Tigers & Devils (25 page)

And she did. She was practically sewn into a dark green dress that accentuated all her curves. She looked sexy, but not slutty. Which probably couldn’t be said for some of the girls attending tonight.

“Thanks,” Jess said, sounding pleased. “I find it fun, kind of like playing dress-ups. But only for one night! I’m much more comfortable in a hippie skirt or jeans.”

Damn it, she
was
nice. So the irrational part of me couldn’t blame her for what we were being subjected to even though I really, really wanted to. “I have to admit I would hate getting all tuxed up.”

“I know,” she replied, with a twinkle in her eye. “I’ve seen the photos of the way you dress when I Googled your arse.”

“Why would you Google
me
?”

She pulled a vodka bottle out of the freezer. “To see who it was that Declan can’t shut up about.”

I froze in place, not knowing how to reply.

Jess giggled mischievously as she started preparing glasses with garnish. “Why don’t you go and check up on him while I finish these? Third door down the hall.”

I fled before I could get any more embarrassed.

As I opened the door to the spare room, I found Declan struggling with a bow tie. He smiled when he caught sight of me in the mirror. “I thought I heard you. What do you think of Jess?”

“I like her,” I admitted.

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He laughed. “Did it hurt to say that?”

“Shut up! You need help with that?”

He immediately surrendered. “Yes. I hate these damn things. How do you know how to do them?”

“Just one of my many unexpected talents.” I moved over to him, and started expertly folding the material until I had one perfect bow tie against his neck. Just as I straightened it, he kissed me and I willingly let myself be caught up in it. I had one fleeting thought of how cruel it was to see him looking so good when he would be doing so on someone else’s arm, but I let it be washed away.

“It should be you,” Declan whispered, reading my mind.

“I don’t think I could outrun a whole auditorium of footy players if I went as your date,” I said. “You would have to leave me behind in order to save yourself.”

He shook his head. “You’re so noble.”

“You’re lucky I am. Because you look so fucking good tonight I want to tackle you and tear you right out of that tux.”

He groaned. “Don’t start. I don’t need another reason not to go.”

“I bet you dominate the first few rounds of voting.”

“That’ll be all I’ll dominate,” he grumbled.

“Then you concentrate on the free drinks,” I replied, remembering that his latest spate of injuries had happened in the fourth round. It was going to be a long night for him.

“Good idea, look for the silver lining,” Dec said, giving me a tired smile. “Let’s get back out to Jess.”

I nodded and followed him back to the lounge. Jess had poured the drinks and handed them to us. We toasted together to the eventual winner of the night and drank hurriedly.

“The chauffeur just rang,” Jess said easily, the word rolling out of her like she was used to dealing with one every day. “He’ll be here in about twenty minutes. Time for another round, I say.”

I agreed, perhaps a bit too quickly. I caught Declan looking at me and said, “Don’t worry, Officer. It’ll be my last until I get home.”

Jess grinned. “Good to see
one
footy player takes the ‘drink responsibly’

sponsorship of the game seriously.”

“Hey,” Declan warned; an empty threat.

“So what are you doing tonight, Simon?” Jess asked as she started pouring various spirits into the shaker.

“Well, I’ll check out you guys on the red carpet special, and then I should probably do some paperwork I neglected over the weekend.”

“I have a full ticket to the Triple F, you know,” she said.

TIGERS AND DEVILS | 173

“You do?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah, I had one last year as well.”

I was impressed. “A regular? I feel bad I didn’t recognise you, we have so few.”

She laughed and began shaking the mix. “I didn’t go to any of the premieres, just the regular screenings. With my partner Robyn.”

This, of course, piqued my interest. “So Robyn didn’t want to see you glammed up tonight?”

Declan gave a warning cough, and Jess threw a tea towel at him.

“Sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Jenny said, pouring the drinks. “Robyn’s gone out drinking with her friends. She always gets upset this time of year because she has this irrational fear that Declan and I will get really drunk, that accidental penetration will occur, and his magical penis will instantly cure me of my lesbian ways.”

Even
I
wasn’t that paranoid. Was I? “Wow, are you sure
she’s
a lesbian, if she thinks you can be cured by dick?”

Declan gave another warning cough.

“Dec, stop doing that!” Jess cried, handing me one of the glasses and giving Dec one with a complimentary side order look of admonition. “Robyn obviously just isn’t as capable of coping as Simon is.”

“I think he just hides it better,” Declan said.

“
He
is in the room,” I reminded him.

“Do you just hide it better, Simon?” Jess asked, sipping gingerly at her drink. Emboldened by the alcohol, I nodded. “Probably.”

“So you are jealous?”

“
Jealous
isn’t the right word. It’s not that strong a feeling.”

“What is the feeling, then?” Declan asked.

I felt like I was on the witness stand. “Bittersweet disappointment.”

Jess clinked my glass with her own. “Can’t tell you’re an Arts grad.”

We laughed, and it seemed to settle the mild tension in the air.

“By the way,” Jess said confidentially, leaning in to me a little. “I don’t see Dec as a potential sperm donor, despite his obvious genetic pedigree.”

It was now my turn to look at Dec.

He refused to meet my eyes, looking instead into his glass.

“Don’t kill him,” Jess giggled. “He’s too much like a brother to me.”

“You are
dead
,” I warned him.

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“He would be the perfect sample though,” Jess mused. “I mean, he’s good looking, athletic, smart, and has all those nice-guy characteristics… if he was a woman… well, I don’t know, Simon, maybe you
would
have competition from me.”

“If he was a woman, you could have him,” I said.

Declan was colouring visibly over his drink, but was mercifully saved by the honking of a car from outside. Jess ran to the window and peered out. “Shit, it’s the car!

He’s early!”

We all downed our drinks and congregated by the door.

“Are you all right to drive home?” Declan asked me.

I nodded. “Scout’s honour.”

He frowned, looked me over, and obviously decided I passed muster. “Okay. Drive safe.” He leaned in and kissed me.

“Aww,” Jess said mockingly. “That’s so cute.”

“Shut up,” Declan winced as he pulled away from me.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him,” Jess declared as she opened the door and threw her keys into her bag.

I followed them out, shutting the door behind me. As I turned back to say goodbye, they were already walking down the porch steps, arm in arm, like the king and queen of the school ball heading to their limo. Fucking picture perfect. As the chauffeur opened the back door of the car for them, Jess turned back and waved. I gave a half-hearted one back. Declan then turned and gave a subtle twofingered salute. I nodded and watched the chauffeur jump back into the front and the car glide away.

I sat on the steps for a few minutes, before the cold drove me back into my car, and I headed home.

WITH Maggie on my lap and a beer in my hands, I tortured myself by watching the red carpet special before the ceremony itself. I knew that I didn’t have anything to worry about with Jess, now that I’d met her, but I could still haunt myself with the what-ifs as I watched my boyfriend take a date other than myself out for the night. And I’d get to watch it all on high-definition television, with a running commentary from the vacuous himbo and bimbo combination they hired every year to do the pre-show fashion spiel. I let the parade of the who’s who of footballers and their girlfriends and wives unfold before me. I couldn’t help but grin with a sense of affection as Abe and Lisa appeared on camera. Abe looked suave and confident in his black priest-collar tux while Lisa matched him in a gown that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a Hollywood premiere in the 1940s. They stood out among the previous interviewees, who had made some stunningly bad choices, including someone from the Dockers who had obviously been trying to bring the parachute pant back into vogue.

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I couldn’t help but suddenly remember the very first time Roger and I had gone down to be part of the crowd watching the entrance to the ceremony. We were only sixteen and had snuck into the city by telling our parents that we were staying over at each other’s houses. Surprisingly enough, despite being surrounded by about six cameras stationed to catch all the action on the carpet, we never once wound up accidentally on film. So our parents, watching at home, were totally oblivious to our being there.

I wanted to pick up the phone and call him. As I had been wanting to do so every day for the past fortnight. As I had been wanting to do only scant hours before. But this still wasn’t the right time.

And there he was. Declan Tyler, on screen. With perfect girlfriend Jess.

“Are you disappointed coming here, knowing that there is no way you can be in the running for the medal?” the himbo was asking rather insensitively as I turned up the volume.

Declan took a second to compose himself by licking his lips slightly, a move I recognised instantly. “No, not at all. It’s a night to come here with all the guys, putting aside rivalries, and celebrating the mateship in the sport instead.”

Wow. What a perfect soundbyte.

“Do you think you’ll be in the running next year?” Himbo asked.

“Who knows?” Declan replied as the camera swayed over his right side to take in Jess. She stood there, arm in arm with him, looking every inch the supportive girlfriend.

“I hope to be playing enough to be in contention, that’s for sure.”

“And what do you think, Jess?” Bimbo asked. “Do you think he’ll be able to do it?”

“Of course,” Jess said smoothly. “I have every faith in him. Next year we’ll see Dec on the field, and in his old form.”

Man, they could have even fooled me. And I was the one who had Declan in my bed every time he was in town.

“And what are you wearing tonight, Jess?” Bimbo asked. Jess flared out her gown slightly, so that it shimmered on camera. “A local designer, Heather Marlson.”

“And you, Declan?” Himbo asked, in a tone that suggested that Declan, like any real man, would probably have no idea.

Which of course, Jess helped perpetuate by stepping in. “He would probably just tell you it’s a tux, but it
is
by the same designer.”

Declan gave a self-deprecating shrug of the shoulders, and all four on the carpet laughed as if they were at the end of a
Scooby-Doo
episode. Maggie suddenly gave a little sneer from my lap, and I rubbed behind her ear proudly. “Good girl.”

176 | SEAN KENNEDY

I SAT through the whole three-hour ceremony with more gusto than in past years, mainly because I perked up every time Declan appeared on screen. He dominated the voting in the first three rounds, with the most votes for each. Of course, everybody knew that wouldn’t last. The fourth round was when he got injured, and after that his name didn’t show up on the scoreboard again. Abe made quite a good showing, being the highest-ranked Devil player, but he wasn’t in serious contention for the medal. If you’ve never seen a Brownlow ceremony it can be like watching paint dry, even if you’re the most passionate football fan in existence. Players are awarded points per game and per round by the umpires, based upon their decision of who has been the best and fairest of the game. Take into account that there are eight games per round, with sixteen teams, and twenty-two rounds per season… that’s a
lot
of counting you have to sit through. It’s kind of like listening to a really long Bingo game. But I watched until the credits rolled and got to see Declan one last time as he solicitously helped Jess out of her seat and they walked over to Abe and Lisa. I felt one last little stab of jealousy.
Hey, they’re meant to be my friends now as well!

I shook it off.

“That’s that, then,” I said to Maggie. She opened her eyes and looked up at me languidly, probably thinking for the millionth time that her human was completely stupid. “Time for bed.”

She followed me into the bedroom, knowing she would be able to sucker me into giving her one of the kitty treats kept on the bedside chest. Of course I acquiesced and could hear her crunching it in the dark as I drifted off to sleep.