Hotbox (6 page)

S
he knew Howard?

—“Sure… W
ith a friend,” she smiled at me. “Dad,” she said in a warning tone, rolling her eyes. “Well, I’m gonna go, I’m being rude… No, sorry, see you tonight. Bye.”

She hung up and shook her head.

“Is your dad checking up on you?” I asked.

“Yeah, basically. He’s pretty…protective.”

“Well, that can be a good thing. This world can be pretty crazy.”

“I suppose, but sometimes he gets…a little overbearing.
”

“Do you get along pretty well?”

She nodded
as the waitress arrived with our water
. We hadn’t even looked at the menu yet, but Jayden alre
ady knew what she wanted. I did
too, so our orders were taken and we were left alone again.

I knew I was staring at her, but I couldn’t help it. A million things were running through my mind, the main thought being that I had found the girl of my dreams. Finally she asked, “What’s the matter?” and tilted her head
to wait
for a reply.

I didn’t want to say anything, fearing I would sound like a complete idiot.
What would I say? Tell her I thought we belonged together? She probably got that from hundreds of guys.
What made me different from any of them?

I was saved when Howard approached the table, first looking at Jayden, and th
en at me, and h
is face
displayed his
surprise
.

“My little Jay?” he exclaimed. “S
itting here with my favorite ball player? Am I in heaven? I couldn’t have made
a more perfect match
!”

Jayden looked at me with a surprised smile and then looked at Howard. “You know this guy?” she asked
him
with
a
teasing
scowl
.

“Know him? He’s here every week!” He turned to me and said, “I must say, though, that this girl here is far better company than some of those
fellas
you bring in here.
Some of them guys… I don’t know, Ty.
”

I looked at Jayden and smiled.
“Yeah, I’ll have to agree with you on that one.”

Howard turned to her and said, “Your dad was on the phone, said you were here. I had to come say hi.
Anyways, you two have fun. And
as always,” he said to Jayden on his departure, “dessert’s on me.”

When he was gone I
said, “Hang on, y
ou get free dessert
? That’s not fair.”

She partially smiled when
she
replied
, “You’re probably in here with
a load of people; I just come
here with my dad. It’s much easier to slip free dessert to a party of two.”

I nodded my agreement, but my thoughts were on when her cheerful expression changed to be a little bit somber: it was at the mention of her dad on the phone. It must have really bothered her that he had called Howard to check on her. I guess I could understand how she felt.

I tried to keep family out of our conversation, just in case it was a touchy subject. I knew the reservation; there was no way I wanted to talk about my own dysfunctional family life. Instead I asked her
more
about her job at
City Hall
, and
then
she talked a bit about
music.
I
t
didn’t take me long to realize
how
important it was to her
.

“How long have you played?” I asked.

She smiled and answered, “A w
hile. Since I was eight
on the piano, and twelve for the guitar.”
             
“Oh, so you’re pretty good, then. What kind of music do you like to play?”

We talked about music through most of our meal. I could tell it was something she really loved. Music was probably to her like baseball was to me. After a while she began asking more about
me, so we did talk sports for some time
.
We also discussed our schedules somewhat, and I was slightly disappointed that she was
even busier than I was
.

As Howard promised, dessert was broug
ht when our plates were cleared, and
Jayden was apparently a huge fan of chocolate.
She claimed that it was only recently that she became infatuated with it, and she told a story about how her friend made her try the triple chocolate cake at another restaurant once. She was hooked after that, and when Howard learned that she liked another restaurant’s dessert better than his, he made sure he added a divine cake to the menu, just for her.

I heard her phone vibrate two other times b
ut she just le
t it to go to voicemail. I wondered if it was her father again, or possibly her guardian back at the
Davis
house.

We
sat and talked until almost four o’clock
. We were
there for nearly three hours. But a
s much as I liked talking to her, I was getting a little fidgety. I
knew she had her family dinner at five, and even though she claimed she couldn’t eat another bite, she still wanted to be there
for it
. I did, however, ask if
she had time to do one more thing.

“Are you going to teach me how to catch this time?” she asked with a smile.

“I would love to if you let me
.”

She laughed as we stood and I tossed payment on the table.

“If it just consisted of catching a ball, I might be able to do it,” she said. “But I don’t think I would catch on very quickly if it were anything more. With
everything that goes into it—
all the signs
, the counts,
the plays,
an
d the different pitches and stuff—I
would be lost.”

I was a little flattered that she
appreciate
d su
ch aspects of the game. But b
efore I could reply,
Howard caught us
as we were heading for the exit.

“Tell your old man to get himself in here soon,” he told
Jayden, giving her a hug
.

“I will,” she assured him.

He patted me on the back. “See ya, Ty. Take care of that girl.”

I would love nothing more than to do just that. I had a really good feeling about her…

After walking down at the river for a while, I took her back to the
Davis
house. I avoided the awkward, end of the date moment, where it’s unclear if the guy is warran
ted a kiss or not, so I
j
ust decided I wouldn’t even try
.
I guess my choice didn’t matter anyway because s
he didn’t even allow me the opti
on of walking her to the door. S
he just got out, said she had an amazing day
,
and hoped that I would call her.

So I promised I would and said goodnight.

Chapter Four

“Ty, telephone!” Lou hollered from the office.

I made my way to the office and grabbed the phone
from the counter
. “This is Ty.”

“Hello, Ty.”

I looked at my watch and groaned. I was supposed to meet Jayden in
two
hour
s
. I hoped this wouldn’t interfere.

“What can
I do for you?” I asked reluctantly
.

“Not much. I just need
to talk to you… About your daddy.”

I
clenched my jaw tightly
. “Now’s not a good time. I have work to finish up.”

“Oh, I know. That’s why we can get together when you’re done.”

I sighed
because I didn’t want to spend time after work dealing with it
. “Fine, what is it this time?”

Dean
clicked his tongue. “Well, maybe we really should meet in person. I’ll be at the
Riverside
at eight. Meet me there.” He hung up.

Great.
The Riverside Café
was clear across town. How long Dean decided to keep me would determine whether or not I got home in time to meet Jayden.
I considered making a phone call to cancel, just because I had no idea how long I would be. But just the thought of not seeing her that night disappointed me more than I expected. I decided to put off making the decision until I knew for sure, so I worked as efficiently as I could to finish my day.

W
hen I told
Lou
I had a date with the girl of
my
dreams, he
was happy
and wanted to hear more. As I cleaned up my workspace
,
I told him
what I knew
about
her
.

“She sounds great,” he said. “It’s about time you found someone worth a second date.”

I
t
felt really good to talk about Jayden
with Lou
,
and it was nice to hear his support. B
ut my happiness was put on hold when I was sitting face to face with Dean
Conlon
at eight o’clock.

“Hey, Ty,” he half smiled, half sneered. “It’s nice to see you. It’s been a while.”

“So what did my dad do this time?” I asked.

“Let’s just get to the point, right?” he
scoffed
. “Actually your dad hasn’t done anything stupid for a while—at least not that I know of. You’re here because
I have a little favor I wanted to ask of
you. Do you remember Pete Guthrie
?”

I
barely nodded my head. “Yeah, what about him?”

“He’s in town again. Wants to take on Kenny one more time. Now personally I think it’s a pretty dumbass thing to do, being that Kenny nearly ripped him in half last time, but the money is there, you know? Th
e problem is who Pete’s fighting
for these days—Yule.”

I raised my
eyebrows
. Yule
used to work for
Kristof
Olevsky. He and Kenny were once friends until Yule sold out to the highest bidder. After a pretty
brutal match between the two—
Yule
barely survived
—Yule disappeared from the scene for a while.
The thing was…the fight was fixed.

“And?” I asked.

“And Yule’s fixin
g
the fight to go the other way this time.
Petey’s
supposed to come out on top. Kenny doesn’t really know this yet, and you know how he is about fixed fights…”

Kenny didn’t mind illegal underground fighting—and he could even handle losing if that’s what it came down to—but he didn’t like losing because the money was doing the talking. He would rather lose and be close to death than to lose because someone told him to.

             
“I’m not going to place your bets against Kenny,” I told him flat out. “Find someone else.”

             
He eyed me cautiously. “You don’t have to place the bets, Ty. I’ve already got my placer. What I need is for you to convince Bobby that the fight is fixed the
other
way.”

             
I watched him carefully to let what he was saying sink in. Bobby was sometimes used to “squeal” on thi
ngs going on behind the scenes. Other betters thought they were getting a
n inside scoop from a brainless
crack addict, when in fact he was feeding them exactly what his bosses wanted him t
o. There were others like Bobby—but a little more mentally sound—
and they only fed certain information to certain people, so the trail of evidence becomes unclear along the way. In the end, nobody had a clue where they got their information.

             
“Why do
I
need to convince Bobby? Don’t you guys have that covered?”

Dean shrugged.
“You just need to let Bobby know that the fight is fixed, and it’s gonna go to Kenny. You don’t need to ask questions, Ty.”

“Then I’m not going to be involved in this. Look, there’s hardly anything left of Bobby. Why can’t you guys just leave him alone? You’ve got him so whacked out on whatever you’ve got to offer him that he doesn’t even know what planet he’s on.”