Page 26 of The Fundamentals

“I would never, ever go after one of the Woodsmen players,” Sidney N. said seriously.

“Why not?” another voice asked.

Faces turned in my direction. Good Lord, I had been the one to ask that!

“It’s against the rules in the Woodsmen Family Handbook,” Danni told me. “You know that, Sissy.”

I cleared my throat. “I’m not saying that I’m going after a football player either,” I answered. “You guys all know that I have a boyfriend. I just think it’s not very fair that we can’t date who we want. If Bowie likes Sidney N. and she likes him back, so what?”

“I don’t,” she interrupted. “I’m really into this guy I met at the college a few weekends ago. I swear!”

“See?” I asked them. “She has to be worried about getting in trouble if she only said she liked someone.”

“Which I don’t!” Sidney N. put in.

“But what would happen to Garrett Bowman if he told his friends that he was interested in her? Nothing,” I answered. “Just like nothing happened to those guys last season when a few of us got in trouble for dancing with them at a party. I don’t think it’s fair.”

“She’s right,” Quinn said. “I’ve thought that for a while. It’s like some weird double standard. If there are rules for all Woodsmen employees, then we should all get in trouble the same.”

“Ladies, I live in the real world,” Erin announced. She was one of my sister’s old friends, one of the two who’d been in the bridal party with me. “You can complain all you want, and you know what will happen? They’ll find another girl who can fit into your halter top.” She picked up her dance bag and swung it theatrically over her shoulder, knocking into both me and Sidney H., before she left the bathroom. It was really too small in here for all that drama.

I also left the bathroom but I did it with a lot less flair. Ward and I were supposed to meet for dinner and there was no space to get ready with twenty-eight other Wonderwomen also trying to get a glimpse of themselves in the mirror. He didn’t appreciate when I saw him after practice without primping a little so I did the best I could in the car, but it wasn’t a great result.

He noticed when I arrived at the restaurant.

“You’re late. And you look—what the hell, Sissy? Couldn’t you even bother to shower before you saw me?”

“I told you that I was coming from practice,” I reasoned. “You wouldn’t have liked it if I got here even later because I went home to get ready, so I came sweaty.”

“I would like it if you didn’t go to those practices at all.”

“Well, I want to.” I shifted in my seat. Some might even have said that I flounced. We glared at each other until the waiter arrived.

“Can I take a drink order?” he asked.

“Water, please,” I said, and my boyfriend pointed to his empty glass and told him that he wanted another, and the guy glanced between us both before he left.

“Are you trying to start something with me, Sissy?” Ward’s voice was just a little too loud for the restaurant, and a woman a few tables away glanced over at us, too.

I looked at my fork rather than meeting anyone’s eyes, including Ward’s. “No, I’m not trying to start something,” I answered very quietly. Why had I pushed him like I had? “I’m hungry, so maybe I’m acting cranky because of that.”

“Maybe so. It seems like I’m hearing a lot of excuses for bitch behavior lately.”

Still too loud. I lowered my voice even more. “I’m sorry. I won’t act that way and I won’t make any more excuses.”

“Good. I had a shitty day and I’m not putting up with this, too. I’m buying you dinner, aren’t I? I don’t want to blow a bunch of money on some bitch. I don’t care about your excuses. Are we clear?”

The woman from two tables over was now fully staring. I still hadn’t looked up, but I caught it out of the corner of my eye.

“Yes, Ward. I apologize. I’m very, very sorry,” I told him, and then tried to change the subject. “Why was your day so bad? Can I make it better?”

“I don’t think so, unless you can go back in time and make these people use a fucking condom.” The problem was, as always, the customers at the marina. A kid had fallen off the dock into the water and the parents seemed to blame Ward and the facility rather than admitting to being the stupid fucking morons that they were, in his opinion. Unfortunately, talking about the issues he’d had with them didn’t improve his mood. He got angry all over again as he told me how they’d demanded to speak to the manager, how they’d said they would dispute the boat rental charges with their credit card company, and how their kid kept crying and sniffling. Those were two behaviors that Ward hated, absolutely hated.

“I told them to get the fuck out and not come back and they said they’d leave shit reviews and tell their resort not to direct people to our business anymore. Assholes.” He shoved the last bite of burger into his mouth. Recounting the story of his bad day had started before we’d ordered and lasted the length of the meal.

“I’m sorry they were so awful,” I told him, and maybe they had been, but I also knew my boyfriend. He had a tendency to take everything personally and I’d learned from working at the grocery store and the bakery that you had to have a thicker skin when you dealt with customers. You couldn’t waste your energy arguing with them all the time.

“You know what?” he asked me. He was getting loud again. “I don’t think you are sorry, Sissy. I think you’re treating me like a baby right now and you’re soothing me to shut me up. The next thing you’ll do is shove a pacifier in my mouth. Is that right? Are you trying to shut me up?”

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