Page 20 of Fair Play
BILLIE: I do, but I also know he thinks I’m too young for him. I heard him and Bodi talking, and he was pretty dismissive when Bodi told him I was off-limits.
ATHENA: Of course he was! What’s he going to say to your overprotective big brother? Oh, yeah, I was planning to bang her brains out but I guess since you don’t want me to, I won’t. Come on. You told me about dancing at the club that night. Trust me—my brother doesn’t dance. If he danced with you, he likes you.
I shouldn’t have told her that. It was a moment of weakness. A yearning for the friendships I left behind in Arizona.
I don’t have any girlfriends here in L.A., and Athena’s a lot of fun. But I have to remember she’s Rome’s sister. If I’m going to be living with Bodi and Rome—and it looks like I am, though I still need to have a formal conversation with my brother about that—I have to tread carefully.
BILLIE: I think he’s hot, but honestly, I barely know him. We danced once, and he’s been very generous, helping me move out of my apartment and then letting me borrow the car. But that doesn’t mean he LIKES me. And even if he does, Bodi would freak out.
ATHENA: Bodi needs to get over himself. You’re a grown woman.
BILLIE: A grown woman who needs his help until I graduate.
ATHENA: Oh, I get it. Don’t mind me. I just want my brother to find someone sweet like you. Not like those other bitches he married.
He was married? I had no idea.
BILLIE: I didn’t realize he’s been married.
ATHENA: Twice! And they’re both evil witches. They took him for almost everything he had, which is why he needs to play for a few more years. I think alimony ended last year for the first one, but he has another year or so for the second. Please don’t tell him I told you…
BILLIE: I won’t say anything.
ATHENA: Anyway, I have to get back to work, but one more thing. You mentioned needing a better paying job, right? Can you roller skate?
I frown, my chest suddenly a little tight.
I haven’t skated in years.
Not since the accident that took my parents and destroyed my leg.
BILLIE: I haven’t skated in forever. Since high school.
That, at least, is the truth.
ATHENA: Well, my friend Nita just opened a 50s style diner and everyone is on skates. Business is insane and they’re desperate for help. She said waitresses on weekends are making close to five hundred a shift.
Five hundred a shift?!
I have to work two weeks at the grocery store to make that much.
Jesus, the job sounds like a dream come true.
Except for the whole skating thing.
There’s no physical reason why I can’t. My leg is long since healed and Bodi made sure I did physical therapy to get my strength and mobility back. But I was never going to skate competitively again, so in my mind, there was no point. Not tomention the grief and everything else going on in the mind of hormonal fifteen-year-old me.
BILLIE: Can you send me the information? I could at least apply.
ATHENA: I’ll send you her info and tell her you’re going to contact her.
BILLIE: Thank you—I appreciate it. I’m not sure I can skate well enough to wait tables but I’m going to find out.
ATHENA: Excellent! Talk soon. And I’ll think about ideas for doing something nice for Rome.
BILLIE: Thanks!
I put the phone down thoughtfully.
