AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He hangs up first, leaving me all weirded out and wondering what could have possibly happened for him to behave like this.
We met in the local circuits, not too long after he graduated college, and I was already a veteran of ten years. Parker was different than the other reporters and had taken the time to befriend me. We bonded over the love of the sport and eventually he became the only newscaster I would interview with and my best friend.
Now… Something tells me this is about to change.
I take a quick shower, and now in plain clothes, I head for the skyboxes and quickly locate the one designed for the press. By its door, and with his back turned to me, Parker speaks on the phone, and I just eavesdrop on the conversation.
“Elsa, I told you not to call me today! No, we haven’t spoken yet, but we will!” he paces from one side to another as he listens. “What? You’re at the stadium? Ha! Good luck getting to me without credentials!”
“I got to you without credentials,” I say, my voice dry and confused.
“Harvey!” Parker immediately hangs up the phone. “Good, you came!”
“What is so important for you to be so dark and somber, man?” I say, “You sounded so depressing on the phone!”
He snickers, very nervous, and doesn’t seem to be able to pick a point where to focus his eyes. Finally, he cracks his fingers, one by one until he’s repeating them.
“I need to talk to you about something important, Harvey,” he commences. “How could you have sex with my sister?”
My eyelids flutter more than the wings of a butterfly in the middle of a hurricane. After I pick up my stomach from my feet, I reply, “How do you know?”
“How do I know?” Parker snorts with disdain. “She fessed up, Harvey! I took her for lunch yesterday, to catch up, and I asked why she was so down, and after much insistence she finally said it’s because of you! What should I do to you, Harvey?”
“I dunno,” I shrug. “Wanna square this off outside? Because if you’re going to act like a child about this, I can kick your ass and be done with it.”
But Parker grunts in frustration, digs his nails into his scalp, and recoils in desperation.
“Harvey, this wasn’t part of the deal!” he explodes. “You shouldn’t have taken advantage of my sister. I trusted you! How do you expect me to feel?”
“Bad, apparently. But your sister is an adult, I am an adult, and no one took advantage of anyone. We both consented to it.”
“Parker, what are you doing?” I hear Elsa’s voice and look over my shoulder and see her, fuming at the nostrils and gritting her teeth so loudly it looks like saws cutting through wood.
“Elsa, get out of here!” Parker pleads.
But she stops with her arms crossed and legs at guard in between me and him — completely ignoring me, to be frank, and what hurts the most is that she didn’t even look me in the eye.
“Why don’t we ask Elsa’s opinion about it, huh?” I say, crossing my arms as well.
Only then does Elsa look at me, with a thousand-yard stare and her lips parted with incredulity.
“Ask my opinion about what?” she says it quite eloquently.
Parker curls in a very red ball of shame, while I explain to Elsa what I mean. “Parker is bothered that we had sex, and now wants to fight me. I said I’ll do it if he really wants to, but what do you thinkheshould do?”
She looks from one to the other and seems to be unable to decide which one is more stupid.
“I know you two were idiots around each other, but I didn’t know it wasthisbad!” she sneers and storms away.
I look at Parker, still balled up like a coward, and I then look to myself internally, trying to decide who’s the best fit to go talk to Elsa. Likely, none of us is, but I take the burden on myself and dart after her before she leaves the stadium for good.
“Elsa!” I yell for her in the parking lot, packed with people all around.
I spot her a few yards away and, too polite to flee on me, she crosses her arms again and waits for me to catch up.
“What the hell do you want?” she says, angry. “Wasn’t it enough to talk about me like I’m an object?”
I grab her by the wrist; she tries to fight me but gives up very soon.
