option but to brush his hand off me.

A look of hurt flashed across his face. However, before he could say anything, a waitress walked up to

us, interrupting him. She was a leggy blonde with platinum blonde hair and an impressive amount of

cleavage.

"Hey, how can I help you today?" she purred. While the question was supposed to be geared towards

the both of us, she seemed to only be asking Christopher.

"Just two," Christopher responded, flashing her a smile that made my heart sink. This was just one of

the many reasons why I shouldn't like Christopher. I could compare to any of the girls that were

constantly flirting with him. He dated girls like Melanie and the waitress, not girls like me. Based on his ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

previous ex's, I was willing to guess that my dull brown hair and murky brown eyes weren't exactly his

ideal type.

The waitress seemed to just realize that I was there, because she flashed me a dirty look before

leading us to a booth. She practically threw a menu at me before carefully placing one in front of

Christopher. As she did it, she bent down in front of him, practically shoving her chest into his face.

She leaned into his ear, whispering. "So what do you want to drink?"

My face grew hot. Even though me and Christopher weren't together, she didn't know that. I didn't

deserve to be treated like dirt just so that she could hit on him.

"I'll have a water," I interjected. Her head snapped towards me, annoyed. "And judging on how thirsty

you're acting, you might want one as well."

She cast me a shocked look before looking towards Christopher for support. He avoided her gaze,

looking anywhere but at her. His hand scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

She let out a huff, sending me one last glare, before stomping away from us. Once she was out of

earshot, we busted out laughing. As I sifted through the menu, I looked up at him to see that he was

staring at me.

"What?" I giggled.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I was just wondering if you were jealous."

A blush quickly crept up my cheeks. "I was not jealous!" I protested defensively. If he thought that I was

jealous, then he would know that I had feelings for him, which could never happen.

He looked at me knowingly. "Then why did you snap on her like that?"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I just didn't appreciate being ignored."

"If you say so."

A new waiter came up to us with two glasses of water and set them down on our table. The previous

waitress must have made him switch with her, because he was now taking out order. When I handed

Christopher my menu to give to him after we were done ordering, our hands brushed against each

other's. I had never felt the sparks that people had described, but if I had to guess, I would imagine that

it felt like the jolt of electricity that shot up my arm as our hands connected.

I quickly recoiled my arm away from his. In my rush, my hand knocked over the glass of water in front

of me, spilling ice-cold water onto my white shirt. I let a sharp breath in, my body shocked at the

freezing water.

"This seems to always keep happening to you." He joked, trying to cheer me up. His attempts only

made me more annoyed, because they made me crush on him even harder.

"I know right," I nervously laughed, getting up and wringing my shirt. "I'm just going to use the

bathroom." I quickly scrambled to the restroom, keeping my head down as I went.

Thankfully, when I entered it was empty. I leaned my head against the cold mirror, cooling down my

flushed face.

Calm down Brielle.

I quickly splashed some water on my face before addressing the large spill on my shirt. I stood under

one of the blow dryers, allowing it to dry up the spill. While I waited I typed in Sam's number, hoping

that she would pick up.

After the fourth ring she answered. The background was noisy to the point where I could barely hear

her. After a while the background noise became softer and softer until she began to speak.

"Hey, what's up?" she questioned.

I tucked my hair behind my ears, before resting my forehead in the palm of my hand. "You were right," I

admitted, letting out a sigh. "I have a crush on Christopher."

A fit of squealing busted out from her side of the line followed by a round of claps. "I knew it, I knew it."

She said in a sing-sing voice. "You should tell him!"

"Are you serious, Sam? I had a crush on Tommy for six months and I never told him. There is no way

that I'm saying a word." I sat down on the floor, the damp patch on my shirt now forgotten.

"It doesn't matter anyway because I'm can't date him. Especially not after Derrick." Sam let out an

audible sigh on the other end of the phone.

"Brielle, I get that he was your ex and he hurt you, but you have to stop letting what happened between

you two affect you now. He doesn't deserve to have that much power over you."

"That's easy for you to say. You didn't have to listen to someone tear you down time after time again."

My voice cracked, as all the raw emotions I tried to repress rose back up. I quickly pushed them back

down before continuing. "I just can't go through that again."

"But do you really think that Christopher would do that to you?"

The truth is, I didn't know. If you asked me this a month ago, I would have said yes. But the Christopher

around me was always sweet and funny, and I could never imagine him being anything like Derrick. But

that voice in the back of my head kept on reminding me that guys like Derrick always seemed that way,

until they weren't.

"I didn't think that Derrick would do that either but look what happened."

"Brielle." She said sternly. "You and I both know that Christopher wouldn't do that to you. He really likes

you."

My voice grew quiet. "As a friend."

"You don't know that."

"He literally said that he only though of me as a friend earlier today after he told me that him and

Melanie broke up because of me."

She paused for a second. "So, let me get this straight, he broke up with his girlfriend over you and you

seriously still think that he doesn't like you?"

"Well..." I trailed off, not really knowing how to respond. I didn't really think of it like that.

"You're so clueless sometimes." She groaned. "Has anything else weird between you two happened

today?"

"Well," I said, racking my brain for anything useful. "He kept on holding open doors for me, and he

totally ignored this desperate waitress." My voice began to trail off. "And I may or may not have

straddled him today."

She paused for a second. "And after all of this you still think that he doesn't like you?"

"But what if he doesn't. I don't think that I could handle being rejected."

"Well then we'll make sure that he likes you without Christopher knowing that you like him."

"And how do you plan to do this?"

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes through the phone.

"Duh, you're going to seduce him."