Superfan (Brooklyn #3)(58)

“Please,” Beacon growls.

“Please!” Elsa adds with zero remorse. She poses beside Delilah, who’s smiling patiently. I hold up the phone and snap the photo.

The boat docks a minute later. All I can do is pull Delilah aside for one last kiss. I take her beautiful face in my two hands and touch my lips to hers. “Take care of yourself. I need to hear from you that you got home okay.”

“Okay.” She gives me a shy smile. “Thanks for everything. This was amazing.”

It’s true. And I’m still so sad. “Call me anytime at all.”

“I will.” She stands up on her toes and kisses me one more time.

After that, she’s gone.





Silas





“No.” Heidi shakes her blond curls. “It looked better under the windows. Let’s move it back.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I grumble. “Give me a second, here.”

“Don’t let me interrupt your texting session,” Heidi says. “That phone is like permanently attached to your hand now.”

Ignoring her, I sit down in the middle of the mostly empty apartment where my teammate Dave lived until just last week. And I continue my conversation with Delilah.

Silas: Do you get to see your manager today?

Delilah: Yup. But she’s making me drive to Malibu to meet with her. I can’t tell if her schedule is really that booked up, or if she’s punishing me for missing my appointment Tuesday.

Silas: The word Malibu makes me think of rum drinks behind the high school gym. **Shudder**

Delilah: Let me guess. You drank Malibu and Coke and then ralphed.

Silas: Well I wasn’t always this cool.

Delilah: <3

Silas: Are you getting a nice lunch out of your manager at least?

Delilah: I wish. She’s so booked up she could only fit me in if I met her at the spa.

Silas: Get a massage. I need a massage.

Delilah: I thought you told me there was an on staff massage therapist?

Silas: Not in the summer, sadly. If I wanted an appointment with her I’d have to leave the building. And I’d have to actually pay for it, too.

Delilah: Oh the horrors.

Silas: I know right? So enjoy yourself.

Delilah: Don’t bet on it. She said I was meeting her between treatments.

Silas: I heard that LA has some weird spa treatments. Isn’t that where they invented colonic cleansing?

Delilah: Well now I’m terrified. Thanks for that.

I laugh.

“Listen, lover boy,” Heidi says, clapping her hands. “If we don’t get this done, then I can’t order you a pizza from Grimaldi’s.”

My stomach rumbles, because she’s right. And I’m hungry. “Okay, when can we eat?”

“We should be done here in about three hours.”

“What?” I let out a howl of anguish. We’ve been moving furniture around my retired teammate’s empty condo all morning. I don’t know how I got suckered into this.

“Kidding!” Heidi giggles. “Jeez. Just move the couch one more time. Then I’ll fluff the pillows and we can go.”

Still grumpy, I sign off with Delilah. Then I pick up my end of the sofa and relocate it to the spot where Heidi indicates. “Happy? How much are you making on this gig, anyway?”

“My standard rate per hour.”

“And why are you furnishing an apartment for a guy who’s already moved out?” Dave lived here in this amazing two bedroom with a den and a view of the Manhattan Bridge. But now he’s moved to Vermont with Zara and their toddler.

“The place was under contract to be sold. But Dave lost his buyer at the last minute.” She fluffs the pillows, as promised. “The realtor said it’s harder to sell an empty house. So I rented this furniture for three hundred bucks a month.”

“And you rented me for the price of a pizza.”

“I’ll throw in a six-pack of beer because I love you.”

“I’m a cheap date.”

“The cheapest,” she agrees. “But you’re also a good friend, so that’s understandable.”

“Thanks?”

“What I don’t understand is why you aren’t buying this place.”

“Wait, what?” I turn to Heidi, who’s studying me. “Now you’re trying to evict me?” I mean, living with a couple is a little weird. But Castro and I just had a conversation about how much money we’re all saving.

“No, buddy. I’m trying to get you to think big.”

“If you want me to think big, then let’s order the large pizza.”

Heidi gives me half a head shake, like I’m the dumbest man in the world. “If you want to convince Delilah Spark to move to New York, you’re going to have to figure out where she can do her thing. And you know there are recording studios in the Navy Yard complex, right?”

“There are?” I look out the window, befuddled. “Wait. How do you know that? And why do you think Delilah would move to New York?”

Heidi blinks. “Well you can’t move to L.A., dummy. So she’s going to have to move here. It’s not that complicated.”

“You say that like it’s so obvious. We barely—”