Joey stumbled into her apartment seven hours later with a nice buzz and two cartons of Ben and Jerry’s. She kicked her shoes off and then nudged the door shut with her foot before padding the rest of the way into her apartment. She tossed her purse and her keys on the wooden table by the door. She headed for the kitchen where bright light assaulted her eyes bouncing off shiny appliances she hardly used. Bodie would be disappointed.

She set the ice cream on the table, pulled the lid off one, and put the other in the freezer. She grabbed a spoon from the dish rack and stuck it into the ice cream. She had run the gauntlet of emotions since that dumb truck of ice cream had been delivered. Hurt, confusion and after the alcohol when they went to the bar, she had settled on irritation. Just who did he think he was?

She swallowed an angry spoonful of ice cream and walked into the living room, prepared to settle in with some television when the light on her answering machine caught her eye. She pressed play and froze when she heard Pacey’s voice.

“Hey Joey,” there was a long pause, “it’s Pacey. I, uh, just wanted to make sure you got your delivery. They said they’d get it to you by five, and it’s, uh, six now...but you aren’t home. So maybe you didn’t get it.” Another pause, “Maybe you did get it and you are there and just don’t want to listen to my voice. I don’t blame you.”

He inhaled slowly, “I’m sorry, Joey. If I’d known you were going to leave, I wouldn’t have let you leave with things the way they were between us.” A sigh, “I went to your room that night,” he admitted, “After you talked to me in the locker room...what you said made me rethink everything.”

“I had things I wanted to say. Things that I needed to make you understand. Things to apologize for....I--” He sighed, “Things that can’t be left on an answering machine.”

“Give me a call when you get this message, the number is 555-3416.I...just call me, please?”

She frowned; her finger hovered over the erase button. She contemplated deleting it for a long while and instead, pressed rewind and re-played the message. With heated fervor, she set the container of ice cream down and reached for the phone. What she was going to do was give him a piece of her mind!

“Hello?” Pacey’s familiar voice, husky and low came through the line, having picked up after just one ring.

Joey’s mouth turned to cotton at the sound, but she tried to push that feeling away and attempted to hold onto her indignation. “Don’t call me anymore!” she snapped.

“Joey....” He sat up, suddenly wide-awake after hours of waiting on the phone. “You got my message.”

Her words were terse and abrupt. “Lose my number and I don’t want your stupid ice cream!”

He frowned, “You’ve been drinking, haven’t you?” There was an almost imperceptible slur of her S’s.

“You can’t just send me ice cream,” she continued ignoring him. “I don’t want it. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I promised you,” he said simply. “Listen, Joey. I want to fix this, fix us.”

“There’s nothing to fix. There is no us.”

“There would have been if I hadn’t screwed up.”

She eyed the phone wearily. “What’s your point?”

“My point is....I--” He chickened out, “I want to be with you.”

“Too bad.”

“Is there any way you can give me a chance when I come back to Boston?” He pled.

“No.”

“Please.” It wasn’t a word he was used to saying, and he meant it. In the days since she’d been gone, he’d come to realize just how miserable his life was without her.

“I can’t.” She swallowed. “I deserve better.”

“Joey,” his voice was pained, “I never meant anything that I said back there. You have to know that.” He bit his lip, “I know I hurt you, but please...give me another chance. It won’t ever happen again. I swear.”

She almost choked on her next words. “I can’t, Pacey. I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“I know I hurt you,” He said, his voice hoarse. “Let me try and fix it. Please.”

“Please don’t,” she whispered quietly almost on the verge of tears. “Just leave me alone.”

“I can’t, Joey,” He replied, “I miss you.”

“Joey, I need you.”

She winced. He was killing her. “Goodbye Pacey,” she said quickly and hung up.

Pacey listened to the dial tone for a few long moments before turning the phone off. That hadn’t gone well. Why couldn’t he just say the words? They were sitting on the tip of his tongue, just waiting to be said...and they just wouldn’t come.

“I love you.” They were easy enough to say when she wasn’t around. He let his gaze pass around the room. The completely trashed hotel room. It reflected how he felt. Oh God, how he needed her in his life. Where once everything seemed to glitter, his life appeared so dull.

For the first time in his life, he didn’t want to play ball. Joey took his love of the game with her when she took his heart.