Unexpected Arrivals

James

“Hey, Carp. That was a great game." Tiffany was a cheerleader I'd tried my best to avoid. She was a nice girl, except ever since she'd broken up with her boyfriend, Todd—also our team captain—she'd been making a play for me.

“Thanks." I tried to shake it off and keep moving toward the locker room. I wasn't comfortable with her forwardness, especially when Cora wasn't nearby. She was like my wingman, and everyone on campus knew we were a package deal…including Tiffany. That in itself pissed me off. There was nothing I found less attractive than a woman who went after a man in a relationship with someone else. Don't get me wrong, I thought men who did the same were equally repulsive.

“A bunch of us are going to The Grid in a bit…you coming?"

I swore she knew Cora wasn't here. She always walked a fine line, but anytime she got near me and I was alone, she pushed far harder than friendly flirting. I politely declined the invitation, and just as the words had left my mouth, Coach congratulated me on the game. My face lit up at his praise, and I stuck my hand out to grasp his. The moment I extended my arm, Tiffany took the opportunity to steal an embrace, and the courtside photographer got the shot that would send my world into a tailspin with Cora.

The next morning when the student paper came out, there it was on the front page. I cringed at the sight. There was no way I could keep Cora from getting her hands on it. I suddenly felt empathy for all those celebrities who appeared to be in compromising positions with people other than their partners. I hadn't done anything wrong—in fact, I'd done everything right. But it sure as hell didn't look like it from the likes of that image. Tiffany was tucked into my side, the way Cora always was, and even though the smile on my face didn't have anything to do with the girl on my arm, Coach appeared to be part of the secret the three of us shared.

I'd managed to make it to my senior year without a scandal or negative press. I hadn't even so much as had a blip on the public radar. When the team was out doing stuff that made it into the news, I was never involved, and neither was Neil. Sometime during the start of our junior year, he'd met Hannah, and his heart belonged to her. She and Cora became fast friends, and the four of us were always together. We didn't do the party scene, and for the most part, we were all low-key. Neil and I had to study to maintain our GPA and stay on the team. Several of the other guys were looking at being picked up by the NBA, though neither of us had our sights set on pro ball. I was less than a year away from proposing to Cora and starting our life together…one I'd been waiting for since high school.

I knew when I saw her face, someone had been so gracious as to provide her with her very own copy of The Daily Tar Heel. She glared at me and turned in the opposite direction. My feet carried me as fast as they could.

“Cora!" I hollered across the courtyard.

She heard me, and her pace slowed when her shoulders dropped, yet she didn't stop or turn around. My long legs took me across the yard, and I caught up to her in a few strides. I swept my arms around her in an embrace from behind, unwilling to let her walk away.

“Sweetheart, it isn't what you're thinking."

“Really? So Tiffany McDowell wasn't wrapped around you at the game last night?"

I couldn't help the quirky grin that lifted the corner of my mouth. Nothing riled Cora, ever. Seeing her jealous over Tiffany was cute. Only because she had nothing to be jealous about. I had less interest in anything romantic with Tiffany than I did with Neil—actually, Neil would be preferable.

“Are you seriously laughing at me, James?"

“Cora, I have zero interest in other women."

She finally relaxed in my arms and turned toward me. Her hands snaked behind my back, and her cheek rested on my chest. “Do you have any idea how bad it looks? I feel like people are laughing at me."

“I'm sorry. I can't imagine how you feel. But I tried to tell you about it last night, and you were already asleep. Then you left at the crack of dawn this morning. I didn't want you to be blindsided."

“What happened?" Her voice was pitiful spoken against my chest.

I let out a heavy exhale. Cora had seen Tiffany in action before. I wasn't the only guy in the locker room she'd done this sort of thing with—I was just the only one with a girlfriend. And even if I hadn't had one, no one on that team would ever date her. She was off-limits—it was bro-code.

“She came up to me after the game. I was still on the floor before we all went back to the locker room. That's when Tiffany asked if I was going to The Grid after everyone got changed. I told her no. As soon as I declined, Coach walked up and told me how well I'd played. I reached out to shake his hand, and Tiffany must have seen the photographer trying to get the shot between the coach and his player. She literally clung to me like a damn octopus, Cora—like that Ursula chick in The Little Mermaid." I hoped she didn't question my knowledge of the purple hag.

“I want to be mad at you. I look like an ass to everyone on campus, even though I know how she is."

“If you look at my face, you'll see my expression is directed at Coach, and my left arm is limp at my side—not embracing her the way I always do you."

“I don't care to look at it. I just want to be pissed off for a while. And maybe make you wander around school doting on me and turning your nose up at the likes of Tiffany. You should probably carry my books, too. Oh, and I might have drawn a few mustaches on papers left in the student center."

“On me? Why?" I pushed her back to see her expression.

“No! On Tiffany. Don't worry, I used a light blue Sharpie to keep with school spirit." Her laughter filled the air around us, and I quickly became aware of people staring in our direction.

Seconds after we seemed to have moved past the uncomfortable photograph, Tiffany wandered up as though she'd been waiting for the perfect moment to destroy my day…more than she already had.

“Hey, Carp. Did you see our picture on the front page this morning?" It was like she was oblivious to the fact that Cora was stuck to my side. Hell, Cora could have had her hands down my pants and her tongue in my mouth, and it wouldn't have deterred Tiffany.

“Not cool, Tiffany. Do you have any idea how many problems you've caused?" I hadn't run into Todd yet, though I was sure I'd have a pissing contest on my hands with him, as well.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and adjusted the books in her arms. “Oh, calm down. It was just a victory picture." Tiffany turned her attention toward Cora, yet she continued to speak to me. “If anyone has an issue with it, maybe they should have been there or not be so insecure. Confidence is so much more attractive." Her eyes flitted to mine. “Right, Carp?"

“What are you trying to pull, Tiffany? You're not endearing yourself to anyone on the team. All this is going to do is make people angry. Not only have I had to explain your actions to Cora, I'm sure I'll also have to face Todd this afternoon in practice. Not a great way to build team morale."

“You guys are too uptight." She hit my arm playfully while Cora and I stared at her like she'd lost her ever-loving mind. “See you on the court." She didn't even bother saying goodbye to Cora, and for some reason that pissed me off as much as what she'd done the night before.

As we watched her saunter across the commons, I had no idea what to say. She'd done me a favor by giving me the chance to deny what it appeared had happened, and she hadn't countered that it had been anything more. Although, at the same time, I felt the tension ebbing off Cora, and that made me want to hit the b***h—Tiffany, that is.

I leaned down to take Cora's mouth, distracting her from the heinous beast that had just left us, before breaking away and to lighten the situation. “Maybe we should go buy a pack of light-blue Sharpies and get all the guys together to do some more artwork on Tiffany's cover shot."

She looked up at me with humor in her eyes, and then we set off to the bookstore and tagged every copy of the paper we could find. Throughout the day, we noticed people had joined our plight in disfiguring Tiffany's image and laughed with each new rendition we found. There were some really talented artists on campus.