2. Adrianna
Adrianna
I stare at the closed door.
Did he just call me kitten?
"Did he take it?" I can hear the Christmas music playing loudly in the background and little girls laughing.
"He did. He is buying the Rizzoli place and wants it by the end of January. Can we do that?" I can hear him whispering something to his girls in the background, and then it's quiet. He must have gone into another room.
"Sorry, the girls wanted to have some friends over for Christmas Eve; they are playing the worst Christmas music. Have you ever heard of Taylor Swift?"
I started laughing. "Coleman, you have 10-year-old girls. If you don't know who Taylor is, you better do your research. You also shouldn't say her music is bad; Swifties can make or break a business."
"What the fuck is a Swiftie?"
"Something that I am sure your daughters are.
Anyhow, can we do January?" I pulled out the stylus from my phone and opened the notes section.
Writing in the address and Jake's name, I wait until Coleman checks his calendar.
It's taking longer than usual. "Coleman, are you still there? " Maybe we got disconnected.
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry. What happened tonight?"
His question throws me off. "What do you mean? I showed them the apartment, and they left."
"Okay. Well, first, we can get Mr. Webster in whenever he wants. He is a friend of the Rizzoli's and we do whatever we can for them. Second, why is Mr. Rizzoli texting me asking for your personal phone number?"
Shit.
"I am not sure. He did invite Penelope and me out for Christmas Eve since we are alone, but I told him it was okay. Maybe he felt bad that I said no."
He hums for a minute and then laughs. "Well, if Liam messages me for it, I will have to give it to him.
Luka can figure it out on his own." I sigh in relief.
I definitely don't need a 6-foot-tall hockey sex God to have my number.
"If you and Penelope want to come and hang out with us you can.
Stella isn't home. She had to work late; I am not sure when she will be here. "
I roll my eyes, work late my ass. Coleman is too good for his piece-of-shit wife.
They got married when she got pregnant with the twins.
From what I have heard in just the past few months, she has run around on him since the beginning.
I don't understand why he doesn't tell her to pack her shit and get out.
She is never around for him or the girls.
"That's okay. We are just going to hang out and watch movies. Maybe get some Chinese." I tell him before I accidentally tell him what a bitch his wife is.
"Okay, Addy. I will talk to you after the New Year. Have a great break."
"Thanks, Coleman. Tell the girls I said hi and Merry Christmas."
I knock on Penelope's door. I can hear her singing Christmas songs.
Her voice is so loud and off-key that I am not sure she even hears me knocking.
So I call her phone. The music stops as she answers.
"I'm at the door, Pen." She laughs and hangs up.
The Christmas music starts again and her door opens.
I lift the bags of Chinese food I grabbed on the way over. "Merry Christmas, Pen."
She pulls me into her apartment and wraps her arms around me. "Merry Christmas, Addy." She grabs the bags and takes them to her kitchen. "How was the showing? I bet you knocked their socks off, especially when you are wearing your lucky shoes."
I lean down to take said lucky shoes off my feet.
The heels look amazing, but they are killer on the feet.
"They bought the place. Didn't even walk through the whole thing.
Of course, his buddy that came is cousins with the woman who used to live there, so maybe he has been in it before.
" I flop down on her couch and wait for her to bring in our food.
Penelope and I met two years ago when I moved here from Colorado.
I look around her apartment and it looks like she just moved in.
"You haven't decorated yet, Pen. You planning on leaving me? "
I joke with her. She is what I call a gypsy.
The girl grew up on a sailboat with her parents and little brother.
That is how we first bonded. I was at a local bar picking up food when my brother's game was on.
I was so engrossed in watching the game that I didn't realize some guy was inching his chair closer and closer to mine.
Pen was bartending that night and took an opening to ask me who I was cheering for.
When we started talking about our little brothers, she smiled at the guy and told him that I was hers and off-limits.
I had no clue what she meant until she told me that he had hit on anything that walked that night and I looked too nice to turn him down and would end up talking to the dick all night.
She wasn't wrong. The people pleaser in me would have felt the need to talk to him.
We bonded that night over stupid little brothers and have been best friends ever since.
She is the one who pushed me to apply for the job with Coleman even though I didn't have the experience I thought I should.
Meanwhile, she only keeps jobs she can leave at the drop of a hat.
She has moved away from me three times in two years but always ends up coming back to Chicago.
She hands me my plate and sits down next to me. "I have no plans on leaving. But you know how it is." She lifts her shoulder, and I think I see sadness in her eyes before it's masked with a megawatt Pen smile. "Want to see what my folks sent?"
"Sure." She puts down her plate and hands me a picture frame and a box.
The box has a Christmas ornament from some island town, and the picture is a photo of a much younger Pen and her family.
Her crinkly blonde hair is blowing into the face of her brother, and her mom and dad are laughing.
"You miss them?" I set the gifts down and turned to my friend.
"Sometimes, but not as much as I used to. Is that bad?"
"Nah, Penelope, that's not bad. That's growing up."
"Okay, okay. Enough of that." Penelope waves her hand in front of her face. "Tell me about the guys that came to look at the apartment. Were they hot?" I must have made a face because her smile got even bigger. "They were hot!! Tell me all about them."
I tell her how they scared me showing up and about the odd exchange about Christmas Eve.
"Wait, are you saying you sold a house to one of the Chicago Mustangs?" Penelope's eyes grow wide. "Like the hockey team?"
"You have heard of them?"
"Addy, I work in bars, so of course, I have heard of them. Who was it?" She pulls out her phone.
"I can't tell you that, Pen."
"Of course you can! I am not going to tell Coleman that you told me. What are he and his bitch wife doing for Christmas?" She asks me as she opens Google.
"She is working late and he has the girls." I watch Penelope roll her eyes the same way I did.
"Working late....right." She waves her phone in my face. "Okay, who is the name of the hot hockey player who bought the apartment."
"The buyer was cute. His name is Webster." She starts typing and then stops.
"You sold a house to Jake Webster?"
I nod and take a bite of my food. "Yeah, he was the cute one who bought it."
"He is the captain of the team. That man is hot as sin. But he is known for playing by the rules. He is a great leader, but he was so straight-laced that they pulled up Luka Rizzoli to be his alternate captain to help level out the leadership."
I stare at my best friend. "How do you know all this?"
"I work in a bar remember? I hear everything."
"Yeah, okay. But yes. Luka was the hot one that showed up with Jake tonight."
"You met Luka Rizzoli?" Penelope drops her phone in her lap. "Was it just him, or did his brothers come along? That family is always together."
"No, thank God. I don't know what I would have done if the head of the Mafia showed up to look at an apartment." I slap my hand over my mouth. "Not that he is the head of the Mafia or anything."
Penelope starts laughing at me. "Everyone knows Liam Rizzoli is the head of the Chicago family.
How else would all the crazy stuff that has happened the last couple of months be swept under the rug like nothing happened?
I heard that his cousin has been going on a spree, taking out a bunch of assholes that take advantage of girls. "
"You can't spread lies like that, Pen. Everything you hear at the bar isn't true."
"Girl I hope that of everything I have heard, that one is true. There are enough assholes in this world. We shouldn't have to worry about people drugging us, too."
I roll my eyes at her as she turns and pulls her knees under her lap. "Tell me all about the sexy hockey Gods you met today."