Chapter 16 #2
He chuckles. “Remember the awful apartment where you shouldn’t be living? Yeah, baby. I remember it.”
Wow. Calling me baby is new. Max pecks my lips once, then walks into his room to finish packing. He waits for me, then we walk toward the elevator. Thinking about what he said about his friends, I speak up. “How many of your friends have guinea pigs?”
“Well, they aren’t all friends. Jamie is a friend, and I know Jax Mitchell through him. Gabe Dawson played with Jax on the Wolves, but he’s since retired. I’m not sure if anyone else has fallen down the guinea pig hole yet.”
“And all of their wives are okay with the pigs?”
“I guess so. I’ve never asked. Why?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I’ve never had friends who also have piggies. It would be kind of cool to talk to others with the same pet. I know there are groups online, but that seems so weird. I’d prefer to know I’m speaking with real people.”
As I hit the down button for the elevator, Max pulls out his phone. “Let me reach out to Jamie. I bet his girlfriend would love to talk to you about guinea pigs. She’s a veterinarian too, so she’s really knowledgeable.”
Well, that would be nice. Max has mentioned Jamie before, but I haven’t looked up Jamie’s girlfriend. Probably some beautiful model who looks wonderful on his arm.
As we enter the elevator, Max’s phone rings. “Shit. It’s my agent. He never calls before a game, so this can’t be good.”
He never calls? That’s odd. I’ve heard tons of players talk about speaking to their agent before a game. Does Max have some kind of superstition where he won’t speak to his agent?
“I’m going to take this here. I’ll see you on the buses,” Max says hastily, stepping out of the elevator. As the doors close, I hear him say, “Hey, Troy. What’s up?”
I’m quiet as I place my bags inside the luggage compartment, then I jog back inside to make sure the conference room we’ve been using has been emptied of all essential supplies.
Satisfied that the team cleaned up after themselves, I run back to the buses.
As I step onto the second bus, Coach looks at me. “Where’s Callahan?”
“He said his agent called him, and he’d be down in a minute,” I answer hastily.
Sitting down, I watch as Max beelines for the first bus, which is peculiar.
For the most part, the players have always sat on the first bus, while the stragglers are relegated to the second bus with the coaching staff.
I watch, completely befuddled, as Jake Holloway exits the first bus and sullenly boards ours.
He slams down in the seat across from me. “You okay?”
“I was,” he snaps. Looking over at me, I’m surprised at the anger in them. “You know, I have superstitions too. So if I play shitty today, it’s Callahan’s fault. Just because he’s older, he gets to order me out of my seat? That’s bullshit.”
“Why’d he tell you to move?” I ask.
Jake shrugs. “I don’t know. Said he got some news and didn’t want to be on this bus.”
What the heck?
Opening our text exchange, I fire one off.
Me
Are you okay?
Sunshine
I’m fine.
Me
Already avoiding me? Was last night that bad?
When Max reads the text, but doesn’t reply, I know something major happened.
An hour later, as I’m organizing the last of the electrolytes I have on hand for in-game consumption, my phone buzzes with a text. Assuming it’s Max, I’m confused to find it’s from an unknown number.
Unknown
Hi Layla, my name is Audrey. My fiancé is Jamie Wahlberg, and he shares an agent with Max Callahan. Max said you have two guinea pigs, and you’re looking for some friends who also have piggies.
Me
Omg, yes! I have two girls. Max must have immediately reached out to your fiancé because I literally just mentioned it to him a little over an hour ago.
I add her contact info as Audrey. I feel giddy that I’ve made a guinea pig friend.
Audrey
He was fairly succinct in his text, but we got the gist of it. We have five boy piggies, and we have two friends with pigs as well. Would you be okay if I lumped us all into a group text? Then we can chat all things pig.
Me
Uh, sure. Who are the other people?
Audrey
One is Becca Stephens-Mitchell. She’s married to Jax Mitchell, who plays for the NHL team here. She’s also a meteorologist.
Me
Wow! I’ve watched her forecasts. I had no idea she was married to a hockey player.
Audrey
She and Jax are fairly private. They have six girl guinea pigs, plus a golden retriever. Oh, and Jamie and I have two cats as well.
Me
Full houses.
Me
I can only handle two guinea pigs at the moment. Pets are expensive.
Audrey
Absolutely.
Me
Max said you’re a veterinarian?
Audrey
I was. I work for Jamie’s foundation now. It became too difficult with fans showing up at my clinic, trying to get closer to Jamie. We felt it was best for our well-being if I took a job where I could still work with animals, but in a safer setting.
Audrey
I’m adding you to a group text now. The other woman is Cassie Dawson. She’s married to Gabe Dawson, who just retired from the Denver Wolves. She’s unhappily part of the guinea pig parent club.
Me
Unhappily?
Audrey
Gabe lost a bet and had to adopt a guinea pig.
Audrey Carrington adds Layla Holmes to Piggie Pets group.
Audrey
Alright, be on your best behavior, ladies. We don’t want to scare Layla off just yet.
Cassie
Are you here willingly as a guinea pig parent, or were you forced into it?
Me
Uh, willingly?
Cassie
Well, fuck. I was really hoping you would be on my side, so we could team up against Becca and Audrey.
Becca
I wasn’t too sure of the pigs when I first married Jacob, but now I love them. Give it time, Cass. You’ll come around.
Me
Who’s Jacob?
Becca
Oh, that’s my husband. Everyone else calls him Jax. I’m the only one who gets to call him Jacob.
Audrey
Yes, it’s as disgustingly cute as you think it is.
Becca
I make no apologies. So Layla! Tell us about your piggies.
Me
Okay. I have two girls, named Muriel and Marilyn.
Cassie
Stop it.
Audrey
Oh I love those names! My five guys all have old-school names too.
Becca
How’d you come up with those names?
Me
My great-grandmother’s names on my mom’s side. They died before I was born, but my mom said I would have really liked their cantankerous personalities. I always imagined they’d be sitting in rockers, on a covered porch, gossiping about the neighbors.
Audrey
I really love that.
Becca
Ours are just named after boring flowers.
Cassie
Your husband found a stark white guinea pig, gifting it to you so that you could name it Hyacinth because that’s your favorite flower. Don’t even act like he isn’t a perfect man.
Me
That’s really adorable!
Audrey
It is. But can any of you give advice on how to get a pig to stop kicking its poop out of the cage?
Cassie
I’ve seen ours eat her own poop, so I doubt I’m much help.
Cassie
Just know it could be worse.
Me
I guess I’m lucky. My two don’t do either of those things.
Becca
Hyacinth screams at us if the cages get too dirty. She’s a bougie bitch.
Audrey
I’d love to get the four of us together. Since it’s off-season for football and hockey, we can work around the baseball schedule. Is that alright, Layla?
Me
Yes, absolutely! I’d really like that. It’s been more challenging to make friends in Denver than I’d hoped. It doesn’t help that I’m basically surrounded by men at my job.
Cassie
Denver is an interesting beast for the social scene, that’s for sure.
Becca
It was difficult for me when I moved here, too.
Audrey
I’m a native, and it was still a challenge. But that was probably more to do with my family and my neurodiversity.
Audrey
I’ll take a look at the baseball schedule and figure something out. I’m excited to meet you soon, Layla!
Me
Me too!
I grin as I push my phone into my back pocket. My first set of girlfriends in Denver! I can’t wait to tell Max. That is, if he’s still coming to my apartment tonight.
It feels like a concrete block settles in my stomach as I walk down the hallway to the bench, and when I pass Max, he refuses to make eye contact.
What the hell happened on that phone call?