Page 88 of Love Me Not
To my surprise, I didn’t hate it. Sitting next to Trey and playing on my phone as the announcers droned on, the game was actually tolerable. Though anything was tolerable so long as Trey was around.
The sappy thought made me roll my eyes as I strolled into the living room. One week together and the man had turned me into a lovesick twit already. Though there were worse things for a girl to be, I supposed.
“Dang,” mumbled Miles as I crossed the living room to join Trey.
“You have to get rid of the ball,” Ryan informed the man on the television peeling himself up off the ground. “Your receiver was wide open.”
“He’d have been covered by the time the ball got there,” Jacob countered, bouncing Noah on one knee.
“Doesn’t mean you take a sack,” said Calvin.
I slid in between Trey and the arm of the couch, expecting him to give his professional opinion on the subject, but he just smiled and put his arm around me.
“Hey there,” he said. “Did they kick you out already?”
“They didn’t kick me out. I wandered off on my own.”
When Trey heard that we needed to contribute something to today’s meal and that I was planning to pick up cupcakes from the grocery store, he insisted that we make a real dish. From scratch. I explained that pigs would fly before that happened, but that if he wanted the sister who cooked, I would introduce him to Janet.
Her husband might put up a fight, but Pete was a pretty open-minded guy. He also loved football. They could be a throuple made in heaven.
Thankfully, he didn’t take me up on the offer. Not fully. We did call Janet for Babka Maja’s potato pancakes recipe, which Trey mistakenly thought we would tackle together. After I sliced off the top of my finger while grating the potatoes, he accepted his fate and made them on his own. I got to watch, and what a show it was.
Turned out a hunky bald man in an apron was way sexier than I knew.
The other three men exploded in various expletives as Ryan leapt off the couch to pace around the coffee table. Hands in his hair, he muttered, “What the hell, dude?”
Voice low so as not to disturb the angry wildlife, I said, “Why aren’t you as upset as they are?”
“Because the Steelers aren’t my team,” Trey whispered back.
“Oh, that’s right. You like Philadelphia, huh?”
“Yep.”
I squinted at the TV and saw no black and gold. “Are the Steelers playing?”
“Not today.”
Now he’d thoroughly confused me. “Then what are they upset about?”
He pointed toward the screen as the teams lined up facing each other. “That team needs to beat that team for the Steelers to maintain their playoff berth.”
He could have said roses need to eat Buicks to have babies and it would have made as much sense. “That sounds like total nonsense.”
“Do you really want me to explain?” The man knew me already.
“I do not.”
“Dinner is ready,” announced Donna from the doorway to the kitchen. “Come and eat.”
Jacob swung Noah onto his shoulder and headed for the kitchen with Miles behind him. Trey rose first, then pulled me up, and as had become his habit, he kissed my forehead before tucking me under his arm as we walked together. Ryan and Calvin lingered in front of the TV until Donna snapped her fingers.
“Let’s go, gentlemen. The game will go on without you.”
Contrary to how it seemed, this was not a women do the cooking and the cavemen only come in to eat situation. Calvin made the stuffing the night before, as well as providing high-end wine from Hickamore House. Jacob made his mom’s kimchi fried rice to add some culture to the meal, and Ryan didn’t get his hands dirty, but he did pick up three pies from The Pie Place, which made all in attendance a little more grateful.
I skipped breakfast so was more than ready to eat. Because we all had family gatherings later in the day, Donna’s shindig was more of a Friendsgiving lunch. None of us minded the early start time as we all recognized that there was something special in the air this year.