Chapter 28
Maren
“Good morning,” Sadie sing-songs on the other side of the line. This is the first time either one of us have traveled since we moved in together and being away from my best friend is way harder than I thought it would be.
“What time do you have to work today?” I ask her.
“Not for another hour. Just putting on my makeup.” She quickly changes the call over to FaceTime.
“Same,” I add, propping the phone up against the mirror so I can see her while we both do our makeup.
“So, if there’s no game today, what are your plans?”
“We have to be at the field at 10 so we can quickly run through all the performances for tonight and the guys still have time to practice. Horner also set up time for me to shadow the other team’s choreographer, so that’s where I’ll be most of the day.
” I tell her, my voice sounding more stressed as the words tumble out.
“Why do you have to run through it all quickly?”
“The home team has more performances and the parade to coordinate, so we don’t get as much time on the field as we usually do for home games. ”
“Shadowing the other choreographer sounds like fun,” she says through the strain of having her mouth hung open as she applies her mascara.
“Yeah, I’m excited to see how someone else tackles this job.”
“Not that I want you to be stressed, but I’m surprised, and relieved, that you aren’t freaking out right now. This is normally something you would overthink for days, Mare. This job is good for you.” She smiles, and it makes me smile too, because come to think of it, she’s right.
I think on it for a second, “Honestly, I think Ozzie quiets the noise.”
I take a deep breath taking in that notion, because he does. When he’s around, things don’t seem as overwhelming.
“I love that,” she says and I see tears forming in her eyes.
I move back so I can see my entire outfit in the mirror trying to decide if it looks better with a bun or pony, but mostly to avoid the emotions right now.
Sadie’s voice startles me.
“What the fuck happened to you?” The amount of panic in her tone has me moving closer to the mirror to inspect myself better. I move from side to side, moving the hem of my crop top aside to get a better look at my stomach while also turning to see my back side.
“You have got to be shitting me, Mare, you can’t tell me your knees are not on fire right now.”
I look down at my knees in the mirror and instantly turn beet red. I didn’t think she would see them.
“Did you fall? Wha—” she pauses as if realization just hit her. “Mare,” she giggles. “Was he hate fucking you on gravel?”
I look down at my knees wishing I could find my leggings.
The way her face scrunches makes me laugh.”No, we were here in my room, but Horner is next door, so Ozzie moved us to the floor so he wouldn’t hear us.”
“Oh, he definitely heard you. I’ve heard you two plenty of times, and if that’s the aftermath there is no way either of you were quiet!”
My face returns to a bright shade of red as I listen to her. I had no idea we were that noisy.
“I love you,” she cuts in, “but, you should put on some leggings or something.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I’ll call you tonight,” I say before I hang up and start frantically searching for my leggings.
A small knock interrupts my search, and when I open the door, Ozzie is leaning against the door frame looking like pure sex with the veins peaking out beneath the black ink covering his skin.
I continue looking him over trying to remind myself what I was doing.
“Ozzie,” his name sounds like a shriek coming out of my mouth. “What happened to your lip?”
His lip is slightly bruised and fatter than usual.
“I bit it.”
“You bit it?” I ask, not buying anything he’s saying.
He moves in and closes the door. “Yeah, I was trying to keep quiet with your ass in the air, and I bit it so I wouldn’t make any fucking noise.”
I kick one of my legs out so he can see my knee, and start laughing. “We cannot walk around all day with the aftermath of our fuck session all over us. Help me find my leggings.”
We both start searching the room, looking under the bed, in the closet, and the bathroom. “It would be a lot easier if this room didn’t look like you’ve been here for a month. We just got here. Why is there shit everywhere?”
“I couldn’t decide what to wear,” I inform him as I look behind the chair. “Found them!” I say waving them in the air like a trophy.
“This is all from this morning?”
“Yes, you were here a few hours ago. Did you see any of this then?” I ask, irritated that he’s judging me.
“I have no idea what the state of your room looked like. You were naked, Mare, that’s all I was focused on.”
I smile at him, instantly forgiving his judgy remarks as I remember last night, but when I pull my shorts down to change he turns away.
“I’m going to wait in the hallway. We have to be at the field in an hour and if I stay here I’ll just want to continue last night and we’ll be late.”
The idea that he can’t bring himself to be in a room with me undressing does all kinds of delicious things to my insides, so I’m a little glad he stepped outside.
“Why did you come so early?” I ask as I walk out the door.
“I thought we could go grab coffee on our way to the field.” He lays a soft kiss on my temple and motions me to walk towards the elevator.
The coffee shop is across the street from the hotel, and we only have to walk another block or two to the field from there, so we walk casually like we have nowhere to be.
We are deep in conversation about the game, all the things we wish we could do while out of town, and what food we could order in for dinner when suddenly he spins to move in front of me, pulling his jacket out to shield me from something.
“What’s going on?” I ask, panicking inside.
“Just keep your head down,” he orders in a whisper, “there’s some reporter with a camera trying to snap pictures of us.”
Bile raises in my throat. We aren’t supposed to go public with our relationship, and here we are walking down the street like a happy couple.
Luckily we are right outside the coffee shop, so he quickly pushes me inside and pushes his way through the crowd to the bathroom.
Once we are both inside the door, he turns the lock and turns off the light.
“What are we going to do, Ozzie, stay in the bathroom all day?” He is pressed up against me, and while I should be irritated and feel violated from the insane breach of privacy that camera guy imposed on us, I’m nothing but turned on.
His breath is hot against my neck as he whispers, “Just give me a second to think, Mare.” His words are heavy and strained. I feel his thumb slide under my crop top and he begins rolling lazy circles over my skin.
I shudder, and he moves back a step. “We can’t fuck in here,” I know he thinks he’s talking to me, but it’s clear he’s trying to have a word with himself. I laugh.
“How quickly did you cover me?”
“Huh?” He clearly isn’t focused on the situation we’re in.
“Do you think they got a good look at me?”
“No, his camera wasn’t even up to his face when I covered you.”
“Good,” I sigh in relief. “Ok, you go out and order our coffee, I’ll take my hair down and come out in a few minutes. I’ll head straight to the field, and meet you there. If they didn’t see me, they won’t know who they’re looking for.”
“I don’t want you walking alone,” he urges, “Just because they didn’t get a picture doesn’t mean they didn’t see who you were.”
“They’re looking to get a shot of you. It’ll be fine,” I say as I open the door to push him out. “Cinnamon latte,” I smile.
“I know,” he says so casually, like we're just any old ordinary couple who knows each other's coffee order.
We’re ordinary. The idea settles warm in my chest, and I find myself smiling wider.
I blow him a kiss and lock the door.
Man, hiding the fact that we’re dating is a hell of a lot easier at home where no one gives a shit what either of us is doing.