WAG for Hire

Toby found Olivia’s easy enough.

Lucky for her, she had become intimately acquainted with the Pittsburgh transit system and there was a bus that would drop her off about a block from where Olivia lived. She stepped off into the cool evening breeze and immediately headed down the next side street. From there it wasn’t hard to tell where she was going. There was a throng of people heading in the same general direction. She hung behind them, feeling a bit silly for being so nervous.

She, Toby Cross, was going to go to a party and act like a normal human being.
She could have a few drinks, make small talk (after all, she had been a waitress – she should be the queen of it), and maybe even dance. She followed the group up a few stairs to a townhouse that had seen better days - a perfect home for a student she supposed. She could already hear the beat of the music. The door opened and there was the hostess herself, a red cup in hand. Olivia surveyed the crowd, a wide smile crossing her face. “Come one, come all!” She declared, moving out of the way so the hoard could cross the threshold.

Toby was the last one to enter. “Hi, Olivia.”

“Toby, you made it!” Olivia’s smile grew wider before she glanced out the open door.

“I didn’t see anyone else coming up behind me,” Toby told her as the blonde closed the door. She looked around the crowded downstairs of Olivia’s home. There were faces she recognized from class. There were faces that she thought she recognized in passing. There were a lot of names she didn’t know.

She must have had a look of panic on her face before a moment later Olivia was thrusting a beer in her hand and grinning. “Have fun, Toby,” she ordered, clapping her on the back.

Toby looked down at her beer.

Sure, she could do that.



“Care to tell me why we are doing this again?”

Jordan glanced over at Marc who was sprawled across his couch in sweats and a t-shirt. There was a bowl of ice cream resting on his stomach and a beer within reach. He looked like he was ready to call it a night.

It was only ten o’clock.

“Because I’m bored,” Jordan answered as he kicked his feet up on the polished coffee table. He ignored the pointed look Marc gave him and put his own beer to his mouth.

“Translation – you’re horny and Toby is not putting out,” Marc muttered as he took a heaping spoonful of the fast melting ice cream.

It was all Jordan could do not to choke on the cold liquid. He lurched forward a little, narrowing his eyes at his friend who was alternating between beer and ice cream as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “For your information, Toby is at a party with some university friends.”

“So you’re just horny,” Marc amended. He sat up a little and set the bowl aside. “I hope you didn’t come here thinking I would remedy that. You’re a handsome man but…”

“Oh shut the fuck up, Flower,” Jordan tossed back. He was beginning to hate how easily Marc saw through him. Well, at times it was appreciated. But at the moment, given that he was indeed in a bind, he didn’t appreciate Marc poking him with a stick for shits and giggles. “It’s been awhile since we hung out. Besides, it doesn’t look like you are doing anything as of importance.”

“That’s because I did it this afternoon,” Marc trailed off, with a grin that could only lead to one conclusion. Jordan made a face Marc began to hum something that sounded suspiciously like ‘Afternoon Delight’.

“Do you want me to go?” Jordan finally asked.

“Christ, you are coiled tight like a spring,” Marc was fully in a seated position now. “I will refrain from making any further references of a sexual nature. Instead, we will play Wii.”

“You’re a peach,” Jordan commented wryly. Still he took the controller when Marc handed to him. Playing a video game wasn’t exactly his idea of a fun Friday night but it was an adequate distraction to his…problem. He welcomed the company though and soon was shooting barbs toward his friend.

“How come you didn’t go to the party?” Marc asked as he finished off his beer.

Because she didn’t ask, Jordan mused inwardly. She hadn’t even hinted that she wanted him to come. Maybe that was why mood was borderline prick-like. He would have gone, despite not really wanting to, had she asked. “A bunch of college kids on their last drunk before their hit the books...could you imagine?”

“Oh, yeah.” Marc made a face. He was clearly more into the game than Jordan for he was letting out a ‘whoop’ a moment later. From somewhere within the recesses of the house, Jordan heard Vero reminding them that she had work in the morning.

“Oh shit, your mom’s mad at me,” Jordan retorted, feeling a little validated that he had finally got one over on his mouthy friend. “I told her if she needed me to pick her up all she had to do was call.”

“Look at you, keeping your girl safe. Old Jordan would have just handed her cab fare. New Jordan is a gentleman. New Jordan is whipped,” Marc said, clearly wanting some sort of revenge for Jordan’s last dig.

“Call it what you want,” Jordan said with a small smile crossing his face. “It doesn’t faze me in the least.”

“Clearly a sign that you are whipped,” Marc prodded again. When he got no response Jordan figured that he would find revenge via video game instead. He was proven right a few minutes later when his man went down and stayed down courtesy of a rather nasty hit on the part of Marc.

Jordan put down the controller, finished off his one beer of the night (because he had meant it when he told Toby if she needed to ride to call him), and sat back on the overstuffed chair. “Eric is coming in Monday night with Tanya and Parker. We’re having them over for dinner,” he said after a moment’s silence.

Marc was switching off the game console. He looked back at Jordan with a raised eyebrow. “She’s meeting the parents? Damn, Staal, this is serious.”

“Eric’s not my father,” Jordan replied quickly, a frown on his face.

“He may as well be for all the snooping he does,” Marc pointed out. “Either way, she’s meeting your family, Jordan. It’s a big deal – more so for the females involved. I thought Vero was going to have a panic attack the first time I took her to meet my parents. We snuck a few drinks in afterwards…well, I watched while she downed three fingers of Johnnie Walker. That was not a pretty morning after.”

He suspected that Toby would want to do something similar. He had yet to tell her – he was hoping to brooch the subject at dinner the following day. She was going to be nervous – that was a given. He’d promise her a great number of things, most important of all being that he would have her back the whole time. Like his friends, she would easily win over Eric by simply being herself. “I know the implication of these two parts of my life coming together, Flower. It’ll be fine. Nothing bad will happen.”

“If it does, tell me and I’ll poke Eric with my stick Tuesday night.”



Three beers and she had a buzz.

Toby knew damn well going in that she was a lightweight but it was a bit concerning when she had just cracked her fourth beer and was realizing she would have to take it slow not to end up like the guy leaning against the wall next to her. At least he could say he had had enough beer to fill the rather impressive bathtub contained in Olivia’s bathroom.

“What?!” He shouted, causing her to jolt and spin to look at him.

“I didn’t say anything,” Toby mumbled.

“You should.” And then he slid to the ground, clearly down for the count.

Toby bit her lip to keep from laughing as she pushed herself off the way. One thing she had learned since she had walked in the door was that she was ‘hot’. Or was it ‘sexy’? Either way, she had been hit on a few times. It was hard not be flattered even if the ones doing so were less than desirable representations of the male species.

She made her way through the living room and into the cramped kitchen. Olivia was there, apparently leading off another round of shots. She watched as the blonde knocked back the murky liquid, and then made a face. When Olivia opened her eyes they landed on her. “Toby! There you are!” She reached out and grabbed Toby by the arms pulling her fully into the room. Judging from her breath alone, Olivia was on her way to joining the jock on the floor. “Are you having fun?”

“I am,” Toby said, surprised that she was being truthful. For the first twenty minutes, she had stood like a wallflower watching the events unfold and wondering if she had made a mistake in coming. Then she found the bottom of her first bottle, and realized there was no sense in acting so damn timid all the time. By the middle of her second bottle, she was dancing, laughing and complaining about the rigid mid-term schedule. She was just another frustrated Pitt U student looking for one last good time.

“Me too!” Olivia gushed. “You got to try this stuff,” she said reaching behind her to pick up another shot. She thrust it at Toby, sloshing a good amount of the liquid over the rim and onto her hand. “Whoops!”

Toby reasoned that it was half gone anyway so she took it, and tossed it back. It was actually sweeter than it looked but burned none the less as it went down her throat. She couldn’t help but chase it was swig of beer, knowing that she was dancing on a dangerous line by mixing the two. Then again she didn’t have anywhere pressing to be the next day. Who cared if she ended up spending part of the day in bed nursing a hangover?

She reached for another one to the rousing cheer of the bodies squeezed into the room.

The second one went down much easier. The burning sensation was translating quite nicely into a warmth that spread throughout her limbs. She slammed the glass down for good measure. Olivia was back in her line of vision, grinning like a fool as she swayed slightly. “God, Toby, I didn’t know you had it in you,” she announced loudly.

Even in her inebriated state, it still stung a little to realize the image she had created for herself. Well, wasn’t tonight about changing that? “You don’t even know the half of it,” she heard herself say as she reached for another shot.

And another.



Jordan reached for his jacket. He slipped into it just as Marc stirred on the couch. “The fuck you going?” The goalie mumbled, sounding very much like he had just ingested a bag full of marbles.

“Home. You fell asleep,” Jordan informed him as he zipped up the coat. He headed toward the front door of the condo. Not that he could blame his friend. It had passed midnight some time ago and Bylsma expected them to be in fine shape for their practice that afternoon. He should be home in bed himself – but he knew that he couldn’t sleep until he was sure that Toby was okay. “Go crawl in next to Vero, Flower. See you at practice.”

Jordan got some non-descript mumbling as an answer. He decided to take it as a goodnight and headed out to his Escalade. Backing it out the driveway, it didn’t take him long to realize that there were few other people on the road at the moment. Therefore he reached his building in record time and was just entering the lobby when his phone rang.

There could be only one person who was calling him at this time.

A quick look at his caller ID told him that he was right. He answered on the third ring. “Toby?” He could hear the blare of music in the background, the laughter and shouting. It made deciphering the soft voice nearly impossible. “You’re going to have to speak up.” When he still couldn’t figure it out, he sighed. “Toby, I can’t make you out.”

Finally, she got the message. “This isn’t Toby…”

But it was her phone. Jordan furrowed his brows together. “Who is this then?

“You need to come quick. Toby needs you…”

That was all he needed to hear.