“Well, considering I went toe to toe with the ex-wife last night,” I grumble, “and met his parents, who by the way, are assholes…” I take a sip of my wine. The group just laughs at me as I fill them in on what went down the day before.
“Wait, so she put her hands on him, and you were going to throat punch her?” Victoria stands there with her hip cocked and her hands folded over her chest.
“Well, not throat punch her, per se,” I admit. “I would never do it with the kids there, but I did use a firm voice.”
“Got it.” Victoria nods. “I don’t know if I would be as mature. I’d be like ‘bitch, you want a piece of this?’” She puffs her chest out. “‘You are going to get a piece of this.’”
“And this is why no one is paying for you to go to Europe,” Ariella explains to her, and we all laugh.
The roar of the crowd goes nuts and we know the guys have taken the ice. “I forgot how loud it can get,” Victoria says.
“It gets louder.” My voice goes up a notch. “So what are you doing now that you have graduated?” I ask her as the other girls walk out and watch the pre-skate. Ariella and Lexi go down to the boards and I would go, but I don’t want to leave Victoria alone. If the kids were here, I would be down there with them.
“I don’t know yet,” she answers me. “I have a couple of options, but nothing has jumped out at me just yet.”
“What is your degree in?”
“Marketing. I worked with an ad agency back in Dallas, but it’s not really my thing.”
“Well, what are you looking for?”
“Obviously, I’m good at social media.” I laugh when she says that. “But then I love doing market research, finding out the trends before they happen. I like creating brand awareness for the companies.” Her eyes light up.
“Well, if you want,” I tell her, “we could use help with the foundation we are running. You can take over the social media, which has been put on the back burner since I don’t want to do it, and then Lexi is too busy doing other stuff. We also were looking at doing an after-school program and creating a community garden, which would really be huge if we had the right marketing behind us.”
Lexi comes back without Jagger and over to us. “This meeting looks like it’s secretive.” She sticks her head in. “What are we talking about?”
“I was offering Victoria the social media job we talked about having someone take over,” I fill her in and Lexi nods her head.
“Why don’t you come by the office on Monday, and we can talk it over?”
“I like the sound of that,” Victoria says and then walks away, leaving me with Lexi.
“Big step wearing his name on your back,” she advises with a soft smile. “You sure about this?”
“No,” I admit to her, “but I know I love him. I trust him, and I’m going to be all in with him. It’s terrifying and every single time I feel this sense of uncertainty climb up the back of my neck, the first thing I think of is bolting.”
“It can be the scariest thing you have ever done, but the reward of it,” she smiles big, “is worth everything.”
“It better be,” I retort, taking a sip of my wine and then we join the girls at the seats as we watch the game. It’s a different experience when the person you love is playing. When it was just Kirby, it was like whatever, but I’m suddenly more invested now because of Knox. I want him to win, whereas before I didn’t really care.
They end up losing in a shutout, which makes the game even more nerve-wracking. I’m sitting with Lexi when the door opens and Kirby walks in, followed by Knox. A smile fills my face when I see him wearing his suit, but without the tie he left home with. His eyes find mine and they light up. “Hey.” I get up and walk over to him, my hands going into the sides of his jacket.
“Hey,” he says softly and bends to kiss me, “you ready to go?”
“Yeah.” I walk over to the side to grab my purse.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” Kirby snaps out and I look over my shoulder at him. “That’s fucked up.” He points to me. “I probably paid for that.”
“Actually,” I draw out, looking at Knox, who is smiling even bigger, “I paid for this myself. I have a credit card, you know.”
“Really?” he says, his voice acting shocked. “I had no idea. This is shocking new information.” I roll my eyes, because he’s the one who made me apply for the thing in the first place.
“You use his credit card?” Knox asks me.
“Occasionally,” I reply and Kirby snorts.
“Occasionally,” he repeats. “She used it last week.”
