Page 28 of Coach Sully
“Why didn’t you bill it to the room?”
“The least I can do is feed you.” It comes out more sexual than intended, so I quickly tack on, “Thanks for letting me crash here.”
“It’s not coming out of my pocket, the company is paying for it.”
I stand and walk over to the mini bar. “Well, in that case…” I pour myself a couple fingers of whiskey and kick my shoes off. “Thank you, Vault Productions… Besides, if I didn’t buy you dinner, I’d have to pay you back another way, and you’ve already established that there will be no funny business tonight.” I waggle my eyebrows at her over my tumbler as I take a sip.
She laughs. “Is it too late to cancel the order?”
“It’s never too late.”
That earns me one of her eyerolls. “I’m only teasing.”Yeah, no shit.
“Uh-huh.” I smirk, then shrug off my shirt jacket and remove a pair of sweatpants and an undershirt from my suitcase. I take one more sip and set my drink down. “Don’t try to drug me,” I say.
She scoffs. “You’re six-five… Besides, I left my elephant tranquilizers in my other pants.” Her other pants. My eyes fall to her ass without thinking as I walk past her. A sliver of cheek can be seen. Damn it.
I lock the bathroom door and drop my clothes on the counter, then splash my face with cold water and stare at myself in the mirror.You cannot fuck her tonight. What we did can’t happen again. The show is happening, and as much as I would love a repeat, she’d be disappointed if she acted on impulse. Especially since she’s been drinking, and I have no idea how much she’s had to drink. If I ever get a chance with her again, it’ll be because it’s our time.
I strip off my button-down shirt and pants, swapping them with gray sweats and a white shirt that’s probably too tight across my chest. Whatever. I give myself one more glance in the mirror.Keep it in your pants.
I open the door and hang up my shirt, jacket, and pants in the small closet. She’s sitting cross-legged on the bed, clutching the television remote and scrolling through the TV guide. “I’m trying to find something to watch while we wait,” she says, keeping her eyes on the screen. I close the closet doors and hop on the bed, making her bounce. She smiles and chooses a channel. I’m not sure what she chose. So far, it’s just commercials. It’s not long before the food arrives.
“Food!” she announces, hopping up and grabbing the door. Two people in black attire enter the room with two trays and apizza box. Each tray has two silver domes covering the dishes. They place the food on the short dresser, and we bid them farewell.
I carry the trays over to the bed, and she grabs the pizza box. “I love it when the food has the silver lids,” she says, peeking under them. “Makes me feel like I’m inPretty Woman.”
The corner of my mouth tilts up as I lift the lid of the pizza box and grab a slice. I scoot back, resting my back against the headboard. She plates her food along with some of the salad. I hold the half-eaten slice of pizza between my teeth and open the bag of kettle chips, then hand it to her. We work together in silence.
Once she’s settled, I finish eating my slice and go in for another. That’s when I notice what we’re watching. I glance down at the calamari pizza and back at the television, where the narrator is speaking in a relaxed cadence. “And there it is, the mighty Humboldt squid. Its whiplike tentacles and rhombic fins make this beautiful creature a sight to behold. With a length up to twelve feet, these large squids have come up from a great depth to hunt and feed on mackerel.”
“Squids? Really?”
She winks at me, plucking off a piece of calamari and popping it in her mouth.Weirdo.I expect her to change the channel, but no, we sit and watch as the narrator describes the creature’s hooklike grips and how water propels through its mantle, whatever the hell that is. Then they explain how these huge fuckers can actually pull divers down to the deep.
“Well, that’s terrifying.”
“Right? The rest of the world fears being eaten by squids, meanwhile, Japan makes porn out of it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” She chuckles, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You didn’t know about tentacle porn?”
“Is that what you kids are into these days? Tentacle porn and eating ass?”
She shrugs. “The rumors are true.”
We continue watching, and she’s absolutely fascinated by the show while she eats. “Swimming in the ocean is like soaring over a dangerous forest filled with flying lions, tigers, and bears—and you’re just a fucking pigeon.”
“And half of them are hungry,” I add, nodding.
“And the other half would kill you just to learn what pigeon tastes like.”
I chuckle and open the other bag of chips to snack on.
“God, this footage is incredible,” she says.
“Would you ever want to produce a documentary?”