Chapter 31: Would You Let Me?

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Would You Let Me?

The rest of the afternoon training session was absolute torture.

Audrey usually loved watching the pitch. She usually tracked the formations, wrote down tactical notes, and bantered with Ben. Today, she just stared at her blank clipboard. She didn’t write a single word.

Out on the grass, Mason wasn’t doing much better.

He was the captain. He was the anchor of the defense. But today, he was completely distracted. He missed a simple interception. He sent a pass out of bounds. He didn’t yell orders at the midfield.

Coach Miller finally blew the whistle sharply.

"Calloway!" Coach barked, echoing across the stadium. "Are you sleeping standing up? Get your head in the game!"

Mason rubbed the back of his neck, muttering a quick apology. He didn’t look toward the touchline once.

Audrey felt a knot tighten in her stomach. He was thinking about last night. He was trying to remember. She could see the frustration rolling off his shoulders.

When Coach Miller finally blew the final whistle to end the session, Audrey didn’t linger.

Usually, she waited for the team to clear out. Usually, she packed up slowly, letting the chaos of the locker room fade before she walked back to the journalism building.

Not today.

She shoved her clipboard into her bag, zipped it up with frantic speed, and started walking fast toward the exit tunnel. She just needed to escape. She just needed to get back to her dorm and lock the door.

"Ellis."

The voice was quiet, but it carried perfectly through the empty stadium.

Audrey froze.

Her hand gripped the strap of her bag so hard her knuckles turned white. She closed her eyes for one brief second, taking a shaky breath, before turning around.

The rest of the team had already disappeared into the locker room. The pitch was completely empty.

Except for Mason.

He was standing a few yards away, still in his sweaty training kit. He had a towel draped around his neck, and he looked incredibly tense. He wasn’t smiling.

"...Yeah?" Audrey asked, keeping her voice as steady as possible.

He hesitated.

That alone was unusual. Mason Calloway never hesitated. He was arrogant, he was decisive, and he always spoke his mind. Seeing him stand there, genuinely unsure of what to say, made Audrey’s heart beat painfully against her ribs.

"Did..." Mason started.

He stopped, pulling the towel off his neck and rubbing the back of his neck with a heavy hand.

"...Did I do anything stupid?" he finally asked.

Audrey immediately knew what he was asking. He wasn’t asking about the library door. He wasn’t asking about stumbling on the pavement.

She desperately tried to escape the conversation.

"You were drunk, Calloway," Audrey said quickly, forcing a light, dismissive laugh. "It’s fine. Forget about it."

She took a step backward toward the tunnel.

"That wasn’t my question," Mason said. His voice was firm.

Audrey stopped.

She looked at him. His dark eyes were fixed on her, completely serious. He wasn’t going to let her brush it off. He wasn’t going to just let it go. He needed to know.

The silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating in the cool evening air.

Audrey swallowed hard. She couldn’t lie to him. Not when he was looking at her like that.

"...You kissed me."

Mason’s face went completely, utterly blank.

It wasn’t embarrassment. It wasn’t denial or panic. It was pure, unadulterated shock.

He stood perfectly still, processing the words.

"...I did?" Mason breathed, his voice barely a whisper.

Audrey nodded once. She didn’t trust herself to speak again.

Mason just stood there. He looked down at the grass. He looked at his cleats. He looked anywhere but at her.

When he finally looked back up, the regret in his eyes was so genuine it actually hurt to look at.

"...I’m sorry."

He didn’t make an excuse. He didn’t try to play it off as a joke. He just apologized, and he genuinely meant it.

Audrey let out a long, quiet sigh. The tension in her shoulders dropped a fraction.

"I know you didn’t mean to," Audrey said softly. "You were completely out of it. It’s okay."

"That doesn’t matter," Mason interrupted.

Audrey blinked, surprised by the sharpness in his tone.

He took a step closer, looking directly into her eyes. There was no trace of the lazy, teasing captain left.

"I don’t want to be the kind of man who touches someone without them wanting me to," Mason said.

The absolute sincerity in his voice hit Audrey straight in the chest.

It told her exactly who Mason Calloway was. He wasn’t just the popular athlete who took what he wanted. He was a guy who was genuinely horrified at the thought of crossing a line and making her uncomfortable.

Audrey looked at him for a long moment. She felt the last of her panic completely melt away.

"Then don’t," Audrey said simply.

Mason waited, listening intently.

"Don’t touch me unless you have my permission," Audrey told him, her voice steady and clear.

Mason nodded immediately.

"...Okay."

There was no argument. There were no excuses. There were no "but I was drunk" or "but we are fake dating."

He just accepted the boundary. Immediately and completely.

The heavy, awful awkwardness that had been suffocating Audrey all day finally lifted. They had addressed it. He apologized. She set the rule. It was over. They could finally go back to normal.

She adjusted the strap of her bag, ready to turn and walk away.

Then...

After a long, thick silence...

Mason quietly spoke again.

"...Can I ask something?"

Audrey stopped. She looked back up at him. "What?"

Mason didn’t answer right away. He was staring at her. His eyes dropped briefly to her lips, then flicked back up to her eyes.

"If I asked..." Mason started.

He stopped. He took a slow breath, grounding himself.

Then, he started again.

"...Would you let me?"

Complete silence fell over the pitch.

The empty stadium suddenly felt much too large. The distant sound of traffic faded away. The air between them completely changed, instantly charged with an electric, terrifying energy.

Audrey’s heart started racing. It beat so fast she felt it in her throat.

Because suddenly... he was no longer talking about the drunken mistake. He was no longer apologizing for last night.

He was asking about right now.

Sober.

Present.

Audrey understood exactly what he meant.

It was the most vulnerable thing he had ever said. It stripped away all the jokes, all the teasing, all the comfortable layers of their arrangement.

Audrey stared up at him. Her mouth was dry. Her mind was entirely blank.

She tried to find an answer. She tried to find a sarcastic remark. She tried to say no.

She couldn’t.

Because she didn’t actually know the answer herself.

Panic flared in her chest. It was too fast. It was too real.

She took a sharp step backward, putting distance between them.

"We’re fake dating," Audrey blurted out.

It was a weak deflection. It was a terrible excuse. But it was the only shield she had left.

She didn’t wait for his reaction. She didn’t give him a chance to respond.

She turned around and practically ran toward the tunnel, her sneakers slapping loudly against the concrete.

She left Mason standing completely alone on the empty pitch.

He didn’t call after her. He didn’t try to follow.

He just watched her disappear into the shadows of the stadium, standing quietly with his own question hanging heavily in the cold evening air.