Page 31 of Tangled

“It was just Starbucks,” Perry says, unimpressed. The woman doesn’t understand how all of America has become consumed with overpriced coffee full of chemicals and sugar. She actually has a post on her blog about making your own specialty coffees at home for a fraction of the price and calories.

“Yes, but it’s the thought that counts. And he was actually pleasant to talk to this time,” I defend as we find an empty row of seats pretty close to the field. Kickoff is in about ten minutes and the stadium is filling up quickly, so I’m surprised we found seats this close.

Our conversation earlier was actually going somewhere before he started stuttering and retreated like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Hey, Olivia,” a blonde woman waves over at me down our row and her familiarity hits me. “It’s Tammy Phillips. I’m married to Drew and teach biology at Emerson,” she adds and then her placement clicks.

“Oh, yes. Hi!” I say a little too enthusiastically. I’ve only been at the school for a week, so it’s impossible to know everyone yet. But I do remember Drew and his heroic rescue with the copy machine, so this is apparently his wife.

She scoots down the bench so she’s seated closer to us.

“Tammy, this is Clara and Perry, two of my best friends. Tammy is another teacher at Emerson.”

My girls both shake her hand and offer her a welcome feeling. “Nice to meet you. So, Olivia, how has this week been? You like things so far? The students haven’t been giving you too much trouble, have they?”

I laugh and then look out on the field as the team jogs on before turning back to her. “No, things have been pretty smooth, despite walking in to a room full of students who haven’t had a teacher for a month. My fifth period is a little rowdy, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. I’ve been doing this for a while.”

She nods and then screams down on the field, her hands cupped around her mouth. “Go Drew! Love you!” Turning back to me, she continues. “Sorry, just have to cheer on my hubby. He’s the head coach.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, he, Holt, and Corey coach the team together. Football season is always the craziest time of year for us, but he loves it. And Kane Garrison helps from time to time. I heard you actually know Kane already,” she winks, which catches me off-guard.

Clara snorts next to me and Perry elbows her in the ribs.

“Uh, yeah. I’ve met Kane.”

“Oh, yeah, they’ve met alright,” Clara mumbles under breath as Perry smacks the back of her head. “What the hell, Perry? Don’t think I won’t fight you just because we’re at a high school football game.”

“Shut up. You’re making this awkward for Liv.”

“Did I miss something?” Tammy asks, her eyes bouncing back and forth between the three of us.

I clear my throat and quickly think of something to divulge about how I know Kane without revealing the truth, but then decide to fish for information.

“How do you know that I know Kane?”

“Well, Drew and he are best friends, and he might have shared your little copier incident with me. Seems Kane was quite the ass to you,” she quirks her eyebrow.

I fiddle with my fingers just as the announcer asks the crowd to stand for the National Anthem. Once the choir has finished a beautiful rendition of the song, the four of us take our seats and resume the conversation.

“Yeah, he wasn’t very pleasant.”

“Well, Drew made him feel like shit afterwards, just so you know.”

“Really? Is that why he brought me coffee this morning then? Because Drew told him to?”

Tammy blinks at me a few times before the corners of her mouth curl up into a devious smile. “Nope. He just told him not be to a dick. If he brought you coffee, that was all on his own accord. Hmmm…” she hums while turning her attention to the field, and the four of us watch the kickoff, cheering when our team makes a killer thirty-yard return.

“What do you mean, hmmm?” Clara interjects as Tammy turns to us and shrugs her shoulders.

“Let’s just say, I’ve known Kane for a while and I’ve never known him to be one to apologize, let alone bring a woman a coffee.”

“Interesting…” Clara chuckles while nudging me with her elbow.

“What?” I quickly turn my head in her direction, pulling my focus from the game I was just enriched in.

“Did you hear what Tammy just said?”

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