PANIC

Chapter Twenty-three - RONIN

I wish I could say we enjoyed all the hundreds of things there are to do in Colorado on Saturday. Like went up to the mountains and marveled at the fluttering golden wave created by the thousands upon thousands of aspen trees that line the cliffs. Or took advantage of an early mountain snowstorm and went skiing up at A-Basin. Or hell, stayed in town and caught an Aves game.

But we did none of those things. Because we never got out of bed.

She’s still fucking trying to sleep right now and it’s almost eleven on Sunday. “Gidget,” I whisper into her ear. She swats me away with her hand, slapping my arm pretty good. “Gidge, we’re putting clothes on today, babe. Like it or not, we’re leaving the house.”

“To go where?” she moans.

“The mall. Elise wants us to go baby shopping with her.”

Rook grunts. “She does not. That’s dumb, why would she want us to tag along?”

Damn, she’s sorta cynical. And she’s totally on to me because Antoine begged me to come with him so he and I can nurse some beers and watch the Broncos annihilate the Eagles while the girls shop. But I’m pretty good at faking shit, so I try it out on Rook now. “Serious, she says she wants my opinion, she knows I’m all into this baby shit. And you need some girl time, you have no girlfriends.”

She turns this time, her mouth all screwed up. “Is Clare gonna be there?”

“Uh, well, yeah. She’s really not allowed to go anywhere alone these days. She’s gotta be with one of us at all times.”

“You look guilty, are you lying to me?”

“Gidget, I am nothing if not honest with you, babe. Seriously. Elise wants you to come, I swear.” That’s not a lie. Elise does want Rook to come. She has fully accepted the fact that I plan on marrying this girl as soon as she’s ready to commit.

It takes me another hour to get Rook up and ready and by that time Clare, Elise, and Antoine are already heading out to the restaurant where we’re gonna have lunch. “You look great, let’s go.” I jingle my truck keys at her from the front hallway, but she ignores me and just sits calmly on the couch and laces up some black work boots. Combined with her faded and ripped jeans, white t-shirt, and Shrike Bikes leather jacket, they make her look like a hot punk chick.

If we don’t get out of this fucking apartment soon I might have to jump her bones.

She catches my daydream and says, “I’m sore as shit, so stop with the I wanna fuck you looks.”

She walks over to me as she straightens out her jacket and I take her hand and lead her out the door and down the hallway. There’s some commotion downstairs in the studio and when we turn the corner at the stairs, Roger is messing with a large flat package. “What’s that?” I call down to him as we descend.

“That rush job for the GIDGET campaign.”

It takes me a second to figure out what he’s talking about and by that time it’s too late. He’s already ripped the brown paper off the frame and his head is tilting to the side a little as he critiques the image.

Busted.

“What the hell is that?” Rook asks in a huff.

She can clearly see what it is, a fucking life-sized picture of me sticking my tongue down Clare’s throat, but I usher her past in a hurry. “It’s an old photo the GIDGET people wanted to use for promo. We had it blown up so we can use it for the shoots this week.”

Even though she’s walking away from it, her eyes never leave the image. I whisk her into the stairwell and pull her out of range. “Hmmm…” is all she says.

I change the subject. “Hungry?”

“Yeah, actually I’m starving.”

She chats about lunch after that. Maybe the image is still on her mind and maybe it’s not, but she’s dropped it for now and that’s about as much as I can ask for.

The ride down to Cherry Creek Mall is uneventful beyond getting stuck in construction traffic, and by the time we make the sports bar at the mall, I’m starving as well. Antoine already got us a table and Elise is chowing down on fried cheese. Rook looks happy though, so maybe she’s gonna let the picture drop.

It’s not my fault, really. The image had to be used. I never told Rook this, but Clare was always my first pick for this contract. And we did a lot of promo stuff together to show them that I had a vision and could handle something this big on my own. That was almost a year ago now, and honestly, it never occurred to me that they’d want me to model for them. I’m the marketing manager for the campaign, I never signed anything saying I’d model. And they are certainly not paying me enough to fuck things up with Rook over some pictures. But this one was already a done deal. I had very little room since it was submitted with the project bid.

Luckily Antoine got us a table near the flat screen on the wall that’s blaring the game, so he and I concentrate on that while the girls chat. I look over at Rook a few times to see how she’s doing with Clare, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Maybe I’ll get away with this fuck-up after all?