“Are you sure that’s the name of the team?” Matthew’s voice came through the speaker again. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them.” A pause. “Hold on, is it the Charlotte Warriors?”
“I think I would know if I was being sent to an MLS team like the Charlotte Warriors.” My shoulders sank as I gripped the steering wheel, but I tried to keep my tone as cheery as possible, which right then amounted to drained. “It’s supposed to be a philanthropic project, so think smaller.”
“Smaller, okay,” he murmured, the keys of his laptop sounding in the background. “Isn’t it a little odd that you’re already heading for this place and you don’t even know what for? Shouldn’t you be briefed for something like this?”
“Odd situations call for odd solutions,” I countered. “But I was briefed. I was given a location, a contact, and the name of the team. The problem is that I didn’t have time to research.” Not when I was left with twenty-four hours to get Kelly up to speed before catching my flight. A wave of exhaustion hit me, making me suppress a yawn. “I barely had time to pack.” Or sleep. “Luckily, I know someone who’s good at research and works well on a time crunch because journalism is his job and passion.”
“Career perks,” my best friend muttered, his voice dripping with something I didn’t understand. I frowned, but he continued before I could ask. “And I’ll help you, if you let me tell you what I really think first.”
“I forgot about that career perk,” I deadpanned.
“What I think,” he announced, ignoring my comment, “is that banishing your own daughter over such an idiotic thing is overreacting.”
“Please,” I said with a breath. “Don’t mince your words.”
“I was mincing my words. What I actually believe is that your dad is being a little bitch.”
The tension pulling at my shoulders doubled.
Matthew had never liked my father, just like my father had never liked him. I didn’t blame either of them. They were as different as… chalk and cheese. Day and night. Water and oil. Just like Matthew and I were. The man was outspoken, rowdy, and charming, whereas I—and my father for that matter—was measured, critical, and way too pragmatic to go around life joking about everything like Matthew did. Laughs and giggles didn’t bring in results. Not in my world, at least.
It had always been a wonder how we were even friends. To me, at least. Not to my best friend. He’d been very clear about his intentions since we first crossed paths years ago in the line at Do?a Clarita’s Sandwich Shop.
He’d tried to hit on me and I’d looked him up and down before genuinely asking him if he was high. His reaction was raucous laughter, then an I like you. You’ll keep me on my toes.
We somehow became inseparable after that day.
“My father has a point,” I told him. “There’s a mortifying video of me grunting and growling while I rip the head off the mascot of the team I work for.”
“It’s funny. And the world is vicious right now. People are seeing themselves in you. They’re relating to that show of female rage.” Not the female rage again. “If anything, it’s empowering. Definitely not embarrassing.”
Embarrassing.
You’re better than asking for special treatment after embarrassing me and the whole club.
I swallowed, ignoring the way my stomach dropped at the memory of my father’s words. “I think you know better than to try to sugarcoat this for me.”
“I’ve seen worse things online, Addy. So you had a brawl—”
“It wasn’t a brawl,” I interjected, eyeing the maps app on my phone with a frown. “And don’t call me Addy, Matty. You know nicknames make me feel like a child.” It didn’t matter if they came from my ex or my best friend. I simply hated being called anything but Adalyn.
“Fine,” he relented, ignoring my tone. “So it wasn’t a brawl. You had an altercation—”
“A scuffle at most.”
“So you had a scuffle—at most—with Sparkles, then some idiot posted the clip on some app and now Gen Z’s is all over it, so what? Everyone wants to be liked by zoomers. It’s where the money is. You’re probably their favorite millennial.”
“I’m technically on the boundary. So in any case, I’m a zillennial, not a millennial.” I checked my phone again, wondering why the road was meandering and the greenery thickening on both sides. I hadn’t expected to climb so high, either. “Regardless, the video had close to eight million views earlier today. And when I checked with my assistant, she told me that paps were at the Flames’ facilities today. Paps. Like I’m some… I don’t know, some celebrity whose sex tape leaked in the mid-2000s.”