Page 31 of Zero Pucks Given
I took her hand in mine, yanking it toward me when she tried to pull away.
“Fine,” she said. “Anything to make sure this is the last time I have to be around you.”
I put on a fake smile as we exited the tunnel and walked out onto the arena floor. One more date. Just a few more hours and I would never have to see this insufferable woman again.
But deep down, in a place where I would refuse to admit it, her fingers felt good in mine.
15
Josie
I had to admit: I was kind of enjoying making fun of Grayson. It wasn’t often that a girl had a chance to talk shit to someone who was worth fifty million dollars and they just had to sit there and take it.
Yeah, I had looked up his net worth. The Surge were paying him fiftymillionbucks over a six-year contract. An absolutely stupid amount of money.
I’d worked at a lot of Spurs games, so the novelty of the whole thing had worn off a long time ago. But I had never been this close to the action. The seats that the usher escorted us to were on the floor, in the front row. I was literally one foot from the waxed wooden floorboards of the court, with nothing between me and the NBA players who were practicing before the game.
“All right, this is pretty cool,” I admitted. “It makes it worth putting up with you for a few hours.”
“I’m glad you’re so easily amused. Your eyes are huge right now, like a pussycat looking at a laser pointer.”
I pointed as we sat down. “That’s LeBron James. He’s, like, the most famous athlete in the world.”
“Cool.”
“My point is that he’s a little more impressive than a laser pointer.”
Grayson shrugged, but said nothing else.
Sitting this close meant having our own personal server who arrived with an iPad to take our order. We both got a large beer.
“They have food, too,” Grayson told me.
“I’ve spent too much time in this arena unpacking soft pretzels and reheating hotdogs,” I said. “Besides, I want to get a good buzz going as quickly as possible. It’ll make the date go by faster.”
“Good plan,” he replied. “I bet that’s one of those smart things you learned in college while I was busy earning my scholarship.”
“As a matter of fact, Ididlearn how to drink in college!” I agreed.
He shifted in his chair, leg brushing against mine for a moment before he pulled away. Sitting this close, it was impossible to forget just howbighe was, an imposing force of muscle and strength.
“Where’d you go to school?” he asked.
“Minnesota.”
Without looking at me, he barked a laugh. “I should’ve known.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He glanced sideways at me. “I went to Wisconsin.”
“Ahh, no wonder you don’t know the difference betweenyourandyou’re. You probably majored in cheese curds.”
“I’d insult your school,” he replied smoothly, “but you gophers have suffered enough having to live in Minneapolis.”
“Seriously? You’re insulting the twin cities when you had to live inMadisonfor four years?”
Grayson gave me a smug grin. “Madison is a great college town. Minneapolis is basically just Milwaukee with delusions of grandeur.”
