Page 37 of Play to Win
Portia didn’t argue with him. She closed her laptop and slipped it into the slim black case she had sitting on the empty seat beside her. That case had a long strap and she crossed it over her shoulders so that it now rested at her hip. She accepted his hand and they walked out the front doors of Game Changers into the warm afternoon sun.
She wore flat sandals today, with a jeweled strap that went through her toes and rested on the top of her foot in a cute fashion. Her beige shorts came to mid-thigh and the pink sleeveless top she wore was just sheer enough to make him want to rip it off her to get to the delectable breasts he knew were beneath.
Her hand felt warm in his, their slow and easy gait as they crossed the street from the bar and headed a block toward the small dog park seemed easy and natural.
“When I was little, I dreamed about having a dog,” Ethan told Portia.
It was something he’d never shared with anyone else before. Talking about his childhood wasn’t something he enjoyed. Stacey had known that and had never pushed. That was one of the reasons Ethan had let down his guard with her.
“I wanted something like a pitbull or a Rottweiler because they were good guard dogs,” he continued as they started down one of the many cement paths that snaked through the grass and trees.
In the distance, six other people were walking their dogs. A beagle, two terriers, a golden Lab, a Pug and a Husky. Across the street utility trucks were pulling up to a parking lot where downed electrical wires still hung from the storm.
“For years I felt like I needed protection, but none came,” he said.
Her fingers tightened in his grip.
“I never felt physically threatened by them,” Portia said quietly as they passed a bench and a large green trash can. “They were vicious with their words. Especially Melissa. But none of them ever came near me as if they were going to do physical harm. I know jiu jitsu. My godmother trained me because she said every young woman should know how to protect herself. I would’ve been ready for any of them if they did approach me.”
Her voice was even and she looked straight ahead. There was a quiet strength to Portia Merin now. Ethan recalled seeing spurts of it when they were younger. The way Portia always kept her shoulders squared and her head held high even when Melissa or her friends were harassing her. She’d done the same today in the bar when Melissa approached her. Ethan had watched the scene from the bar. He was too far away to hear what was being said, but it looked as if Portia were holding her own. By the time he was able to get away and approach them, he’d heard that his assumption was true. Portia hadn’t needed him to save her from Melissa’s evil wrath, but Ethan had wanted desperately to protect her.
“I was never afraid of them,” she said. “I just wanted them to find someone else to pick on. For just one day out of my life, I wanted them to look to someone else. Anyone else. The way my parents did.”
Now she pulled her hand away and walked ahead a few steps.
“I know you heard what she said about my parents disowning me,” Portia said and then turned back to face him.
He figured something had gone down between them. In the time he’d been with her, she’d talked more about her godmother than her parents. Ethan pushed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and waited for her to finish.
“I was a disappointment to them from the start,” she said with a shrug. “I still don’t quite understand how a child could be born to parents who never wanted her, but there it is. I used to think I was special because surely no other children went through that type of hell. But when I left for college and met other people my age, I heard stories of all kinds of parents. I started to figure that maybe mine weren’t so bad. They didn’t love me, but they had kept a roof over my head and food on the table. They never tried to get to know me, never understood me, but they taught me how to work hard and to focus on my goals. So I owe them partially for my success even though my mother made it perfectly clear with the launch of my second video on YouTube, that she and my father wanted nothing else to do with me. I was never to mention their names or claim relation to them.”
“Because of your chosen profession?” Like, Portia, he knew firsthand about having parents that sucked. And how to achieve success regardless of that fact.
“Because it was the last time they were going to allow me to go against their wishes. The first time was when I chose which college I would attend and what I would study. The second…the videos, was the last strike.”
Ethan lifted a brow at her word usage because while her parents had quit at two, he had his own three strike rule.
She sighed heavily. “I’m good with their choice. There was never any love between us, only blood. At first it was scary how easily it was to watch my mother walk away from me. But then, I began looking at it as a fresh start. I left the old life of Portia Merin behind in college and I’m very proud of the new Portia Merin.”
Ethan’s chest felt tight, like something was attempting to squeeze the life out of him. He took a step toward her because he thought it might be the fact that she was still planning to leave Providence and a part of him wanted her to stay.
“I’m very proud of you too, Portia,” he said.
A chorus of high-pitched barks disrupted their moment and they both turned to see that one of the tan colored terriers had escaped from its owner and was charging its tiny feet toward them.
Portia immediately knelt down, a huge grin on her face as she held out her arms and caught the bundle of silky hair. The barking immediately stopped as she held the dog close to her chest. Ethan knelt down too, rubbing the small dog’s head.
“These are the silliest dogs,” he said through his smile. “They don’t do anything but make a bunch of noise and demand a lot of attention.”
“I’d give him all of my attention,” she said lifting the dog up so she could rub her nose against its nose. “And in return, he’d love me unconditionally. That’s why I used to long for a pet. Because they didn’t have rules for you to follow or conditions on how much they would love you. They just did.”
Ethan’s smile stilled and the confidence he knew Portia had was again clouded by the vulnerability he now heard in her voice. This had been what he’d sensed was bothering her all along. The pain she still carried over being pushed away by her parents. He despised Wayne and Judy Merin and swore to take Melissa Bannon down a peg or two the next time she waltzed her snooty ass into the bar.
