SLOW HANDS

No one seemed surprised by that announcement. Edward was a ladies man and almost always had a date to go too… Sometimes with different women.

“Of course you do,” Bryce murmured and everyone laughed.

“Hey, this isn’t just any date okay?” Edward retorted. “I like this girl…”

“You say that about all of them” said Bryce.

“I’ll walk you guys out. I need to run, too since I have work stuff to prepare for.” said Chloe.

Darrell grimaced, and she steeled herself for another gruff lecture about how she worked too hard. An interesting statement since Peter worked harder than all of them, and no one ever lectured him.

To her surprise, he remained silent. She regarded him with a raised eyebrow and wondered if he’d burst at the seams, but his lips remained in a firm line. He rose from the couch to hug her and then gruffly reminded her to be sure and get enough rest.

They all walked out together, and Darrell reminded them all of lunch next Sunday, and told Chloe that he wanted her to come too. Chloe waved to Edward and Peter before climbing into her car. Bryce stood, saying his goodbyes to his father, and she drove down the driveway.

Bryce would be along the next day and she needed to make sure her pantry…. Or at least, Susan’s pantry would survive the assault.

—————-

Chloe had just done a cursory examination of her stock of food-cursing the fact she hadn’t been to the market in far too long-when the door buzzer sounded.

She strode across to the call box and mashed the button. “That you, Bryce?”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“Yep, buzz me in?”

A few seconds later, Bryce walked in, and she smiled her welcome.

“I know that smile,” he said suspiciously. “That’s a smile that says you lured me here under false pretenses. You don’t have any food, do you?” he asked.

“Weeeell, no, I don’t. But I just ordered pizza.” Chloe replied with a grin.

“You’re forgiven, but I refuse to have a reasonable discussion until it gets here.”

She laughed and punched him on the arm when he flopped on the sofa next to her.

“If I didn’t need a favor from you, I’d make you pay for it.” she said.

His expression grew serious. “So what is this favor, anyway?”

“Oh, no. I’m not asking you for anything until you have a full stomach. I don’t even know if you ate anything before coming.”

Bryce grunted but didn’t offer any argument. His stomach was too important. He reached for the remote and flipped on the TV. A few seconds later, the sports recap was on, and he settled back against the couch.

The pizza didn’t take long-thanks to the bistro right around the corner offering delivery service. Soon the decadent smells of a completely loaded pizza filled the apartment. She dropped the box on the coffee table in front of Bryce, not bothering with plates. He eyed the mountain of toppings with something akin to bliss.

She waited until he’d grabbed the first piece before she carefully took a slice and nibbled on the end. It was, in a word, sheer heaven. She leaned back and waited for Bryce to down the first slice. When he was on his second, he turned and said around a mouthful of pizza, “So what’s this favor you need?”

She sat forward, putting half the slice down on a napkin.

“You know, I kinda already told you about it before. I have this client….. well he’s a client I want to land. Timothy Kavell – Packard.”

Bryce stopped chewing. “Ernmm… I remember. The guy who sells athletic wear?”

She nodded. “Yeah. He fired his last agency and has yet to sign with a new one. I want him…. I mean Golden gates Communications wants him, and I…. we kinda already have him… But I told you about him one time and you said you might be willing to do this for me when I asked …. And now I want you to do it.”

“Okay, yes I remember you saying something about that some time ago. So where do I fit into the picture? What do you want me to do?” Bryce asked her.

For a moment her nerve deserted her, and then she mentally slapped herself upside the head. In her profession there was no room for the spineless. She hadn’t worked her way into the confidence of Golden gates communications acting like a jellyfish.

“I want you to agree to front his new line of athletic wear.” she said.

Bryce blinked then he frowned, and finally he put down his half-eaten slice. For a moment he was quiet. She waited, fully expecting him to say no or to launch into all the reasons why he didn’t take endorsement deals. She knew them all. But he did none of those things. Instead he studied her carefully, his gaze sliding over her features as though he was reaching right into her head and pulling out every thought.

He wouldn’t ask why him. He was a huge name in baseball, and he was more sought after than any other professional athlete mainly because of his refusal to take endorsement deals. Instead of deterring companies, it made them all the more determined to be the first to lure Bryce Collins to their brand.

She could beg. She could hurry through a prepared explanation as to why she needed him, but she wasn’t going to wheedle and cajole.

Bryce was still frowning as he studied her. “This is important to you.”

She nodded. “Packard Enterprises is a big client. My boss is trusting me to land the account. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll get him with or without you, but you’d be the nail in his coffin. Plus it would be huge for you. Timothy will pay a lot to have you be the spokesman for his sportswear…. Also, please don’t be offended, but I already told him that you have agreed to do this.”

Bryce sighed. “I wish I didn’t already tell you that I would consider it because I kind of want to say no. I feel like you would be really disappointed if I back out now.”

She smiled faintly. “To be honest, I would be.” she said.

He shot her an impatient look.

“Look, Bryce, you know how important baseball is to you. I feel the same way about this.”