Anderson walked out of the Michigan State University student bookstore wearing a brand-new t-shirt, sweatshirt, and a baseball hat. Carrying his bag of Spartan gear and the shirt he wore on the plane, Anderson studied the buildings of downtown East Lansing as we walked toward Erickson Hall and the site of my tailgate.
I laughed as he pointed the large green and white foam finger at one of the large white corporate tailgates. It had occurred to me about midway into our shopping trip that he may have been trying to find just the right gear to blend in. I waited to tell him that it didn’t matter what he wore; we would accept him in Spartan country no matter what.
“I can’t believe you didn’t want one of these.” He held up the foam finger.
“That’s all you, my friend.”
“Are there always this many people here this early?”
“GO WHITE!” I yelled as we walked by another rowdy group of tailgaters. “There may be a few more people because of homecoming, but it’s pretty much always like this.”
We walked the rest of the way to my tailgate location in silence. The fact that we were in Michigan, going to the game, and he was here with me was just beginning to sink in. I stole a glance in his direction and took a deep breath, realizing my growing feelings were at a level that I could hardly suppress.
He pulled his hat down over his eyes. The clerk at the bookstore had gasped when she turned to see him. When he went to the bathroom, she asked if he was real. I laughed it off, but her question was a valid one. Could he really be this good-looking, kind, and into me?
“JURNEE!”
Anderson stepped protectively in front of me. I wrapped my arms around him from behind and looked up. He slowly lowered his lips to within an inch of mine, pausing before giving me a gentle kiss. Everything faded away and I was left with Anderson overwhelming all my senses. It was not lost on me that I was beginning to feel a new sense of contentment when I was with him.
As we stood on the campus, I wanted to be somewhere else. Somewhere alone with this man that had come into my life in such a strange way, but that now I couldn’t get enough of.
With his lips hovering over mine, I smiled. “These are my people, but thank you for being my big, sexy protector.”
“Sexy, huh?”
“No doubt, and you already know it.”
“I was wondering when you were going to see it.” He winked.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed the hand that wasn’t shoved into a foam finger and pulled him toward my friends. “Time to get our tailgate on.”
“Floyd said you weren’t coming, but I knew better.” My second longest tailgate friend, Daryl came strolling toward us with a couple red solo cups in his hand. “I’m Daryl. Go Green!”
“Thanks, Anderson Douglas.”
“Go white.” I nudged Anderson, who chuckled as I continued. “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to fly back.”
“One might even call it spontaneous,” Anderson said into the cup so only I could hear him. “What is this?”
“Happy Harvest Rum Punch.” Daryl pulled up his pants that were covered with an oversized MSU logo. He looked back at the tailgate area. “Deegan showed up, and he brought someone.”
I felt Anderson’s stare and controlled my response, “He came to my tailgate with a date?”
Daryl nodded. Anderson said nothing, but I knew he was measuring my reaction.
“Well, that was kind of him, wasn’t it?” I chugged the drink Daryl had handed me and was ready for a refill. Something told me this was going to be one of those several refills type of tailgate. I headed for the site. “Is the food ready?”
“There’s food too?” The excitement in Anderson’s face reassured me that this had been a good idea.
“Where are you from?” Daryl stopped and turned toward us.
“New York City.”
“Ah. That makes sense.” Daryl continued to lead us to the party. “Hey, everyone. This is Anderson, Jurnee’s friend. He’s from New York, so let’s show him how we tailgate here in East Lansing.”
Floyd and Elena were the first to greet us. Elena pulled me in for a hug, “Girl, he is one fine piece–”
“He’s nice.” Squeezing her hard, I caught Floyd introducing Anderson to my tribe with Deegan watching him from the opposite side of the spot. There was a petite blond happily chatting away on his lap as locked his gaze on me.
Deegan had been the closest thing to a boyfriend I had since leaving college. Although, boyfriend is a strong word. For two years, Deegan and I did the whole ‘couple’ thing. But when someone called him my boyfriend at my birthday party two years ago, he laughed and said I wasn’t girlfriend material. That didn’t explain why the hell he was here.
Lansing was a very small town and seeing him around had been tough. I had spent the two years since we were together searching for why I wasn’t exactly relationship material. Old doubts about myself arose upon seeing him but disappeared when Anderson wrapped his arms around me. This man is way more than I dared hope for. How am I going to not mess this up?
“I guess we have to get this over with. Ready?”
Anderson nodded and grabbed my hand. “You lead. I’ll follow.”
We stepped over to Deegan and his date. I extended my hand to the girl. Her smile slipped as she looked up at us.
“Hi. I’m Jurnee, and this is Anderson.” Anderson gave her a nod. “Anderson, this is Deegan. I’m sorry. I don’t know your name.”
“Hailey.” She announced as she bounced up and down on Deegan’s lap. Her words slurred as she continued, “Nice to meet you.”
“Jurnee,” Deegan said, but his eyes were on Anderson.
“Deegan, thanks for coming to my tailgate.”
His gaze returned to me. He took a drink and said, “They said you weren’t going to be here.”
“I couldn’t have her miss seeing her favorite team’s homecoming.” Anderson winked as I looked up at him. “You mentioned food. Shall we?”
“Of course.” I tugged at him to follow me, “You guys have fun. Hailey, very nice to meet you.”
We spent the rest of the tailgate on the opposite side to Deegan and Hailey. Anderson ate so much food that he blamed it for us losing the corn hole game. Elena and I started to clean up the food while the guys started the next game.
Elena was my best friend at work. I introduced her to Floyd at a tailgate a few years ago, and they had been the cutest couple since. At first, she wouldn’t go out with him because she thought I had feelings for him. Floyd and I both stated we were more like siblings, and I encouraged her to go on a date.
Elena smiled, “He’s really cute. Like, beautiful.”
I stopped packing food into the cooler and looked over at Anderson chatting it up with Floyd and Daryl. “He’s pretty good looking, isn’t he?”
Anderson glanced over at me, and a smile spread across his face. I returned the smile and went back to packing up the food.
“He’s been watching you the entire time. Are you guys together?” She asked while folding the tablecloth. “Okay. Dumb question. Of course you are. You brought him home with you.”
I froze. Panic spread through me like a California wildfire in August. “Elena, I hadn’t thought about the fact that I brought him home.”
“Girl, breathe.”
“We aren’t together. I mean, he’s here, and we have been spending some time together, but we haven’t talked about being in a relationship.”
“Guess what, he agreed to come to Michigan. I think you guys are in more of a relationship than you might think.”
Anderson’s words ‘I don’t date’ replayed in my mind. I cringed at the realization that our practice dating had taken on a real dating feel. That thought and the two cups of tailgate punch made me feel light-headed, and I grabbed for the edge of the table to steady myself.
“Hey, are you okay?” The concern in her voice took me off guard. “Sit down. Right here.”
Anderson was standing over me be
fore my ass hit the chair. “What’s wrong?”
“It looked like she was going to fall,” Elena answered.
“I’m fine.” I tried to stand up, but both of them insisted I remain seated for a few minutes. “I need to break this place down if we’re going to get to the seats before kickoff.”
“We can break it down.” Elena placed her hands on her hips. “Floyd, it’s time to wrap this up.”
Ten minutes later, Floyd insisted on taking care of everything and sent Anderson and me to the stadium, not before I witnessed Anderson trying to hand Floyd some money for the tailgate.
I smiled momentarily when Floyd declared, “Man, your money isn’t good here. Just come back.”
My heart sank. He wasn’t coming back. Anderson and I were practice dating.
18
Anderson
The stadium seats filled as the players warmed up on the field. Sparty, Michigan State’s mascot, marched around the sidelines, getting the fans hyped as Jurnee chatted with the couple next to her. She laughed at something, and the light in her face was spectacular.
But Jurnee’s seats were awful. I decided season tickets, in a better section, would be a solid congratulations gift when she signed on the dotted line of her new partnership. Suddenly, the idea of Jurnee being able to return to Michigan for all the Michigan State games sounded like an impossibility.
She leaned in and whispered into my ear. “Thank you for agreeing to come with me.”
“Thank you for inviting me. I didn’t understand what a big deal this is for you until I saw you here.”
“This–” she stood and waved her hands across the stadium, “–is a huge deal to me. Having you experience it is pretty cool too.”
“Are you telling me the secret to your heart is attending a Michigan football game with you?”
“Michigan State!” Jurnee, the two people in front of us, and the couple next to her all shouted.
I raised my hands to surrender. “Michigan State game. My mistake. It will never happen again.”
“Look, Anderson, I can’t ensure your safety if you make that type of mix up again. And, yes, one road to my heart is definitely MSU football.”
The crowd cheered at something on the field, drowning out my words. “Shit.”
Safety. I hadn’t given the safety of this trip a second thought. Hired as a driver almost a decade ago, Markus took over all aspects of my security after preventing an amateur kidnapping attempt. Growing up, I understood the need for a security detail around me after my parents left the country. It bothered me as a grown man that I would always have a bodyguard with me and a couple of plain-clothed units with a close vicinity.
Markus. Shit. I pulled out my cell phone and typed out a quick text.
Anderson - Something funny happened.
Markus - I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU ARE?
Anderson - Keep in mind, you work for me!
Markus - YOUR DAD PAYS BETTER! WHERE R U?
Anderson - Michigan. Football game.
Markus - U R FKING JOKING
Anderson - We’re fine. With Jurnee.
Markus - NOT ALWAYS UR CALL
Anderson - I’m fine. It’s Michigan.
Markus - WHAT TIME R U COMING IN
Anderson - Flew commercial
Markus - WHAT
Markus - R U FKNG ME
Anderson - Can you ask Martin to book me a flight back for two tomorrow? Commercial.
Markus - I’D PREFER TO SEND THE PLANE
Anderson - Commercial.
“Everything all right?” Jurnee and I stood as a couple of junior high boys crossed in front of us. I slid my phone into my jean’s pocket and flashed her a photo-ready smile.
An explosion went off, and I ducked. Jurnee grabbed my arm and pointed to the opposite end of the stadium as smoke billowed out of the opening. Sparty ran out, followed closely by the football players and coaches.
“Don’t need to fake smile with me. It’s totally cool if the reality isn’t as spectacular as the image I described.” Jurnee and everyone else in the stadium stood and cheered. In a stadium of thousands of people, I felt exposed yet anonymous. It was freeing.
The crowd broke out in song. Jurnee sang at the top of her lungs. This moment was the happiest I’d ever seen her. Morgan Financial Holdings was offering her a multi-store partnership. She would be living in the best city in the world, but it was a local college football game that made this woman glow. Who are you, Jurnee Messer?
We spent the rest of the game trying to see the action on the field from her seats, talking shit about both teams, and breaking out in the fight song. By the time we made it back to the tailgate area, I was surprisingly well-versed in Michigan State history and told to come back anytime.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said to Floyd when we finished unloading all the equipment into Jurnee’s garage. I pulled out my wallet to try again, “I’d like to contribute to the tailgate.”
“Dude, put your money away. I already told you, your money is no good here. We do this because we love it.” Floyd closed the garage. “The best way to pay me is to come back and cheer our Spartans to another victory. Oh and take care of our girl in that big city of yours. She acts tough, but things haven’t always been easy for her, you know.”
The back door opened as Elena and Jurnee exited the house, laughing.
Floyd looked over at me, “You know they were talking about me, don’t you?”
“Well, of course they were. You’re the most interesting person I’ve run into since I arrived in Michigan.”
“That has to be the truest fact I’ve heard in a long time,” Floyd replied with a chuckle. He leaned down and kissed Elena. “Ready to take me home and do that victory sex stuff?”
Elena rolled her eyes, but the smile that spread across her face said it all. “It was a pleasure tailgating with the two of you today. Glad you guys made the trip.”
“Anderson, you’re a stand-up guy.” He accepted my hand and pulled me in for a man hug. “Next time, come in early, and we’ll do dinner the night before. We can show you around the campus so you can begin to understand the magic that is MSU.”
“Deal.”
“Jurnee, you be careful in that Big Apple.” She looked at me and grinned as her friend hugged her. “We expect you to figure your shit out in time to be at the next Michigan State game. Three weeks, Jurnee.”
“Come on, Floyd.” Elena embraced Jurnee and whispered something in her ear that I couldn’t hear, but I noticed the full-on blush that fell over Jurnee’s face.
“Can I see your house now?” I whispered as her friends drove down the street.
“I tried to tell you on the plane that my house is nothing special.” She had been adamant that we could stay in a hotel, so I’d be more comfortable.
Reluctantly, she led me through the backdoor into a tiny but charming kitchen. The counters were granite, and the cabinets were a blonde wood. The kitchen sink looked out to the backyard. Two steps into the house, and it was obvious Jurnee’s house was like her. It was warm, cozy, and welcoming.
The tour didn’t take long, but as we entered and exited each room, I felt like I was learning a lot more about the woman that I had flown to Michigan with. Monet prints hanging on the living room walls balanced the Spartan decor that filled her second bedroom converted into a small office.
“Give me two minutes.” Jurnee requested as I looked around her bedroom.
One wall in her bedroom was of particular interest. There was an ‘I ♥ NYC’ sign surrounded by cut-out images of New York tacked in clusters. As I stood taking it all in, I realized it was a wall-size diagram of Jurnee’s planned trip. Several magazine covers of cities around the country with ‘Welcome to…’ were clustered together on the door of what I assume was a closet. Hillsdale, NY?
“Would you like a drink? I’ve got wine, vodka, and a few sodas.”
“I’ll have whatever you’re having,” I replied, making my way back to the kitchen.
A bottle of Tito’s, cranberry juice, and limes were gathered on the counter. Two whiskey glasses got a large square ice cube that she picked out of a bowl on the counter. She sliced a lime and prepared the cocktails in silence.
“Jurnee.” I sat at the small table in the kitchen.
“Hmm?”
“How do you have fresh limes in your house if you’re planning on being away for a month?”
Her giggle was definitely going to be the end of me. Dude, you are such a teenage boy. Knock that shit off.
“I didn’t. I raided Derrick’s place. He is always ready to get his mix on.” She wiggled her butt as if there was music playing.
“Why is nothing in your house packed up?”
The knife hit the cutting board with a thud, and her shoulder shot up. “What do you mean?” Her hushed words didn’t hide the uncertainty in her question.
I mirrored the volume of her words. “I mean, you are on the cusp of signing a major partnership with Morgan Financial Holdings for several coffee–”
“It was supposed to be one.” She slammed the knife down on the cutting board.
“It may have been one in your head, but Graham made it quite clear that he is interested in taking your idea much wider. So tell me, why are all the knick-knacks, photographs, and paints still on your wall? The books are still in the bookcase. There isn’t a moving box anywhere in sight.”
She turned to face me and leaned against the counter. “Anderson, I honest to God never in a million years thought Graham freaking Morgan would be interested in any idea that I had.”
“You’ve said that before. I guess I didn’t understand to what level you were not preparing to make the move. What about now?”
With a head nod for me to follow, Jurnee carried both cocktails into the living room and set them on the coffee table. She sat on the sofa and slipped her legs under her. A thread sticking out of the well-placed hole in the knee of her jeans became her focus.
Mister Manhattan: A Hero Club Novel Page 9