Chapter 21
MILES
H aving a secret relationship isn’t easy.
So instead of having dinner at a nice restaurant downtown, we’re sneaking into the planetarium on a weeknight.
Damon told me about this place. Said he took a date here on a weekday once, and she gave him head while the stars swirled above them.
He said there’s usually no one here during the week, so I thought it was safe to tell Bryce I would sit in the third row from the back on the right side, but when I got there, there was a guy sitting with his head leaned back, eyes closed.
I’m not sure if he’s relaxing, sleeping, or dead, but to get away from him, I go to the left side of the theater instead.
Then I pull out my phone and text Bryce, so she knows I had to change the plan.
She’s due here in seven minutes. Yes, she wanted us to arrive at odd times, not exactly at seven or seven thirty, but rather 7:27 and 7:34.
I understand that she’s risking her job, but I also think there is such a thing as taking it too far.
As I wait in my seat, a teenage couple takes a spot at the very back, closest to the wall, by the exit doors. Pretty sure they’re not interested in the show. I’m not either. Just being close to Bryce is good enough for me.
The doors open at exactly 7:26, and it has to be her, but I don’t look because that would be a dead giveaway. A figure walks down the aisle, and I try to make out whether it’s her or not, but I don’t think so because they slide in next to the guy who was napping.
I’m not sure what happens, but I hear a yelp from him and a scream from a woman a minute later.
“Oh my god!” the woman says, and it’s a voice I’d recognize anywhere. Bryce stands and rushes out of the theater.
“Fuck,” I mumble, following her out. Pushing through the doors, I squint at the bright lights of the lobby.
Bryce is pacing, and I step over to approach her when the guy comes out of the theater behind me.
“Bryce?” he asks. I try to keep walking as though I wasn’t about to approach Bryce, but the guy sees me. “Miles Cavanaugh?”
Fuck. It’s Grant Thorn, the reporter for Sportsverse .
I walk toward them even though Bryce’s eyes are telling me to leave. Grant swears the Panthers will win the Bowl this year, but I’ve heard rumblings that their general manager, Mike O’Leary, bribed him for his opinion. Which means he cannot be trusted.
“Hey.” I pretend to get my first view of Bryce. “Bryce?”
She’s dressed in black leather pants, heels, and a blouse that dips low to show off her cleavage. She looks hot as hell, and I am not okay with the way Grant is drooling from the side of his mouth like a bulldog right now.
“Miles. What are you doing here?” she asks.
I stuff my hands in my pockets. “Just trying to get away from the noise. I like it here, it’s quiet.” That’s not a lie.
“You aren’t here together?” Grant asks.
“No, and I’m really sorry for what happened. I’m supposed to be meeting, um… someone here.” Bryce’s cheeks heat.
What the hell happened?
“Well, I hope it’s your boyfriend you’re meeting with the way you greeted me,” Grant says with a laugh.
Bryce glances at me, biting her cheek. Now I’m really curious what she did to him. “Yeah, it’s casual.”
Grant shakes his head. “You kids these days. There’s nothing wrong with an actual relationship.”
“Different generations, I guess.” She smiles.
Grant glances my way. “Well, I’m going back in. I hope your date shows up, Bryce.” He walks back toward the doors to the theater.
I go to break the distance between us, but Bryce puts up her hand at her hip. Fucking hell, I hate this, and it’s only been like a week and a half of sneaking around at this point.
“What did you do?” I say under my breath.
Her face turns even more red. “I’m going to get fired. He’s going to tell everyone at work. Mr. Osterman is going to hear and fire me.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
Her eyes bore into mine. “I put my hand on his dick and asked him if it’d like to come out and play with my mouth.”
I press my lips together because I want to laugh, but I’m not going to do that to her when she’s so embarrassed.
“Don’t.” She points at me.
I hold up my hands. “What?”
“Don’t laugh. It’s not funny. I thought it was you.”
“We’ll have to do a redo of that.” I wink, and she huffs. “Come on, we clearly can’t be seen here.”
She shakes her head. “You have to go back in.”
I look at the doors and back at her. “I’m not going in without you.”
“He thinks you’re here to see stars. After he leaves, you can leave. Meet me back at my place. ”
“This is stupid, Bryce. He doesn’t care if I stay or if I go.”
A couple walks by, and she steps back. I growl with frustration.
“I put my hand between his legs. You can watch one showing of the trip to Mars.”
I push my fingers through my hair and pull on the strands. “When is Shelly returning?”
Her eyes widen. “Do you want me off the Grizzlies?”
I tug her over to a corner so we’re more hidden. “If I do, it’s only so we can be out in the open.”
“How can you even think of that? It’s only been, like, ten days. How do we know we’re going to work out?”
I’m blown away and instinctively step back as if she’s going to throw another punch.
“You know what I mean. Don’t look at me like that. We don’t know if this is worth sacrificing so much.” She doesn’t look affected at all, like she can take us or leave us.
“How are we going to know if we’re sneaking around all the time?”
Her shoulders fall, and she stares at me for a minute as if I’m the unreasonable one. “Well, it doesn’t say much that we’re already arguing after ten days.”
“I just want to be with you.”
“Me too, but you should know that Ronnie Michaels told me he’s telling Mr. Osterman he doesn’t want Shelly back. He thinks she was too flirty with the players.”
I think back to our interview, and yeah, she was pretty flirty. I took it as a compliment, but it felt kind of weird for a reporter to be so invested in me.
“So, you might be reporting on the Grizzlies forever?” I ask.
“Maybe not.”
“But for the foreseeable future.”
She shrugs. “I don’t really know, but you have to go in there and watch the show. ”
I throw back my head when I really want to fall to the floor, kicking and screaming like a toddler. “Fine.”
She smiles. “I’ll be waiting naked in my bed.”
I shift my weight, staying in place. “I don’t like this.”
“I know, I hate it too, but please.” She puts her hands together, prayer-like.
I move to kiss her, seeing no one is in the lobby, and I still have my hood on, but she practically runs away.
“Miles,” she says with the disciplinary tone of my third-grade teacher, when I pushed a girl on the playground, and she cut her knee.
I walk to the doors of the theater, and go back to the seat I had before. I can barely see Grant from where I am, the theater is so dark.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I take it out.
BB: I’m going to make this up to you.
Me: Yeah, you are.
Then she sends a picture of her in the bathroom at the planetarium, her pants unbuttoned and zipper down and open, revealing a red pair of panties.
BB: Only for you. Bra matches, too. ;)
Me: You’re really testing my willpower here.
BB: : P
I watch the show, and when I walk out of the theater, Grant walks out right after me.
“You’re not staying for the next show, Miles? Heard that one’s even better.”
I clear my throat. “Nah. Early practice in the morning.”
“Hope you enjoyed the one you saw.”
I nod. “It was good.”
He smiles. “Tell Bryce I say hello.”
“Will do.”
He smiles and heads over toward the restroom.
His hands are on the door when I call, “Why did you say that?”
He gives me a look to say, “I’m an old man. I’ve been around the block and not stupid.” But what he actually says is, “You’re friends, correct? Cooper Rice too?”
My head rocks back. “Yeah. We’re all friends. I’ll make sure to tell her, but you’ll probably see her before me.”
He chuckles. “Doubtful. See you, Miles.”
Then he’s through the door, and I say a silent wish that he doesn’t suspect anything. Bryce would flip out, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to her because of our relationship. I just got her, and I’m not ready to lose her.
I take a taxi to her apartment, leaving my hood on the whole time. When I press the buzzer, the door beeps to let me in.
I run up the stairs and push open the apartment door she’s left slightly ajar for me. Slipping off my shoes, I undress on the way to her bedroom, and sure enough, I’m rewarded for the time I wasted watching a trip to Mars by Bryce on her bed in a matching set of red panties and bra.
“I like your style,” she says, seeing I’m naked except for my boxer briefs. She crawls up to her knees and puts her hand on my dick. “This is the man I’ve been waiting to see all day. ”
“Stop having more of a relationship with my dick than me.” I use my body to nudge her onto her back again.
“But I like him.”
“And he likes you, believe me. He fucking loves you.”
She laughs and loosely wraps her arms around my neck. “Fuck me, Miles.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.”
I end up staying the night again because we can’t get enough of one another. I let go of my reservations about sneaking around because she has every right to be worried about her job. I just wish things could be different. Hopefully, one day, they will be.