Page 16 of True Honey
“It was all Blondie,” he said. “You gonna bring your fake date?”
“She’s not—”
Arlo started to laugh quietly beside me and I whipped my head to look at him.
“What?” I questioned with a grumble.
“Oh sorry, yourfake wife,” Arlo corrected himself.
“She’s perfect, Arlo…” I looked over at her again and she was telling a story that I couldn’t hear but I liked the way her smile curled to the left when she told it.
“It’s not real,” he warned. “Just tell Seymour no.”
“You know that’s not an option,” I sighed. “I get one shot at this, or Charles takes everything, Ar…”
“What the hell are you doing?” He sounded exasperated. “No more jokes, what do you think is going to come from this,” he asked, staring through the office windows.
“A wife.” I said under my breath.
I watched as Drew said goodbye to Susanna, her face falling as she turned to leave. I shoved Arlo back behind the wall out of sight and he laughed.
“You’re an idiot, a big dumb, reckless, idiot!” Arlo wrestled back as the front doors shut loudly from down the hallway. “This is going to blow up in your face and if you let Ella or Cael get attached to your fake wife, I’ll tell Coach about your late night physical therapy meetings with his sister!” Arlo warned, pushing me off him with a smile. “You’re so fucked.”
“Go bully someone smaller than you,” I snapped at him and straightened out before turning on my heel to go talk to Susanna. She was still organizing when I wandered into the office.
Looking up at me she groaned, “where have you been?” She grumbled, “there was a nice girl here to see you. I called you almost forty minutes ago!”
I put both hands up in surrender and give her the best charming smile I have. “I was in a meeting and then I got stopped by Arlo! You can blame him.”
“I would never,” she scowled. Arlo was her favorite, he always had been and she had never been afraid to make it known. “Stop picking on him,” she warned with a finger.
“The girl that came in?” I asked, quickly changing the subject.
Susanna’s brow furrowed and I could tell that she wanted to scold me some more but she slipped past it. “Drew,” she said after a moment of trying to remember her name. “She came in looking for you but you weren’t around. Lovely girl, she helped me straighten out the office. Most of the flowers you boys sent for my birthday were dying, they were dropping petals everywhere!” Susanna rambled. She had been working in this office since I was a kid. She used to sit Arlo, Nick and I on the stools while practices were running and kept us busy with coloring and math questions.
She’s a Harbor staple and the stadium wouldn’t be the same without her.
“Guess we’ll have to get you some more, what's the next holiday?” I asked her, leaning on the desk in my polo.
“Damned if I know,” she scoffed.
“For no reason is a good reason,” I winked and Susanna started to relax a little.
“She was wonderful, the poor girl left sad when I told her I didn’t have a job to offer her. She’s been searching most of the day without luck.” She said, stopping in her path to look around.
“Make one,” I said, perking up.
Susanna narrowed her eyes on me, “have you been drinking again?”
“No ma’am, you could use the help around here. The office has never looked so put together, so make a new position and I will run it through with the guys upstairs.” I said with a small shrug. She stared at me for a long moment.
“Silas Andrew Shore, what is the motive here?” She stepped forward and I couldn’t stop the shit eating grin that formed on my face.
“Nothing Susanna, I just wanna make sure you have it easy. This will take the stress off,” I tried not to laugh but her glare was under my skin and I’d never been able to lie to her.
“You better not be sleeping with that girl!” Susanna raised her finger at me. “God help you,” she scolded me when I didn’t answer right away.
“I’m not sleeping with her!” I argued playfully, the smile on my face was so wide it was hurting my cheeks. “I just met her at Hilly's and gave her my card! She has a son, needed a job!”
