37. Chapter 37
Mariana
Sinclair Montt Family Chat
Dad: Mom and I will attend the Vortex game in Seattle tomorrow. We also accepted Selena's invitation to the Partner's Party, so we'll attend the luncheon on Sunday as well.
Cora: You're getting close to Selena, aren't you?"
Dad: We're supporting yours and Mariana's time with the Strike, and Selena is a good relationship to have in the sports world.
Mom: After the party, we can all leave in the jet we chartered for the family. We'll stop in Vancouver to pick up the boys. From there, straight to Vancouver Island for the Christmas break.
Cam: That makes sense. I'll make sure Luke is ready on time.
Luke: Easy, brother. I'll be there. It's Vic you need to track.
Maisie: We checked the pictures of that house online. Gorgeous. Amira and I are thrilled. We'll arrive in Seattle for the game, too.
Mom: Mariana, this time I'd like Cora to be at the game with us, so you girls decide who you can invite without ruffling any feathers. Any friends you have among the players may not be a good idea this time.
Cora: Whose feathers? Just to be sure.
Mom: Selena's. Front office. Other players. You know what I mean, Socorro.
Cora: Got it.
Mom: If the personal overlaps in any way with the professional, it has to be done very carefully. And everyone should work hard to remain unbiased.
Cora: Yes, Ma'am. I'm aware.
Mom: I know you'll be careful.
Mariana: I won't be inviting my friends this time, FYI.
Mom: Any dates you might want to bring are welcome. Otherwise, we'll keep it a family event.
Maisie: That sounds brilliant. I wish we didn't live so far away… it's hard to join you for these things.
Cam: It's an early game. We can go out for a late dinner after.
Cora: I'll make a reservation.
My office is getting dark, but I don't rush to turn the lights on.
Half an hour after the last text in the family thread, I'm still thinking of the casual invitation to have guests at dinner and the game.
Right after saying Strike friends are not welcome.
What kind of syncope would Mom have if I showed up with Dom anyway?
I'm in the middle of perfecting the look of shock on her face, when Cora raps a quick knock on my door.
"Are you tempted to bring Dom to dinner?" she asks.
I laugh. "I don't know what you're talking about."
I turn on the lamp on my desk, and invite her in with a gesture.
This should be interesting. As far as I'm aware, Cora doesn't know of my arrangement with Dom.
And as I don't plan on telling her, she'll never know just how amazing my time with him has been, and she won't get to interrogate me about it.
No one, not even Dom, knows how aware I've been that it feels like we're a typical long-term couple, living life side-by-side. More than I ever did with Henry himself— and he was my husband.
"Please." She rolls her eyes and sits on one of the armchairs across my desk. "Don't rob me of my favorite delusions. These days, she'd try to be polite and pretend everything is fine. But she'd get that one wrinkle between her eyebrows— you know the one?"
"Of course I know the one."
"And it wouldn't be gone the whole dinner!" She sighs, pleased with her vision. "Then she'd wait anywhere from an hour to a week to bring it up, incapable to resist asking you what exactly is going on with your ex."
"Let's imagine for a moment that I decide to throw everything to the wind and take Dom to dinner. That I risk all my goals in England for some reason. What do you think I should tell her? You know, for maximum chaos. I'm sure that's the stuff your dreams are made of."
She laughs. "Depends. Are you taking him to provoke, or because there's something there again?"
I cock my head. How did I not see Cora's real intentions with this conversation before? She's always been my deliciously sneaky sister.
"I see." My eyebrows go high on my forehead. "This whole scenario we're making up— it's a strategy. You want to know what's going on."
She crosses her arms. Shrugs. "I've heard rumors. I'm just gathering information before I make up my mind."
I smile through the knot forming in my stomach.
The fact Dom and I have been bad at keeping our secret is old news, but this is a whole new achievement for us.
Gossip runs smoothly through the Thunderdome’s halls.
I've been warned about it. Somehow, I didn't think Dom and I had given them enough to feed the rumor mill. Clearly, I was mistaken.
"What did you hear?" I ask.
The level of panic I allow myself fully depends on what kind of things are being said about us. If we have to talk to HR, or somehow things make it outside of the TD…
God, I really need this gala to be spectacular. Then, if I mess up with anything else, at least I have that success to hide behind.
"Nothing major," Cora says.
She's about to tell me more, when Dom appears at my door.
"Miss Duchess," he says. "I sneaked some food for you from the kitchen—"
He stops himself and gapes. He's been coming to my office every few days. Short, simple visits we can pass off as friendship to anyone that notices. Or so I thought, until Cora brought it up.
My sister turns on her chair to stare at him too. "Well, well, well. I expected this, and even so I am surprised."
"Expected what?" he asks.
The front pocket on his hoodie is bulky with his gifts, to free his hands to use his crutches.
"Are you going to pretend to not know?" She turns to me. "Is that how you two are playing this?"
"Are you allowed to ask?" I venture. "What are the lines here? Professionally speaking. You know I would do anything for one of my favorite sisters."
Cora rolls her eyes. "What an old trick, Mariana. If you're going to try for flattery, you know you should praise my style."
"Hey. Listen." Dom interrupts, hobbles closer to my desk, and empties his pockets.
"I brought Mariana some water, a granola bar, and an apple.
As a friendly gesture. She was nice to check on me at the hospital, and I saw that apple and I know she forgets to eat sometimes.
Just returning a favor. I'm going back to my side of the building—"
"No, no." Cora gets up to close the door. "Stay. You don't fool me, and maybe it's a good idea to have this conversation now."
He glances at me, but eventually sits in the armchair next to Cora's.
She joins him across my desk. "I was just asking Mariana about your… situation. Whatever it is."
"And I was asking you whether you should even ask," I insist. "Considering you're the GM."
She sighs and takes a moment to think it through.
"It's fine. I'm here as your sister." She gazes at Dom.
"And your contract is safe. I'm not looking at any changes to the starting roster for the time being.
There's nothing for me to be biased about.
Except in terms of having a bond with Mariana that means if you two mess this up at the relationship level, I'm immediately siding with her. "
"Gee, thanks, Cora." Dom purses his lips with some humor to it. "Because Mariana never makes mistakes."
She gives him a haughty gesture. "If she makes them, I'll tell her what I think in private and you'll never know unless she tells you."
He smirks. They didn't get to spend much time together while he and I were together in college. Even so, every time they met, they bantered. They were always good at keeping it friendly in their own way. Regardless of what the rest of my family did or said.
"Don't worry, either of you." I pull my lips to the side. "What good is anxiety for, if not to prevent mistakes?"
"Thinking you can prevent mistakes is why you have anxiety, hermanita." She gives me a playful look. "When you see your new therapist, tell them I said that. I would love to get some points from any therapist, even one I don't know."
Dom chuckles. I roll my eyes. I've never been safe from her sass— not that I've wanted to be.
She makes a dismissive gesture with her hand. "I will not get you two in trouble with HR or the family, and I don't want to get in trouble either. I'm trying to help."
"She heard rumors about us," I tell Dom.
He raises an eyebrow. "What did you hear?"
"Work-wise, I heard Mariana showed up at the hospital, and different people here at the Thunderdome have seen you two spending more time together.
The medical team mentioned something about your shoulders, Dom?
But since you're known to date a lot, they haven't yet made the connection.
They haven't jumped to the conclusion that Mariana is your current… how should I say this…"
Dom doesn't fall for her trap. "It really could be someone else, Cora."
"Sure, sure," my sister says. "Except there's also the stuff I saw online putting you two together at the club, and at the game the other day, and Mariana suddenly can't make it on time to our breakfast together every Monday? I think something Dom-shaped is going on."
I lift a shoulder and reach for the water bottle Dom brought for me. "I could just be good friends with everyone. Including Dom."
Cora gives me a look with such an incredulous attitude, I scrunch up my face.
"Come on, Mariana," Dom says. "Cora won't tell anyone if we ask her not to. Right?"
I sigh. "That's basically confirming everything for her, Dom. Did you forget what the goal is here?"
"She already knows," he insists.
"Don't offend me, Mariana." Cora gives me a cheeky shake of her head. "You know I'm on your side. No need to insult my intelligence."
Embarrassment pricks my chest. Yeah, of course Cora is on my side. I'm just too much of a nervous nelly at times.
Dom gazes at me, letting me make up my mind. I press my lips and face my sister.
"Okay. Look," I say. "It's not a big deal. We're going to end this."
"I knew it!" She raises a triumphant hand. "You guys, I'm too smart for your attempts at discretion to be effective."
Dom chuckles. "Don't get too cocky. Lots of people have figured it out."
"Your friends, for example," Cora says. "After that hospital visit? Too easy."
"I just had to, okay?" I complain. "He was injured!"
"It's not Dom's friends or me that you have to be careful around.
" She pats Dom's arm like she's congratulating him for something, and I mock an offended look.
"Some people are curious, but it's not been a big deal so far.
So when you're ready to make things public, plan the reveal carefully, okay?
Talk to HR, and make the most of the reveal to Mom and Dad. "
Dom shakes his head. "We're not making anything public."
"He's not going to dinner or the game either," I add.
To do so is to make a claim about our future— the one we said we don't want. It would be going for the long, long term. Suddenly believing in forever, somehow, for the first time in my life, without the help of signatures on a paper which don't mean much at all anyway.
Only to risk a fallout the kind I've never expected with my parents. For if I tried this relationship with Dom, I would have to stay in Seattle, and prove they were right to doubt me from the start.
Cora steeples her hands. "Mom and Dad asked me about Dom's injury the other day."
"What?" I exclaim.
Dom's eyes turn heavy, but I don't get to wonder why. He crosses his arms and stares at Cora.
She gazes from him to me, back and forth a few times. "They— well, Mom asked if it was serious, and if he's going to be okay."
"Why did she want to know?" I ask. "I swear, if they're in any way mean about that, I have no qualms calling them out. I may not want them to know Dom and I are indulging in some casual fun, but I won't accept disrespect for either of us."
"I'm not sure why she wanted to know," Cora says. "But with everything coming up, you'll have a chance to respond however you like. Maybe she'll ask you during the hockey game. Maybe she'll keep an eye on you guys during the Partners' Party on Sunday. Later. Who knows."
Dom purses his lips.
Cora studies us. "Regardless, you'll have to figure out how you'll act in front of them, if you want them to act cordially while keeping this thing between you two private."
Dom and I exchange a look. Cora is helping… by giving us a warning.
The holiday season may rock us, between the Strike events, the hockey game, and my family trip.
I gulp. Way too many landmines to dodge. And I'm not sure if I'm ready to face a blowup.