WAG for Hire

It snowed again through the night.

Not enough to do any major damage but enough to put a fresh coat over what had already been deposited. By the time morning came around, the sun was peeking out and bouncing off the snow banks.

Toby was convinced that she was going to be late. Her first time too. She had overslept for one thing, a product of getting home later than she had planned. Like the sidewalks, the roads were icy and Jordan had taken his time. What should have taken them fifteen minutes took them over a half an hour. Added to that, she had not gone to bed as soon as she had gotten home. She felt wired for sound, like she had just drunk five cups of coffee. To tire herself out she had cleaned – in her dress. It was well after midnight when she could even think about crawling into bed and as a result she had hit snooze the first time her alarm went off.

Now she was scrambling, throwing on the first thing her hands could fall on. She didn’t bother with her hair or makeup, hoping that she could save time. Fully dressed for the weather, she grabbed her books and made a mad dash for the bus stop.

By some miracle, the bus was exactly two minutes late. Which meant she reached the stop at the exact same time as the bus did. She sent up silent thanks and stepped on. By the time she reached the university she wished she had had time to grab something to eat. Chemistry on an empty stomach – surely there were laws out there to prevent things like that from happening.

She briefly considered making a mad dash for the cafeteria to get an overpriced apple but she knew that would make her late for class. The good little student inside her just wouldn’t let that happen. So instead she walked into class with a minute to spare and hoped her stomach wouldn’t growl louder than her professor talked.

After a half an hour, she was seriously regretting her decision not to be a few minutes late. She was twitching in her seat, chewing her bottom lip, and working up to a major headache. She knew better – she had taken a nutrition class last summer for God’s sake. She had had enough lectures on the merits of eating properly to last a life time. Between stress eating when she first lost her job and now trying to make what she had last longer than it should, she knew she was doing herself no favors.

She would have to suck it up and ask Jordan for help. She was getting better at coming to terms with the way thing were now but still, she didn’t want to frustrate him by turning around and asking for money every other day. Just the basics – that is what she would tell him. Enough so that she wasn’t eating from a can or the microwave every day.

“Ms. Cross?”

Toby realized she had let herself drift once again. Her head snapped up to the source of the voice and she found herself locked in eye contact with her professor. He did not look pleased.

“Uh…”

“Thank you for rejoining us. I wonder if you would mind answering my question.”

Question? Toby scrambled to think of what she had heard so far that class. He must have addressed her when she had been obsessing over her missed breakfast. She felt her face grow hot. Despite doing her homework and beating the odds by showing up on time, she was beginning to look like a poor example of student. She was about to admit that she hadn’t heard the question when another voice cut in.

“You have to mix the solutions before you can calculate the new percent yield,” Lily explained from her seat a few rows down.

The professor’s eyes immediately moved from Toby to the blonde. “Thank you, Ms. Williams. It is nice to know that someone understands what I am speaking of.”

“Well to be honest, Professor, I didn’t quite understand it myself until Toby explained it after class yesterday,” Lily added.

Toby hoped she didn’t look at surprised as she felt. She knew she had lurched forward a little but she managed to rein it in when the professor’s eyes fell back on her. She hoped that she looked confident that the lie that had just been told was in fact the truth. “I am glad to see that you are able to understand the concept well enough to explain it to others, Ms. Cross. In the future, I only ask that you be able to demonstrate this during class time.”

“Certainly,” Toby said quickly and finally exhaled when the professor went back to discussing solution properties. She made sure to take furious notes, and pay extra attention. She wished he would ask another question so she could stick her hand up and do something to wipe that smug look off his face.

When the class came to an end, she packed up her things quickly so she could catch up to the blonde who had saved her ass. “Lily!” Toby called hoping she would hear through the crowd of students filtering out of the classrooms. Thankfully Lily turned, and there was a smile on her face. She stopped and waited so Toby could catch up. “What you did in class – thank you so much. I felt like melting into the floor before you stepped in.”

“I hate when he does that,” Lily began as she side stepped to avoid being run over by a rather large guy who wasn’t watching where he was going. “I think he waits, hoping to catch someone the moment they drift off for a minute or two. It’s bound to happen – you can’t seriously expect people to sit through an hour and half of chemistry and pay attention the whole time.”

“I try to pay attention…” Toby countered.

“Oh, don’t worry about defending yourself to me,” Lily told her. “I spend part of that class each day thinking about what I am going to make for supper. Thank God he hasn’t caught on yet.”

Toby smiled. “If he does, then I owe you one.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Lily promised. She looked toward the exit. “Hey, do you want to go get some coffee and go over half the stuff he just talked about? That way if he catches one of us day dreaming the next time we won’t be lying…”

“I’d like that,” Toby said immediately, and then flushed a little. She probably sounded like a desperate loner – well, truth be told that was what she was. Since starting her degree, she had rarely talked to anyone outside of class. She had never gone to a party, or any of those activities that encouraged bonding without alcohol that the university was always promoting. She had never seen a Pittsburgh Panthers game in any form. She had rarely spent time in the library or anywhere else on campus for that matter. When it came down to it, she had never done any of those things that one would expect to experience in university. She hadn’t the time – it was always straight from class to work or straight from class to home to do homework before running off to a shift. She wondered if Lily would think she was a freak of nature if she knew. “Sorry, hungry,” she added more calmly. It wasn’t exactly a lie. With coffee there was promise of a muffin.

“I hear that,” Lily said as she began to lead the way. “I always try to eat a good breakfast but some mornings I just cop out and grab a banana.”

Toby wished she could say she had at least had a banana. “Yeah, me too.” As soon as she stepped outside she reached for her sunglasses. The glare of the sun off the snow was enough to blind anyone. They trudged across the campus, making small talk, mostly about how they thought the class was going. It was nice to hear someone else’s thoughts – nice to know that she wasn’t the only one finding it a lot of work.

“It’s not that it’s hard…it’s just, well, I have four other classes to worry about,” Lily finished as they neared the campus café.

“I guess I’ll find out what that’s like soon enough,” Toby admitted. She wished she could start now but it was too far into the semester to register for any more classes. She would have to wait until the spring session to stack up on the courses. “This is my only class right now.”

“Working huh?”

“Uh, I was,” Toby said truthfully. “I was laid off last week.”

Lily’s frowned. “Oh…I’m sorry. That’s got to be rough.”

Toby nodded, and was about to add more when she saw a black SVU pulling into park on the side street next to the science building. Coincidence? There was more than one Escalade in the city. However that theory was shot down when a familiar blonde man crawled out of the driver’s side. What was he doing here?

“Toby? Are you okay?” Lily asked.

Toby wondered what sort of look she had on her face right now. She knew her eyes were wide, but they were hidden by her sunglasses. Her mouth must have fallen open a little. She turned to look back to Lily, who was holding the door of the café open. Clearly she was waiting for Toby to follow her in. Glancing back she saw that Jordan had pulled out his phone. She knew who he was going to call. “I hate to do this, Lily, but I noticed a friend of mine just pulled up – he’s probably looking for me. Raincheck?” She asked, hoping that she hadn’t ruined something before it even began.

“Sure, no problem,” Lily said with a wave of her hand.

“Thanks again,” Toby said just as her phone rang. She turned on her heels and began heading in his direction. Fishing the phone out of her pocket, she answered on the third ring. “Well hello, Jordan.”

There was a pause. “How did you guess?”

“Caller ID,” Toby answered immediately. “That and I can see you.” She repressed a snicker when Jordan straightened and began looking around. Finally she knew he had spotted her. She gave him a wave. “You owe me a muffin.”



Jordan screwed his face up in confusion at her declaration. “What?” He asked but was met with silence. He realized that she had hung up the phone so he did the same, replacing it in his pocket. He leaned back against the Escalade watching the groups of people shuffle by. So far no one had had that look of recognition on their face – then again no one was really paying attention to him. Everyone seemed to have a destination in mind.

Including Toby, who was picking through the crowds and the snow at a rather rapid pace. He watched glad to be wearing sunglasses so it wasn’t obvious that he was staring. She looked more like herself in jeans and an old grey jacket – or least the version of her that he had met and gotten to know before the plan unfolded. He didn’t mind the one that squeezed into dresses (because her legs went on forever) but he was coming to realize that he liked this version better. She seemed more relaxed around him; less worried what others would think of her. When she finally reached him, he smiled. “Surprised?”

“Kind of actually,” she admitted, shifting her books in her arms.

“A muffin?” He questioned as he opened the passenger door. She got in without question and was buckling herself in when he got in the driver’s side. “Anything else?”

She had a thoughtful look on her face. “Girl talk.”

It took a moment for him to process what she could possibly mean by that. Thankfully, he was able to connect the dots. And it left him feeling a tad bit guilty. “Oh,” Jordan said as he pulled out into traffic. “Were you meeting with a friend?”

“Uh…just a girl from my class,” she said.

Given what she had told him, it didn’t seem like a regular occurrence. “You could have told me,” Jordan said. “You’re under no obligation to drop everything when I show up, you know.”

“I know,” Toby said tossing her stuff onto the seat behind her. She leaned back in her seat before she continued, “I wanted to see you.”

Jordan tried not to read anything into it. Tried and failed. He felt a swell of pride that erased any residual guilt that he was feeling over tearing her away from a potential friendship. “I just got done practice so a muffin is not going to do it for me.”

“And I had my heart set on one,” she joked before shrugging. “Whatever you want, Gronk.” He swiveled his head. She managed to keep her face straight for a few moments before she dissolved into giggles.

“How?”

“Google,” Toby told him. “Do know how many hits you get when you type ‘what is Jordan Staal’s nickname?’ into the search field? It’s ridiculous. Of course, then I had to google what the hell ‘Gronk’ meant and I have to say – I can see the resemblance. Especially here,” she reached over and gave his stomach a playful slap.

Jordan groaned. After a hard workout, that was definitely the icing on the cake. “It’s a damn good thing I’m driving.”

“Oh yeah?” Toby’s eyebrow shot up. “If you think I’m scared of you…well then, I’ve got news for you.”

“You should be,” Jordan promised as he made a right. In truth, he had no idea where he was going. He was content to keep on driving while she teased him from the passenger seat.

“What are you going to do, Gronk?” She asked, a fit of giggles threatening to overtake her.

“A lot of things,” he muttered before he could stop himself. The giggles stopped. He sucked his lower lip in between his teeth. There were tension – or at least he thought there was tension. It wasn’t the kind of tension that came when she got upset. This was the kind of tension that he hadn’t felt in a long time because he was used to just acting on it instead of letting it permeate the space around him. He wondered if she was feeling it too. He took the risk and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Her eyes were glued to the passing scenery.

He took it as a sign that she was feeling it.

“Sandwich?” He finally said, desperate to end the uncomfortable silence between them.

“Yes!” She jumped at the bait.

They found the nearest deli and ordered. She had hers nearly gone before he was even handed his. She would have never been satisfied with a muffin. He grabbed his bottle of water and followed her to the exit. “There was actually a reason why I showed up today, you know,” he pointed out as they walked toward the Escalade.

“I’m intrigued,” Toby said as she polished off the rest of the sandwich. He wondered if she should have gotten two.

“I’m leaving tonight – we have a few road games…”

“Oh.”

She sounded disappointed. Or at least he thought she sounded disappointed. He stopped and she did as well. “I was thinking…when I get back we figure out a way to ramp this up, to really catch the attention of the press,” he told her.

“Sounds like a plan,” Toby said. “At least you told me you have an upcoming game. Now I can properly say it – good luck!” She reached over and touched his arm. “I hope you demolish…” Her voice rose questioningly.

“The Canadiens, Maple Leafs, and Senators,” Jordan finished for her.

“Yeah, them,” she retorted with a smile. Which quickly disappeared as her eyes shifted over his shoulder. “I don’t believe it,” she muttered as her hand fell away.

Jordan scrunched his face up in confusion over her sudden mood shift. He glanced over his shoulder hoping to see the cause and found it quickly enough. Although the man was at the other end of the block trying his best to blend in with the crowd, it was obvious what he was doing. “We’re being photographed.”

“Yep.” Toby agreed.

“So much for having to bait them,” Jordan muttered as he unconsciously stepped closer to her.

Toby sighed which caused Jordan to raise an eyebrow.

“And I didn’t try when I got ready this morning.”