I shot Sacha a dirty look as we walked down the stairs to our seats. It was the second day of our mini-break between tours, and the lucky bastard had gotten free tickets to a Philadelphia Alliance game. They were a soccer team for the Men’s American League. One of TCC’s fans had messaged him and offered tickets following a post he’d made on the band's Twitter account about our soccer game the day before. The four tickets he'd received were split between us, Julian and Mateo. Isaiah had bowed out with other plans. The big shocker of the day had been Julian, who finally wasn’t acting as if I had herpes. He’d actually smiled at me when I met up with them in the lobby.
"These are awesome," I said when we found the lower level row where our seats were located.
Julian wiggled his way in first; I followed behind with Sacha next and finally Mateo. The game was set to start in five minutes, and I really needed some water. The bright, blistering sun was almost painful. I’d put sunblock on the day before but I hadn’t reapplied it, and I’d gotten slightly burnt. My only relief was that the sun would be setting in about an hour. When a vendor started walking up and down the aisle immediately after we'd sat down, I shot up and tried to catch her attention.
"You guys want one?" I asked them.
Sacha and Julian nodded, and I shuffled to stand in front of Sacha so I could grab the three bottles and pay for them. Did I stop in front of him on purpose? No.
I was a damn liar. I sure as hell had. I was wearing my best pair of khaki shorts, and while I hadn’t grown into great breasts, I did have a decent butt, so sue me. Slinking back into my seat, I caught Sassy wiggling in his seat as he reached for the wallet in his back pocket.
I scowled over, tapping his arm. "Don't worry about it."
He frowned slightly before nodding. "Thanks."
Julian who hadn’t spoken to me in weeks, leaned over my seat. "Thanks, Gaby."
I nodded at him and settled in, gulping down half my bottle in one sip. "Do you ever go to games back home?" I asked them.
"No, San Jose is the closest city with a team, and we’re usually gone every summer anyway. You?"
"Same here. Houston is a few hours away. I've gone with my best friend a few times; her cousin actually plays for the women’s team there and sometimes gives her tickets,” I explained. “We’ve paid to go see the men’s team a few times. Laila likes to check out the guys.”
Sacha raised a brow, though his attention was focused on the field. “And you don’t?”
“Well, I don’t exactly leave my binoculars at home.”
He laughed and turned toward me. I struggled not to make a stupid face at his closeness. He smelled like clean, sweet man. "You’re something else, you know that?”
I tried to take his words for how he really meant them and managed to raise the corners of my mouth just a little.
He smiled and leaned back, but his eyes were different as he did it. Those pale gray irises were bright, alert and a bit guarded. That was weird.
The game started immediately after that, and the screaming in the stands ensued. The first half was insane; there were a couple of close goals and everyone would go berserk when the opposing team got too close to the Alliance goal. When two minutes were left on the clock in the first half, a Philadelphia striker scored a goal and the stands went to hell. I wasn't even an Alliance fan, but I jumped up with everyone else and double high-fived everyone nearby. When I turned to Sacha, he slapped both his hands against mine before pulling me in for a hot, tight hug that lasted exactly three awesome, friendly seconds.
During halftime Sacha and Miles got up to go buy things from the concession stand, leaving Julian and I together.
"Sorry about the Brandon thing," the man next to me said unexpectedly, shifting in his seat to look at me.
Tearing my eyes away from the dancers parading across the field at the end of their halftime routine, I gave him a hesitant smile and shrugged. "It's okay. I’m sorry Eli and I both lost our minds."
"We’ve been friends for a long time, you know. We toured together a few years ago when I filled in for his guitar player." He pursed his lips together. "I should have known you were his Gaby, but I wasn’t thinking…”
I could remember Brandon mentioning to me when we first started dating how he'd replaced members in his ensemble before I came around, so Julian's explanation made perfect sense.
“It’s okay. Consider yourself lucky it was only temporary.”
His snicker was so loud it caught me off guard. "Oh fuck, they suck, right?”
I nodded like I’d win an award for telling the truth about the human hemorrhoid’s band.
“I don't have it in me to tell him his music blows now," Julian said with another snicker.
That had me throwing my head back to laugh. "I never did either. He thought I wore earplugs because I didn't want to damage my ears."
Julian joined me, chuckling. "You're a cool girl, Gaby. I'm sorry for being an asshole."
I’d just gotten over being an asshole to his bandmate, so I couldn’t really be a hypocrite and not accept his apology. “Don’t worry about it.”
