Page 58 of The New Guy
She’d shaken her head. “With your heart, dummy. You aren’t really cut out for hookups.”
“Sure I am.” In college I’d been the king of hookups.
She’d given me a pointed look that saw right through me. “Okay. If you say so. See you in the morning.”
And that had been the end of the conversation. But we both know I’m lying to myself about my little arrangement with Hudson. I can play it off as a casual, convenient fling. It’s only three paces from my door to his.
But once I’m inside his apartment, we don’t act like college boys who just need to get off. Usually, if we haven’t seen each other for a few days, we sit down together for a soda and some conversation before the clothes start flying.
Although sometimes our needs are decidedly less verbal—unless you’re countingoh my Godsand groans. I've gotten used to setting an alarm on my phone for 2 a.m., just in case I fall asleep on Hudson’s bed. The man tires me out, he’s got the stamina of a pro athlete—obviously.
It's not all just sex, though. When he’s not around, we do a lot of texting. My phone lights up most evenings with sports memes and team humor.Tankiewicz fell asleep on the bus, and Castro drew a dick on his hand in Sharpie.
Then, of course, I’ll ask for pics. And he’ll ask me how my day was. Then two hours will have suddenly gone by without me looking up from my phone.
In spite of the fact that we’re conducting a secretive, doomed relationship, things are really good between us.
The rest of my life is still tricky, though. Jordyn has a couple of friends now, but she’s still not a hundred percent comfortable in her new class. The teacher makes everyone read aloud in class, and it’s making her anxious.
Plus, there’s a girl who gives her a hard time whenever she messes up. “Dahlia,” Jordyn says with an exaggerated grimace. “She says I have a boy’s name. She’s mean toeverybody.”
I try to say the right things, but what do I know about mean girls? It’s hard to tell if this is a true bullying situation, or what. I should email the teacher and ask, I guess. Or maybe that will just make me sound like an overbearing jackass parent?
It’s anotherWhat Would Eddie Domoment. So far I am not sure.
Then there’s my job. I love it—but it’s exhausting. And I can tell that Henry wishes I could give him more hours. His wife is pregnant with twins, so he’s juggling her high-risk pregnancy as we head into the playoffs season.
But I’m doing the best I can.
I’ve made it almost all the way to work when my phone rings. The ringtone is the theme fromJaws. That’s my new ringtone for my monster-in-law. She loves to call in the morning. I’ve told Eustace several times that I prefer to speak in the evenings, but she doesn’t care.
My needs aren’t important to her at all, and never have been. The phone is still trilling as I enter the lobby of the Brooklyn Hockey HQ, which is in a hundred-year-old renovated warehouse.
Cursing quietly, I take the call anyway. Maybe I can get rid of her quickly. “Good morning, Eustace. I’m just on my way into work. Was there something you needed?”
“Good morning, Gavin,” she says crisply. “I won’t take up much of your time. I just wanted to tell you that our offer on the condo was not accepted.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” I lie. My in-laws have tried to buy three different New York condos so far, with no such luck. Their tastes are so fancy that nothing measures up to Eustace’s standards.
“So we’re going to change strategies. Instead of buying a place in Manhattan, we’re going to purchase an exquisite property in New Hampshire instead. It just came on the market.”
“Ah,” I say, trying not to sound too excited. “That will be lovely for you.”And it’s two hundred miles away.
“Yes it will. There is a swimming pool. I’d like to host Jordyn this summer.”
Oh shit. I lean against one of the lobby’s brick walls, and close my eyes. “I’m sure we can visit. I get some time off in the summer.”
“Gavin, I’d like to have herallsummer. She would live here for ten weeks. And part of that time she’d attend the day camp I was telling her about.”
A tension headache settles into my temples. “We can visit,” I say slowly. “But summer is my big chance to spend time with her. It’s one of the reasons I took this job.” Hockey season is long, but it dovetails nicely with my daughter’s summer vacation.
“But what child wants to spend summer inBrooklynwhen she could spend it in the hills of New Hampshire?” Eustace says. “What would she do all day?”
Now I want to hurl my phone at the floor. Instead, I take a slow breath. “I haven’t sorted out our summer plans yet. But I’m not willing to send her away from me. That’s not going to happen.”
She’s silent for a moment, and I brace myself.
“Eddie wouldn’t like this,” she says in a low voice. “He wouldn’t like us fighting about what’s right for his daughter.”
