Usually I spend the off season pretty drunk, in the company of a revolving string of women whose names I forget as fast as I churn them out of my apartment. This year, none of that appeals to me. All I can think about is Juniper. I know she is feeling something for me, because she keeps running away from me when things get too intense. I know she's not used to this, but fuck. I'm not, either. I wish I could just go to the club, pick up some random woman and fuck her until I feel like myself again. But the thing is…I haven't been myself since I moved back home. I've been a different person. I actually like helping that rowing team with their publicity stuff. I like spending time with Juniper, damn it. All I've done for years is hang out with my brothers, hunt for tail, and play hockey. Now the hockey part is on hold for the off-season and my brothers are all busy with work.
I still show up at the arena every morning to work out for a few hours, but then I face long stretches of free time I’d rather be spending with my girl. If she’d ever let herself be my girl.
Juniper stopped responding to my flirty texts and doesn't pick up when I call. Something's up with her and I need to get her to tell me about it. Trying to distract myself, I’ve tightened every screw in my grandma’s house, mowed every blade of her grass to perfection. Hell, I even hung out with my brother Thatcher at his damn glass studio in the heat of June, watching him make giant flower vases and shit. And all the while, I think of how I want to be taking Juniper to dinner, asking her about her training, watching her row. And then I remember I can't do any of those things because she’s off limits.
The rowing teams are on hiatus after their big regatta, so I haven’t even been hanging around the boat house. I had a few phone calls with Derrick about a television spot, but that's not even happening until fall. I think we've done just about all we're going to do with them in terms of my image strategy or whatever the hell Matty is calling it. The press loves me. Coach is in a good mood now that we've won the Cup. I'm supposed to be living it up, but I just feel like I'm drifting.
After about a week of me sulking around, my grandma whacks me in the head with a newspaper while we’re eating lunch.
“What the hell, Gram?”
“You’re a mope, Tyrion Stag. What are you doing with yourself?”
“Jesus, that hurt. I’m trying to relax a bit is all.” I try to go back to eating my sandwich, but Gram is relentless.
“Get out of here and go do something. Go to the library. Visit kids at a hospital. I don’t want to see your mopey face back here today.”
I decide to go for a long run and take Gram up on the idea to visit kids at the children’s hospital. I spend hours there, giving each kid a photo op and signing everything they hand me. Their moms swoon and all the dads pat me on the back and ask when it’s my turn for a day with the Cup. I feel good, but it doesn’t last. After all that, I’m alone with my thoughts again. Only one thing feels right to me, and I decide I'm just going to go for it.
Before I can reconsider, I’m knocking on the door of Juniper’s townhouse.
She answers and I watch her face drop in fear. “What are you doing here?” she hisses, pulling me inside and slamming the door. “Someone is going to recognize you, Ty. People use the bike path all the time.”
I pull her into my arms and just inhale her scent. I haven’t seen her in almost a week. Too long. “I just had to see you, Juniper.” And then I claim her mouth with mine. I feel her struggling with her doubts, and then give in to wanting me.
She sighs, says my name like a whispered prayer. "Ty." It doesn’t take long for me to strip her out of her work clothes, wrestle out of my jeans, and work our way over to the couch.
We don’t say a word, but she grabs the condom from my jeans on the floor, rips it open with her teeth, and rolls it onto my shaft. I pull her onto my lap and she straddles my waist with those long, thick thighs of hers. I can’t help but moan as she sinks home.
Juniper braces her hands on my chest and rides me like she’s taking out all her anger at the world. It’s fierce and it’s fast and intense. I don’t let her look away, keeping my eyes locked on hers while I knead her ass cheeks and drive up into her as she slams against me. "Yes, baby. Fuck me just like that." She finds the friction she needs and tilts her hips, bouncing up and down on my dick until her tits are shaking and I feel her clench around me. I let go right along with her.
This is what I want. I want to make love to this woman and just melt into her. I think back to the hotel and how good I felt after we finished, when I just got to hold her and talk with her about life. She's collapsed against me on my lap now, and I just want to sit here with her until we grow old and creaky.
Eventually, she rolls off my lap and lies on her back on the couch with her legs sprawled across me. “Why Tyrion?” she says.
“Huh?”
“Why Tyrion and not Tyler or something? For Ty?”
“Oh.” I get up to throw away the condom, and tell her, “My mom was really into reading Game of Thrones when she was pregnant with me. Then it became sort of a joke--I was the youngest, but I was always the biggest. I’d tell you I was the smartest, too, but we all know that’s Tim.” She laughs and I nestle in beside her, stroking her arm and just lavishing the chance to be close to her. I love that she's letting me in. “How come you’re not on the pill, Juniper?”
She doesn’t answer for a while, so long that I wonder if she fell asleep, but she finally explains that it just never felt like a good idea. “And in the end, Zack was cheating on me. Who knows what disease I might have caught if I’d been on the pill and stopped using condoms. I guess I’m nervous to trust anyone that much again.” The thought of him betraying her like that makes me draw my hands into fists. I want to tell her she’d never have to worry about that with me, that she can always trust me to keep her safe, but the words don’t seem to come to me. I realize some of the fan-girls I slept with might have had boyfriends or husbands. A wave of shame rolls over me at how I used to behave. Now that I've found someone, found Juniper, I realize what I was missing out on.
"I hate that that fucker abused your trust, Juniper," I breathe into her hair.
She turns her head to look up at me. “We can’t keep doing this or I’ll get fired.”
“Juniper,” I say, my voice serious, “I’m going to figure something out. I want to be with you, baby. For real with you.”
She looks away and eventually starts to put her clothes back on. "Hey," I say, tugging on her arm. "You've got to stop running away from me when things get real."
She lets out a "humph," but I keep going. "I'm serious, Juniper. You've been avoiding me for a week since we made love at the hotel. I fucking miss you. Let's work on this thing together."
"There's nothing, Ty. There's no way out of this. You should leave."
I pull her back onto the couch beside me, half dressed. I don't give a fuck what she is wearing. Or preferably not wearing. "I'm. Not. Leaving." I punctuate each word with a kiss on her neck and shoulder. I feel her melt into me and I know, for a little at least, that I got her to forget about work shit and just be with me.
We turn on the television and just hang out until I realize I’m half starved. “You got any food, JJ?”
She wrinkles her brow and shakes her head. “I might have some protein bars…”
“Nah. I need a full meal. We’ll have to order in.”
I can see her hesitate about this, but there’s nothing to be done. “I’m staying overnight, Junebug, so you’d better feed me something. I’ll hide in the bedroom and you can answer the door for the delivery guy, ok?”
Except that when the food arrives, Juniper is in the shower, so it’s me answering the door for a young kid in a Fury jersey. A fan. Of course. “Holy shit! Ty Stag!” the kid practically drops my food, which I grab from him before disaster strikes.
“In the flesh,” I say, looking over my shoulder to make sure Juniper doesn’t hear any of this. “I’ll sign anything you want and snap a pic with you if you promise to forget my friend’s address here. What do you say?”
The kid’s jaw drops, so I grab his phone and snap a selfie of us together. Then I sign a receipt for him, scribbling his name from his nametag while he just stands there mute. I stuff an extra twenty in his fist and usher him out the door just as Juniper comes out of the bedroom with a towel wrapped around her head.
“You didn’t answer the door, did you, Ty?” She looks worried.
“Never fear, babe. The kid had no idea who I was and I paid cash.”