Eleven

Allison

“So let me get this straight, you hate Max. You guys have been insulting each other for a month, and then last night he gives you a ride home and you guys make peace. He buys you your disgusting pizza and you threw in the word denounce?” Karrie says on the phone.

“Just about.”

“Ma fille.” My girl, Vivienne says out loud.

I sit up in bed. “Oh my God,” I yell. “I’m on speakerphone.”

“It’s Vivienne. You don’t even want to know what she did last night, or who she did.”

“Ryder. I heard all about it.” I lie back down.

“Really? Did he say I rocked his world?”

“I don’t know what you did to him, Vivienne, but he was in a trance the whole day.”

“It’s called vagina magic. My vagina has magic powers,” she says loudly and does what sounds like a lightning sound. “Anyway, let’s talk about your crush on Max.”

“I don’t have a crush on Max. He’s an asshole.”

“Okay, let’s go with that,” Karrie says. “Just leave it at that and don’t poke the bear.”

“Poke the bear, are we talking anal?” Vivienne says. “I think a man like Max you need to prime first.”

“What the hell are you both talking about?” I shout and go to the wall, pressing my ear against it.

“Vivienne, stop with the anal talk.” Karrie shushes her. “I’m saying that I think you should get involved with anyone but Max.”

“I’m not getting involved with Max,” I say quietly, but something hurts in my chest. “Anyway, I have to go. I’m beyond exhausted.” I get into bed. “Thank you so much for the girl talk. We should do lunch when I get home. And you know what, I think I need to go on Tinder.”

“On Tinder? No,” Vivienne says. “Tinder is not for the innocent.”

“You need to go to bed and tomorrow will be a new day,” Karrie says. “Love you. Be nice to your brother. He got totally offended he couldn’t carry your bags.”

“I just want him to treat me not like his baby sister and baby me,” I say.

“Just please, go with it,” Karrie says and then we disconnect.

I turn on my stomach, looking at my phone to see if he texted me, but he didn’t. No surprise there. I close my eyes, but all I see is him, his chest—his wide chest. His ink down his arms, the skull at the end of his arm. His last name on the inside of his arm in big scripture. I finally doze off and wake the next day at noon. Holy shit, I get up and start getting ready for the day. It’s a skate day at the rink, so I don’t need to be there. I only need to be ready to go on the bus at four-thirty. I grab my shampoo and take a nice, long, hot shower, then try to make the hotel room coffee. It doesn’t taste half bad, I think while I curl my hair. I take out my navy blue slacks that fit me tight. I grab my baby blue linen button-down shirt, tucking just the front in, and grab my big knitted gray sweater. I roll the sleeves up a bit, grabbing my leopard ballerina flats to make the outfit look dressy. When my phone beeps telling me it’s time to head downstairs, I pack up all my stuff and make my way to the door, opening it, and seeing a coffee cup from Starbucks there in the middle. I don’t have time to do anything because Max comes out of his room.

“Hey,” he says, giving me a once-over and then bending to get the coffee and picking it up for me. “I dropped this off earlier, but you didn’t answer.”

“Max, listen.” I don’t get to say anything else because Matthew and Phil walk down the hall. “Hey.”

“You look nice,” Phil says. “I have a friend who just became single.” He doesn’t say anything else before Matthew pushes him.

“You don’t get to set my sister up. She’s a child.”

“She’s twenty-three,” Max says.

“No one asked you,” Matthew says between his teeth while Phil laughs and then Max laughs also. “You want me to set your sister up with his friend?” he asks Max.

“Yes, please do. At least she has a chance at being happy,” Max says, walking into the elevator first when it stops on our floor.

“Well, no one is dating my sister,” he shouts in the small space as Luka, Ryder, and Paul get into the elevator.

“I’d date her,” Paul says, winking at me, and all I do is roll my eyes.

“Thanks, Paul, but I’ll be happy to say I’m not dating anyone.”

Ryder is the one to talk. “You should go on Tinder.”

“Fuck,” Matthew says, throwing his head back, and growling out while the guys laugh at him.

I walk out of the elevator with Max at my back. His hand goes to the base of my back and ushers me out. The touch is almost electric, but by the time I turn my head to the side to see, he’s already in front of me.

I wait in line as the guys drop their bags under the bus. By the time I get on the bus, the two coaches are sitting in the front seat going over something on their iPads, and across from them is Max. The seat beside him is empty, so I sit down. He’s listening to something on his phone, so I peek over and shake my head, seeing he’s watching Game of Thrones. I don’t bother taking my stuff out since it’s a short ride to the arena. I’m the first one out of the bus and I grab my bag, waiting to see where to go.

Once inside I walk down the hall looking for a bathroom, when I see two guys I don’t know walking down the hall. They both smile at me. I’m about to walk away when I hear one of them.

“Now that’s a fine piece of ass.”

I roll my eyes and am continuing to walk away when I hear.

“I’ll break your fucking teeth.”

So I turn around to see it’s Max who is still dressed in his suit with his phone in his hand.

“What’s it to you, Horton?” the smaller of the two says.

“It’s nothing to me,” he says and then turns to yell. “Matthew, is it a problem that Duke and Harlot think your sister is a fine piece of ass?”

I turn around mortified as Matthew steps out of the room. “Like she would touch you guys, you fucking wish.”

One of them turns around and looks at me. “Oh, she would totally touch me, and I’d love every fucking second of it.”

Max starts to advance with Matthew and Phil jumps in front of them. “Okay, this has been fun, but move along.”

They both laugh and walk around Matthew and Max, who turn and watch them walk away.

“You shouldn’t be walking around the hallways if no one knows who you are,” Max says, walking away, shaking his head.

“He’s right,” Matthew says, also walking away.

I storm to the room and some of the guys are already undressing and don’t even bother covering up.

“I was going to the bathroom. How is this my fault? You guys made a big deal for nothing.” I leave the room and finally go to the bathroom. I spend the rest of the game in the office they provide me with, watching the game on the screen.

Max is targeted right away by the tall one from before, who I see is Duke. He laughs in his face when the guy tries to push him. It must burn even more when we take the victory 3-2.

By the time the plane touches down everyone is quiet and heading to their car. I pull out my phone when Matthew says, “How’re you getting home?”

“I’m calling an Uber,” I say, opening my app.

“You’re not taking a fucking Uber at two-thirty in the morning, Allison.” He curses at me and turns. “Get in, I’ll drive you home.”

“I’ll take her.” I hear Max from behind me. “It’s on my way.”

“Fine,” Matthew says and starts to get in his car. “I’m calling Cooper and he is going to buy you a car,” he threatens and then slaps his head. “You don’t even have a valid license.”

“I get it back in seven months,” I counter. I seem to have a heavy foot, a very heavy foot, according to all the speeding tickets and loss of my licesnse. I walk over to Max’s truck and he laughs at me. I put my bag in the backseat, getting in, and buckling up. “It’s getting cold now,” I say to him, blowing hot air on my hands.

“I’m just happy for the rest of the month we only go away once,” Max says, making his way over to my house.

“Yeah, but we head out every second week in November,” I tell him, trying to remember the schedule. “Can I ask you something? What do you guys say to each other on the ice? I kept trying to read the lips, but I couldn’t make it out. I mean, with Matthew I know it’s fuck and fuck and dick and sometimes blow me.”

Max laughs out loud. “That is pretty much what we all say. Once in a while, it’ll be like I fucked your sister last night. Mothers are off the table.”

“Really, so it’s a rule that you guys don’t go after each other’s mother, but sisters are fair game?” I ask.

“Pretty much,” he says and I look out of the window. When we turn on my street, he pulls over at the curb and gets out to come around while I take my bags out. “You need help with that?” He holds the door and I walk away.

“No, I should be good. Thanks for the lift, Max.”

I hear one car door close and then I wait for the other while I get my key out, but I don’t hear anything. I turn around to see him standing there on the sidewalk watching me. “What’s the matter?” I ask, confused, as I locate my key.

“Just making sure you get inside.” He crosses his arms.

“Oh my gosh, I’m fine, go.”

“Get inside, Allison,” he says to me and I know not to argue with him, so I open the door and go in, turning around to wave at him as he walks around the truck, getting in, and taking off.

I fall into bed, curling up into a ball as I fall into a fitful sleep. The next day I check the schedule and I see it’s a skate day for the players. I’m about to call Denise to discuss my plan that I ran by Doug. My phone rings with a weird number.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Allison, it’s Charles Power from Limitless Photos.”

“Hey, Charles,” I say, pouring myself some orange juice.

“We have a situation. We got all the photos and videos from the photo shoot at the beginning of September, but we can’t seem to locate anything for Max. No video and no extra pictures.”

“What do you mean nothing? He was there,” I say, remembering full well he was there.

“Yeah, I don’t know if we are missing a roll of film. This has never happened to me before.”

“We need those pictures for the website as well as the video. Let me call him and fix a time that is best for you guys.”

“Perfect, thank you,” he says and disconnects.

I pull up my texts on my phone, clicking phone next to his name.

He answers right away. “Yeah.”

“Hey, it’s Aly,” I start.

“I know who it is, Allison, I have caller ID.”

“Okay, so Charles just called me and he lost your roll of film that they took at photo day. So now we need to reschedule a day to do it again.”

“Well, you have my schedule. I didn’t add anything else in,” he says and I pull up his schedule and see that he is open except for game days.

“How is this Sunday? I know there is a game on Saturday night, but if we do it in the afternoon…”

“I don’t book anything on Sundays,” he says and I hear water running in the background. “Let’s do Monday.”

“Yes, that looks good. Okay, I’ll fix it with him and then email you the details,” I say, then disconnect, call back Charles, and set it up for Monday morning at ten a.m. After I confirm with both of them I’m about to go and get myself something to eat when my phone rings. This time it’s Max.

“Yes,” I say, opening the fridge and noticing I need to go to the store since I’ll be home most of the month.

“I’m leaving in fifteen to go to the rink.”

“Okay.” Not sure why he’s telling me this.

“You need a lift?” he asks, his voice going almost soft.

“I wasn’t going in today,” I tell him as I check my watch. “It’s almost noon.”

“Yeah, I know. I was going to go in and just work out a bit,” he tells me. “Okay, talk later.” He doesn’t give me a chance to say anything else when he hangs up.

“What the heck was that all about?” I shake my head, confused on what the fuck just happened.