“I was not prepared for this.” Harper’s eyes are wide as she reads. “‘Don’t let the silence fool you. This man has a box under his bed that should come with a safety briefing. He asked me my limits before he even kissed me. I didn’t know I had limits until he found them. A-plus. I have never been the same.’”
The room erupts.
“A box?” Kimberly squeaks.
“Under his bed?” Vi looks horrified and fascinated in equal measure.
“There’s more.” Harper scrolls with the intensity of a woman on a mission. “‘Evanoff is not for beginners. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and he will take you apart piece by piece and put you back together after. He held my face and told me in Russian that I was beautiful while doing things to me that I can’t say out loud. I cried after. Happy tears. Rating: A-plus.’”
“He spoke Russian during?” Meadow asks, fanning herself.
“Apparently.” Harper is still reading. “‘Three words. Ropes. Blindfold. Accent. That’s the review. That’s all you need to know.’”
The room loses it. Eve is screaming. Camryn has her hand over her mouth. Kimberly looks like she needs to lie down.
Vi shakes her head. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
“Fish and Evan are best friends,” Issy states. “One won’t shut up in bed, and the other doesn’t need to talk.”
“I need to bleach my brain.” I groan because now I have to see Evan at work on Monday and pretend I don’t know about the box under his bed.
“I can never look at these men the same way at work.” Issy giggles.
“At least you get to look at them.” Kimberly sighs.
“You should come to a game,” I tell her.
“Don’t tempt me.” She grins.
“Honestly, though, the fact that this exists and these women just put all this information out there is kind of wild,” Meadow says, the voice of reason in a room full of chaos.
“Fish said they’ve tried to get it taken down, but it keeps popping up,” I explain.
“That’s actually really messed up when you think about it,” Issy adds, and she’s right. As funny as tonight has been, these are real people having their most intimate moments rated by strangers on the internet.
“It is,” I agree. “Fish hates it. He joked about it when he told me, but I could tell it bothers him.”
The room goes quiet for a second, the quiet that happens when drunk women accidentally stumble into something real.
“Anyway.” Vi holds up the tequila bottle. “Who wants another shot?”
And just like that, the moment passes, and we’re back to screaming and laughing and being ridiculous.
12
COLLETTE
Acouple of weeks later, one of the physios on the team experienced complications with her pregnancy and has been ordered to go on bed rest. This means the team is now scrambling for a replacement. They need someone fast, someone good, and the second I heard about it, I know exactly who to call. I dial my sister because I think she would be brilliant for this job.
“Hey,” she answers, and I can hear it in her voice immediately. She sounds flat, exhausted.
“Hey, you sound exhausted.”
“That’s because I am. I just got home. I’m currently lying on my bed staring at the ceiling, hoping for a sign from the universe to tell me what to do.”
That’s bad. I knew the promotion thing hit her hard. Jo would never say it outright because she’s not built like that, but losing out to the owner’s son when she was the most qualified person in the building? That’s a punch to the gut she didn’t deserve.
“That’s so freaky because I think you just spoke your answer into existence.”