“The basketball player friend?” Hutch takes another sip of his coffee and then yawns. “Fuck, I’m tired.”
“Yes, but she doesn’t want to play pro ball. It’s not worth it. The pay isn’t nearly fair for women. But then, that’s true of most professional sports and women. Men always get paid more. She doesn’t want to deal with it. She plans on opening up her own PR and marketing firm once she gets some experience under her belt.”
“That’s cool.”
“She’s coming to visit this coming week isn’t she?”
“She’ll be here to play, but we’re definitely going out the night she gets here.”
“I get to meet your former bestie?” Collin grins.
“Still my bestie and yes, you get to meet her. She’s a firecracker, so be forewarned.”
“Firecrackers are my specialty.”
I really want to warn him off Lucy, but she’ll eat him for breakfast so I’ll sit back and watch the show.
“Here we are,” Amy says, interrupting us as she and another server sets our food down. My veggie omelet, hashbrowns, and toast seem small compared to the massive amount of food surrounding the guys.
“Only the best for our new Raptors players,” the guy says and sets down ketchup, butter, and a variety of jelly and butter packets for the toast.
Both Hutch and Collin pause and look up. “That’s already out?”
“In the paper this morning,” Amy confirms and hands over a copy of one of the local papers. “I had no idea until Steve here told me. You boys are front page news.”
“Wow, that was fast,” Hutch mutters.
“You start practice Monday,” I remind him. “I expected it to hit the new last night.”
“Oh, it did,” Steve says with a grin. “My dad called to tell me. Woke me up too, but I didn’t mind. Glad our local boys got a shot and made it.”
“Thanks,” Collin says and reaches for the butter. “We appreciate the support.”
“Thanks guys.” Hutch turns on his fake smile as he calls it. It doesn’t look fake to me, however, and neither does it to the two people beaming at him. And that’s what counts. He might be screaming inside for them to go away so he can deal with this development, but the fans will never know it.
“We’ll leave you to your breakfast.” Amy sets down a second carafe of steaming hot coffee. “Do you need more juice, hon?”
“No, I’m good. Thanks.”
She nods and the two of them head back to the kitchen while Hutch dives into the paper.
I tap the newspaper when three full minutes go by. He looks up.
“Your food is going to get cold. You can read that after you eat. It won’t taste good for much longer.”
He grins sheepishly. “I got caught up for a second.”
“You deserve that moment too, but not until you eat.”
“This one isn’t going to let you buy with anything,” Collin predicts, his mouth full of food.
“You are so gross.”
“You love me anyway.”
Shaking my head, I ignore the two of them and dig into my food. I want to enjoy the meal before we go somewhere and discuss Joe which I know they haven’t forgotten.
I will take this small reprieve even if it only lasts for a short time.
