Kulti nodded and blew out a breath. There were dark circles under his clear eyes, and he looked conflicted. “When I get angry I have a hard time controlling what I say,” he said, his chin tipping down.
“Oh, I know. Trust me.” I blinked. “Or don’t.”
The German gave an exaggerated sigh. “You are my best friend.”
I started to make a face like ‘yeah, right.’ Me? His best friend? I’d take ‘friend’. I took the title in the office because it seemed like such a monumental thing to say in order to get me out of trouble.
But… as soon as I started to make a face, I stopped. Kulti wasn’t a man that wasted his words, so… “You have a horrible way of showing it.”
“I know.” But he didn’t apologize. “I’ve done a great deal of things I regret now, and it’s difficult for me at times to cope with them.”
My eyes narrowed, curiosity prickling at me. I might never get a chance to encounter an apologetic Reiner Kulti again. Taking a quick look around, I made sure there wasn’t another person within listening distance and I whispered, “Did you really get a DUI?”
Answering the question wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped it would be, but with a great gulp, Kulti tipped his chin down.
Well. That wasn’t exactly shocking. He’d been blitzed out of his mind when I’d picked him up from that bar months ago. People made mistakes all the time. He had a right to make them as much as the next person. “Okay,” I told him simply. “Thank you for telling me.”
His gaze flickered from one of my eyes to the other before he took a shallow breath and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the force. “I was in a bad place after I retired,” he explained in that low voice that I liked, unexpectedly. “I was very angry and I picked up a bad habit I’m not proud of.”
I nodded slowly, still keeping an eye out to make sure no one was around. “Do you need help?” I whispered.
Kulti’s eye started to twitch, but he shook his head. “I’ve been sober for over a year.”
I closed one eye and made a face. His timeframe was debatable.
“With the exception of that one day, I have no problem not drinking, but once I start…” Kulti knuckled his brow bone. Thiswashard for him to admit. Who wanted to admit their failures? Not me. Definitely not him. “I let myself down, and I know there are people that this news could disappoint even more. There won’t be any bars in my future anymore either way. I would rather stay home.” He nudged me. “Or at your home.”
Yeah, I was a total sucker, forgiving people way too easily.
My facial expression must have said that because he nudged me again. “You and I fight, yes? It’s in our nature. I think you should get used to the idea.” The corners of his mouth tipped up just a bit. “Are we fine now?” he asked earnestly, expectantly.
Were we? I knew what the polite thing to say would be, but I wasn’t a liar. At least I wasn’t usually. I told Kulti the truth. “Mostly. You’re still a jackass for what you said, but I’ll forgive you because I know you were upset and some people say things they don’t mean in the heat of the moment. So as long as you don’t say something so stupid again, I can live with it this once, Reindeer.”
The look he gave me was blank for so long, I wasn’t expecting him to react the way he did. I thought for sure he’d argue with me some more about how I needed to get over being pissed at him, however small the amount.
He didn’t.
Instead almost a minute after I finished talking, the doors were opening to the main level of the office building; Kulti burst out laughing. I swear he said something like “Reindeer” under his monster laughs.
Chapter Nineteen
“Hey, Gen. Good morning,” I said to Genevieve as she walked by me the afternoon of our next game, two days after the meeting in Gardner’s office.
The younger girl, who had always been friendly with me, kept on going. Her eyebrows went up as she walked by and that was that.
Now, I didn’t think too much about it. I was used to being around girls. Girls with all kinds of reactions to their periods: the ones who got unnaturally angry, the ones that cried, girls who retreated within themselves, the ones who wanted to stuff their face all day—all those and more. It wasn’t a big deal. Mood swings, been there done that.
I figured maybe she was having a crappy day or something. There was also the possibility she was on her period. Who knows.
Not even fifteen minutes later, right at the beginning of the team’s warm-up, I overheard someone behind me. “Did you see the pictures?”
I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the person speaking, and I didn’t want to turn around until I heard a little more. It wasn’t like there were any other pictures besides mine and Kulti’s, but whatever.
“What pictures?” the other voice asked in a regular volume.
A second later, the original speaker said “Shut up,” and was then followed up by “Ouch.”
Now speaking in a lower voice, the second person asked, “What pictures?” in a whisper.