Chapter 30
A Rom-com Scheme
Olli
When Kodi’s door thunked closed behind me, something snapped in my brain. She’d flirted with me then rushed me out like I was a stray that snuck in.
I didn’t get it. And the whiplash of her behavior was like a rash on my heart, hot and irritating. I had half a mind to turn around and knock on her door to demand an explanation.
And I probably would have if the elevator didn’t ding down the hall and Brooker stepped out.
“You,” I pointed at him, nearly storming down the hall and he threw his hands up, looking over his shoulder at the elevator door closing.
“Look, man, I really was just trying to help. I thought showing you were a good dude deep down would make it easier for y’all to be friends and then more than friends, ya know?” he yammered.
“Do you …” I trailed off as I stopped in front of him, letting my hands fall to my side. “Do you actually understand women? Or do you just know how to get them to bed?”
“Oh. You’re not mad at me?”
“No, I’m pissed at you. But …” I looked over my shoulder at Kodi’s door, at a complete loss. “I just don’t understand what’s going on through her head.”
“Oh.” Brooker’s shoulders relaxed and his hands tilted palms up as he shrugged. “Have you tried asking her?”
I turned to glare at Brooker and he chuckled nervously.
“Okay, okay. Then do you wanna go ask … maybe Taylor? He has sisters, so he might be able to help.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said softly, turning on my heel to head to Taylor’s room. But when I heard Brooker’s footsteps following, I turned back and asked, “What’re you doing?”
“Going with. I started the problem, I might as well see it through.” He shrugged. “Besides, no one wanted to go out after today’s game, so I’ve got nothing better to do.”
“So you’re using me as your entertainment?” I huffed.
“Well, you fumbling your relationship with Kodi is a helluva lot more entertaining than Food Network reruns.”
I bit my tongue and decided to act like he wasn’t there.
It took Taylor a few seconds before answering the door and when he did, he looked confused as fuck, already in loose basketball shorts and a durag.
“What the hell are you two doing here?” he asked, brow furrowing as he looked between us.
“I’m pretending he’s not here,” I grumbled.
“And he has a question about how women think,” Brooker added.
“And you couldn’t trust him to answer it?” he asked, nodding to the man behind me. I raised an eyebrow at Taylor and he sighed, rolling his eyes. “Right. Stupid question. Come on in.”
He held the door open and we shuffled in, Brooker taking the arm chair while I sat on the desk.
“Okay, I assume this is a Kodi thing,” Taylor said as he shut the room door gently and plodded back onto his bed.
“She …” I chewed on my tongue as I debated how to describe this. Normally, I’d focus on facts, what she said and did. But in this moment, what she did didn’t feel all that important in comparison to how the whole incident felt. “She’s confusing me.”
“And that’s new?” Brooker asked and I looked around for something to toss at him but found nothing.
“She brought me to her room to talk about ways to suck up to the owners.”
“To her room?” Brooker shouted, jerking to the edge of his seat.
I chose to ignore him.
“And there was some minor … flirting, I guess.”
“Oh, shit.”
“And some … heavy looks. I said I’d do anything she told me to, in reference to keep Lunez from replacing me. And then all of sudden she was throwing me out like she couldn’t get rid of me fast enough. So … I don’t get the sudden attitude change.”
“Uh-huh,” Taylor murmured, nodding his head. “It sounds like she panicked.”
“Panicked? Did I make her uncomfortable somehow?” My hands suddenly felt clammy. “I didn’t do anything she didn’t initiate. At least, I thought I didn’t.”
“Are you sure, man? Like you didn’t look at her tits or anything, right?”
“No,” I grumbled, not sure if it’d be pathetic to say my yearning for Kodi was so strong, I didn’t let myself look farther down her body than her lips. At least physically.
There’d certainly been … thoughts about the rest of her.
“Nah, I trust Kean not to be the kind of dickhead who’d freak her out like that. And I don’t know Kodi crazy well, but she gives off … confidence, like she wouldn’t let a prick’s comments get under her skin.”
“So why’d she kick me out, then?”
“Oh,” Brooker said, eyes widening.
“Yeah. That’s gotta be it, right?”
“Yeah, I guess congratulations are in order, Kean. You’re closer than I thought.”
“I mean, it’s not that surprising. She was a little tipsy last night, but she did say he was hot.”
“Will you two explain what you’re talking about?” I asked with a huff.
“She kicked you out because if you stayed any longer, she was gonna fuck you.”
“I would’ve put it … not so crudely.”
“That can’t be it.” I shook my head, not able to fathom the idea that Kodi could want me to that extent. I knew she found me physically attractive, I wasn’t that dense. But there was no way it was as intense as these guys thought.
“Dude!” Brooker whined, throwing up his hands and collapsing back into the armchair. “She’s totally got the hots for you. Now it’s just getting her the other job so y’all can hook up.”
“Normally I’d say you’re right to doubt Brooker, but you heard her last night, right? That she’d consider dating you? She’s definitely interested. Now you just need to change the circumstances.”
“Right. What’s her plan to get on the owners' good side? We’ll help out, right?” Brooker said, looking at Taylor, who nodded.
“Oh, um, she wants me to do that charity auction thing.”
Both their jaws dropped.
“You’re seriously doing that?”
“I … did not think that’d be your thing.”
“Why? It’s just wearing a nice suit and bidding on art or something, right?”
“Nah, man. They auction off dates with the players.”
“I’ve done several of them, so I can give you some tips. You’re not gonna have fun, but she’s right, it’ll gain you the owners’ favor.”
“No, no, no. You’re thinking about this all wrong,” Taylor interrupted, putting a hand out so Brooker would stop talking. “We do the full rom-com shit.”
“Rom-com shit?” I repeated, no clue where he was going with this.
“We give her the money to bid on your date.”