It was standard procedure for hotels to tighten their security when a team was in the building. We brought in enough money between three-hundred dollar a night rooms and bar tabs that they didn’t want to risk us going elsewhere.
“He’s good, Paul.” I turned to see Jason Klein standing behind me, smirking. “Hey Mason, glad you came down. Our boy’s in pretty rough shape up there. I tried getting him to come down for a drink, but he’s taking Eric’s trade pretty hard.”
Shit. That explained a lot. Sean had tried telling me repeatedly that what they shared was no different from our friendship, but I wasn’t stupid. There was something about the subtle glances when they didn’t think anyone was looking and the way Eric’s hand dropped slowly when he’d smack Sean’s ass on the way back to the dugout. I didn’t think it was enough for anyone else to notice, but the signs were there if you knew what to look for.
Rumors had been circulating for a few weeks that the Mavericks wanted to trade Eric to the Seattle Wildcats, but there had been no announcement as of this morning when I shut down my phone.
Had I known, I would have gotten in touch with Sean before the game to set up something for tonight.
“He’ll be fine,” I assured Jason. One of the first facts I learned about Sean was that he never allowed his personal life to affect the game. It might trip him up momentarily, but he’d always bounce back, more determined than ever. “When was the trade announced?”
“Not even two hours before game time. When I got to the locker room, Eric had finished packing his gear and was walking out the door. He barely had enough time to take a cab back to the hotel, grab his suitcase, and get to the airport.”
Seeing that I wasn’t a psychotic fan or a reporter looking for salacious gossip, Paul pressed the call button and gave me a quick apology. It was apparent that this was his job whenever teams were staying at the hotel, and he knew when to back down. I appreciated his vigilance, even if it was a bit inconvenient.
“I’m going to see if he wants to go back to my place. He’s done for a few days, and the last thing he needs is to sit in that room all night dwelling on shit.” I didn’t know why I was telling Jason this, but it seemed like a good idea to make sure someone knew where he’d be tonight.
“Sounds good. Do something mindless to help him get out of the funk before his next start.” Jason and I shook hands as the elevator door opened and I played Candy Crush on my phone as the elevator climbed to the tenth floor. They should call that game Candy Crack because it was addictive as hell. Most of the time, it was exactly what I needed to clear my head, but it did nothing to help the images of Eric and Sean together.
You have no proof of anything,I chided myself. I swore this had to be the world’s slowest elevator. I’d nearly convinced myself I’d be trapped in a broken elevator when the doors opened.
Sean was waiting at the end of the hall for me when I stepped off the elevator. It didn’t shock me that Jason had given him a heads-up, and I was grateful he had friends who looked out for him. He turned to face me and I saw how much of a toll today had taken on him. Even from a distance, I saw the dark circles under his eyes and there was tension radiating from his body.
“Hey, bud, you look like hell,” I criticized as we did that whole man-hug, back slapping thing. I followed him into his room.
It was painful watching him wander aimlessly around the small space, pacing as though he had no clue what he was supposed to do. I reached out to him, curling my fingers around his wrist to stop him before he drove both of us crazy.
“Thanks. I don’t know if you heard, but it’s been a pretty shitty day.” His gaze shifted to the still made bed near the window, pristine except where someone sat on the edge of the mattress.
“A little birdie might have said something about that,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood. “Which is why we’re going to get the hell out of here, pick up a pizza on the way home and kill some shit on the Xbox tonight. Sound like a plan?”
Sean looked up and gave me a tight smile. “Yeah, sounds like just what I need. Give me a few minutes to grab some clothes and then we’ll head out.”
An hour later, I unlocked my front door and ushered Sean inside. He let out a low whistle as he took in my condo. “This is a far cry from your old house.”
He was right. Teresa picked out and decorated the house we shared. If not for my Xbox and a few pictures hanging on the wall, no one would have known that I had lived there at all.
When I signed the lease on this place, I called my mom and handed over my credit card. She had a blast ordering furniture and picking out accessories while I was in Florida for spring training. The old house looked like a rainbow had exploded all over. Now, I had muted tones with everything carefully chosen to help me relax. Mom was good that way.
Had I been left to my own devices, I likely would have jumped on the freeway and spent an afternoon in Ikea. The following week, I’d have stared at boxes strewn all over the floor while cursing Teresa for being stupid enough to get caught cheating on me.
It wasn’t the first time she’d slept around, but once pictures began to circulate, I had to do something. If I’d stayed with her, it would have led to more speculation about our marriage, and neither of us needed that. No matter what she might have done, I knew that the assholes who worked for the rags wouldn’t stop hunting until they found a good story, and the only skeleton in my closet was a doozy.
“Good or bad different?” I asked, looking at the crisp white trim and soft gray of the walls.
“Definitely good.” Sean flopped onto the microfiber sofa and reached for the remote while I dished out pizza and grabbed two bottles of beer out of the fridge.
It dawned on me as I nudged him to move over and make room for me that this was the first time I’d had anyone over to my place, other than my parents. They were here frequently when we were playing in town because it was too far to drive back and forth to my hometown and they didn’t like missing my games. I might be almost thirty, but my parents still acted as if I were a pre-teen playing on the traveling league.
They would have been here tonight, except one of my dad’s friends came in from out of town and had a big announcement to make over dinner. It was amusing to hear my mom freaking about the fact they were going to miss one of my games. She seemed to calm down once I reminded her that it was early in the season and there would be plenty of time to make it up to me.
We settled back into the couch, both of us with our feet on the coffee table. We watched some corny sitcom in syndication as we shoveled food into our mouths as fast as possible. I’d regret binging on pizza tomorrow, but for tonight, I didn’t care. Beer and pizza were exactly what we needed after today.
“It looks like you’re getting used to the single life again,” Sean muttered around a mouthful of pizza.
“Not much to get used to, really,” I admitted with a shrug. “We spent so long trying to avoid one another that the divorce is nothing more than a technicality.”
“You’d have saved yourself a lot of money if you’d listened to us,” Sean chided me as he reached for another slice. “We all told you the Ice Queen wasn’t right for you, but you decided you were going to prove us all wrong.”
