Page 73 of The Baller

Tanner, who’d been tapping away at his phone, looked up. “Found him. He’s at Rennick, Gryborn, and Sloe. Junior Associate. He looks like a total dick cheese.”

My eyes flicked to Radley’s as she giggled. “Yeah. That’s one way of describing him.”

“Well…” Parker snatched the phone from Tanner, zooming in on the screen to confirm Christopher Ellington was indeed a dick cheese, “…what are we doing with him?”

“What d’you mean?”

“He needs punishing,” Tanner replied.

“No.” Radley stiffened against me, and she shook her head. “No, I can’t do anything. I don’t want to drag it up again, and I can’t have anything come back to me. No.”

Tanner held back whatever he was about to say, but I knew that look on his face. It didn’t take Freud to see that this wasn’t about Radley. Wouldn’t even take a first-year pre-psych student. This was about what he couldn’t do for Holiday.

For once, the boys stayed quiet. In might have been the longest they’d ever gone without speaking. Parker was still staring at the screen, while Tanner looked like he was thinking harder than he’d ever thought in his life. Holiday went to fetch more wine from the kitchen, and as she walked, the metallic sheen on her sweater caught the light from outside, jogging a memory I’d forgotten about, and from the way Parker sat up and snapped his fingers, it would seem that his memory had also returned.

“I’ve got it.”

“What?”

His eyes flicked from Tanner to me, and I knew he was thinking of the exact same thing I was. “We’re going to glitter bomb him.”

Radley twisted in my lap. “What?”

“Tan, remember the human disco ball you dated a couple of years ago?”

Tanner’s gaze slid over to Holiday as she sank back onto the couch. “Um…”

“Yeah, come on...” Parker leaned over and slapped him on the arm, “you have to remember!”

From the way Tanner’s jaw was clenching while his mouth pursed up like cat’s asshole, I’d say he remembered very well, but absolutely did not want to share his experience while Holiday was present, but Parker either hadn’t noticed, or didn’t care.

“You said it was like fucking the Tooth Fairy. There was glitter everywhere.”

“Parker! Will. You. Shut. The. Fuck. Up!” he gritted out, but it was too late.

Holiday’s feet hit the floor again, and she leaned forward until Tanner couldn’t escape her pinned stare. “You used to call my assistant the Tooth Fairy.”

He shrugged, and looked anywhere but Holiday’s direction. “Did I? You have a lot of assistants, Hol. I can’t be expected to remember them all.”

“You remember the one that stole ten grand and my favorite purse?” She gasped suddenly, her finger pointing right in Tanner’s face. “That’s why you bought me a new purse and put ten grand in it! I thought you were being nice.”

“I was being nice.”

“I can’t believe you fucked my thieving assistant!”

“It was before she became a thief!” he shot back, like that would justify the entire situation.

“Oh, so she stole it because you never called her.” Holiday shifted back on the couch with a loud huff, though her narrowed and beady eyes never left Tanner, who was refusing to look at her.

“Can we get back to what Parker was saying before we all forget?”

I thinkI’dforgotten.

Parker shot an apologetic toward Tanner and cleared his throat, “Yeah, so this… um… thief-girl, she always seemed to be covered in glitter and that shit gets everywhere. It was all over the apartment…”

Holiday looked like she was about to puke.

“Park, get to the point.”

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