Good Times.

Chapter 2Good Times.

Heron~The Rapiers were in the Pacific Northwest Division and were in first place right now. Only four out of the twelve teams made it to the playoffs, the last man standing winning the American Championship Shield. The Rugby World Cup was another animal altogether, and that happened every four years with countries all over the world participating. It wasn’t as insane as soccer, but it was close.Glancing around the stadium, kickoff was about to start, and everyone was in their assigned positions. Like soccer, our jersey numbers were based off the positions that we played. There were fifteen players on each team, and I was a hooker, wearing the number two jersey. A loosehead wore the number one, a tighthead wore the number three, locks wore the numbers four and five, a blindside flanker wore the number six, an openside flanker wore the number seven, a scrum wore the number eight while a scrum-half wore the number nine. A fly-half wore the number ten, an inside center wore the number twelve, an outside center wore the number thirteen, wingers wore the numbers eleven and fourteen, and the full-back wore the number fifteen. I could go on and explain what each position did, but that would take fucking forever.As for me and my position as hooker, hookers were always positioned in the middle of the front row. Hookers were responsible for winning possession of the ball, throwing the ball during a line-out, tackling, working at the breakdown, and even poaching possessions. With fifteen players on each team, it wasn’t always easy to follow the sport, its players, or the positions. There was also the terminology that you needed to get used to if you didn’t watch rugby regularly in the US. Europeans had a better time of it since rugby was an older sport to them, but in the US, it sounded a lot like gibberish when talking about the ins and outs of the game.Now, while I was positioned in the front row, Sean was a few rows back, almost in the center of the field as the fly-half. His position was regarded as the playmaker of a rugby team and was often the first receiver during an attack, and you needed good passing range in that spot. Though all the positions in rugby were physically taxing, Sean was a force to be reckoned with when he was wearing that number ten jersey. Now, if he could just get any one of his kids to like rugby over basketball, he’d be a happy man. Well, happier than he already was.The stadium got louder as the refs made their way onto the field. Any athlete could tell you that there was nothing quite like having thousands of fans cheering for you. Playing without any fans might as well be a random practice on a Tuesday, and I was grateful enough that the US had enough rugby fans to make this all worthwhile. I was also grateful that the fire station had been willing to do without me for a few months out of the year.Listening to the crowd come to life, I could remember the first time that I’d ever seen a rugby match while I’d been in high school. Like most teenage guys, I’d been into sports, but it’d been the basics; football, baseball, basketball, etc. Rugby hadn’t ever been on that list until a new kid had come over from England and had spoken about playing rugby overseas. He had spoken about it with enough passion to make me curious. Luckily, we’d been in several classes together, and when rugby season had begun, he had invited me to watch a match at his place, and I’d been following rugby ever since.When Paulo Foci had gone on to live his life elsewhere after graduating high school, we had still managed to stay in touch. For all that social media was a toxic sonofabitch, there was no denying that it helped you keep in touch with friends, old and new. You were able to get a glimpse into their lives with no effort, and it really was the lazy man’s answer to maintaining friendships and social interaction. Nowadays, Paulo was a chemical engineer, and he worked for some outfit out of Geneva.Eighty minutes and some change later, the Rapiers were celebrating another win, and I didn’t have to look to know that it was Sean that had just jumped on my back, despite being taller than me.“Whoohoo!” he hollered. “Another win!”I grinned. “Get off me, you fuck.”Everyone was congratulating each other, but only Sean got over-enthusiastic when we won. It was like the man lived every second as if it might be his last. Every day was Thanksgiving for Sean, and his generous spirit was actually pretty infectious.“Awe, don’t be a sore sport just because you’re going home alone,” he joked, jumping down, then slapping me on the back.“Jokes on you,” I snorted. “I actually like going home alone.”“That’s just sad, man,” he grinned.Christian Alonzo saddled up to my left side. “Let Rian go home to his perfect life,” he said. “You can come with me and Muskrat to Veronica’s.”Veronica’s was a sports bar that catered to us whenever we played at home. Again, we weren’t as famous as most other public athletes, but rugby was followed in this town, so we were local celebrities if nothing else.As we started making our way off the field, I said, “The last time that we ended up at Veronica’s, we nearly got thrown out because of you. Or did we forget?”Christian grinned. “Hey, how was I supposed to know that chick was married?”I shook my head. “The wedding ring is usually a dead giveaway.”“Only when they’re wearing it,” he sing-songed.“Christ, I’m glad my single days are over,” Sean laughed. “That shit’s brutal.”“Only if you make them promises,” Christian retorted. “I know better.”“What’s going on?” We all turned as Brent Muskrat joined us. “You guys ready to celebrate?”“Sean’s going home like the pussy-whipped fuck he is,” Christian answered as Sean said, “I sure the fuck am.”“What about you, Treyton?”“I’m going home to get some fucking sleep,” I answered, hoping it was the truth.“Dude, what are you? Seventy?” Brent asked, laughing at me.“Close enough,” I replied. “Come talk to me when you’re thirty-three, kid.”Christian hooted. “Nothing like being twenty-four and in your prime.”Fuck, I couldn’t even remember twenty-four.“Give my regards to all those single girls that might end up one of your baby mammas,” I quipped, needing my bed more than I needed to get laid.With any luck, sleep awaited me as soon as I got home.*****Eliza~My eyes were beginning to burn, but that wasn’t unusual when you sat in front of a computer all damn day long. Luckily for everyone that worked here, the company was very big on ergonomics, so we had comfortable chairs and adjustable computer setups. Warner Medical Associates was one of the largest medical billing agencies on the West Coast, and they offered benefits to their full-time employees, which was a huge blessing if you asked me.I heard the wheels of a rolling chair, and I had to purse my lips because it could only be one person rolling their chair my way.“I never thought that two weeks would feel like a million years,” Coops muttered, spinning around in her seat, having only worked here for a little over a year for the extra cash.My fingers paused on the keyboard as I glanced over at her. “Luckily, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for you,” I pointed out. “I’m going to be stuck here for the rest of my life.”Coops stopped spinning in her chair. “Maybe we should clean out our savings accounts, run off to Atlantic City, then put it all on black.”“Why all the way to Atlantic City?” I questioned. “Why not just go to Vegas? Or Reno, for that matter.” I cocked my head. “Hell, there’s also Tahoe and Laughlin. In fact, I’m pretty sure that we can close our eyes and still find something in Nevada.”“Because I’ve already been to Nevada,” she answered. “If I’m going to lose all my money, I’d rather do it in Atlantic City and have a new story to tell.”“That new story will probably involve a divorce if you lose all your money in Atlantic City, Coops,” I snorted. “I can’t see Ranger being too happy with that particular adventure.”The crazy woman just rolled her eyes. “What’s he going to do? Move back in with his parents?” she retorted. “He knows his mom’s evil.”That got a chuckle out of me. “She can’t be that bad.”Coops eyed me. “Her only son avoids her calls like the plague,” she drawled out. “Ranger lied about his phone being dead when I went into labor with the twins, Eliza.” I laughed again. “That’s how badly he wants to avoid the she-devil.”“She has to have some redeeming qualities if his father has been married to her for so long,” I pointed out.“I’m pretty sure it’s a dom/sub situation going on,” she replied, making me cough on my shocked surprised that she’d say such a thing.“Christ, you’re something else,” I said when I finally got myself under control.Ignoring that, she said, “Enough about Satan-Come-To-Earth. I actually came over here to talk to you about something.”“No,” I automatically replied.“Oh, c’mon, Zee,” she whined. “You haven’t even heard me out.”“I don’t need to,” I said as I turned back to my computer screen. “There’s only one thing that you ever want to talk to me about.”Before she could deny it, Dolly Wend was dropping another stack of folders on my desk. “These need to be archived, Eliza,” she remarked as if I wasn’t aware of how to do my job.“Of course,” I muttered, knowing that every workplace had a ‘Dolly Wend’.“Coops, shouldn’t you be at your workstation?” she asked, letting that senior analyst title go to her head. She made a dollar more than the rest of us, but she acted like she ran the place, and there were days when she really was too much.“You mean, the workstation that will no longer be mine in a week?” Coops asked, saccharine dripping from her lips, making me bite my tongue to keep from laughing.Knowing that she couldn’t win where Coops was concerned, Dolly said, “Just save the gossip for break time, Coops.”I couldn’t hold in my laugh when Coops saluted her.“She needs to get laid,” Coops muttered as Dolly stormed off to lick her wounds.I slid my eyes back towards my best friend. “Not everything can be solved with sex.”“That’s where you’re wrong, my friend,” she argued. “Sex is the answer to anything that ails you.”“Pretty sure that’s not true.”“It is,” she insisted. “That’s why you’re going to come over for a barbecue on Memorial Day weekend.”I was already shaking my head. “Nope.”“His name is Milton Pra-”“Milton?” I echoed, my eyes wide. “What is he? Eighty?”Coops scowled. “Milton is a perfectly respectable name, Zee.”“Yeah, for an eighty-year-old,” I replied.“He works for the city as an assistant DA, and-”“Nope,” I repeated.“-Ranger says he’s a great guy,” she went on, completely ignoring me.I eyed her. “Isn’t that a bit of an oxymoron,” I retorted.“Ranger’s an attorney,” she deadpanned.“Yeah, a defense attorney, and one that does more pro-bono work than all other lawyers combined,” I reminded her. “Ranger is a good lawyer because he’s a good man.”“You’re judging,” she accused.“Well, after what happened the last time that you tried to set me up, I think I’m entitled to be a little judgey, don’t you think?”Coops scowled again. “That was a one-off.”“It’s only a one-off when it happens once, Coops,” I pointed out. “When it happens more than once, then you just have bad taste in men.”She grinned. “I’m going to tell Ranger you said that.”“Tell him, and then I’ll tell him about your plan to take your life’s savings to Atlantic City,” I fired back.“It’s one-”“Nope,” I repeated again.“Fine,” she huffed, rolling her chair back to her workstation. “When you end up with only fifty cats to keep you company, don’t blame me.”“I won’t,” I promised.Now, while I had nothing against dating per se, blind dates were the worst, and I had no desire to hit that particular trail again. Though I missed sex-very much-the last thing that I needed in my life was pity sex. I’d rather stock up on batteries.