The Magic Broom (2 page)

Shane’s nearness. By the fifth slice, Cody felt ill. Eating a ton
of greasy food always sounded like a good idea, but it rarely
did anything except make him feel like crap. By Kira’s
second slice, and third beer, she was leaning against Pete
and giggling. Cody poked her in the arm, but she ignored
him. He was never going to get her back on track.
“So, what do you do?” Shane asked as he swept his hair
away from his brown eyes.
“Do?”
“Yeah, you know, do, like as a job, or are you a kept
man? Maybe independently wealthy?” Shane’s eyes glittered,
and his knee brushed against Cody’s leg.
Cody squeaked and tried to pretend his leg wasn’t on
fire. “I write for the
Tribune
.”
“Nice,” Shane said.
“What do you do?” Cody asked. He really wanted to ask
Shane to do him, but didn’t think that was appropriate. “Just finished up with school. I got my master’s in
business,” Shane said.
Cody may have swooned. Shane was cute
and
smart. They were an interesting bunch of guys. When Cody
excused himself to use the bathroom, he stumbled over a
pile of brooms stacked up in the hallway. Who kept a pile of
brooms? Maybe they all worked for a cleaning company to
make money while they were in school.
The brooms were different shapes and sizes. A few had
hairy heads, but most were covered with fabric. They had
names written on them like The Hammer, Vapor, and
Performance.
Cody had never seen anything like them. He was going
to ask what they were, but Shane came around the corner
and grinned at him. The smile made him stutter, stumble
into the wall, and forget what he was doing in the hallway. A
warm hand on his shoulder steadied him before he did
something stupid like knock over a tower of boxes. Shane was so close to him he could see the individual
hairs that made up the stubble on his jaw line. Cody must
be imagining all this stuff. Just because he wanted Shane to
be gay didn’t mean he was. He was probably married to a
woman with 2.5 children and a dog stashed somewhere. He
was getting so excited his leg was vibrating.
“Your phone is buzzing,” Shane said, pointing at Cody’s
crotch.
“Oh shit, yeah, thanks,” Cody said. He pulled the phone
out and read the text. “Fuck.”
“Problem?” Shane asked.
“I have an interview at 7:00 a.m. I need to go crash,”
Cody said.
Shane’s smile slid off his face, and he sighed. “Yeah,
we’ve got an early call too.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Cody said, sagging against
the wall.
“I don’t have a lot of time right now, but we should hang
out some time,” Shane said.
Dammit, Cody needed Kira right now. He was tempted
to brush his hand against Shane’s, but he didn’t know if he
was interpreting the signals correctly or if he was making
them up in his head.
“Yeah, that would be cool,” Cody said. He sounded like a
moron. He was terrible at this chitchat shit.
“There you are,” Kira moaned. “I drank too much.” “Wonderful. We need to leave anyway, because we have
to be up before the crack of fucking dawn.” Cody frowned
and turned to Shane. “She’s going to be a nightmare in the
morning.”
Shane laughed and patted him on the shoulder. His
touch made Cody’s shoulder burn and his cock twitch. Who
knew a touch on the shoulder could trigger his cock? Shane
must have the magic touch.
They said their good-byes, and Kira stumbled up to her
apartment. Cody made sure she got inside.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. She kissed him on the
cheek and smiled at him. “That was an interesting dinner.” “Wait,” he said, feeling like a kid on a sugar rush. “What
do you think of Shane?”
“The jury’s still out.”
Cody groaned. “I hate you.”
She patted him on the cheek. “I know, but we did good
tonight. We talked to people and actually had a good time.” Her laughter echoed down the hall, but Cody knew she
was right. It wasn’t normal to be so unsociable all the time.
Life was passing them by because of a few bad relationships.
Maybe it was time to get back in the game.

M
ORNING
came too quickly. Technically, it didn’t seem like morning because the sun wasn’t even up yet. No one should be up at this ungodly hour in the winter. People should be more like bears and hibernate during winter. The things he did for a story.

Kira was already sitting on his couch when he stumbled out of his bedroom, half-dressed and unshaven.
“Hello, gorgeous,” Kira said, grinning at him like a lovesick loon. How could she not be hungover or look tired?
Cody eyed her and sneered. She ignored him and helped him get into his boots and coat. She wrapped a scarf around his neck and kissed him on the nose.
“Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled.
It seemed like the entire building was still asleep. Cody wondered if Shane was snuggled under a warm blanket, peacefully sleeping and maybe dreaming about him. The cold air smacked him in the face and woke him up, freezing his vision of a naked Shane.
“God, it’s beautiful out here,” Kira said, flinging some snow in the air.
“Are you nuts? It’s fucking cold, and I don’t want to do this,” he growled at her. She kissed him on the cheek. “I hate you. And quit kissing me.”
He swiped his glove across his cheek. She kissed him again and giggled as she skipped to the car. “Pete texted me last night.”
She did some strange pirouette, and Cody considered dumping a bucket of snow on her head. No one should be that happy this early in the morning. He settled for making her drive to the park. It was about an hour away, so he could snooze during the drive.
His plans were thwarted by Kira blasting the radio and singing loudly and off-key with the songs. During the commercials, she talked about Pete.
“What about Shane?” Cody whined.
“I don’t know. You shared a box with him and then talked to him in the hallway. He watched you a lot and stayed near you, but I can’t be sure,” she said. “What do you think?”
Cody deflated. “I don’t know. I never know.”
“You could just ask him,” she said and then launched into the next song.
Cody endured five more songs and two commercial breaks before the snow-covered park came into view. This was so crazy. He hated his editor right now and had to restrain himself from calling the jerk and shouting at him.
“There’s people out here,” Kira said.
“What did you expect? I’m not out here for my own health,” he said.
“Here comes someone,” she said.
He quickly checked his phone for a name as a woman with huge, muscular thighs that rippled when she walked came over to the car. He opened the door and was smacked in the face by a cold wind again. He shivered.
“You must be Charlene,” Cody said as he got out of the car. Charlene grinned at him and shook his hand.
“Your stuff is in the warming house. You can change in there.” She pointed to a small shack.
“Change into what?” Cody asked.
Charlene snickered. “Your boss called my coach and told him he wanted you to have the full experience of crosscountry skiing.”
“Oh, yippee,” Cody mumbled, smiling weakly. He hadn’t thought the guy was serious when he said he wanted Cody to experience the sport.
Kira burst out laughing. Once again, Cody thought about dumping snow on her head, but she’d probably get the best of him and he’d end up with snow shoved down his pants.
The two women started talking like they were lifelong friends. Cody headed toward the warming house, trying to ignore the two giggling women. He was pretty sure they were laughing at him. Kira was probably warning Charlene about Cody’s total lack of athletic ability.
He sat on the bench in the warming house and opened the bag.
“Oh shit,” Cody groaned when he looked at his outfit.
It took him fifteen minutes of acrobatic maneuvering to wiggle into the skintight suit. His goods were on display, which wasn’t all that impressive since it was so cold outside. His balls were trying to crawl back inside his body. Cody frowned and adjusted himself.
The boots were stiff and uncomfortable, but he managed to get outside without falling on his face. There was a pair of skis leaning against the building. He sat on another small bench, shivering and waiting for someone to show him how to get hooked up to the skis. The wind whipped, sending icicles up his spine. He felt like he was sitting outside in his underwear. Screw that; his underwear was warmer than this stupid suit.
Charlene skied over to him and helped him get his skis attached to his boots. He stood up without tipping over. Kira cheered, so he shot a glare at her.
He started the interview, using his phone to record the conversation. He asked Charlene the standard questions about her dreams and aspirations. She explained her sport to him, using very descriptive words that made Cody’s head hurt. The amount of work she put into her sport was either amazing or incredibly stupid, considering the only time anyone knew this sport even existed was for the two weeks when the Olympics were on television. That fact didn’t seem to bother Charlene. She loved her sport.
When he asked her what she thought her chances of winning a gold medal were, she chuckled and said not very good, but the chance to compete at the Olympics was what drove her.
“How can you stand the cold?”
“It’s beautiful out here.”
“Really?” he asked, trying not to sound too sarcastic.
“Are you ready to give this a try?” Charlene asked.
He waved at Kira. He needed her to take his phone. There certainly weren’t any pockets in his outfit.
“Looking great, Cody,” Kira said and smacked his ass. “Fuck off,” Cody said and handed her his phone.
“Yeah.” Another voice came from over by his car. “Looking great, Cody.”
He cringed because he recognized that horrible voice. Derek the photographer was sitting on the hood of his car, holding his camera and sneering at Cody. His picture was going to be plastered all over the front page.
“Who invited him?” Kira asked. Derek lived to embarrass his coworkers. Cody would never live this down. He heard the camera click several times as he wobbled and weaved. He clenched his jaw and fought to ignore the idiot.
After a quick lesson on how to move his skis, Charlene took off like a rocket down the path.
Cody managed to push once before his skis got tangled and he did a face-plant into the cold snow. Kira rushed over and helped him straighten his skis out and stand again. Derek popped out from behind a tree and snapped some pictures. Cody thought about stabbing him with his ski pole, but Kira grabbed his arm, stopping him.
“Just forget about him,” Kira urged.
“Easy for you to say,” Cody grumbled and plodded forward into the snow. His muscles screamed in protest as he pushed further into the woods. When he fell down again, he lay in the snow for a few minutes and rolled around like a turtle that had been flipped on its back. Cody finally got to his feet by climbing up his ski poles. He was huffing and puffing and coughing so hard it felt like his lungs were going to fall out of his body.
Charlene snuck up behind him and poked him in the leg with her pole. He screamed and fell face-first into the cold snow again. Her laughter filled the forest and several other skiers rushed over to his aid or to laugh at him. He wasn’t sure. Everything was out of focus, and he was pretty sure his balls had shriveled up and frozen off.
They helped him get to his feet and half carried him back to his car. He was almost positive he could hear Derek snickering and taking more pictures.
He thanked Charlene for the morning workout and the other skiers for rescuing him from certain death. They all laughed and shook his hand. At least he’d made them laugh.
“You’re supposed to take the clothes with you. I’ll take care of the skis and boots,” Charlene said.
“Thanks again,” Cody said as he finally got his legs into the car. Kira was busy giggling into her phone, probably sending dirty texts to Pete.
His clothes were in the backseat, but Cody was too weak to get out of the spandex, so he kept it on for the ride home. Kira was going to have to cut him out of the stupid outfit.
By the time they got back to the apartment complex, Cody couldn’t move. Even his eyelashes ached. This assignment was going to kill him. He was beginning to believe that was his editor’s intention. Maybe he should write up his obit and e-mail it to the evil bastard.
The door handle refused to work, and Cody decided he would sit there until the spring thaw. Kira got out and opened the door for him. He must be pretty bad off since she didn’t laugh in his face. Instead, she offered her hand, trying to pull him out of the car.
“You need to help me a little bit,” she said.
“I can’t move,” he moaned. “Everything fucking hurts.”
Kira bit her lip to stop the laughter that kept bubbling up in her throat.
“I will end you if you laugh,” he threatened.
She swallowed the giggle and made some weird choking noise.
He glared at her and managed to get one leg out of the car. His muscles felt like they were going to snap like an overstretched rubber band.
“Hi, Kira,” Pete’s voice rang out.
Kira dropped Cody’s arm, and he almost fell out of the car. She waved at Pete and bolted across the parking lot. His stupid best friend was going to abandon him to freeze to death in the snow for some guy.
“Hi, Cody.”
It was just his luck that Shane would show up and see him dressed like a circus performer and unable to move.
“Oh hi, Shane,” Cody mumbled.
“You okay?” Shane asked.
“Not really,” Cody said. He felt Shane’s stare on his body as he tried to stand up.
“Were you skiing this morning?”
Cody frowned at Shane. Did the guy seriously think he dressed like this? He grabbed hold of the door and slowly pulled himself to a standing position. His knees almost buckled, and he thought he was going down again until he felt strong arms catch him.
“Are you okay?” Shane asked again.
“No,” Cody snapped. “My boss is evil and derives pleasure from making me suffer for my art. I’m writing a story. This was research.”
Shane stared at him until it made him wiggle uncomfortably. The last thing he needed was to get a hardon wearing spandex.
Robbie and Jay were shouting at Shane to get moving.
“You guys go ahead,” Shane said, waving them off. “Just give me a few minutes.”
Cody rolled his eyes. “If you have somewhere to be, don’t let me hold you up.”
“It’s fine. I’ll help you get inside. I think Kira is busy with Pete anyway.”
Busy?
Cody snorted. Pete had Kira pinned up against the car, kissing the stuffing out of her. Cody wanted to be happy for her, but it was hard to do when his whole body ached. Shane wrapped an arm around his waist and dragged him into the apartment building. Under normal circumstances, Shane’s touch would have taken his breath away, but right now, everything hurt too much.
They managed to make it to Cody’s couch. Cody didn’t know how he was going to get out of these stupid clothes.
“This is so embarrassing. Can you just help me get this shit off? I have to be at the ice rink in an hour, and I don’t want to show up looking like this.”
“You’re going to the rink?” Shane said. “To do what?”
“I don’t have a clue. Something with hockey. I can hardly wait.” Cody rolled his eyes and peeled the top part of the outfit off his chest. Shane knelt down in front of him and grabbed hold of his pants. He yanked, and suddenly, Cody was naked. He grabbed one of the pillows and dropped it in his lap. Shane blushed and ducked his head. It would have been totally adorable, if Cody hadn’t been dying of embarrassment.
“You good to go now? The guys are waiting for me,” Shane said. His voice cracked a little.
Cody managed to nod and keep a firm grip on his pillow. Shane headed for the door, but turned around at the last moment.
“You should do something physical to loosen up your muscles. It will help with the stiffness.” Shane winked and ducked out of the apartment.
Cody almost slid off the couch. The sentence dripped with innuendo, and Cody felt heat rush up to his ears. At least he wasn’t cold anymore.
It had been the perfect opportunity for Cody to talk dirty. A smartass comment about sex being a physical activity would have been perfect. He could have asked if Shane would have been willing to give him a hand.
Oh God, that was bad.
He was glad he didn’t open his mouth. Shane probably would have punched him in the face.
Kira came barreling into the apartment and sat down next to him.
“You do know you’re naked, right?” she said, lifting his pillow.
He slapped her hand away and put his pillow back into place.
“Anything I should know?” she asked.
“Er, nope,” he said. “Not unless you have anything for me? Is he or isn’t he?”
“I got nothing,” she said.
“You’re hopeless,” Cody said. She draped a blanket around his shoulders and hugged him. It would be nice to spend the rest of the day on the couch.
K
IRA
ushered him down a tunnel and out to a sheet of ice. Some guys had dressed him up in shoulder pads, elbow pads, shin guards, put a cup in his pants to protect his goods, slapped a helmet on his head, gave him some weird gloves that made picking up things difficult, and shoved a stick in his hand. The stick would come in handy when he needed something to lean on.
Someone helped him sit down so they could lace up his skates. He should tell them he needed to piss. Of course, they’d probably tell him that hockey players just pissed down their leg and kept playing.
Derek was sitting on the edge of the boards, swinging his legs and peering at the hockey players through his camera. It took all his willpower not to check the guy off the boards.
The first thing he noticed was ice was really slippery, and he spent several minutes gripping the boards like they were a lifeline. A few of the players came over and pried his fingers from the boards, dragging him around the rink until he was actually able to support himself.
The hockey players were funny and messed around with each other during warm-ups, but when that little black disc dropped, they turned into maniacs. Cody felt like a pingpong ball, being batted about and then smashed into the wall.
Something must be wrong with his skates. No one else kept falling down. Cody could hardly stay on his feet. Someone smacked him on the shin when the puck ended up on his stick. The next moment he was down on the ice with his face pressed against the cage of his helmet. That should be an interesting bruise. Someone would probably think he fell asleep with a waffle stuck to his face.
One bloody lip, a stinger in his elbow that made him want to cry for his mommy, and sore ribs from being tossed into the wall so many times he might have left a body imprint, Cody had completed the interview with the hockey players. He wished them luck in the upcoming Olympic tryouts and limped to the car.
The ride home was silent, except for an occasional moan from him when Kira hit a bump. Cody snapped at her when she hit the brakes too hard and his knee banged into the dash. She frowned at him and got out of the car, leaving him alone. It took him fifteen minutes to stand up and lock the car doors. It took another ten minutes to shuffle across the parking lot. By the time he made it to his apartment, sleeping where he dropped sounded very appealing. The only bright side of the whole fiasco was he survived day one of this nightmare assignment.