Play With Me by Marian Tee

of it had her gritting her teeth. Damn Silver March for being so idiotically possessive.
    Silver: What are you guys doing now?
    Lace: It’s the last thirty minutes of our practice then we’ve got the rest of the day free.
    Under her, Ivan demanded irritably, “Why the hell are you groaning, Coach? It’s not like you’re the one doing push-ups with a girl weighing like a ton on his back.”
    “A ton, huh?” She clenched her abs, allowing her to rest more weight on the team captain’s back.
    Ivan groaned.  
    “That should teach you. Also—” She checked her watch. “You’ve got one more minute to go.” Her phone buzzed.
    Silver: Can I call you right now?
    “Umm, on second thought, I think you’ve learned your lesson so we’re done for now.” Lace jumped off Ivan’s back and she pretended not to notice the way the team captain collapsed on the floor mat. Ha-ha. Overacting asshole. He should have gone for drama club instead.
    Her fingers tightened around her phone as she walked away from the boys. It was the first time he had asked if he could call her. Of course she was going to say no…next time. This time, she would just…take pity on Silver. He was probably lonely, being all alone in Europe with no one to talk to.
    Lace: Sure.
    Her phone started to ring almost immediately, making Lace jump.
    Across the gym, heads turned towards her.
    “What?” she asked defensively.
    Alexio smirked. “Weren’t you the one who said not to bring phones with us when we’re working out?”
    She was, so she snarled instead, “Mind your own business.” Hurrying further away since everyone in the team seemed to have supersonic hearing, she camped by one of the window nooks, leaning against the edge and tucking her legs under her. Lace cleared her throat several times before answering the phone. “Hello?” Shit. Her voice still sounded breathless.
    Lace could hear the grin in Silver’s voice as he said, “I miss you.”
    “Ah.” No way in fucking hell would she say something as mushy as “I miss you” right now. She might as well hand in her resignation letter if she did. The boys would never let her hear the end of it.
    “You can say ‘yes’ if you miss me back.”
    She hesitated then mumbled, “Yeah.”
    Lace heard Silver expel his breath over the phone as if he had been holding it the whole time. “You just don’t know, Wyndham.” It was unusual for Silver to mutter, but he was doing it right now. Normally, he talked like Prince Charming, eloquent and arrogant even when he was whispering dirty nothings in her ear.
    The change in his voice had her heart taking the embarrassing ba-ba-ba-thuuuuuuump route again, and she couldn’t stop her voice from turning husky as she asked, “What don’t I know?”
    He said simply, “How much you own me.”
    Ah, damn. That was like an arrow that hit her straight in the heart. She could feel her cheeks flushing, her body softening, her damn stupid toes curling inside her signed pair of Black Mambas. She closed her eyes, willing herself to think about a new play. Any play. But it was no use. Instead of her boys, she just saw Silver, and it was terrifying. Basketball was all she planned to do in her life, and relationships had never figured in the equation until Silver. It was like being trained for parachute jumping and then suddenly finding herself thrown in the deep end of the ocean, and only Silver could teach her how to swim.
    She said feelingly, “I hate you, March. I fucking hate you.”
    A silvery laugh. “I love you, too, Wyndham.”
    Lace almost dropped the phone. “That wasn’t what I said!”
    “It was, you just said it in a different way.” A mix of exasperation and amusement tinged his tone as he said, “I never thought I’d have to teach my girlfriend about the basic things in life, but here you go, Wyndham. Lesson one: hate is not the opposite of love. It’s indifference.”
    Her shoulders slumped. Of course she knew that. She wasn’t stupid. It