Rhythm and the Blue Line Ch 09

Brody drummed his fingers on his knee and bounced his leg as he sat on the team bus. They'd be on their way to Philly soon and few things got the Capitals pumped like a game against the Flyers, even though it was the teams' first meeting of the season, in mid-November. Baxter dropped into the seat beside him. "Jesus, do you never sit still?" "Just a little extra energy, that's all." Brody shrugged. "Plenty left over for the game. Don't worry, old man. I'll cover a shift if you need a rest." "Smart ass." Bax shook his head. "Still thinking about your musician?" "She's not 'my' musician." Brody's phone beeped and he extracted it from his pocket to find a text from Ryan. GWU Sat 2pm. Sent flyer email. R Baxter looked over as Brody tapped out a quick reply. "What was that?" "Just a text from Ryan." Brody slid the phone back in his pocket. "Who's Ryan?" Brody gave him a wry grin. "My musician." "A girl named Ryan?" "Yeah. She was just letting me know when her gig was this weekend; I told her I'd show up, maybe bring some of the guys." "Oh, man. You've got it bad." Bax elbowed him. "I told you so." "Bax, she made it very clear that she is not interested in anything more than friends, okay? I wouldn?t mind more, but I don't go over the line when it's been laid out like that." "I do admire a man of principle." Bax snickered bursa escort when Brody rolled his eyes. They wound their way onto I-95 North and random conversations sprouted up. Bets were made on goals, assists and fights. Then attention split between razzing Obie?Anatoli Oborotenski, the team superstar?about being married, and various other guys about their girlfriends, or lack thereof. The ribbing went on until the coach stood up and issued instructions for their arrival, then resumed when he sat down. Baxter nudged Brody. "Good thing you're not going out with this Ryan, you'd have to put up with this shit, too." "Hey. What?" Mark Gaines turned around and looked at them. "You're going out with Ryan? When the hell did that happen?" "Ryan?" Cole Janizak, the team captain, leaned over from his seat. "Brody's dating a Ryan? Man, you're a trailblazer." That statement grabbed everyone's attention; Brody glared at Baxter as the catcalls and comments started rolling in. "Thanks, Bax." Brody scowled at his friend, who just grinned, then addressed his teammates in turn. "No, Gainer, I'm not going out with Ryan." He turned to his captain. "Who, I might add, is a girl. Okay, Janny?" "Thank God. I knew she had more sense than that." Mark grinned and sat down before Brody could reply. "Asshole," Brody grumbled, bursa escort bayan making Baxter laugh. "You got it bad, kid. If they're going to start giving you shit about it, you might as well go out with her and make it worth the while." Brody grumbled some more and then pulled out his iPod. They might start giving him shit, but it didn't mean he had to listen. x-x-x-x Ryan sat, eyes glued to the TV, as she watched the Caps-Flyers game and munched on some chips for a snack. The camera caught Brody on the bench, talking to one of his teammates, then turning to look out over the ice. "They're whole-grain chips, I swear," she said. "What?" Lara looked up from her computer, where she was updating the band's Facebook and MySpace pages. "Who are you talking to?" "What? Nobody." Ryan glanced at Lara, then back at the screen. "I didn't say anything." "Yes, you did. You said you were eating whole-grain chips. What are you talking about?" "Nothing. Sorry." When Lara kept staring at her, Ryan gave in. "It's Brody. He likes to cook and he's always after me to eat healthier food. I saw him there and had to, I don?t know, defend myself." "You're a lunatic." Ryan hunched her shoulders. "I'm not! I don't know. It's nice he's concerned. And it's not like he's wrong. I have crappy eating habits." "You have escort bursa crappy cooking habits," Lara corrected. "You eat just fine if given the chance." Ryan shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I could buy better prepared stuff, like at Trader Joe's. Just a pain to get there." "So, what's the score?" Lara went back to the computer. "Three to two, Caps." "Cool. Brody score?" "No, but Mark did." "Look at you. You're turning into a puck bunny!" Ryan threw the bag of chips, leaving a trail of crumbs across the living room floor. "I am not." Lara leaned back in the chair, laughing. "Oh, come on, Ryan." She wiped at her eyes. "I was kidding. And on top of that, you missed me completely." Ryan stared at the debris on the rug. "I know. Still. I'm not a bunny, puck or otherwise." "Come on, I'll help clean it up." Lara got up and retrieved the hand vacuum while Ryan collected the bigger pieces and put them back in the bag. "Thanks. Sorry." Ryan dumped the bag in the trash and came back to help get the rest of the crumbs. "No problem. We all need to toss our chips sometimes." Ryan gave her a dark look as Lara giggled. "Look, Ryan." Lara vacuumed up the last of the chip crumbs and put the vacuum back. "It's okay if you like him, you know that, right?" "I do like him." "You know what I mean." "Yeah, yeah. I know. I like him fine. We're not dating, I told you." "Yeah, yeah, I know." Lara grinned as she threw Ryan's words back at her. "I still don?t understand the problem there." "I told you." Ryan stretched and sat back down on the couch. "I don?t want to compete with sports for someone's attention.