Insert Cheesy Love Title About Mr. Johnny Toews

“What are you doing?” Kris poked his head in my doorway and I jumped a little, covering papers with my laptop in hopes that he didn’t notice.

“Hey Kris. Not much. You?” I tried to act casual and collected.

He narrowed his eyes at me and I wasn’t sure if he bought it or not, but he went along with it. “Getting ready for the road trip tomorrow.”

“Right,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “Three game road trip? Sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Yeah,” he dragged out the word. “Listen, Sharpie’s out for the road trip due to that injury he has.”

“You going somewhere with this Kris or are you just practicing stating the obvious? You’re getting really good at it so I think you can cut back to two hours a day now.”

“Har har, so funny Tessa Ladd. I do have a point. Sharpie’s going to stay here while we’re gone for the week.”

“Why?” I snorted. “I’m twenty two years old. I think I can stay by myself for a few days you know,” I didn’t mean to get defensive, but it slipped out.

“Hey now,” the blonde threw up his hands in surrender. “Just so you can take care of poor Sharpie?”

“What’s wrong with him anyways?” I grumbled.

“Sprained wrist.”

“That’s it?” I stared at him. “Really?”

“Johnny’s dropping him off tonight,” he said and I knew the only way I would win was if I locked them all out of the house.

“I thought you leave tomorrow?” I sighed. I couldn’t lock Sharpie and Johnny out.

“Tonight. The road trip starts tomorrow but we leave tonight.”

“I need to check on the schedule more,” I muttered to myself and Kris shut the door behind him.

I pulled out the papers I hid when Kris popped in and stared down at them again, the words swimming in my vision.

I hated bank statements. Especially when the only statement needed to be made was that I had absolutely nothing left.

~~~~~

“Tess?” Johnny called from downstairs.

I stuck my head over the railing and looked down at him. “Hey there Johnny Two Toes. What’s shaking?”

His eyebrows came together and I could tell I had irritated him. “Really?”

Sharpie then came barreling in and laughed. “I knew the name would catch on. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? So classy.”

I smiled and ran down to greet the two hockey players. “I’m sorry Johnny, but it is a cute nickname,” I grinned cheekily, pinching his cheek. “Just like Captain Serious.”

He only stared at me with his chocolate brown eyes. “I’m going to show you what Captain Serious is really like if you don’t let go of my face with your nails,” he threatened.

I let them go and showed him my hands in the air. “Are you always this cranky before a road trip?”

“I just lost my right wing, wouldn’t you be cranky too?”

“I have my right wing if you want to borrow him,” I shrugged.

“Having Ladd and Steeger as your ‘wing men’ do not count,” Johnny told me, rolling his eyes.

I couldn’t help but smile. “They play left anyway, don’t they?”

“They do indeed, but nice try,” he even smiled back.

Kris waltzed in and handed me two twenties and a ten. “Take care of our wing man would you? We’ll pick him up in a week. Here’s fifty bucks in advance for any emergencies. You’ll get the other half when we come back,” he winked.

“I didn’t realize I was getting paid for watching a lazy hockey player,” I glanced over at Sharp who had the History channel on and was already halfway asleep.

“Definitely,” Kris said somberly. “We take our babysitters very seriously around here.”

“Get out of here!” I laughed, pushing, him, my brother, and Johnny Toews out the door. “See you in a week!”

~~~~~

It was our last day of Sharpie and Tess Bonding Time! (not my words, his) when finally our first problem arose.

We were out at the grocery store, stocking up on the essentials of living with two full time residents and like ten other part time residents.

“No, no,” Sharpie put back the crunchy peanut butter I had just picked up and placed it back on the shelf. “Hammer likes the regular stuff.”

“Yeah, but Nemo and Johnny like crunchy. . .”

We stared at both the jars. “Who gets to suffer?”

“I like all three of them,” I sighed. “We’ll get both,” I decided. See how hard it was? They couldn’t be just like regular boys and eat what was placed before them. It sucked sometimes.

We were reaching the soda and chip aisle when I bumped into someone. Sharpie kept going down the aisle, humming a tune.

I looked up, smiling faintly. “Sorry about that.”

The man looked up and I felt the blood drain from my face. His facial expression suggested he was surprised by my appearance as well.

“Oh um, excuse me,” he said hurriedly, before trying to rush away.

Key word? Trying.

“Um no,” I said, slamming my cart into his. “What the fuck AJ?” I walked up to him and even though I was a head shorter than him, I could tell that I intimidated him. “What the fuck is your problem? I trusted you!” I slammed both my palms onto his shoulders and because he wasn’t expecting a little girl like me to be so strong, he flew backwards.

“Hey now! You weren’t supposed to find me again!” were his only words.

“Is AJ even your real name you two timing bag of shit!” I didn’t think, I just let my anger take over.

My right fist slammed into his jaw and before I knew it, someone, probably Sharpie was holding me back as I kicked and swung at the bastard who had taken my entire life from me.

“Calm down Tessie. Calm down,” Sharp soothed me and I swiped the back of my hand across my face and I was stunned to find it wet. I was crying.

“You took my entire life from me you bastard!” I shouted, as Sharp dragged me away. “How can you ruin people’s lives like that!”

Sharp directed me to the car and instead of me driving, he took the wheel and sped all the way home, silently. I didn’t mind. Sharpie got on the phone with someone and I tuned him out, keeping my head against the cool glass, trying to calm myself down. But I couldn’t. I had trusted the man I knew to be AJ too much.

~~flashback~~

“Man Tess, you’re going to love this place!” AJ gushed, taking my hand and leading me around the corner of a busy street in New York. “It’s small and you can do a lot with it!”

I laughed at his excitement and didn’t even mind when he dragged me out of bed at six o’ clock that morning to show me this cool new space that opened up. He said it would be perfect for my boutique that I was working on opening.

We must have reached the space because Aj’s face was pressed up against the glass and I did the same.

It really was perfect. I imagined every detail about my store right then and there.

“Don’t you love it Tess?” he asked breathlessly and my heart skipped a beat for AJ Kalasminy.

~~end~~

“Tess,” Sharp touched my arm, shaking me from the memory of almost six months ago. “We’re home.”

I sat up and looked at my hands in my lap. “Who were you on the phone with?” I asked quietly.

“Your brother. They should be home tonight.”

I only nodded.

“What happened back there Tess?” he finally asked.

“I don’t really want to talk about it right now,” I said, my voice hoarse with guilt of not being able to trust one of my closest friends. But I didn’t want to tell him that I couldn’t even manage my own life and gave it away to someone who lied to me. It was just too embarrassing.