Page 15 of A Different Kind of Hooker

“Yeah, no,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not going to be the reason that an entire professional rugby team has to forfeit a game because they’d been poisoned.”

“Eliza?”

“Yes?”

“Imade the cupcakes, baby,” he reminded me. “You’re not going to be accused of poisoning anyone. I promise.”

I started gnawing on my lower lip. “It still doesn’t sound like a good idea. Besides, I thought you guys had to eat healthy. I doubt that scarfing down a bunch of cupcakes is considered healthy for any professional sports team.”

“You are such a fucking delight,” he chuckled. “You know that?”

“Not sure if delight is an accurate assessment of my personality,” I muttered, hating how much I was beginning to like this man.

“Let’s clean up, baby,” he said, letting me ignore his compliment yet again.

Chapter 7

How Nice.

Heron~

The stadium was full, as was usual with most home games. After tonight, we were back on the road, so that left me very little time to spend with Eliza before she decided that I wasn’t the guy for her.

When I had requested to be on her show, I hadn’t expected to have so much fun. Though I’d meant what I’d said about admiring her grit, I’d also been attracted to her, giving me two motives for reaching out to her. Still, I hadn’t realized how much fun she was. Her personality wasn’t a gimmick for her channel. Eliza was Eliza, and she didn’t pretend to be anything or anyone else.

There was also how she hadn’t been afraid to call me out on the liberties that I’d taken with her. With the camera rolling, she had questioned my forwardness, and it was nice to be with someone that you didn’t have to guess with. Yeah, we weren’t officially a couple yet, but I was working on that. Had I offended her in any way, then she wouldn’t have agreed to come to my game.

I’d also gotten a ton of shit from my teammates and station buddies for the episode. I hadn’t been lying when I’d told Eliza that the jump in viewership numbers had been due to my team and fellow firefighters. As soon as Eliza had agreed to have me on her show, I had sent out two separate group texts, letting all the guys know. Though ten was rather late, the graveyard shift at the station had no problem with that, and with no game the next day, my teammates had suffered no repercussions for staying up late to watch the episode. My brother and sister had also stayed up to watch the show.

“You can thank me later.”

I turned to see Sean grinning my way as we jogged towards the field. “For what?”

All teeth, he said, “I told Tony to jumbotron your girl.”

“Why’d you do that for? It’s not like I’ll be sitting next to her to kiss her, you idiot.”

“Don’t you want her to get more viewers?” he asked, still grinning like a loon.

“I don’t want her getting up and leaving,” I retorted.

“Nah, your girl is a tough cookie,” he said, winking before he hurried off.

When Eliza had accepted my invitation to the game, she had asked if her friend and her friend’s husband could also tag along, so I wasn’t worried that she’d be alone in the stands. Nonetheless, since she’d been clear about not chasing fame, I wasn’t sure if sticking her face on the jumbotron was such a good idea. After cleaning up after the show, we had avoided speaking about our ‘label’, so while I already saw her as my girlfriend, I wasn’t sure what was floating inside her head at the moment.

As we made our way out of the tunnel, I couldn’t stop myself from looking up at the stands, specifically the seats that I’d gotten for Eliza and her friends. The woman had me feeling like a teenager with his first crush, and it was kind of embarrassing. I couldn’t remember the last time that a woman had caught my attention like this. I found myself eager to see what would come out of her lips next, and I knew that I’d never be bored with Eliza Dodger around.

Like a tool, as soon as I spotted her, I waved. Yeah, it was going to direct some attention her way, but I liked the idea of people knowing that she was here for me. I also liked letting people know that I wanted her here. Again, our groupies weren’t as ruthless as jersey chasers or puck bunnies, but they could be pretty insistent when they wanted to be. Now, while I knew that I wasn’t the type of guy to stray, I needed Eliza to know it.

“Ready to kick some ass?” Charlie Grouse asked, that trademark smirk on his face. “I mean, you don’t want to lose in front of your girl, do you?”

“Get fucked,” I replied, chuckling.

Just then, Oscar Kubiak jogged by me. “He might not get a second date if we don’t win.”

“We’re not going to lose,” I called out, and I wasn’t bragging. The Patch Cougars were good, but not as good as we were. If they could only get a bit more muscle on their team, they’d be better.

“Ooohhh,” Sean teased, following Oscar. “Being over-confident is a guaranteed loss.”

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