Hooking

by Allen, Kristine

  “Whose idea was it drink that much?” Baranov moaned from his seat next to us.

  “I blame all of you dumb fuckers,” Westergaard said as he laid his seat back and covered his face with a blanket.

  “Don’t blame me. I told you all you’d be paying for it today,” Sinner said. Westergaard lifted the blanket long enough to glare at him with one eye. Then he dropped it back over his face.

  For a guy with the last name of Sinner, he was damn near a fucking saint.

  “Listen up!” Coach shouted from the front of the plane after we were in the air. There was a series of groans that sounded from all around the plane. “Oh. I’m sorry. I have a plane full of fucking princesses? I thought I had a hockey team on here. If that’s how you’re going to handle every loss this season, then be prepared to get your asses handed to you by your friendly neighborhood coaching staff.”

  His lecture that followed only half registered with most of us. In my head I was promising every deity known to man that if I made it without puking before we landed, I’d never drink again. Unfortunately, none of them listened, because coach had barely finished chewing our asses before I was out of my seat and in the bathroom hurling.

  Banging sounded on the door as I was washing my mouth out. I didn’t fucking care if I was supposed to drink the water or not. Anything was better than the taste of puke. At least I spit it out.

  “Hurry up!” Beck groaned from outside the door. I flipped the latch and barely made it out the door before he was squeezing his big ass past me and puking in the toilet.

  Feeling slightly better after purging some of the awful feeling from my guts, I returned to my seat. I dropped down like I weighed five hundred pounds. A huffed grunt escaped me.

  McGregor rolled his head my direction. Heavy-lidded, he stared at me. “Did you end up going back to that puck bunny’s room?”

  “Huh?” I asked, looking at him like he was speaking a foreign language. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “That chick that was all over you last night. You left with her, so I figured you went to her room,” he explained. By then my eyes were wide open.

  No. No way.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked again, as I sat up straight and fought the spinning in my head.

  A phone dropped in front of my face from behind. I grabbed it and my stomach that had begun to settle suddenly cramped up, and I wanted to vomit again. Bold as you please, I was taking a shot from in-between some chick’s huge tits with my mouth.

  Oh fuck.

  “The First Cut Is The Deepest”—Sheryl Crow

  “How are things going?” I looked up with a smile at my uncle Simon’s voice. He was peeking around the doorway, and I laughed.

  “You can come in. I’m busy, but not too busy for you,” I said as I motioned him to take a seat. His big body dwarfed my office much like Alex’s had. As he sat, he unbuttoned his suit jacket. The lines around his eyes and the tightness in his mouth spoke of strain or fatigue. Possibly both.

  “Maybe I should be asking you if everything is okay?” I propped my chin in my hand.

  The size of his sigh told me I was on the right track. He was dealing with some crap.

  “Yeah, everything will be fine. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking being a sports attorney. Fucking hockey players.” He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it standing on end.

  “Yikes. That bad?” My nose wrinkled. I wished there was something I could do to help him.

  “Yeah, but it’s okay. Nothing I can’t handle. I just needed to get away from it all and figured I’d come check on you. Every time I’ve planned to swing by to see you, something came up.” He leaned back. In defeat, he dropped his head a moment.

  “Well, don’t feel bad. It’s not like I haven’t seen you at the house,” I said with a light laugh.

  “Not the same, but thank you.” We chatted about my job and whether I truly liked it or simply liked it because it wasn’t working for my father. I assured him it was the former.

  My desk phone rang, and he stood. “You have work to do. I’ll talk to you this weekend when your aunt and I come by.”

  “Sounds good. Hope things get better,” I offered with a wrinkled nose and smile.

  With a wave and a wry grin, he left, and I answered my phone.

  “Ms. Drake. Umm, there’s a man named Cooper at the desk here to see you,” the lobby receptionist said in a hesitant voice. I heard the murmur of a voice in the background. It sounded like a man, and I wondered who it could be.

  “Did he say what he wanted?”

  “Um. He said it’s personal,” she whispered scandalously. That didn’t sound suspicious at all.

  “Hmm, okay. I’ll be right up.” Grabbing my work cell in case Katie needed me, I left my office and made my way to the front desk. I stuttered to a stop when I saw who was standing there.

  With his back to me as he stared out the huge window, I could see the leather vest he was wearing. I immediately recognized the patch from that night on Sixth Street. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was Alex’s brother.

  “Truth?” I called out with a questioning tilt to my head. He spun to face me, and I was hit with how attractive both brothers were. They both had dark brown, shoulder-length, wavy hair, blue eyes, and an air of mystery that looked a lot like… well, sex.

  Though I could see why Natalie had been so enamored with him, in my eyes, Alex was better-looking. Maybe I was biased.

  “Sydney. Hey.” He gave a fleeting glance the receptionist’s way, then stepped closer to me. “Is there somewhere we could talk? Privately?”

  “Sure?” I replied hesitantly as I noticed the receptionist pretending like she wasn’t listening. Then I motioned him over to the hallway and into a conference room. He closed the door, and I wondered if I should be worried, but then reminded myself that this was Alex’s brother.

  “Have you talked to Alex?” he asked as soon as he turned from the door. Confused, my brow furrowed and my head tipped.

  “Not since last night. Why?”

  He blew out a heavy breath. “He asked me to come talk to you.”

  “Why? He could have called me himself,” I said, even more confused.

  “He wasn’t sure if you’d be able to answer your phone.”

  “Well, he was right, and I’d actually told him that might be the case when we spoke last night. Is he okay? No one said anything about any of the players getting hurt or being sick,” I said with worry lacing my words.

  “He’s okay.” He grimaced and palmed his face.

  “Then why aren’t you acting like he’s okay?”

  “He asked me to tell you not to look at social media and the internet in general. He wanted me to come in person so you would understand how important it was.” He looked a mix of pissed and worried, with a muscle ticking in his jaw. It didn’t make a lot of sense, and his telling me not to do something only made me want to do it more. It also made me suspicious.

  “Why?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

  “Fuck,” he muttered. “I promised not to say anything. He wanted to talk to you about it when he got back, but he’s stuck in the middle of this week-long road trip. He said to tell you he’s calling you tonight and to please answer.”

  Unease began to settle in my chest. “What. Happened?” I bit out. I crossed my arms in front of me defensively. The poor guy looked so torn, but I wasn’t in the mood to be empathetic to his indecision or misery.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t say. Just know that he said nothing happened and there’s absolutely nothing to worry about,” he said firmly, as his eyes pleaded with me to drop the subject and let him leave. Don’t shoot the messenger and all that, I guess.

  “Nothing happened?” Those words alone told me I wouldn’t like whatever had happened that made its way to social media. That would be the only reason he wanted me to stay off it.

  The problem with all of this was that Alex and I were essentially fuck buddies. We w
eren’t in a relationship. Sure, he’d taken me on a sweet almost-date when he’d taught me to skate, but other than that, we were nothing to each other. Yet, the thought of him doing something that could be interpreted as something he shouldn’t have done, well, it hurt.

  Badly.

  “Please, Sydney. Just do as he asked, and he’ll explain it all. I fucking hate being stuck in the middle like this, but he’s my brother.” His body language screamed that he was ready to explode, but he was holding it together. It made me wonder if whatever Alex had done didn’t sit well with him either.

  Knowing I wouldn’t get an answer from the somewhat growly man, I decided to let him off the hook. But I hadn’t made any promises to him yet.

  “Fine,” I said, keeping my agreement vague.

  Except the man wasn’t falling for it. “Do I have your promise to wait for him to explain? I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m trying to help the guy out. Which you need to know says something.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to ask what he meant by that, but his expression told me not to ask. Rolling my eyes, I huffed. “Actually, I can’t promise that. My job requires me to post things for the foundation on our social media. Not to mention, what makes you think that whatever the hell it is will be something I’ll be willing to deal with now or after he explains?”

  “Fair enough.”

  I showed him out, but he stopped before he let the door close. The sunlight was nearly blinding me as I waited to see what he had to say. “For what it’s worth, I hope to see you around.”

  Then he left.

  Lost in thought, I stood there watching him walk out to the motorcycle parked out front.

  It wasn’t until he was riding off that I realized I’d never argued the fact that Alex and I didn’t have an actual relationship. There shouldn’t be a reason for him to worry about anything.

  Should there?

  I’d had dinner, begged off to my room with the bullshit lie that I had a headache, and stared at my phone. Willing it to ring, I waited for Alex to call.

  A least fifteen times throughout the afternoon, I’d started to google him or pull up his social media accounts. I’d rationalized and debated with myself each and every time. How would he really know if I’d looked? He wouldn’t.

  Yet, I would know. Also, depending on what was there, he might know too. There was the very real possibility that I wouldn’t be able to keep it to myself if it made me angry. If he went to the trouble to have his brother visit me personally, I was pretty sure I was going to be angry.

  “Ugh! Call already!” I whisper-yelled right against my screen.

  When it actually rang, I jumped and dropped my phone. It bounced off my boob and to the floor. Of course, it skidded under the bed and I was chasing it the entire way as it continued to ring.

  “Hello?” I said from halfway under my bed.

  “Syd.” His warm honey voice poured over me through the phone. Was that relief I heard in his voice? It told me he didn’t think I’d answer, or he was worried I wouldn’t. Which really made me want to know what the fuck was going on.

  “Alex, don’t ever pull some shit like that again,” I began.

  “Syd, I can explain,” he started, but I cut him off.

  “You sent Truth down to my work, Alex. So I spent all afternoon wondering what the heck he was talking about. If he hadn’t come by, I likely wouldn’t have even thought to look online or at your social media. But plant that little niggling seed, and I had to know.”

  He groaned. “Syd… I’m so sorry.”

  I paused in my thoughts. Heart racing, I lay on my floor, still half under my bed. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know. All the worst possible things went through my head.

  “What did you do?” I whispered over the whooshing in my ears and cracking of my heart that told me I’d gotten stupid and caught feelings for the dumb hockey player.

  “I thought you saw it,” he said hesitantly.

  “Nooo,” I said in a drawn-out fashion, half in warning. “I made myself keep my promise to Truth, but now you’re making me wish I hadn’t. What the hell is out there? What did you do?”

  Though I was asking, I was really beginning to believe it was better I remained ignorant.

  “Maybe we should wait and discuss this when I get back.”

  “No.”

  He sighed. “Okay. After I got off the phone with you, I joined the guys down at the hotel bar. We were kind of drinking away our sorrows. We don’t do it often. Not like that, I mean.”

  He paused, and I waited. “Okay?” I prompted.

  “I guess I… uh… well…”

  “Spit it out, Alex, for fuck sake.” If he told me he fucked some random chick while he was there, I was going to puke right there under my bed. We weren’t a thing. Or a couple. Or whatever. We had no label, I mean. But that would be too much for me. Because if I hadn’t before, I realized with a certainty then that I didn’t want to share him. That was a hard pass for me. Regardless of how casual we were, I wasn’t going to have him dipping his shit elsewhere and then in me. Hell no.

  “I took shots from this chick’s cleavage.” He groaned it out like it was the worst thing in the world. While it didn’t make me want to go out singing his praises, I was a bit relieved. At least until I realized I might be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  “And?”

  “And what?” he asked in a defeated voice. Not comforting.

  “Did you and she, uh, you know.” There was no way I could say it out loud, because I might hurl.

  “Did I fuck her?” he asked, and I winced painfully. My head dropped as I waited for him to answer his own question. I couldn’t even tell him that’s what I needed to know.

  “No. I didn’t. I mean, I don’t even remember doing the shots. Or I didn’t until I saw the pics the guys took. Then we looked online and she had tagged me in some that her friends took. That’s what I didn’t want you to see, because I didn’t want you to see them and think I did more.”

  “If you don’t remember doing the shots, how do you know that you didn’t fuck her?” I finally asked. It was incredibly painful to say the words.

  “Because once I saw the images posted online, it all came back to me. I did leave the bar with her, but she only helped me to my room, and I wouldn’t let her inside.” That admission was maybe more than I needed to know. Because fuck, did it hurt. It also made me angry that he would get so drunk that he couldn’t remember the things he’d done.

  “Well, I mean, it doesn’t really matter either way. Right? Because we’re not really anything. Right?” It took everything I had to make it sound like I was unaffected. There was silence on the line. Fuming, I waited.

  “Um. Yeah, okay. But for real, nothing happened. In case someone shows you, or you see it. Nothing happened.” He sounded odd.

  “I believe you, but why would anyone show me? No one knows anything about us, so there wouldn’t be a reason.” My rationale seemed genius, but it sounded hollow when I said it.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right. No reason.”

  “We’re, what? Friends with benefits, I guess.”

  “Sure. Look, I gotta get going. Coach put us on a curfew with bedtime and all after last night. I feel like I’m in fucking elementary school.” His grumbling actually had me laughing. Then he asked, “Why do you sound weird?”

  I giggled. “I’m under my bed.”

  “You’re what?” He huffed out a chuckle.

  “Long story.” I laughed. Inside, I was still really upset that he’d gotten so drunk that he’d done something like that. But I also knew we hadn’t discussed exclusivity. When he got back, that definitely needed to be something we talked about.

  “Alex?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Keep your fucking dick in your pants or it’s not coming near me again. Got it?”

  “Syd. I meant it. Nothing happened.”

  “I’m not saying it did, but I’m making sure that you kno
w, in the future that won’t fly with me. Don’t give me a reason not to trust you.” Because relationship or casual, I wanted to know that he wasn’t going to give me some crazy shit.

  “Trust me, I get it. If the roles had been reversed, I’d have been pissed. So thank you for not writing me off.” He sounded relieved. “Well, I need to get to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a seriously ass-busting day. Coach has a hard-on for us after last night. He’ll be working the dog snot out of us. I’ll try to call you, but I can’t make guarantees until after the game.” I heard rustling. “I’m in bed now.”

  Was it my imagination, or did he seem reluctant to let me go again?

  “Sleep well,” I said with a soft smile.

  “You too,” he said, then the line went dead. I dropped my head to the hardwood floor. Right about then, my door swung open.

  “Um, why are you under the bed, Sydney?” my mother asked in her accented voice. I scooted myself out and rolled over to my back to look up at her as I held up my phone.

  “Dropped my phone and it went under the bed.” I grinned, and she gave me a look that said she loved me but thought I was losing my head.

  “Do you have a minute?” she asked. Her hand nervously twisted the charm on her necklace. I sat up and leaned against my bed as she sat in my desk chair.

  “What’s up? Is everything okay, Mom?” My brow furrowed in concern.

  “Oh um, yes. Everything is fine. I just hadn’t had a chance to talk to you much since you came home after graduation.” My mother’s Spanish accent had always been soothing to me as a child. Though she thought she’d lost it, it was still there, giving a slight lilt to her cultured tone.

  “Everything is actually really good, Mom. I love my job.” I decided not to discuss my relationship, or lack thereof, with Alex. Besides, I had a feeling she wasn’t here to discuss my job anyway.

  “I’m truly happy for you, Sydney. I’m not sure if I tell you that often enough. Despite your father’s attempts to get you to work for his company, I know he’s proud of you as well.” She absently straighter the pens I had scattered on my desk.