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“How’s it goin’?”
He adjusts his sunglasses and gives me one of his private smiles. “I had a good night, and an even better morning. You?”
Darren isn’t a details guy. But then, he doesn’t need to be. His relaxed posture and tone say it all.
“Last night was great.” It comes out with an edge.
“Your morning didn’t go well? You bring up the wedding with Violet again or something?”
Darren is one of the few people I talk openly to about the wedding stuff, or the lack of wedding stuff.
“I haven’t mentioned it in weeks.”
After the fiasco that was our engagement party, I left the topic alone for a while. Our moms went overboard with the guest list and invited two hundred people to celebrate in my backyard. Violet doesn’t like to be the center of attention in a crowd like that. She ended up with a raging case of hives, which took setting a date off the table.
By the holidays, I figured she would’ve gotten over it, but every time our mothers started in on setting a date, Violet broke out. We’ve gone through a lot of Benadryl in the past several months.
Now, I get that Violet has had some embarrassing things happen to her over the years. Something about a serious wardrobe malfunction at her mother’s wedding is all I know. But I understand her concerns.
Violet says it like it is most of the time, and whatever pops into her head usually comes right out of her mouth. It’s cute and funny when it’s just us, or our friends, but in highly public situations, it can be mortifying for her—and sometimes other people. I’ve told her several times that we can keep our wedding small, but she’s still reluctant to set a date.
“Not making progress there, huh?” Darren asks.
“Nope.” I tap the steering wheel in agitation.
“I’m sorry, man. I know you want this to happen.” His phone buzzes in his pocket. “You mind if I take this?”
I wave him off. “No. Go ahead.”
“Hey, sexy. What’s up?”
It’s Charlene. Darren’s been seeing her for a long while, now. He’s always been a low-profile guy, but since they started dating, he’s gotten a lot more media attention. He doesn’t really like it, but he seems to like Charlene, so he deals.
“You didn’t get enough of me last night or this morning, is that it?” he asks quietly.
I try not to eavesdrop, but he’s sitting right beside me and we’re in my car, so it’s impossible.
“Oh, really?” Darren makes a clicking sound with his tongue. “That sounds like a lot of fun, but I’m on my way to the gym with Alex, so you’ll have to put that thought on hold… Uh-huh…Yeah, you can come to my place. That’ll work better anyway. Mmm…I think the red one.” He shifts around in his seat. “That’s entirely up to you.”
When I glance at him, he raises his eyebrows. There’s a long pause, during which his smile grows even wider.
“You know what I like, Charlene. Okay. I’ll see you around six… Looking forward to it.” He ends the call and tucks his phone back in his pocket.
“Things getting serious there?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I like her, and we have a good time together.”
It’s not an answer, but then that’s kind of how Darren is.
“So what happened this morning?” he asks.
“Everything was fine until I joked around about Vi quitting her job.”
“Why would you do that?” He sounds incredulous.
“I don’t know. I just…the away games aren’t my favorite. I don’t like the long spans of time away from her, and she doesn’t have to work. I make more than enough, right?” I’m looking for some kind of affirmation. Darren is probably the wrong person to ask, though, considering his relationship with Charlene isn’t anything like my relationship with Violet.
“Does this have anything to do with the Darcy account?” Darren asks.
“What?”
“The Darcy account. Are you worried about that?”
“What are you talking about?”
Darren gives me a look. “Mitch Darcy. You know, our teammate?”
“Did he say something to you? He’s got his own damn wife. He needs to stay the fuck away from mine.”
“Settle down, Waters. Didn’t Violet tell you last night?”
Anxiety makes every muscle in my body tighten. “Tell me what?”
“Jesus, you’re edgy today.”
“Yeah, well, my fiancée, who won’t set a damn wedding date, denied me sex this morning after I’d been away for a week, and now you have information I don’t, so there’s something she’s keeping from me.”
“I don’t think she’s keeping it from you. Apparently Violet drew up a proposal for his account, and she’s presenting it next week.”
“Oh. That’s it?” When Darcy’s wife, Bunny, found out Violet manages finances for sports professionals, she got her contact information. I vaguely remember Violet telling me about creating a proposal a few weeks ago. She’s had to stay late a bunch of times over the past few months.
