“Hold on,” Jess broke in. “Game night counts as a date? As in she can come over and watch the Phillies, eat pizza and drink beer with you and your buddies here?”
“What, that’s not romantic enough for you?” Braden joked. “I’m sorry, but that’s what I had scheduled already and I don’t plan to blow off my friends or my obligations. I also don’t plan to drag this out for a month. If we want to keep doing this, we should figure it out quickly. Besides, she gets to choose what we do on two nights.”
I could feel the expectant looks of everyone else at the table focused on me as they waited for me to answer. As usual, Mr. Pierce had made me a fair offer. I didn’t really care what we did, to be honest. Frankly, I would have been willing to watch ping pong with the entire DA’s office to spend time with him. Hell, I would probably have played ping pong with the entire DA’s office to spend time with him. I took my time and held his gaze. Neither one of us was going to look away first. In the background April Skies by the Jesus and Mary Chain played. This had to be the coolest jukebox ever.
“It's a deal,” I said finally. I had gotten what I had asked for. I was jumping on this opportunity before I lost my chance. I reached into my purse, grabbed my cell and handed it to him. He called his phone with it and we both typed in the contact info.
“The only thing is that I have to pick up my brother at Georgetown Sunday morning and move him back home, so I can’t stay out too late tomorrow.”
“Oh, perfect!” Jess muttered.
“I wasn’t prepared for this!” Braden said defensively. “If I were, don’t you think I might have picked something other than game night and a fundraiser?”
“What about the other condition?” Jess asked.
“When would I have the time to screw around during this little introductory dating period?” he asked her.
“Or the energy,” Adam smirked. “She’s going to tire him out eventually, right?” It was only the fact that my blood alcohol level was rising by the second that prevented me from dying of embarrassment.
“Seriously, Gab. Fridays and Saturdays are usually his only nights to pick up women,” Mark assured me. “It sounds like by virtue of time constraints alone, you wouldn’t have to stand in line at his bedroom door.” Remind me never to tell Mark anything that I don’t want repeated out loud to his two besties over there.
“I’m stealing that one too,” Adam added.
“And if we get along and hit it off?”
“Then I guess we’ll keep doing it,” he answered. I waited. “Exclusively.” I realized that I had been holding my breath and I released it.
“Fine. I accept.”
“It’s time to go home. You’re agreeing to everything so easily that if we stay any longer you may wind up not going to bed sober or alone tonight.” Jess started gathering her things.
“So easily?” Adam demanded. “He gave her everything she asked for!”
“And I’m sure she’ll give him plenty of what he wants too. I have a newsflash for you, Mr. Roth. They wouldn’t have agreed if they didn’t want to. Come on honey. Time to go.” She grabbed her purse and started for the door. “Enjoy your last night as a player,” she called back over her shoulder.
“Make sure she gets plenty of rest,” Adam called back.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Braden said.
“Bye,” was all I replied. I wasn’t sure I trusted myself to say anything else. I stood up, (steadily, I think), threw my jacket back on and followed Jess out the door. Well okay, technically, I walked face first into the door, but right after that I went through it. It was probably a good thing that I was leaving.
* * *
I knew what was coming as soon as we got outside. Jess did at least wait until we were about half a block away before launching into her “I told you so” speech. It was the start of a weekend in a major city so as we walked and talked, we navigated around many interesting sights and sounds.
“So, why would he be paying attention to you, huh?” She smirked.
“Okay, maybe he's a little interested,” I admitted, stepping over a puddle of something I didn’t want to contemplate too deeply.
“A little? If we had stayed any longer you would have had to break out a calendar.”
“I said that I wanted more than ‘one and done.’ Besides, I amuse him. He’s looking for some diversion,” I replied, circling around a group of people who were either doing Thai Chi or line dancing – on a public sidewalk.
“Honey, Braden Pierce could easily find all the diversion he wanted. There were probably twenty women in that place who would have been happy to divert him on their knees in the men’s room and at least a dozen who already had.”