Page 26 of Brace and Chase

“You like wine?” he asks eagerly.

“I do.” I nod.

“And you drink during the season?” Now his eyes are wide open and I feel like I’m stepping into some kind of trap.

“I do,” I repeat hesitantly.

“Oh my God,” he whispers. “You’re like a unicorn. All these other boring fucks don’t drink during the season. Well, except Santa of course.”

There’s a beat of silence that lasts maybe ten seconds but I swear it feels like the most uncomfortable year of my life.

“Right,” Jules says, with forced cheer in his tone. I appreciate it. “Why don’t you get Charlie his wine and I’m going to go outside and make sure all the kids are still alive, okay?”

Sterling nods, then pulls Picard close to him with a hand on his hip and plants a serious kiss on him.

I look away because it seems like such an intimate moment between them. For a moment, they clearly forget that their house is full of people, let alone that one of their guests is standing right in front of them. It’s... hot. I guess. I don’t know.

Before I can think about it any more, Sterling is leading me away to the bar where Mater is with his wife. I introduce myself to her and find out her name is Ingrid, and that her kids are all somewhere around the house having the time of their lives.

Over the next hour, I meet Benny’s boyfriend Chris, and Bates’s girlfriend Caroline. I meet the mother of Jules and Sterling’s kids, Jamie, and I meet Bear’s boyfriend Drew, who greets me shyly before the goalie drags him away without saying a word to me. Drew does offer me a weird smile slash grimace as he’s being pulled in the direction of the back yard, and I decide that’s as good as it’s going to get with him.

Bear is clearly on Nikolay’s side in whatever weird battle we’re having. I understand that, though I only have that kind of bond with my family. I decide to focus on the good things happening today.

Turns out, Ingrid also really likes wine, so we talk about that for a while. I can clearly see how some of the players with kids go out in shifts it seems, and although nothing is outwardly suspicious, I realize something is shifty pretty quickly, though.

Ingrid announces she needs to use the bathroom andafter she walks away I ask Mater if there’s another bathroom I could use.

“Yeah, you follow that hallway there.” He points to the far side of the kitchen. “And you’ll get to two doors. One leads to the garage and the other is a bathroom.”

“Thanks man.” I walk over but I’m stopped before I get to the opening of the hallway.

“Where are you going, Charlie?” Chris, Benny’s boyfriend, asks me for some strange reason. He sounds alarmed and I can’t help but narrow my eyes at him with curiosity. Why does he care where I go?

“Mater told me I could use the guest bathroom just past there.” I point to my back.

“Oh, there’s a bigger one next to the front door.” His voice gets high pitched then. Okay, that’s weird, right?

“Yeah, I know,” I tell him slowly. “Ingrid is going over to use that one.”

He turns to see her and then back to me so fast I’m sure he’ll have whiplash, but then he offers me a sheepish smile.

“Okay then. Just let me know if you need anything.”

I nod, not really knowing what to make of him. I think he told me before he owns some nightclub? Maybe he’s just used to playing host?

Maybe Jules asked him for help for such a big event, who the hell knows. I use the bathroom, and when I get out I decide that I need just two minutes by myself. I look around and decide that going out to the back yard throughthe doors in the living room, or going out through the front door is too risky.

I need to be alone first, then I can get back to being social and trying to maybe make more friends from the team.

I open the door to the garage and find the switch quickly, then I spot another door on the opposite wall. I walk over quickly and find fresh air as soon as it’s opened.

God, it’s amazing how clear the sky is out here in the desert. I can see about a million stars. I keep staring up for a while, way more than two minutes, and decide that there’s no harm in taking just a bit longer. That’s when I hear it.

“You look like my Santa,” an excited kid’s voice rings out from the other side of the house. I don’t know why—probably because I’m curious—but I walk around the wall and see a pretty spectacular Santa Village.

So this is where all the kids were sneaking off to before. It’s a kickass setup, I decide. Definitely the way you want to keep the holidays alive, even when New Year’s Eve is just a day away. I see Jamie, Jake with a baby in his arms, and Jules and Sterling standing in front of a big throne. Sure enough, there’s a man dressed as Santa on the big chair, and from what I just heard, it’s Brotnik. Next to him is a slight man dressed as an elf and smiling sweetly at Ava.

I hear the whole interaction and even smile at how Nikolay fakes an American accent as convincingly as one can.

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