Page 43 of Holidating
I take a sip of my beer and ignore him. I wasn’t planning on asking Abbi to marry me, for fuck’s sake. I know better than to go down the path of forever. But two college students can have a fling without turning it into an epic story of love and betrayal.
Or, at the very least, they can have a lot of sex and then move several hundred miles apart.
As the new year takes its first tentative baby steps, I sip a beer and wait for Abbi’s shift to end. One by one my teammates depart. Tate is the first to go. Then Lex, his phone pressed to his ear, a grin on his face.
The men of the Moo U hockey team don’t share my caution around falling in love. Well, maybe Patrick does. But he doesn’t leave the bar alone, either. He’s found a hookup for the night, as he often does.
Eventually, I’m the last man at table seventeen. Abbi shoots me apologetic looks as she hustles around, finishing her shift. But I’m not going anywhere. Not if Abbi needs me.
“Sorry,” she says, appearing without her apron around two a.m. “That took forever.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I insist. “Let’s go.” I pull on my jacket, because it’s going to be a chilly walk up the hill toward her apartment.
We head outside, and I put on my game face. Protection isn’t the point of this exercise, I realize. Abbi could surely figure out how to avoid being alone with Price tonight. Rather, intimidationis the purpose of my involvement right now. When we walk outside together, I put a protective arm around her. Luckily Price is standing right outside.
“Hey, remember me?” I ask him, stopping to make my point.
“Nah,” the oaf says, scowling.
“Yeah, I bet you’d rather forget.” I give him a Mr. Smooth smile. “My offer still stands, though. Bother her, and you’re signing yourself up for a dental bill much higher than whatever they’re paying you to stand here and watch the door. It’s your call.”
Then I walk her home, leaving her on her front porch, where Abbi thanks me profusely. “It’s ridiculous that you had to do that. But Price and subtlety don’t mix.”
“I got that impression.”
When I leave her on her doorstep again, we share an awkward goodbye, wishing each other Happy New Year, before I turn and go.
The truth is that I never meant to be Abbi’s fake boyfriend for longer than it takes to eat a turkey dinner. But now Price is working regular weekends at the Biscuit. And so—as January rolls on—I consider it my sacred duty to keep up the charade.
And I have to say—it’s not a bad life. Over the next couple weeks, Abbi and I have lots of late-night talks as I walk her home. She brings me free wings on the regular. And then there are our lengthy text conversations about hockey, wing flavors, and school.
Honestly, if we could just have sex, all my needs would be met. She’s basically perfect.
Abbi keeps telling me that I shouldn’t bother to walk her home anymore. That Price isn’t threatening enough to warrant all this extra attention. But I don’t trust Price, so I keep up the vigil. Some nights I arrive late, have a single beer, and do some homework at the bar while Abbi finishes up her shift.
I like it here. The music is good. And even though my teammates have already gone home for the night, I’m pleasantly tipsy, nursing my last beer and reading a short story for my English class on my phone.
“You really don’t have to do this,” Abbi says as she swings by to grab Tate’s abandoned beer glass off table seventeen. She says it a lot, actually. “I can leave with Carly, or sneak out the back while he’s escorting someone else to her car.”
“Hey, I know,” I say with a shrug. “But I like the Biscuit, and it’s easier to read when there aren’t hockey players calling me to watch a game on TV. This is like the library for me. But with excellent beer.”
And, fine, I’m hung up on Abbi. I’m man enough to admit it. So where else would I rather be?
She gives me a sweet smile and a confused shake of her adorable head. And then she runs off to wipe down another table.
This is my life right now, and I’ve accepted it. Away games are a problem, though. Two weekends a month I’m on a bus with the team, playing U Mass or Maine.
Luckily, I have friends on the women’s hockey team. Women love me almost as much as I love women. So it’s really no problem to ask my friend Chrissy to have a drink at the bar until Abbi gets off shift the next weekend, and then walkout with her.
You really didn’t have to send a friend to babysit me!comes Abbi’s text the next morning.I’m a big girl. I can look after myself.
I know that, I quickly reply.But a good fake boyfriend looks after his fake girlfriend even when he’s busy making U Conn cry.
Nice win, by the way. Your fake girlfriend was super proud. That assist in the third period was extra sexy.
Thank you, baby!
See? We have the best relationship on campus. We have great chemistry. We’re mutually supportive of one another.
