21
“What are you making?”
I was layering flat noodles, marinara sauce, and a blend of cheeses and herbs into large pans for the dinner service that night. “Lasagna,” I replied to Ashlyn Lark, whom I had never spotted in the kitchen of the dining hall before. Since the Midsy incident and her pending disciplinary hearing, I had barely seen her anywhere. “Can I help you with anything, Ashlyn?”
“Not really,” she said, opening the refrigerator and snooping around. I decided to ignore her unless her actions became too egregious, even though I wanted to pull her out of my workplace by the ponytail. “I know you told my aunt that she should kick me out.” I didn’t answer her and continued with my lasagna assembly. “I also know what happened between you and Mr. Holling.”
I put my wooden spoon down on the counter so that I wouldn’t be tempted to throw it at her. Or smack her with it. “What are you talking about?”
She smiled, almost in a sneer. “That you had some kind of fling in college. And then he went to London and didn’t come back. Because he met someone there; she must have been quite the catch not to come back to you,” she said, her voice dripping in sarcasm with the last sentence.
I took a breath and paused. “How would you know anything about any of this?”
“People talk to me. Must be my magnetic personality.”
I couldn’t contain my rage any longer. Every single mean girl who had ever made fun of my house, my mother, or anything else about me in high school was standing in front of me, and my anger had bubbled to the surface and was about to boil over. “Maybe it’s because you scare the shit out of them, you little bitch. I hope that you do get kicked out of here. It would be a much happier campus.”
Unfazed, Ashlyn laughed. “Has someone told you that you’re not supposed to talk to teenagers that way? If not, it’s kind of a thing.” She whipped out her cell phone and flashed it in my face. “Got exactly what I needed. A lot easier than I anticipated. Thanks, Devon .”
The familiarity with which she said my name bristled me like nothing else I could imagine. I also knew I would not skate through this one easily if I didn’t do something immediately. I snagged her phone out of her hand and dropped it into the bubbling pot of sauce on the stove.
“What the fuck?!” she shrieked, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I knew my actions wouldn’t do me any favors, but it was still better than a recording of me calling the niece of the Head of School a bitch.
“You would’ve done the same thing,” I said, taking care to slowly stir the sauce with my wooden spoon, clanking the phone around in the stockpot. I knew I couldn’t use the sauce anymore since it was contaminated, but I had plenty of backup Rao’s marinara in the pantry.
“True,” she conceded, and we both stood in silence for at least twenty seconds. “I need to go to the Apple Store to get a new phone, I guess.”
“I think Manchester’s the closest. Mall of New Hampshire.”
“Okay,” she said. I couldn’t believe I had defeated Ashlyn Lark, at least for the moment. She turned toward the door and started walking away.
“One quick question,” I said, and she stopped.
“Yeah?”
“Do you run The Underground Stallion ?” I figured I had nothing to lose by asking the question that had stumped me ever since I got to Rockwood.
“I’m not even involved,” she scowled. “Takes too much time. I have better things to do.”
“Who is, then?”
“It shouldn’t really surprise you,” she said, leaving the kitchen. Ashlyn owed me nothing, and I didn’t blame her for not telling me. The sauce sputtered and hit me in the nose as if her phone still had something to say.
...
“What’s he like?” Heath asked as we drove into the Seaport.
“Quiet. Moody. But with me, he’s kinda goofy. High-fives me a lot. He reminds me of some of the Rockwood kids. Acts really young compared to the other Celtics, even the ones who are younger than him.”
“Yeah, a lot of those guys have kids and stuff.”
“Exactly. David is such an introvert, but with his mom or with me, he’s just a kid. Even with his trainer or the housekeeper, he doesn’t say much. Once they’re out of earshot, it’s a different story.” I sighed, pulling up to the valet. “I hope one of these days he’ll break out of his shell.”
“He’s such a good player. I used to watch him when he played for Villanova.”
“He is. I just think if he had more confidence, he could be incredible.”
We carried the coolers to the front desk, where Heath presented his driver’s license and got a visitor’s badge before heading with me to the elevator. “How did you end up working for him?” he asked as I pushed the button for the penthouse.
“His mom is a big-deal doctor in Atlanta. She was in Boston for a conference, and he had just moved here to start playing for the Celtics. I guess he was a mess, and she was trying to figure out how to make it all better. You know, what good moms do.”
Heath laughed at my less-than-subtle dig at my own mother.
“One of the doctors she knew who lived here was a new client of mine. They made the connection, and here we are. The Boston doctor dropped me when my scandal hit, along with everyone except for David and his mom. He’s my last client.”
“Besides the four hundred students of Rockwood.”
“And their teachers. And anyone else who stops by,” I said, thinking of Ashlyn’s phone. I had finally dug it out of the pot with some tongs, and luckily, it was dead as a doornail. I hadn’t heard from Andrea about it yet, but I did jump a bit every time I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.
“Okay,” I said to Heath as we stood outside of David’s door. “You ready to meet David Anders?”
“I guess so,” he said. “Although I have no idea what I’m doing here.”
“It’s the boyfriend tour,” I said. “Everyone has to meet David.”
“All the boyfriends, huh?” he asked. He leaned down and kissed me softly, and I breathed in. He always smelled good, like a pine-scented deodorant or some other basic man product. “Is that what I am now? Because we hadn’t really talked about it.”
I dropped my cooler bag next to me and looped my hands onto the belt that encircled the waist of his jeans. He was sexy. “Would you like to be my boyfriend?” I asked as I felt his mouth on the edge of my jaw, making its way to my neck. My mind flashed to Kyle making that exact move in that dorm bed over fifteen years earlier, and I wanted to wipe my memory clean. I wanted to be in the moment, to be present with Heath. I fought through it and made myself turn my face until my lips found his. Our kiss deepened until the door opened, and David stood before us, all six foot seven of him, making even Heath seem small.
“What the hell, Dev?” he asked. “Save it for later.”
“Hi, David,” I said, extricating myself from Heath. “This is Heath Davis. Heath, David Anders.”
“Davis, David,” said David, whooping a laugh. “How ya doing?” he asked, shaking Heath’s hand.
“Good to meet you,” said Heath. “Nice game last night.”
“Wish Coach would’ve left me in,” David lamented, crashing backward into his couch and absentmindedly picking up a PlayStation controller. “I bet I could’ve had twenty easy.”
“You got ten,” I said, unloading the coolers and showing Heath where to put everything. “Good to get into double digits consistently again.”
“I just know I can do so much better,” he said, furiously playing a soccer game on the enormous flatscreen in front of him. “All that soccer talk last time you were here got me thinking I needed to try FIFA. Turns out I’m better at this than playing the thing I’m actually paid to do in person every day.”
“Dude, anyone can play a video game,” I said, throwing his smoothie ingredients into the blender and trying to ignore the soccer reference. The last thing I needed was for Heath to know that David and I had discussed Kyle when I had been there the previous week. “Do you realize how lucky you are to have these gifts? And do I have to tell you this every time I see you?”
“Probably,” he said with a sly smile. He turned to Heath briefly and then redirected his attention to the screen. “I just like the attention.”
“Anyway,” I said, handing him the drink. “Think about what you want to eat next week in LA. You know I can’t pull off the enchiladas there.”
“The struggle is real,” he replied, still maneuvering a soccer player on the field. “Didn’t you do a steak wrap one time? Where were we? Phoenix?”
“I think that was Houston. But yes, that wasn’t too hard. Okay, I’ll plan for that. I’ll get the usual road stuff for LA. And your mom is meeting you in Denver. I only can manage to do this occasionally.”
“I wish it was all the time,” he muttered. “Why don’t you leave the school and come back to Boston, Dev? I could probably get you some other Celtics to cook for.”
“You’d have to talk to them first, David,” I said, rolling my eyes while I washed the blender.
“I talk to them!” he announced across the room. “I just don’t hang out with them and go to Contessa and shit.”
“Contessa’s good, dude. You should go out with them for dinner here and there.”
“I’ve got enchiladas,” he grumbled. “And cookies!” He turned to Heath. “Have you had her cookies?”
“Um, I don’t think so.”
“You’ve never had one of my cookies?” I asked, dumbfounded. I hadn’t given him my famous cookies. Kyle probably had eaten two hundred that fall alone.
“Nope. I think the only thing I’ve had that you’ve made is that chicken pot pie we had at your parents’ house.”
The whole thing felt so strange; I was a cook. It was my livelihood, the center of my life. And the guy who I sort of considered my boyfriend had barely tried anything I had created. I hadn’t even thought of it. “Well, then, I guess you need one. Take two,” I said, holding out a plate toward him and David.
“Good, huh?” asked David, his mouth full of chocolate chips.
“These are great,” Heath said, clearly enjoying them.
“You should come to LA with Dev,” David said, not shifting his eyes from the screen.
“Really?” Heath asked and then looked up at me. I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t know what to think.
“It would be cool,” David said. “You’ll get floor seats to see us play the Clippers. I’ll pay for your plane ticket, too.”
“Um, can you get time off from work?” I asked. Part of me wanted him to say no, and the other part of me had no idea what I wanted.
“Probably,” he said. “I never take vacation.”
“It’ll be quick,” I said. “We’re only going to be gone for three days total, with the first and third days mostly for travel. And as soon as we land in LA and drop our bags at the hotel, we need to start food prep right away. And we have to stay at a hotel with a kitchen, so it’s not the super posh hotel the team stays at. It’s a whole thing. It’s definitely not a vacation.”
“I’d be with you,” he said with a wink. “Plus, like David said, floor seats.”
“Yes, bro,” David said, high-fiving him.
“Okay, so I guess we’ll see you in LA,” I said, bringing the cooler bags to the door. “Heath, would you mind running down and asking the valet to get the car? I just need to work out some payment stuff with David.”
“No problem,” he said, standing up and shaking David’s hand before grabbing the bags to bring to the Jeep. “I’ll be watching you on TV until then.”
“You got it. I’ll try to get more than ten tomorrow night.”
As soon as Heath was in the elevator, I gave David a dirty look. He pursed his lips and shook his head at me.
“Really?” First, my dad, now David.
“Nope,” he said with a shrug.
“Why not?”
“I like him, Dev. He’s a good guy. But no. Not for you.”
“Why the hell did you invite him to go to LA with me then?”
“I just told you I like him! I wanted to give him floor seats.”
“You could’ve done that for tomorrow night here at freaking TD Garden.”
David laughed. “I guess you’re right.”
“Ugh!” I growled, throwing my hands up in the air before I pressed the elevator button.