Page 59 of Puck with Karma
“It means that you saved my life,” he informs me, voice full of conviction. “And now I owe you one.”
Just as he says that, he trips and almost face plants. Once again, my quick reflexes come in handy. I grab him by the coat and prevent him from hitting the ground.
After making sure that he is standing on his own, I look around to see what he tripped over. There is nothing there.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I finally ask.
“Eh, I’ve always been prone to accidents,” he shrugs, acting like this is the most normal thing in the world. “I’ve had some pretty close calls over the years.”
“How in the hell are you so good on skates but so uncoordinated when out of them?”
Noah starts laughing. “My mom and dad always wondered the same thing.”
I shake my head and start walking again. At the rate he’s going, I now wonder if we can make it to the building with him still in one piece.
Burt greets us at the door as soon as we finally make our way there.
“Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Manning, how was practice today?”
“Interesting for sure, Burt,” Noah rushes to speak. He wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me into him. “Our friend here…”
I shake him off and rush toward the elevators. “Enough of that,” I growl his way.
Burt doesn’t ask any questions and Noah gets the hint. When we both step into the elevator and I push on the floor with my apartment, he raises an eyebrow in question.
“Trouble in paradise?”
I pretend not to understand what he’s asking. “What paradise is that?”
“The one with the hot intern, duh!” He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Besides,” he continues, “I thought I was staying in your apartment.”
“Did I tell you to leave?” I snap at him.
He huffs in annoyance. “Not with words. But now you’re gonna be in my space.”
“The space you’re claiming as yours ismyspace,” I remind him. “And I don’t understand why you’re not going back downstairs. They dried the ceiling.”
“Yeah, but now they have to come and fix the drywall, then paint,” he explains. “It’s not that easy.”
“Is this your way of telling me that you like my apartment better?” I call him out, but he doesn’t even bother to lie.
“Dude, I love your place. I live in a shoe box in comparison. Have you ever seen my apartment? You’ll hit your elbows as you stand in my living room. That’s how small it is. Shoe. Box,” he repeats with emphasis. He talks so fast, I can barely keep up with him.
“I still wanna know what happened with the coach and the HR chick. Also, how was the hot intern involved in any of that?”
“Nothing really happened.”
And I’m not even lying. Much.
After Coach Harris told the HR chick to get out, all hell broke loose.
“You can’t throw me out!” She jumped out of her chair and leaned over the desk to get into Coach’s face. Anger was seeping from her pores.
Coach in return did not even blink an eye.
“I just did.”
“If you think that Roger is going to just allow you to do whatever you want down here, think again,” she threatened. “Any decision I make here today is a direct order from Roger.”
