Page 24 of The Quarterback
They spent two hours there, talking about Nick’s most active customers and clients, as well as the potential clients he was courting through his pipeline. The six of them worked out a rough sketch of Colton’s workweek. He was going to cycle through the account executives, checking in with one of them each morning, before spending his afternoons with Nick. Nick’s goal, he said, was to give Colton a mix of client service and sales experiences, most of that coming from being deep in the thick of everything. He wasn’t ever going to see a mail room.
Excitement thrummed through him. It wasn’t football, of course, wasn’t the thrill of the game and the three magic seconds between snap and pass. He wasn’t carrying a team and all their dreams on each of his play calls, wasn’t charting the future in the half second he had to read the defense. But it was interesting. He could see a kindred competitive fire inside Nick as he spoke about his pipeline and how he was trying to win over customers and open new lines of business. He could understand that, get on board with it. He liked competition.
“Well, what do you think of your first day?” Nick asked, stopping by his desk at five o’clock.
“Is it time to leave already?”
Nick laughed. “It is. But I like that spirit.” He smiled. “I know this is a big change of pace, but I hope you had a decent day. I’m trying to keep this interesting for you.”
“I had a great time. And it’s a lot to take in, but I’ll get it all.”
“I know you will.” Another smile. “What are you up to tonight? Big plans?”
He shrugged as he powered down the laptop Nick had given him. He shut the lid, then grabbed his bag. He didn’t have a fancy business bag, so he’d brought a small gym duffel—the cleanest one he could find—to carry his things. Water bottle, his spare sling, a lunch he hadn’t eaten. “PlayStation and DoorDash, probably.”
Nick walked with him to the elevators, saying good night to Lizbeth on the way. “I thought you guys cooked most of your dinners.” Lizbeth said good night to them both, her smile still as warm and kind as it had been that morning.
“I only know recipes for twelve guys. I can eat, but I can’t eat that much. And since I’m not burning as many calories, the nutritionist wants me to scale way back. I’m not on twelve-thousand-calorie days anymore.”
“Only six thousand?” Nick teased as they waited for the elevator.
“Thirty-eight hundred.” Colton made a face. “I was starving for a week.”
“If I looked at that many calories, I’d gain ten pounds.” Nick motioned for him to go first into the elevator, then pushed the floor for the main lobby.
Colton nodded and followed Nick out of the office tower. The garage where he’d parked his car was to the left, but Nick turned right, and Colton went with him. “What about you? What are you up to?”
“Same thing I do every night—”
For a moment, Colton’s heart soared.I won’t be alone again tonight.
“Well, aside from the past two weeks.”
And plummeted, but he covered that up with a chuckle as he looked down, watching his shoes strike the sidewalk.
“I usually hit up the grocery store around the block and get something to grill. A bottle of wine. I’ll stop in a few days a week and just get whatever I need for the next day or so. It’s right on the way to my condo, so it’s easy.”
“Cool. Sounds like a decent setup.”
“It works well.” Nick squinted at him. “Do you want to come over for dinner? If you’re not doing anything, I can probably make you something a little healthier than DoorDash would deliver. I’m not sure about tastier, though.”
“Yeah.” Was that too eager? Was he smiling too wide? “I’d love to.”
“What are you in the mood for? Steak? Chicken? Fish?” Nick nodded to the grocery store as they turned the corner. “You’ve got about forty seconds to decide.”
Colton picked chicken, since they’d had steak for lunch—well, he had a steak salad; it was all he could eat one-handed—and Nick went straight to the meat counter and asked for the two biggest chicken breasts they had. He sent Colton for vegetables while he grabbed a bottle of wine, and they met at the checkout aisle with chicken, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and a bottle of white wine. Colton went through the checkout first and managed to get in position to slide his debit card through without Nick seeing. Nick was all set to pay when the cashier handed him the receipt.
He gave Colton a look as he grabbed the paper bags. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I found out I’m getting paid today. I’m going to live large.”
Nick laughed. “I thought we could grill kebabs.”
“Sounds awesome.”
Nick ditched his tie and rolled up his sleeves as soon as they got to his place. Colton stripped down to his undershirt and switched to the Terminator sling after he did his muscle squeezes and elbow extensions. He didn’t want to say anything and make Nick worry, but his shoulder ached. He’d been careful all day, but being in an office was more active than sitting in bed, and all that activity had moved throughout his body and into his shoulder.
He wanted to help, but chopping vegetables and making skewers was two-handed work. Nick slid him a glass of wine and said, “Your job is to sit there and talk to me. And enjoy yourself.”
