She sounded a little too perky, which was something only someone who knew her would notice. Someone like Lucy, which is why she shoved some more food in her mouth to stop her from acting or saying something stupid.
"Say 'Marry me, McCloud,'" Sydney instructed.
The two women pulled each other into a friendly embrace with huge smiles on their faces.
"Marry me, McCloud!"
Gross.
Sydney handed the phone back to them and got an enthusiastic "Thanks!" in reply. Then Lucy watched as the pair headed up the stairs past them, the two of them so engrossed in looking at the photo that they almost ran into someone coming back down.
"Don't think I didn't see that," Sydney said.
Lucy turned just in time to see her friend stealing a chip.
"See what?"
Sydney smiled and popped the chip in her mouth. "That look," she said.
"Apparently, I'm making a lot of looks tonight," Lucy muttered.
Sydney rolled her eyes and grabbed another chip. "Every once in awhile there's this look you get when you're trying really hard to not be snarky to someone you think deserves it."
"They would've deserved it," Lucy muttered.
"You know you're wrong," Sydney replied in a quiet voice. "They're just fans being fans, and you don't like them because they're fans of Ryan's."
Lucy could respond. Lucy could say that's not the reason she found those two women annoying. She could say that Ryan had lots of fans and why would that even bother her? Because it wouldn't. Besides, any fan who shows up with a marriage proposal for a player they've never met deserves whatever snark comes their way.
She could say any of those things or even all of those things. But she wasn't going to say any of that because she knew none of it was true. She wanted to be snarky towards those women because they were fans of Ryan, and she still cared about him in whatever weird and hard-to-define way she did.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." Sydney gave her friend a small but sincere smile. "Besides, Ryan hasn't even looked at them tonight, you know."
"I know."
"I know you know," she replied.
She was about to grab another chip from Lucy's tray of nachos when Lucy gently swatted her hand away. "Those are mine."
"Ryan got us vouchers."
Lucy stared at her for a bit before finally conceding. They had this argument before. It always ended the same way. Not that Lucy ever put up much of a fight. Sydney was right. Ryan had gotten them vouchers. Maybe she would be in a better position to argue if she had bought them herself, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon and they both knew it.
Instead, the two of them continued to share the nachos and talk while they waited for the team to come back out. Sydney mentioned a trip with Andy when the team had a few days off. Lucy was telling her about a new case that came in and wanted to know if Sydney had some time to put her forensic accounting skills to the test.
Lucy was about to put the last of the nachos in her mouth when the team came roaring out of the tunnel at full speed to get warmed up for the last period. She shoved the chip in her mouth but not before a bit of the gooey cheese slipped off onto her shirt.
"Fuck."
"Cheese on your shirt again?"
Sydney casually handed her friend a napkin as if this were a normal occurrence. And to be fair, it happened at least half the time Lucy ordered nachos at the game.
"Thank you," Lucy muttered as she began to dab at the blob on cheese on her chest.
"You know, Ryan's watching."
"What?"
