“Yeah, but I’m not a fragile hot-house flower,” she said in a melancholy tone. “I’m smart and educated and I know sports, I just don’t understand why…”
“Why what?” I asked curious as to what she was talking about. She finished rinsing her hands and turned around to grab a towel from the dispenser on the wall, but the space was tight and she wound up facing me, pressed against my chest. For a moment, she looked up at me with a puzzled expression, and then she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down. She pressed her lips against mine and kissed me with a combination of intensity and desperation that felt wild and reckless. I held back for a second and then tossed caution to the wind and wrapped my arms around her, lifting her up off the ground while we kissed.
“Put me down,” she whispered into my lips and so I complied. Once her feet touched the ground, she quickly unbuttoned my shirt and began running her fingers over my bare skin. Her hands traced circles around my nipples as she kissed me harder and I felt myself growing stiff as she moaned softly into my lips.
“Payton…Payton…” I gasped as she reached for my belt and began unbuckling it. “I don’t think…”
“Good, don’t think,” she urged, biting my lip as she unbuttoned my pants and began pulling the zipper down.
“PAYTON HALAS LASKY!” a voice boomed from outside the bathroom as a heavy fist pounded on the door. “If you are not in there alone, that son of a bitch had better hope I give him a 10-second lead before I pound the shit out of him!”
“Buzz off, Jack!” Payton hollered at the locked door as I backed away from her quickly, trying to close my pants and button up my shirt so that I wouldn’t be murdered for what I hadn’t yet done. “I’m an adult! I get to make my own choices!”
“NOT IN MY BAR, YOU DON’T!” Jack thundered. “Open the goddamn door, Payton! Don’t make me break it down!”
I quickly moved toward the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open. On the other side stood a man who was practically breathing fire as he prepared to bust the door to the ladies’ room down.
“Hey, hey, hey, it was an honest mistake,” I said, holding up my hands in a sign of complete surrender. I knew I could probably take him and beat his ass into the ground given the fact that I was in the best shape of my life and he had a good 20 years on me, but I knew that wouldn’t earn me any points with Payton and would most likely result in a lot of bad press coverage when I was charged with assault.
“Honest mistake my ass!” Jack shouted. “Get your traitorous ass out of this bathroom and away from that woman!”
“Jack, step down,” Payton said as she emerged from the bathroom with her hands on her hips. “I pulled him in with me. I’m a big girl and I can choose to mess around with whomever I like.”
“Jesus, Sweetness,” Jack said shaking his head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but this is not good, young lady.”
“Goddammit!” Payton shouted. “I’m sick and tired of everyone treating me like I’m goddamn spun glass or something! I’m a woman who has needs and I’m not ashamed of that! This guy’s a good-looking hottie who seemed interested in me even though he already knew who I was, so I thought it would be nice to let loose and have a little fun before I’m chained to some rich asshole who sees me as his ticket to fame and fortune.”
“Payton, stop,” Jack said as he moved toward her. She held out her arms to stop him and backed up.
“No, don’t do that ‘Payton, you don’t know what you’re doing’ bullshit!” she shouted. “Don’t baby me, Jack!”
“But you don’t know who the hell this guy is,” Jack pleaded as he tried to calm her down.
“The hell I don’t,” she said looking me up and down. “That’s Dax Connor, owner of the Chicago Storm, Jack. I can’t believe you didn’t recognize him.”
“What the fuck?” Jack said as his head snapped so hard that I thought he might have actually done some damage. “You’r
e the fucker who owns that new team? The one who built the stadium and displaced all those kids who went to Morton?”
“Guilty as charged,” I said, raising my hand trying not to show the shock I felt about having been identified. She’d known who I was all along, but then I guess turnabout was fair play since I’d known who she was, too.
“How’d you figure it out?” I asked looking at Payton.
“Oh my God, you are such an idiot,” she said rolling her eyes and walking back to the bar. I followed her knowing that Jack was still out for blood, and feeling a little weird about the fact that Payton was my protection. I’d had my ass kicked many, many times before I learned how to fight dirty and make sure that none of the boys from Canaryville ever ran roughshod over me again. I didn’t like thinking about those days.
“But seriously, how did you know?” I asked as I took the stool next to her and waited for Jack to calm down enough to pour us each a fresh beer.
“Dax, aside from the fact that I belong to the family that started pro football as we know it, I have two degrees in sports management from Northwestern and have spent the past six years working my way through college football up to the low-ranking pro teams,” she said raising an eyebrow and finishing with, “You might say I pay attention to what’s going on in the league.”
“I had no idea,” I said shaking my head.
“No one really does,” she sighed. “That’s the problem. I want a career in football, but no one is willing to take a chance on me because they’re all afraid that I’m just biding my time until I take over the Bears organization.”
“Well, you are next in line, aren’t you?” I asked as Jack set two beers in front of us and muttered something threatening under his breath before moving down the bar to warn the bankers who were becoming a little too rowdy to tone it down.
“You want to know the truth?” she said, turning toward me.
“No, lie to me; that always helps establish trust in these kinds of situations,” I said dryly.