Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Pearl

I sit in the stands watching the game or at least I'm pretending to watch the game. In reality, the only person I'm watching is Spade. I never realized how fucking sexy hockey can be. Or how good at it he seems to be, especially for someone so sweet. And what does it say about me that it only makes him hotter when he creams someone while taking the puck down the ice?

"Oh God, it's Maricia!"

My attention focuses on Kat who is looking at a beautiful woman taking a seat near the bottom. I can't really see why Kat would not like the woman but…then again I'm new. "Why…?

"She's a toucher. She rushes to the men and flirts, which is fine I guess, but the touching pisses me the fuck off. You don't touch another woman's man."

"Besides, Kat and the woman have history. Kat kind of made a fool out of her and she's been trying to be mean to her ever since. She told her the other day she was going to get fat while pregnant and Whit was going to leave her."

"That's awful."

"Yeah. They had to hold Whit back. Kat always owns her though. She told her she might get fat, but she would always be younger. Woman's got a real problem with her age or something."

"I simply pointed out there is a huge difference between being ripe and being rotten. How she took it was her own problem, not mine."

I cover my mouth to try to hold in the giggle and notice as the woman looks up at us and narrows her eyes. She has ‘catty' written all over her and not in a good way either. I shift in my seat and go back to mooning over Spade. I feel bad about Kat being upset and even though I watch the game I can't help but think about it and what I would do if I was in her position. I wouldn't have been as cheeky as she was but then again Kat is pretty much a kick-ass spitfire of a woman who knows her man loves and wants her. You can totally tell it when he looks at her. Hell, you can practically feel it.

Once the game is over, we all go down where the guys are so we can congratulate them and sure enough Maricia is there first. Spade is helping Whit keep her away from himself. As soon as he spots Kat coming he goes straight for her, wrapping her in his arms and kissing the hell out of her. It's sigh-worthy.

"You're the little sister, right?"

I look at the woman and nod. Spade comes over to stand next to me, giving Maricia a look that clearly tells her not to start shit.

"See Spade, I would go home with you but aren't you babysitting the little sister for poor Roman? Really kills the mood having a kid in the house."

"One, never, nor will I ever, want anything to do with you, lady. And two, clearly you can look at Pearl and see she isn't a kid. And three, not only will I never want anything to do with you and neither will my boy. Go home!"

She turns her gaze to me, and I meet her stare. She pretty much said the one thing I was worried about with Spade - I'm keeping him from having a life just like I am my brother and my father who would have left my mom when Roman was eighteen if he had known I wasn't his. But this woman is also a bully and running away or showing weakness to a bully does no one any good.

"What's the matter Spade, love sick over Roman's little sister. I mean you've always tried to do everything Whitley did, it seems only right you find the little sister of someone you know to fuck."

Spade tenses beside me and I lay my hand on his arm and step in front of him slightly, so he doesn't do anything stupid like hit her. Which is what she wants…to be the victim so everyone will feel sorry for her, and she can live with the fact she's right about everyone else being so wrong.

"I feel really sorry for you. You keep looking for validation in men, but you don't need a dick… you need a real friend."

The woman steps back like I was the one who actually threw a punch.

"You go through life being mean to other women because inside you worry you will never be as good as they are, that you are missing something they have, and you'll never find it. You could never have another woman as a friend because of all the jealousy inside of you. And one day… one day very soon, you're going to be a sad, lonely, old, decrepit woman chasing after a dream that is never going to happen because everyone decent and kind is already going to be taken by all those other women you resent so much. Sad, old, and alone." I tip my head to the side so I can take a closer look at the woman in front of me. "So sad."

Maricia stands with her mouth open and a look on her face like I might have gut-punched her hard enough to knock all the air out of her lungs. Kat comes up beside me and starts looking at Maricia too.

"I see it. Damn, when you put it like that it's just sad. All the times she tries to start shit, she's really crying out for help. Wow. Makes her a lot more... pathetic somehow."

"I am not pathetic. You all are pathetic. I don't have to put up with this. If you want to go fuck the whole team, be my guest. But once your brother finds out about you and Spade, is he going to be as okay with it? All of you can get fucked! I don't care!"

In a huff, she storms off leaving everyone behind in a heavy silence.

"Well, I'm hungry. Anyone else starved or is it just me?" Spade breaks the tension that comes with Maricia's exit.

It"s Kat who answers him, "Yeah, I could eat. What do you think about Chinese? Anyone else want Chinese?"

I follow Whit, Kat, and Spade but Maricia's words echo in my head. For more reasons than she can know. What is Roman going to think if he found out I was kissing his friend? On top of everything else I've been charged to keep from him, it kind of feels like one knife twist too many.

I know what Spade said about just being really good friends and wanting to offer me comfort but…maybe we shouldn't be doing it? Not that he's done any of it today. He's acted like maybe he really did just look at it as comforting a friend. So, maybe I'm making too much of it. If Spade doesn't think of it as anything other than that, then why would I? Shouldn't I just continue on my way and not make more out of it than what it is?

Looking over at him now giving me a lopsided grin, I definitely think I have made too much out of what happened between us. I should try to be cool, not let him, or anyone else, know how much his form of ‘comforting' meant to me.