Page 34 of Undeniably Perfect

“Do you think you guys have a shot at it?”

“I have a good feeling about our team. We’ve been jiving lately. We are in sync and that’s important, but anything can happen, that’s some of the fun of the sport, you know?”

I give him a look that says, “I don’t know.”

He laughs. “You’ll learn. You can’t be friends with me and not know my sport.”

“I guess I’ll come with you today. I need to finish washing my clothes and stuff, but I’d like to come back here tonight. It’s…peaceful.”

“Cool, bring a bathing suit. I’ll need a soak in the hot tub tonight.”

I roll my eyes. “Why do you think I own a bathing suit?”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

I can’t help the giggle that escapes me. “Fine, I have like one bathing suit, in case my brother ever comes home, and we go to Assateague or something.”

“I love going there. We used to camp there once in a while.”

“Us, too. It was one vacation my grandparents could afford once a year.”

He nods. “Well, I’m off to shower.”

I try not to look down at his insanely well-defined abs as he sets his coffee down and walks out of the room.

Fuck my life. Why do I have to punish myself? My mind momentarily drifts to my psycho ex-boyfriend. I have him blocked on my phone and now that my studio burned down, he has no idea where I am, which is a good thing. I sigh. My life always seems to be filled with drama. I’d love, just for once, if something was easy, anything at all.

I go and grab a shower and change before meeting Kent downstairs. He grabs my overnight bag from me and hoists it over his shoulder. I grin at how ridiculous this giant man looks with a Hello Kitty backpack on his shoulder.

“What? I have sisters,” he says to me as though he’s insulted that I gave him a look of skepticism about holding my super girly little kid bag.

“Touché,” I reply as I let myself in his car.

“So, your family is big with nicknames, I noticed,” I say as Kent is driving us back to the city.

“Yep. Always has been. All my grandparents were big on them too, so I guess it’s just a family thing. What about your family?”

I shrug. “My brother calls my Tabs sometimes and I call him Brix, but otherwise, not really. We aren’t as creative as you all.”

“My parents are strange. My mom is a horror movie fanatic and my dad loves DC Comics, so needless to say, they compromised on our names.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m Kent Jason. Kent for Superman and Jason for the Friday the 13th movies. Lane Laurie, Lane for Lois Lane and Laurie from the Halloween movies, Diana Carol for Wonder Woman and Poltergeist, Kylie Marron for Cat Woman and Psycho, and Clark Michael from Superman and Halloween.”

“Wow, your parents are too much. That’s sweet though that they wanted to have a theme for their kids' names.” I think about the fact that I have no idea why I’m Tabitha Lee or why Brix is Brixton Wallis. And we likely will never know.

“Well, they are unique, that’s for sure.”

“They are very different. How’d they meet?”

Kent chuckles. “Yep. My parents met at Comic-Con.”

“Say what?”

Kent laughs some more. “My mom’s sorority sister wanted to go and talked my mom into going because some actor she liked was supposed to be there. Dad wanted to go because, well, he’s a giant nerd who loves comics. Mom got stuck in a bathroom and was pounding on the door and Dad heard her as he walked by and got the door unstuck and the rest is history.”

“Cute.”

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