“I wouldn’t mind some caviar in my Mac n cheese,” Ellie said with her nose stuck up in the air topretend.
“Caviar?” I made aface.
She grinned. “Yeah, I’m just kidding. I just couldn’t think of anything else ‘boujee,’ so clearly it’s not mystyle.”
“Mac and cheese kinda girl, I like it,” I winked at her, to which she rolled her eyes at me yet again, but this time, she did it with a smile.
“Let’s make our entrance, Brampton.”
19. Ellie
As we walked up to the long porch that looked like it wrapped around the entire house, TJ grabbed my hand again… and I let him.
His hand was warm, much larger than mine, and calloused, probably from constantly wearing hockey gloves and lifting weights by the look of his body this morning. His toughness was attractive, and just the thought of him shirtless made my facehot.
Walking up to the house, I couldn’t help but notice how nice it was to have someone to lean on in a social situation.
When I was working my events, I never cared that I was alone because my brain was occupied. I had a mission to accomplish and clients to please. But in other parts of life, I’d gotten very used to being alone, and the stark contrast I felt when I was with TJ highlighted that.
I had to admit that it was nice to hold hands. When I was young, I never imagined I wouldn’t have a hand to hold at this point in life. I always imagined having a Someone who would support me and joke with me through every situation; Someone who would be there for me and help, no questions asked, and would never make me feel like I was asking for too much. I dreamt up a Someone who would crush spiders in my apartment, eat ice cream with me because I felt embarrassed indulging alone, and Irish goodbye out of parties alongside me because a party of just the two of us would be even better than some random packed place. I think the whole thing came down to the fact that I just wanted someone to choose me for once. As I got older, I pushed that kind of Someone into the category of a pipe dream- the kind that Disney sold to little girls. With age, I grew jaded. I figured all romantic love was a sham. It was a feeling you could only attain when you were naive and innocent enough to love blindly and take people at face value, and from my life experiences, I was rendered incapable of doing both of those things… But TJ… He was unexpected. He was proving to be much different than the typical asshole I’d first pegged him to be.
It’s not like I wanted to get my hopes up or anything, but standing with him on the porch, it felt an awful lot like wewerea team… Linemates, as he so dorkishly called it.
“So boujee,” he whispered to me with a smile as he rang the doorbell.
“So very much so,” I whispered back. And I enjoyed having a secret with him. I enjoyed feeling like we could be two conspirators together amongst whoever was behind the door.
A second later, a young, very attractive couple threw the door open to expose an even more beautiful inside of the house if that were even possible. The decor was all ‘at sea’ themed, and the dark hardwood floor made it look like the inside of a ship.
“Hi!” The blonde girl greeted us brightly. She had a happy, ginger-haired baby girl probably around a year and a half old propped on her hip.
The tall muscular guy behind her who sported brown fauxhawk hair- the sides were cut short and the middle was all spiked up and messy- was holding her hip with one hand and extending his other out to TJ.
“Griff, hey,” TJ said, with a firmhandshake.
“How’s it goin Vinny bud?” he said politely in what I detected was a slight Canadian accent; his “bud” was pronounced “baud.” His serious eyes were the lightest blue I think I’d ever seen.
“This is Ellie,” TJ pointed tome.
“Your baby’s so cute, what’s her name?” I asked, trying to make polite conversation, then chastised myself for not even saying hi. Why did I always feel so socially awkward all the time? I felt my face heating up. This was why I didn’t venture to random barbeques.
I felt TJ’s hand rub my lower back, giving me some comfort, and was thankful for his presence.
“Indie Mae Griffiths,” the guy called Griff said proudly. “And this is my wife, Savannah,” he motioned to the petite blonde, still smiling. “And the six-year-old monster athlete out back who will probably beat you at all the lawn games is our son, Johnny.”
“You can call me Sav. Welcome to the Detroit Crew, guys,” she said warmly. “C’mon in, everyone’s out back by thewater.”
She ushered us through the door and kept talking as we went. “I think food is pretty soon. My parents are getting itcatered.”
TJ threw me a secret look, as if to repeat, ‘boujee,’ and I tried to fight a smile.
Outside, a freshly cut lawn spanned the entire length of house and led down to a beach that entered Lake Michigan. Their beachfront was so long it was probably the size of three beach cottages’ usual sizes put together. It was a perfect place for lawn games, and some of the guys were already busy playing Swedish lawn bowling, corn hole, and spikeball. The women were all gathered around a large picnic table with a couple other babies scattered on their laps.
All the couples seemed to be in their twenties or thirties, and they were all extremely attractive. I guess a requirement of being part of the Detroit crew was being runway worthy. The men were all jacked and fit, probably from the hard hockey schedules they endured, and their women were all practically Amazonians… Just looking, I could tell that, with exception to Sav, I was probably the shortest girl present.
It was almost like TJ could read my mind as I was measuring myself up and falling short of the other women, because he slowed our pace and whispered down to me, “You look beautiful by the way. I don’t think I said thatearlier.”
When I looked up into his warm brown eyes, it was almost like he was imploring me to listen to his words. For some reason, when he said it, I felt it. I felt wanted, and that mattered more than any superficial beauty standard in my mind. He gave my hand another squeeze and then was pulling me forward to introduce me to thegroup.
