“What? I just needed two plates for these eggs.”
“And the glass? We ran out of orange juice yesterday.”
“Okay, you’ve got me. That request was so I could get a glimpse of that ass.”
She hugged me from behind. “You don’t need trickery. You can see it whenever you want.”
“Oh, right. I forgot.”
Cazzie rested against my back while I finished making breakfast. We turned on SportsCenter and watched highlights from the game while eating. They showed all three of my touchdowns, and then flashed a statistic about how I had the second-best rookie season ever by a wide receiver.
“Wow, you see that?” I said. “You’re sleeping with the second-best rookie receiver in history.”
She smiled smugly. “Only second, behind Randy Moss, who did it for my Vikings! If you had broken his record yesterday, I definitely wouldn’t have slept with you.”
“In that case, I’ll happily settle for second.”
Cazzie changed into her suit and then left to make her rounds. SportsCenter showed the results from the other games yesterday, which I had been too busy celebrating to pay attention to.
“Check it out,” I said when she returned with an armful of mail. “Your Vikings grabbed the final wildcard spot yesterday in the NFC. They play the Commanders this Saturday.”
“Oh, nice,” she replied offhand.
“We should go somewhere to watch the game. Since the Stallions have a first-round bye, I’ll be able to drink. And since I hate the Commanders so much, I’ll root for your team.”
She carried the stack over to the kitchen counter. “Sounds good.”
I gave her a puzzled look. “Is that the mail?”
“Yeah. I haven’t picked it up from the office since Thursday.” She held up a big brown envelope to read the label, then set it aside.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll open it later.”
I frowned. She was acting strange, which put me on edge. “Why don’t you open it now? Are you waiting to open it later, when I’m not around, because you think it’s another threat?”
“It’s not for you,” she said testily. “It’s for me.”
I jumped up from the couch. “Really? Who sent you a big envelope like that?”
“It’s probably junk mail.”
“That doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t get any junk mail delivered here.” I reached across the counter, and she snatched the envelope away. “Let me see it.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“If it’s not a big deal, then let mesee.” I snatched the envelope out of her hand and held it up. “This is from your agency.”
“Which is why I don’t want to look at it right now.” She tried to grab it from me, and I held it out of her reach. “It’s probably my yearly benefits package or something boring.”
I had been around Cazzie for months. Iknewher by now. And I could tell she was hiding something. The hairs on the back of my neck went stiff with worry.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded. “What aren’t you telling me? Are the Stallions removing you as my bodyguard? Are you being replaced? Because I will get the GM on the phone right fucking now and put my foot down if that’s what it takes…”
“It’s not that,” she insisted.
“Then what?”