Tigers & Devils (11 page)

“Wow, that’s really… bad,” she said flatly, staring right at the camera.

“Bad?” Nyssa gasped like a Victorian heroine finding a ghostly nun upon the belltower of her Gothic mansion. “It is an
abomination
! This could well be the end of our festival!” She turned her back on Fran, now becoming a modern-day soap star, about to begin a lengthy monologue while not at all facing the person she was speaking to. Fran looked at me, bewildered.

I said, “Oh, don’t worry. We will find someone else.”

Honestly, I don’t know who sounded more robotic.

“That’s going to be one exciting documentary,” Fran said as we fled to the safety of my office.

“I’m wondering if it’s too late to pull the plug,” I groaned.

“It would be an
abomination
to do so,” she teased. Luckily Alice wasn’t around all the time. We couldn’t afford to keep her on call, for one thing. We arranged a series of important dates for her, and the office returned to some sense of normalcy for a little while at least. Nyssa and I ran all over town in a

TIGERS AND DEVILS | 71

series of endless meetings to pick up more sponsors. I don’t think there was one building on either Queen or Elizabeth streets that we weren’t in at some point, and we still had Collins and Bourke to cover. At least it meant the fortnight began to pass quickly, and Declan and I were soon making plans to meet in person once again.

“SO, the Devils are in town this weekend,” Roger said nonchalantly as we drank beer on his back porch, waiting for Fran to get home from work.

“Yeah, I think so,” I replied, just as nonchalantly.

Roger’s eyes narrowed over the neck of his bottle. “So, you’re not seeing Declan, then?”

“Maybe. Depends if he has the time.” I’m such a liar.

“You fucking liar.”

He knows me too well.

“Well, his schedule is pretty tight,” I said defensively. Roger smothered his laugh.

“Oh, grow up!” I glared at him, to no avail.

“Seriously, are you seeing him?” Roger asked, trying to contain himself.

“Yes.”

“Aha. So when are we going to see him?”

That was almost enough to make me panic. “
You
see him? Why would you be seeing him?”

“Well, you’re going to have to do the meeting-friends-thing sooner or later.”

I hesitated. “We haven’t discussed that.”

“At all?”

I shrugged. “It hasn’t come up.”

No repressed laughter at that line; Roger was now in serious mode. “Really?”

“That’s what I said.”

The thing was, we talked every day. But there were certain topics we navigated around. Like what we were going to do if this became really serious, how aspects of his life would affect what we could do together as a couple. We hadn’t even gotten to do the fun things new couples did yet, like spend days in bed with the only interruption being the delivery of pizza. Okay, so I had a bit of a one-track mind at the moment, but how could I think any further about the heavy stuff?

“You don’t think you’ll ever introduce us to him properly?” Roger actually sounded a little hurt.

“Of course I will,” I said to assuage him.

72 | SEAN KENNEDY

“But will he do the same with his friends?”

I frowned and couldn’t disguise it before Roger noticed.

“He won’t?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”

“But—”

“Rog,” I said calmly. “Drop it for now.”

“But—”

“Please.” My tone was firm.

He wasn’t happy, but he nodded. I wondered how long it would be until he brought up this potentially painful subject again. Somehow I didn’t think it was that far away. Fran emerged from behind us with a quiet tread that she often used to her own advantage. “Okay, who died?”

Roger accepted her kiss and rubbed the small of her back. “What?”

“You two are being very quiet. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” we replied in unison.

Fran shook her head. “Fucking liars. I need a beer.”

“Make that two,” I said, shaking my bottle at her.

I could see the concern in her eyes, but I smiled slightly to try and alleviate it. It didn’t work, of course, but Roger stuck to his word for the rest of the evening, and as a consequence, the subject of Declan Tyler was not referred to at all.

“GOOD news,” Declan said.

He was talking to me on his Bluetooth as he drove himself to the Hobart airport for his flight to Melbourne.

“I could use some,” I said gloomily, remembering the strained atmosphere at Roger and Fran’s the night before.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly.

“Come on.”

“Just work. So tell me the good news.”

“I’ve arranged to go back later than the rest of the team, so I have a couple of extra days in Melbourne.”

That
was
good news. If I was involved, of course. But I had to play it cool. “Do you have a party or something?”

TIGERS AND DEVILS | 73

“Or something,” he replied. I could hear the gentle prodding in his voice. “I thought you might have liked to see me a bit more.”

“Yeah, it’d be cool.”

“You’re a cold bastard, you know that?” he asked, although once again there was laughter hidden behind his angst.

“You know I want to see you, so don’t play dumb.”

“Why not? Aren’t footballers dumb?”

“Only to wanky assholes.”

There was a pause as I heard his indicator activate and then switch off. “Look, I’m almost at the airport. I have training, but I should be done by six again. Mind if I come over at about seven?”

“Sounds good.”

“Do you have food in your house?”

“No, I don’t eat. Of course I have food in my house.”

“Well, I could bring food. Save you from cooking?”

“Who said I was cooking?”

“That’s why I said—”

I laughed. “I could try subjecting you to what passes for cooking from me.”

“Shall I bring takeaway, just in case?” he asked.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Gotta go, Simon. I look forward to both you and your attempt at cooking.”

I grinned and closed my mobile. Then I immediately rang Fran at work to gain ideas of what would be both palatable and easy enough to make so that I couldn’t possibly fuck it up.

FRAN had suggested pesto; I didn’t want to admit I was uncomfortable with the idea of garlicky morning breath just in case
something
happened. And Fran being extremely smart and prescient, guessed it without me having to try and arse about bringing it up indirectly and moved on to Indian. Then she discounted Indian in case of unwanted effects upon the gastric system.

And not once did she tease me for my attention to every detail and possible scenario.

“You do know once you’ve gone out for a while, you stop caring about all this stuff, right?” she asked me.

“Yes, but in my defence, I remind you how much Roger tried to hide all his faults from you when he first started going out with you.”

74 | SEAN KENNEDY

“He didn’t hide them well.” She snorted. “Hey, Simon, you going to let me in on whatever you two were fighting about before I came home yesterday?”

“We weren’t fighting.”

“Well, something happened.”

“He didn’t tell you?”

“No, and he was remarkably resilient at refusing to let me get it out of him.”

I wondered if he was actually worried that she might have told him off for trying to pierce my temporary shield of obliviousness.

“It was nothing, really.”

“One of you will crack sooner or later and tell me.”

She was right about that.

It was decided that I would make stir-fried veggies and tofu with rice.

“It’s nice and simple,” Fran said. “And you’ve made it before, so you can’t possibly screw it up. Plus it probably fits in with whatever crazy football diet the coach makes them stick to during the season.”

I hadn’t even thought of that. It was a good point.

“It’s just going to add to him thinking that I am a crazy, wanky, greenie, hybriddriving hippie,” I complained.

“Has he seen your bomb of a car?” Fran asked in disbelief. “Greenpeace arranges a protest every time it leaves your driveway.”

She had a point. I would have to make sure Declan took a drive in it soon enough.

I LEFT work early again. It’s good to be the boss sometimes. Nyssa was past suspecting me of going for interviews although she tried to grill me for details once more about what I was up to. I told her to be grateful she was also leaving early, and she wisely collected her coat in silence and followed me out the door at a quarter to four.

“Fran said something about you being besotted with someone,” she unwisely said as we were waiting for the lift. “Who is it?”

I counted to three in my head before saying nonchalantly, “You know, I think there’s a pile of filing that you could probably be doing—”

“She was probably teasing, after all, you don’t go out,” Nyssa said quickly, punching the elevator button once again in the hope that it would arrive immediately.

“I think so,” I agreed. We got into the lift without further incident. On the way home I stopped off at Safeway to pick up ingredients for the dinner. A bit of wishful thinking perhaps, but I also picked up a pack of condoms. Better to be prepared than unsafe or sorry. I lugged everything back onto the tram; I suppose I could

TIGERS AND DEVILS | 75

have gone home and picked up the car and backtracked, but really, it was just as easy to do it this way.

It was just past five when I got home. Declan would still be at practise, so I had plenty of time to start chopping the veggies, put the rice in the cooker, and get a quick shower before starting to piece everything together. I had never been so organised and time-efficient before.

He sent me a text telling me he was on his way just as I was finishing dressing. I ran into the kitchen and began heating the wok. Now the nervousness began settling in. It had been two weeks since we had last seen each other, and I was filled with both anticipation and fear of the moment he would cross back over my threshold. But I didn’t really have time enough to think about that at the moment, thankfully. Between Maggie wanting to be fed, timing when the tofu should be added to the veggies so it wouldn’t fall apart, and then having to scoop some shit out of the kitty litter tray because she knew company was coming and wanted to mark her territory before their arrival, I was running around and starting to work up a sweat. Flustered was not a good look on me.

I had just mixed vegetable stock and cornstarch together when my doorbell rang.

“Fuck,” I whispered. I looked down at myself and realised I was covered in cornstarch. I dusted myself quickly and tried to walk calmly to the door. How bloody domestic. Maggie jumped onto the couch arm, an expectant glare on her face as she was cognizant of the fact that the normal peace of the house was about to be disrupted. I peered through the burglar-hole. It was Declan, and he looked as good as he always did. There was no bag hanging on his shoulder; maybe I had been too presumptuous in buying the condoms. I shook that thought out of my head and opened the door.

“Hey, you,” Declan said, grinning at the sight of me.

“Hi,” I said, as concise as usual with him. I moved aside to let him in, and he closed the door behind him.

I found myself suddenly enveloped by him as he drew me in. “Hey,” he said again.

“You already said that.”

“What the hell are you covered in?”

“Cornstarch.”

“You trying to be Jamie Oliver?”

I couldn’t come up with a reply because he was kissing me. And I suddenly became a hell of a lot more relaxed. I leaned further in to him; I could almost feel the muscles of his stomach through the layers of clothes between us. This time it was me who stupidly said “Hey,” when we pulled apart.

He didn’t say anything. He just gave me another kiss.

“I thought you were bringing food?” I asked, pointing out his hands, that although now full with me, had been empty before he entered.

76 | SEAN KENNEDY

“I didn’t want to insult your culinary skills,” he said, still holding me close. “I thought if we needed to, we could order pizza.”

“Good call,” I approved.

“Whatever you’re making, it smells good.”

“Stir-fry. Hey, wouldn’t pizza be on the banned list during the season?”

He winked at me. “What the coach doesn’t know doesn’t hurt him.”

I guess that could cover a lot of things. Such as knowing that his star player was currently macking out with his sorta-boyfriend at the moment. Declan had become distracted by Maggie, who instead of treating him like an invading enemy had suddenly become wildly enamoured of him and desperate for his attention. I knew how she felt.