Page 5 of Game Changer
“Right!” Kip broke out of his trance and got to work making the smoothie.
Scott Hunter was, once again, wearing an absurdly tight Under Armour jacket and sweatpants. His hair was damp and mussed, and his skin was slightly flushed from exercise. Kip Grady was, once again, wearing a fucking dumb apron and a ball cap with a goddamn strawberry on it. But at least he wasn’t hungover this time.
He handed the star athlete his smoothie and tried not to focus too closely on the way his lips wrapped around the straw. It was difficult because Scott was lookingdirectly at himas he took his first sip. His lips curved up a bit when he noticed Kip’s staring.
“Thanks again, Kip,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll see you next game day.”
He raised the smoothie cup in a farewell salute, and then he left.
When Kip turned to Maria, her jaw was on the floor.
“‘Hopefully I’ll see you next game day’?” she said. “Are youkiddingme?”
“What?”
“He’s completely into you, Grady!”
Kip turned as red as the strawberry on his hat. “Oh, come on. That’s not what he meant.”
“Sure it isn’t.”
“It isn’t! He’s just superstitious. He means he hopes it works and he has a great game tonight so he’ll be back again next game day! That’s it!”
“I know that’s what he was saying on thesurface, idiot, but that’s notallhe was saying.”
“He’s not even... Oh my god. I can’t believe I’m talking about this. Scott Hunter isnotinto dudes. And he’sdefinitelynot into dudes who work at smoothie shops.”
“If you say so.”
“I’m going to go back there and chop the pineapple,” Kip grumbled.
“Better check to make sure we have lots of blueberries stocked,” Maria singsonged after him.
* * *
Kip stood in the living room of his best friend’s Tribeca apartment, admiring the view of the Hudson River. He couldn’t even imagine what a place like this would cost.
Living in New York City wasexpensive, but Kip had a super impressive strategy that allowed him to work a minimum-wage jobandmanage to file his student loan payments on time each month: He still lived with his parents.
Yes, he was twenty-five. Yes, he had graduated university when he was twenty-two. But the thing was, history majors weren’t exactly being snapped up on the job market.
Kip had dreams. Aspirations. He wanted to work at one of the museums. Maybe move on to work at one in Europe one day. Maybe write a book or two. Maybe host a popular television show where he traveled the world and presented different important historic sites to the home viewers. Maybe consult on historical movies in Hollywood...
Or maybe turn fruit and vegetables into drinkable mush for busy people on their way to jobs that were actually important.
The owner of the apartment in which he now stood, Elena, had a real job and a life that seemed very adult compared to Kip’s. She was a cybersecurity engineer for Equinox Tech, one of the fastest-growing IT companies in the country. Kip did not know what exactly a cybersecurity engineer was, but it seemed to pay very well and it sounded impressive.
Elena was, hands down, the smartest person Kip knew. Besides being brilliant and funny, she was also stunningly beautiful—an unusual combination of her father’s Norwegian height and bone structure, and her mother’s Lebanese dark hair and olive skin.
Kip’s friendship with her back in high school had helped him realize that he wasn’t sexually interested in women. Because if he wasn’t interested inher, well...
Anyway, Elena had probably known he was gay before he did. She knew everything before he did.
“You need a roommate?” Kip asked, turning away from the windows.
“No,” she said. “Not ever.”
They settled themselves on her couch to eat Szechuan food (Elenadid notcook). Kip had barely taken a bite before Elena casually said, “So. Who is he?”
