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“We’re going out for celebratory drinks,” Leo said, tucking Jacqueline closer to his side.

I nodded a silent hello to his girlfriend as they finally reached where Josh and I stood.

I didn’t bother with formal introductions between Josh and the others, in an attempt to conceal Josh’s identity as much as I could.

However, people usually figured out who he was after talking with him.

“Where at?” I asked, sliding my towel off my neck and dabbing it on my forehead. I always sweated a ton after a game of rugby.

I glanced over at Nicole, who stood on Jacqueline’s other side and watched me dab my skin with a focused expression. Good focus? Bad focus? Who the hell knew? I could practically feel her eyes on me, though.

“Two blocks away,” Leo pointed in the general direction behind me, and I nodded.

“Sorry, unfortunately—”

“Taylor would love to go,” Josh said, standing beside me and wrapping one of his long arms around my shoulders. “I’m Josh, what are your names?”

I guessed Josh wasn’t worried about these people recognizing him.

“Leo,” The Englishman, as Josh referred to him, held his hand out for him to shake, “This is my partner, Jacqueline.” Josh shook her hand too, nodding with a polite smile behind his sunglasses, “And this is Nicole. We all work together.”

“Where do you work?” Josh asked, shaking Nicole’s hand last and dropping it. I crossed my arms, determined not to look embarrassed or uncomfortable with Josh’s obvious prying.

“Sun Steer Technologies,” Nicole replied.

“With the solar-powered, self-steering tractors,” Susie chimed in, tossing the ball carelessly in the air, “A boy in my class just did his report on them.”

“No shit,” Josh raised his eyebrows behind his glasses, “That’s where you work? That technology is insane.” Josh emphasized his point by making an exploding sound with his mouth and gesturing with his hand near his head.

“See that guy over there?” Nicole gave Josh a conspiratorial look as she pointed to Zaid, “He’s the one who built most of the software.”

“Wow,” Josh stared at my teammate for a moment before glaring down at me, “You didn’t tell me your rugby team had cool fucking people on it.”

I also didn’t tell them that the most famous rock star in the world regularly attended our rugby matches with his daughter. But, whatever.

I shrugged, “My bad.”

“Don’t say ‘fuck’ so much,” Susie scolded her dad, tossing the ball in the air again, “It’s lazy.”

Everyone’s eyes widened at the nine-year-old dropping the f-bomb. Except mine, of course. After being friends with Josh and Courtney for over a decade, I was used to the way they parented their daughter.

“You’re right,” Josh nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dollar bill to hand to his daughter. She didn’t even make eye contact as she reached her hand out for him to slap it in her palm. She pocketed the bill with ease before turning to me with wide eyes.

“Want to pass with me for a bit?”

“T is gonna go get drinks with their team, Suse,” Josh stepped forward, holding his arms up, “But I’ll pass with you.”

“T can speak for themself,” I replied with a lifted eyebrow.

“T needs to go celebrate with the team like a good team captain.” Josh lifted his middle finger at me behind his back so his daughter couldn’t see.

“This is getting tense,” Leo murmured, lowering his head toward Jacqueline’s ear.

“Please don’t feel pressured to come.” That was Nicole’s voice, and if I had ears like a dog or something, they would have perked right up: “There’s always next time.” Nicole looked down at the ground after she spoke, making me suspect that she was nervous to speak up.

But she was talking to me directly, which didn’t happen often.

So, I was joining her.

“No, no,” I shook my head, pulling my jersey from myself and cringing from the reek of it, “Shit, I smell like ass, though.”

“I told you,” Susie chimed in before tossing the ball to Josh.

“We all do,” Leo emphasized his point by tugging Jacqueline closer to his body. She wrinkled her nose in disgust while pulling away from him.

“Good point,” I lifted a shoulder, trying to find the calm, cool, confident Taylor that I usually am, “I’m down. Bye, nerds.” I turned back to Susie and Josh, still tossing the rugby ball back and forth, and lifted my fingers in a parting peace sign.

Susie returned the gesture, but Josh caught the ball and held it as he asked, “You’re still good for Saturday?”

I gave him a thumbs up as I bent down to scoop up my bag, “More than ready.”

“Bring Nerf guns!” Susie called again. I gave her a thumbs up too, before turning toward Leo and the women to follow them off the field.

“…What are you doing Saturday?” Jacqueline asked as she blindly reached for Leo’s hand.

I remembered a while back when Leo and I chatted about possible ways to help Jacqueline during that time.

As he described Jacqueline to me, my internal neurodivergent person radar was going off.

Based on how well she responded to the advice I gave Leo; I was under the impression that I was correct.

“Babysitting,” I replied, adjusting to shoulder my bag.

I walked next to Nicole, and I really wished that I had a chance to shower or something instead.

She smelled amazing. Something floral, and I couldn’t tell if it was perfume or shampoo, or deodorant.

All I knew was that I wanted to lean in and absorb myself in it.

But I didn’t do that, because I’m not a creep.

I stayed a respectable distance away, walking side-by-side with the others, and kept my cool.

“That girl needs a babysitter?” Leo asked, glancing over his shoulder to where we left Susie and Josh.

“Not really,” I admitted, “But her baby brother, and our friends’ five-year-old and her baby brother do.”

I saw Jacqueline wince, “That sounds like a lot.”

I grinned, “The babies are relatively easy, as long as they’re fed and played with. The five-year-old tries to be in charge of everyone, though.”

“That’s cute,” Nicole’s lips lifted in a smile as she stared ahead to where we were walking, and I wished deep in my bones that she would direct it toward me. But no, I smelled like sweat, so I knew I wouldn’t be my most flirtatious self today.

No, if I were going to go out of my way to flirt with Nicole, I wanted to be showered. Fresh.

I also needed to determine if she wanted me to flirt with her, which was weirdly difficult for me to do for some reason.

I felt like I was in my early twenties, navigating the dating scene for the first time, instead of my late thirties; someone who had dated the ish out of almost every queer person in Orange County.

“Babies scare me,” Jacqueline murmured.

“Not me,” I replied.

“That’s right,” Leo perked up, stepping ahead of us with Jacqueline as the sidewalk narrowed. We were walking in pairs now, and I both preened and cringed at the thought of Nicole being stuck walking next to smelly me, “T works with babies every day.”

I nodded, “From the age of twelve months to three years old.”

Nicole turned to look up at me, her dark eyes scanning my face as she asked her question, “What do you do for work?”

“I’m an occupational therapist,” I faced forward, attempting to conceal my blush from such close, direct eye contact with her, “I work with children who have delays. I help them get up to speed and teach their parents how to support them better.”

I glanced back down at Nicole, and my heart thumped in my chest from being in such close proximity to her.

Nicole widened her eyes, her lip turned up in the corner, “That’s so cool.”

Not as cool as being a CFO at Sun Steer , I thought to myself, but hey, I’d take it.

“It’s fun,” I grinned, allowing myself one bold once over. How would she feel in my hands? She had soft curves, curves that I wanted to grab and hold and pull into myself. The flare of her hips under those khaki shorts called to me.

Would Nicole like my touch? I made a mental note in my head tonight to determine if Nicole was queer. And if she was, how queer was she? I started creating a list of queer bands and movies to ask her about, to see how she reacted to them.

Her short fingernails looked promising, though.

Nicole snapped her head forward, and I scolded myself for being so bold and checking her out.

You still smell like ass, T , I reminded myself as I faced forward.

“Here we are,” Leo announced, holding the door open to a small local bar. He was a gentleman and held it open for everyone, but I still gestured for Nicole to step ahead of me with Jacqueline.

The noise of the bar sucked me out of my lustful fantasies of my teammate’s co-worker, and I gave myself one more mental talking-to before following everyone to the bar and ordering a drink.

Just a little bit of flirting today.

I was here to hang out with my teammate, his girlfriend, and their coworker.

Nothing sexual.

Nothing presumptuous.

Then I would go home and promptly shower and grab my toy until I saw stars.