Single, Available, and Completely Attached by Michelle Brewer Page A

the middle.
    “We missed the anthem?”   Anna asked as they settled in.   The players were already scurrying around on the field.
    “I knew the show was going to run over anyway.”  
    Though she had absolutely zero interest in football, Anna couldn’t exactly ignore what was happening in front of her.   She watched quietly for a long while, and soon, she found she was trying to understand everything that was happening while the crowd roared around her.  
    Finally, she couldn’t stand it.
    “How do they know when to give the ball to the other team?   I get the whole interception thing—that’s obvious.   But why don’t they just keep going until someone steals it?   Or until they score or whatever?”   She dreaded looking up at Drew, knowing before she did that smug expression would be written all over his face.  
    “I thought you didn’t want to learn.”   Anna rolled her eyes.
    “Yeah, yeah.   You know you’re dying to tell me everything you know.   Just answer my question.”
    “They have four chances to make it ten yards.   If they can’t do it, they turn the ball over.   If they do , then they get another four chances.”
    “Well, that’s dumb.   They should just keep going until someone steals the ball.   Isn’t that how it is in every other sport?”   Drew laughed beside her, dropping his head as he shook it.   She watched his shoulders shake for several moments and when he looked up, his eyes were shining even brighter than they normally did.  
    “Oh, Annabelle.   I’m so glad you came with me.”   Though she feigned annoyance—rolling her eyes and shaking her head at him—she was beginning to share the sentiment.   When she had agreed to join him tonight, she had done it mostly out of a combination of guilt and spite.   Deep down, she couldn’t help but feel that she may have been the reason Jeff had canceled on Drew.   And then when he’d basically told her she was boring…she couldn’t let him be right.
    But now that she was here, surrounded by the cheering crowd, there was something electric in the air.   It was impossible not to get swept up in it—even though, logically, she knew that football was a barbaric sport and something she would never be able to understand.
    Drew wasn’t bad company, either.   She enjoyed the way he encouraged her to cheer along with him, or how he would tell her quick little stories about the players or previous games, or how, after she had opened the door and asked her first question, he would tell her what was happening so that she didn’t have to ask.  
    Anna was enjoying herself in a way she hadn’t in quite some time.
    “So I have another question.”   She admitted sometime near the end of the game.   She knew it was a stupid question, and she knew he was going to laugh at her—which was half the reason she had decided to ask it.  
    “By the time we get home tonight, you’re going to know everything you need to know to be a professional fan.”
    She shook her head as she rubbed her hands together, breathing into them.   Even through her gloves, she couldn’t seem to get warm.   “So why did they just kick the ball?   Aren’t they supposed to keep trying to get down to the touchdown zone?”
    She was right.   Drew laughed—and he laughed, and he laughed a little more.
    Then he was looking down at her with the most genuine smile on his face.  
    And Anna realized that this was the first time she could definitively say she’d seen Drew happy.   It was the first time he’d finally let go of the façade he wore so well.  
    She decided then that she could trust him—that he wasn’t playing games with her, and that they really could be friends.
    It took everything she had not to reach up and touch her lips to his cheek, she was so overcome with joy.   “Well?”   She asked finally, cupping her hands together and breathing into them again just to keep herself busy.
    “The touchdown zone?”
    “Where