Flagrant Foul (gxg)

Chapter 22

"Damn, these are amazing!" Skye moaned while chewing on a bite of the ribs that night. I'd stopped by the bar to say hi and show her the sneakers that I'd brought back. I noticed that she had made a bit of a mess with the barbeque sauce, and leaned across the bar, wiping some off her lip and then sucking it off my finger. Hey, she did it first! I had been hoping for a reason to return the favor though. She didn't seem embarrassed at all though, she was too good. "If I put the sauce anywhere else, are you going to help me clean it off?"

Oh? She wanted to play, huh? "Absolutely. But I might not use my thumb though."

Her cheeks flushed a bit, and though I knew she was hoping for that very thing I don't think she was expecting me to come out and say it. "I might take you up on that offer once we get through all of this."

"So, what happens if we get more evidence from Tegan?" I asked, trying to change the subject so I didn't embarrass myself. I wasn't too clear on the steps afterwards.

"If we get that information, then Friday morning we fly to Indianapolis for a meeting with the NCAA. If we show that you were unjustly kicked off the team and stripped of your scholarship, then they should be able to get you a waiver to do an immediate transfer. The only problem then becomes who has scholarships open and who will want you."

"And if they'll let Leah come too!" I pointed out. "She doesn't want to be anywhere near them. She's already planning on transferring as soon as she can. You'd really do all that for me?"

"Well, we can ask the review board about it, but at this point my only priority is you." She had an intense look in her eye that made me shiver, in a very good way. "And I would absolutely do all that with you."

"Once we get through all this, and we start dating, one of these nights I'm going to show you what happens when I make you my only priority," I promised in a low voice. Her entire face turned redder than a stop sign, and I couldn't help but think I finally won one of our little flirting contest!

"I'll let you do whatever you like," she finally whispered back. "As long as I get a turn too."

"Ugh. I hate having to wait!" I complained. "I want things to go well so I can start dating you!" All of the teasing was driving me nuts, and all I wanted to do was pick her up and crush her body to mine while kissing her. The sooner the better!

"You better not stop coming here just because things start going right," she replied with a grin. "I really like having you around here. Even if we date, we can spend time together here. I study every night at the bar, so you could do homework too."

"I guess it depends on what school wants me, right?" I could hope to stay local, but that would require something like UNC or Wake Forest to have room on their teams. That was something out of my control. "But I'll be here whenever I can."

"I'm working on that!" she shot me a wink, and it made me wonder what other surprises she might have up her sleeves.

I took off my glasses, wiping them off before I put them back on. "You know, I think if I had not come in here after being kicked out by Tegan, I would already be back in Florida. I wouldn't have even known what to do. You've helped so much, and if this works, I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you." She was single handedly helping me to hopefully get my collegiate career back, and I was probably going to have to kiss her ass for years in repayment. At least I hoped she'd let me do that!

She frowned for a moment then leaned close to me. "I'm not doing this because I want you to owe me, nor do I ever want you to think about repaying me, okay? I'm going to tell you a little bit about me. I knew I was a lesbian when I was young, maybe twelve years old. But I never said anything, because I knew my dad was extremely homophobic, and I was terrified of how he might react. He used to abuse my mom all the time. Not physically, but emotionally and mentally. But then, when I was fourteen, my mom finally filed for a divorce. It turned out that she was also into women and was sick of the way my dad treated her. She wanted to leave the state with her old high school sweetheart, a girl, who had reconnected with her, and they wanted me to go with them."

I nodded rapidly, though I had a feeling this wasn't a nice story.

"But my mom couldn't afford a good lawyer. She got a cheap one, because my dad had her on an allowance because he'd never let her work, and he kept filing motion after motion, tying her up in court until the legal fees were just too much for her to pay. In the end, my mom got almost nothing, and I was stuck with my dad. The whole process took almost two years, but my dad thought it was all a game. He laughed all the time at the tricks he was playing just making my mom miserable. She couldn't even move on with her life during that whole time, and it made me so angry that he could get away with it. That is the reason that I'm becoming a lawyer. I want to be a good family law lawyer that someone like my mom could have gotten so that I could have gone with her in a lot less time. Nobody should be at the mercy of anyone else like that. Just like you shouldn't have been at the mercy of Tegan. You did nothing wrong, and she was trying to ruin your life for some reason. I couldn't help my mom, but I can help you."

I was stunned that she had to go through that with her dad. How was that possible? "Thank you, really. I can't believe he did that to your mom! Where is she? You still haven't come out to him?"

"My mom is finally with her new wife, they live up in Seattle, just about as far from him as they could get. They're happy now, but it shouldn't have taken so long. I don't get to see her very often. I take classes year round and have to run the bar to pay for my education. But once I pass the bar exam and start my own practice, I can sell this piece of shit and do law full time. And no, I never came out to him, otherwise I wouldn't have this bar." She nodded over to Ben and Christian playing pool. "Ben is gay, and he and I pretended to date all through high school and college so my dad wouldn't bug me about having a boyfriend. My dad said he'd give me the bar if we got married, so we did. He signed over the bar, and then a month later we got a quickie divorce. My dad doesn't even know we're not married anymore. As much as I like it here some nights, I'd love to ditch this place."

"Why don't you just sell the bar then?" Her father seemed like a major asshole, and I didn't look forward to meeting the man. Well, maybe long enough to punch him once, but that would be it. I was glad she had someone like Ben to cover for her though, because that situation could have got ugly. And no, I wasn't going to tease her about her ex husband. Well, not yet anyway. Maybe in a few years if... okay... I was really jumping the gun on that!

"If I could get enough to cover me for a few years, I would. But I'd have to cover my rent, food, and classes until I pass the bar exam, and then have enough to set up a new law practice. None of that is cheap," she admitted.

"I guess not. No other crazy exes then? I'll just have to deal with Ben huh?" I said with a grin. Okay, one small tease.

"Nah, Christian keeps him in line for me. They only come here to help out when I need it, they run a computer consulting company, so they don't need the money, they just like the atmosphere here."

"My exes are all down in Florida, and none of them were crazy, it just didn't work out. Tegan is crazy, but I think we might both kill her," I admitted. The last thing either of us needed was crazy ex drama. Between her father and Tegan, we had more than enough crap to worry about.

"True! Now, tomorrow do I get to meet Leah and Gee? I have to make sure I can pass the friend test, right?" There was no way she wasn't passing that test. Hell, I wrote the test, and she'd already aced it.

"They'll be here. I wanted them to meet you anyway, and that will be as good a time as any. Besides, I may have raved about your food a few times, and they might want to try it out." That was no lie. Gee loved food, and couldn't wait to have them, where Leah just wanted to make Gee happy.

"As much as you've spoken about them, it will be nice for me to meet them too. They have always sounded like great friends."

I guess I just have to hope Leah can convince Tegan to show up then!"

"She'll be here, she can't risk not coming." Skye seemed pretty confident about it, so I just hoped she was right.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough!"