Chapter 13
Thirteen
Tedi
“You what?” Saige asks me, the sound of chaos behind her.
“You’re the one who gave me the idea.” This really is all her fault. The boyfriend thing wouldn’t have been in my head in the first place while I was all tongue-tied, trying to act as if his protectiveness over me wasn’t as endearing as I thought it was.
“I meant you should actually find a boyfriend. Go on dates and get Tweetie out of your head. Not lie and tell him you’re seeing someone.” I hear a knife chopping, and Saige sighs. “God, I hate cooking.”
“Um… you’re married to one of the best centers in the league, hire a damn chef.”
“ One of the best?”
“Way to protect your man.”
She sighs again. “You know I didn’t grow up like that, and I don’t want my girls thinking that life just hands them everything.”
“So listening to their mom whine about cutting up vegetables is better?”
“They need to learn that suffering makes you grow. Yes.”
I plop down on the couch in my short-term rental. The stark white walls and drab artwork make this place feel clinical. “This couch sucks.” I wiggle my ass, but it’s so stiff, there’s no way to relax on it.
“Buy a new one,” Saige says. “Fuck! I just cut myself.”
“Mom swore!” one of the girls says in the background.
“If I buy a new couch, I can’t suffer in order to grow.” I make fun of her, hearing a faucet running. “Is it bad?”
“No. Just annoying. Screw this. I’m ordering pizza. Aiden’s away tonight, and I’m calling it girl time.”
The girls shout in delight in the background.
I laugh because that’s totally my best friend. “Way to suffer. What was that? Two point two seconds when you were really drowning there.”
“Hey, leave me alone. You have bigger problems. Where are you going to find this boyfriend before your dinner in two nights?”
She’s right. I had hoped I had more time. Hopefully find some willing partner online and go on a few dates before asking him to do me a solid and go to a work meeting where he pretends to love me and acts as though he can’t live without me even if he knows barely anything about me. But then Candice, Bud’s assistant, emailed me and said dinner is in two days’ time at some fancy restaurant in a private room. So much for keeping it casual, Bud.
Throw me into Lake Michigan, why don’t you?
“I have no clue. I think I’m going to say he’s sick or had to work late. Surely a guy like Bud Caldron will understand a man who wants to work his way up the ladder.”
She scoffs. “God, you know he came to our house once? Kind of slimy. He was all over Aiden like some fanboy, telling him how great he was and how Jana didn’t see the player he could be. The minute Aiden told him that he was staying in Florida, he just went to Cory and said Aiden was a half-talented player who was screwing him over by not retiring.”
“Yeah, I figured he wasn’t exactly a good guy. First, he goes behind my back, and then he’s trying to take over my job. The only reason that locker room isn’t a mess is because of Coach Buford. He’s a great guy, I really like him.” I scoop from my quart of cookies and cream ice cream, scrolling through my streaming services to find something worth binging. I’m going to have a lot of quality time in my apartment these next few months.
“Regardless, he’s the GM, Tedi,” she says it in her “I hate to tell you this, but…” voice.
“I know.”
“And he knows Mr. Herington. It’s like a double whammy.”
I dig another scoop of my ice cream. “So you’re telling me to get off the phone with you and get on a dating app, hoping I can bribe someone to be my pretend boyfriend for a night?”
She giggles but sighs right away. “I’m sorry. But you figure it’s one night. After that, you can just mention him by name, and then you’ll be back in New York, or you can lie later and say it’s not working out. Once you’re really over Tweetie. If I knew anyone, I’d send them up to you. But you’re hot. You could go down to the coffee shop and pick someone up.”
“I’m afraid Tweetie will know. I mean, he’s still so fucking in tune with my feelings. I hate it.”
Like today when I was getting coffee. He knew I was upset and came over to help me. Why does he still do that shit?
“All the more reason why you need to do this. You need to put as much space as you can between the two of you. Oh!” she shouts. “I know who your pretend boyfriend can be.”
My forehead wrinkles as I spoon more ice cream into my mouth. “Who?”
“Decker Davis!”
“Unless you know another Decker Davis, that would be a hard no.” I shake my head.
My twin brothers’ best friend who was practically a third brother to me? No thanks.
“It’s perfect, and you know he’ll do it. Plus, it’s the offseason for him.”
“I don’t think he even stays in Chicago during the offseason.”
“Fine, take your chances on some serial killer through a dating app then.” Saige huffs.
I put her on speaker and search him on my socials.
Decker Davis, third baseman for the Chicago Colts. Honestly, I never would’ve thought he’d make it this far. Way to go, Decker, annoying little runt, although he’s not really little anymore. He’s kind of cute, in a clean-cut, not-my-type kind of way, but maybe Saige has a point.
“You’re welcome. I need to order pizza, and you need to call Decker. Love you.” She hangs up.
I’m still scrolling through Decker’s socials to see if he has a girlfriend, but there’s more pictures of him with my brothers than with any women. Some things never change.
I blow out a breath, and because I love to torture myself, I leave Decker’s profile and search up Tweetie. How will I ever get through an entire dinner with him next to me, let alone all these months? I know us. Something will happen, and it will send me into a tornado of despair. I have to keep repeating to myself that he’s not the one, that we just had a really long relationship, so of course we know each other so well. That’s the only reason there’s still this pull inside me to him.
I scroll, seeing Tweetie tagged last week at a club with that damn kid they call Alvin, two girls flanked at his sides.
Fuck it.
Here I come, Decker Davis, my new boyfriend, even if I have to blackmail you into it.