Page 71 of The Player in New Zealand
Iris gushed at him over the phone, her voice high and excited. But then it pitched low and Tane grinned at whatever she was saying. “I hope so.”
I squinted at him.
“She is stubborn about that,” he said.
Okay, I didnotlike this. I scrunched up my face, but Tane just laughed.
I put my coffee on the bedside table. I crawledall the wayback across the bed, letting the sheet fall from my body. Next to Tane, I rose to my knees and gently took his mug before straddling his lap and setting it on the other nightstand. Tane’s eyes widened.
“Iris, your sister is employing defensive maneuvers. I gotta go.”
That was good. I owed Tane an orgasm.
* * *
Tane insistedthat I bring everything I needed for a few nights to his place so I wouldn’t have to go back to the hostel at all. Which, of course, meant that almost everything I owned in New Zealand came with me to his place. My hostel room, even though it was nicer than the previous one, was pathetically small, and I wondered if I should give it up. But I wasnotliving with Tane. That would just be ridiculous.
But the commute was nice. And Nina let me use her office computer in the mornings to keep up with my job search. A week faded into two and we fell into a routine. When I worked nights, Tane and I did something fun in the morning—usually we’d walk around the waterfront or visit Te Papa again, or, once, I let him treat me to another trip out to Somes Island. Then I’d report for work, and he’d work behind the bar too, sometimes just keeping us from getting swamped on busy nights, other times catching up with his buddies, especially the other youth coaches who had started hanging out at the bar more often.
When I worked the lunch shift, Tane often disappeared into the office with Nina or out back in the range. At night we’d grab takeout for a late dinner and sit out on the deck. Sometimes Tane was approached for signatures or customers sent him beers, which he gave to me.
But every night ended the same, with us retreating upstairs. If we were early, we were quiet and gentle, kissing and whispering over the noise of the bar below us.
And then there were the nights we closed the bar and had no one downstairs to hear us.
“Excuse me,sir, what is going on here?”
I lay on my stomach, head propped up on my hands at the foot of the bed as I watched Tane get dressed. It was the weekend and his youth team had a tournament across town. I had to work later, so I was not in a hurry to get out of bed early.
“Whatisgoing on?” Tane asked, looking down at himself.
“Come here,” I said, gesturing him forward. I gave a tiny tug on the hem of his shorts and they fell to the floor. I laughed as he pulled them back up. “You need to retie those drawstrings. You’re losing weight.”
“Yeah?” he said, pleased.
I pushed off the bed to my knees and wrapped my arms around his neck. “You look good. The training you do with the youth team”—I’d seen him running alongside the boys—“and not drinking anymore—it looks good on you.”
He leaned in and kissed me. “Nina says I look happier too. She blames you.”
“Credit where credit’s due.” I tried to deepen the kiss, but Tane pulled back.
“Babe, I gotta get going.” He patted my side, running a soothing thumb over my ribs. “Gonna grab something to eat on the way. Won’t have time if you keep distracting me, though.”
“Fine,” I said, mock exasperated, and pushed off him to flop onto the bed. Tane puttered around, finishing getting dressed and drinking his coffee.
My phone buzzed and I rolled over to its home on the nightstand and checked the screen. There was an email with the subject “Application for Bartender.”
I sat up, quickly opening the email and scanning the message.
“Hey,” I said excitedly. “I got an interview!”
Tane smiled as he picked up his keys. “That’s great. Where?”
I gave him the name of the restaurant and he frowned. “Never heard of that one.”
“It’s...” I scrolled down to the bottom of the email. “It’s in Auckland.” I glanced up at him, some of the excitement draining out of me. The expression on Tane’s face told me he was going through the same thing.
He smiled again, more tentative. “Congratulations. When do they want to talk to you?”
