“Don’t say a word.”
“I didn’t.”
“You were about to.”
“You don’t know what I was about to say.”
“I just need you to take him with you, sit with him, then take him home again. End of story.”
“How old is this kid?”
“Sixteen, I think…”
“What the fuck am I supposed to do with a sixteen-year-old?”
“I don’t know, Nick. It’s just a match. Take him to the stadium, buy him some sweets, I don’t know…”
Nick bursts out laughing. “Sweets? Are you serious?”
“Will you do it or not?”
“That depends…”
“On what?”
“On why you’ve invited him in the first place.”
“There’s no fucking reason.”
“I think the reason might be his mother.”
“Fuck off, Nick! I knew I shouldn’t have asked you. You’re always the same…”
“Hey, calm down, okay? I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it, I just wanted to know the situation.”
“There isn’t a situation.”
“So that must be why you just happened to invited her son to watch you play?”
“He’s never been to a match before. The other night at dinner, he told me that…”
“Woah, woah, woah. Dinner?”
Fuck.
“I had dinner at theirs.”
Nick crosses his arms and looks at me, waiting for me to go on.
“I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“Not to me you don’t. But be careful, Ryan.”
“God, Nick. Why do you always have to do this?”
“Because I know you.”
“Maybe not as well as you think.”
