“I’ll go with you.” She grins, her eyes going soft. “I’ll go anywhere with you.”
I smile, pulling her mouth down to mine. I kiss her softly. Gratefully. Grateful that she’s here, that she’s mine, that she’s willing to slum it in my shoebox apartment with mismatched sheets and only two towels. I’ll give her the gray one, the good one. I’ll give her the best of everything I have, and even though I know none of it will ever be half as good as what she can give herself, it means something to me to try. To take care of her in any way I can.
She is my friend. She is my family. My first, last, and only love.
She’s all I need.
November 6th
CenturyLink Field
Seattle, WA
“Fuck the northwest,” I grumble, pulling my coat tighter.
Hollis glares at me from under his thick knit cap. “You’re the one who said we had to be here.”
“We do. We’re being supportive.”
“Of who? The Kodiaks are kicking their ass! They don’t need us here for that.”
The crowd surrounding the concession stand turns, every one of them dressed in Seahawks green and blue. They are not happy with us.
I give them a small smile.
“You’re going to get us killed,” I warn Hollis quietly.
“Oh yeah, because they were in love with us after your ‘fuck the northwest’ comment.”
“Stop talking and give me your gloves.”
“You’ll have to kill me first.”
“Don’t think I won’t.” I bounce up and down on my toes, trying to stay warm. “I need coffee. They can poor it over my bare hands.”
“We could be drinking coffee in the skybox,” Hollis grumbles under his breath.
I reach behind me to smack him hard. “Don’t you start that shit,” I hiss. “You promised you’d stop.”
“I lied,” he hisses back.
“Joining with Berny is the smartest thing we ever did.”
“I’m not arguing that. What I’m arguing is that we gave up a lot. A lot.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I lost my home. Brad kicked me out of my apartment—“
“His apartment,”
“—and made me go live on the streets because we quit.”
He rolls his eyes. “You live in a nice townhouse in a good neighborhood.”
“Yeah, at street level.” I take a deep breath, slowing myself down. Calming the anger and hurt that tears through my veins when I talk about Brad. When I talk about my dad.
I knew it wouldn’t go over well, me leaving. I knew he’d be angry. But I didn’t know he’d stop talking to me. That he’d evict me from my apartment and ban me from his house. I’m not even allowed to go there to see Mom. Now I’m forced to visit with her on spa days and brunches that go on for hours. It’s a cunning punishment he’s devised. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so fucking annoyed.
I lower my voice, swallowing my hurt. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay? It’s done. We’re not going to the skybox. We’re staying down here and dying of frostbite together.”
“Just as the old gypsy woman foretold,” he intones.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” He shoves me forward in line. “I still don’t know why we’re here.”
“We have three clients on the team.”
“Kurtis doesn’t care if I’m here.”
“Well, Colt cares if I am. He had a shit agent before who was never there for him. It’s important to him that I am now.”
“What about Trey? Why isn’t Berny here?”
“Because Berny has a time share.”
Hollis scoffs. “What the hell kind of excuse is that?”
“A warm one.” I shiver violently. “It’s in Hawaii.”
“You know who owns a house in Hawaii?”
“Bob Newhart?”
“You’re adorable,” he replies dryly. “The Ashf—“
“Fuck you,” I snap. “You think I don’t know the agency has a house there? I spent Christmas with the Mannings there two years ago. I’m well aware. Let it go.”
“Oh God,” he groans unhappily.
“What now?”
“Look at the TV.”
I glance up at one of the TVs hanging from the ceiling, broadcasting the game. We’re almost through halftime and all of the announcers have finished their pontifications. They’ve gone to commercial.
They’ve gone to a very familiar commercial.
“Not again,” I sigh.
It’s a commercial for Dairy Queen. It starts out innocent enough. It’s zoomed in on the handsome face of Colt Avery and those hypnotic blue eyes of his. His look is intense. Angry. Behind him is a rain of candy, because why wouldn’t there be one while a guy is hate fucking the camera with his eyes? Gummy bears and worms, chunks of chocolate bars, M&Ms cascading down. The camera pans out to find him topless. Oh and hey, there’s Tyus. He’s also topless. And angry. And Trey. Topless. Angry.
The camera stops pulling away just shy of showing their junk and we find each of them holding a plain vanilla cup of ice cream. The announcer, who sounds like a knockoff Samuel L. Jackson, speaks up.
“The new Triple Threat Blizzard at Dairy Queen. You choose three flavors in one bursting Blizzard.”