Letters
Caesar rubbed his arm against his side to try to soothe the itching that the new tattoos were causing. It’d been a couple days and he could barely remember why he’d decided to go through with it, but at least they weren’t dumb enough for him to need to get it removed. That would’ve been a chore.
He spotted Kaley standing in a line for food and walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her.
She tensed and looked back over her shoulder, relaxing when she saw who it was. “You know people get stabbed for doing that kind of stuff, right?”
“How many people have you stabbed, killer?” Caesar asked, laughing. He glanced up at the menus for the restaurant she was standing in front of. “I don’t like anything up there. You really should’ve picked a better place.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that I didn’t come here thinking about what you wanted to eat, isn’t it?” She smacked his arm playfully. Feeling the plastic covering, she looked down and pulled at it. “What happened to your arm?”
“I texted you yesterday and told you I got a tattoo. I even sent you a picture of it,” he said.
Kaley stepped away from him and turned around. “I didn’t think that you were being serious and I figured you googled something to make your joke more believable. I mean, you were pretty wasted when you called me at like 4 in the morning yesterday.”
“Well, I was being serious. Obviously.” He pointed at his arm for emphasis.
“What does it even say?” she asked before peeling the tape off the plastic to pull it off.
“Aut Caesar, aut nihil.”
She glanced up from his arm. “Okay, for those of us who don’t speak dead languages. Or do you not know and neither does the person who did this?”
“Har har har. It means ‘either a Caesar or nothing.’ You know like a Roman emperor. And because I’m a Caesar already. Literally by birth.”
“That sounds exactly like something someone would think up while they were drunk on Bourbon Street. I’d almost rather you’d told me you’d found some random girl to fuck because at least that line of thinking would make sense,” she said, rolling her eyes and putting the plastic covering back in place.
“Is that a hall--”
“No.” Her answer was sharp and quick and left no room for discussion.
“Just checking. It’s no more absurd than you walking around with the Greek alphabet on your clothes, though.”
“It’s a good thing I’m not then.”
“Just because it hasn’t come in yet. I was there when you ordered that jacket, Kappa,” he said, laughing.
Kaley rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. A cashier stepped up to the counter, holding a bag, and called her name. Caesar followed her as she went to get the food, raising an eyebrow at the fact there was only one box inside the bag.
“Looks like you’re missing something there,” he said. He reached for the bag but she pulled it away.
“No, I have everything I ordered, and I remember someone saying that they didn’t like anything there so keep your eyes off my plate,” she said as she walked toward a set of tables in the food court.
“You know we eat together. You’re ruining traditions and shit. I would say this is grounds for a re-evaluation of our relationship.”
“Did you eat yesterday?”
“Well, yeah.”
“What about the day before?”
Caesar scrunched his lips to the side before answering. “Yes?”
“And which one of those days was I with you?”
“That’s not the point here. We’re talking about you. Not me.”
Kaley laughed as she came to a table where Gia, Janelle, and a few other girls were already sitting. She sat down in the only empty chair around the table, leaving Caesar to grab one from another table.
“Are you really going to sit there and let me starve? You don’t want me to starve to death, do you?” he asked as she pulled the box out of the bag and popped it open.
“You can get fucking free food if you just walk your ass across the campus,” Kaley said, swatting his hand away when he reached for the box.
Janelle glanced over at Caesar and raised an eyebrow at his begging for food. “Aren’t you able to buy that a few thousand times over?”
“You don’t have to get involved in this over here, you know?” Caesar said, waving his hand in a circle between himself and Kaley. He turned to Gia. “Talk some sense into your roommate and tell that she should quite literally break bread with me.”
“Why are you asking me to help you?” Gia asked, laughing.
“Kaley, who’s this thirsty – hot, but thirsty – guy you got following you around?” one of the other three girls asked.
“He would be my dickhead boyfriend,” Kaley said before she dug into the gyro she ordered.
“Dickhead? Yikes. You aren’t pulling any punches today,” Caesar said.
“That’s because everyone saw how you shut down that bar the other night and here you are asking someone else for shit,” Janelle said.
“You know, I went to high school with a girl named Janelle.”
“What’s your point?”
“I didn’t like her ass either.”
“You’ll survive.”
“Wait,” the girl who asked who he was said. “You’re the guy who was all on social media buying everyone bottles and shit?”
Caesar sat back in his chair. “A little rude for you to ask about my pockets and I don’t even know your name.”
“I’m Daisy. That’s Becky and Shari,” she said, pointing to the two girls sitting next to her. “So, was that you?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t that much.”
Shari slapped Kaley on the arm. “Here I was jealous of Gia and you’re the one we should be watching.”
“It’s all fun and games until you find out that he acts like this if you don’t feed him like he’s a 6-foot toddler,” Kaley said.
“I’m a 6’6” toddler. Thank you very much,” Caesar said, reaching toward her plate again only to get his hand swatted once more.
“Probably hung like a toddler, too,” Janelle said.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Becky laughed. “I actually would like to know because the whole tall guy thing has to be about more than just being tall.” She turned to Kaley. “We’ll talk later."
“Yeah, we won’t,” Kaley said.
“Gia, find out for me when she isn’t being so shy and it’s just the two of you.”
Gia looked up from her phone. “I’ll pass. That’s more than I need to know about him.”
“Anyway,” Janelle said. “We need to pick up our tickets for the game.”
Caesar gave up trying to steal Kaley’s food as they shifted the subject to the game that weekend. He needed to remember to revisit his conversation with Kaley about a pre-game ritual so he could get into a routine – or just so he could get some guaranteed sex before games. Either or.
He glanced over at Gia who’d buried her head back in her phone. She looked over at him for a second, winked and went back to whatever it was she was doing.
-*****-
Devin rubbed his temples, beginning to feel a tension headache forming after a couple hours of studying for an exam he had on Friday. It didn’t help that he wasn’t able to convince the instructor to let him take the exam Monday with the first game of the season on Saturday. Something about not wanting to give preferential treatment to athletes.
If the game wasn’t in New Orleans, he wouldn’t even be in the damn city on a Friday before the game and accommodations would’ve been made. He didn’t see a difference just because it was a home game.
He shoved his laptop away before standing up from his desk to stretch. Walking to the window, he looked out over the small bit of the campus that he could see from there as the sun set over Uptown. He did sometimes wish the dorms were taller so he could have a view of the river.
Maybe that was something he would look into if he got an off-campus apartment.
Picking up his phone from his bed, he answered a text from Carla. As he waited for her answer, he thought about the fact that his life was about to get as hectic as it had ever been, and he’d already been feeling guilty about not being as attentive to his relationship with Carla as he probably should’ve been.
He sighed and sent her another text.
’Where are you? I’m gonna come see you.’
’At the library. I’ll send you the location.
A few moments later, she sent him the location to UNO’s library.
’Cool. See ya in a bit.’
She replied with a kiss and a heart emoji.
…
Twenty minutes later, Devin backed into a parking space on the street outside of the library. He noticed all of the cards had university parking placards and wondered if his car would get towed if he left it there. New Orleans, in general, was notorious for overzealous meter maids and the last thing he wanted to do with his time was get his car out of an impound lot in New Orleans East.
Deciding that his Tulane student placard would be deceiving enough to a lazy attendant, he put it out of his mind.
Walking into the building, he followed the instructions that Carla had sent him and found her sitting in one of the study rooms with her laptop open in front of her. A second laptop was also on the table.
“Hey!” she said, jumping up when he walked into the room and throwing her arms around his neck to give him a kiss. “You should randomly come visit me more often.”
Devin smiled as the two of them sat down at the table. “You know I would if I could. There’s just always something. Meetings, practice, class, film, workouts. Then you throw the season starting on top of that this weekend.”
“Yeah, I know it’s crazy,” she said. She put her hand on his leg. “I know you’re trying. I know I don’t make it seem like I know that, but I just want you to hear me say so.”
“I could be doing a better job of making things work.”
“Oh, guess what?”
“You won the lotto and we’re going to buy a private villa in Bali?”
“No, but good idea for something for you to do when you sign one of those contracts like Caesar did. We can split the cost. You pay 99 percent and I’ll pay 1 percent.”
Devin laughed. “I don’t think I’m going to be getting image deals like Caesar does.”
“Wishful thinking never hurt anyone,” she said, shrugging. “But what I was going to say is that I’m coming to the game Saturday. Gina knows someone who has LSU season tick—”
“I go to Tulane.”
Carla smacked his shoulder. “I know that. If you would’ve let me finish. She knows someone who has LSU season tickets, and they aren’t going to their game Saturday so she was given them. She sold them and used the money to buy us tickets to y’all’s game.”
“For someone who claims to not like football, that’s a lot of work to go to a football game,” Devin said, laughing.
“She just wants to get out of Houma. I think she’s going stir crazy with everyone off at college places other than Nicholls.”
Devin scratched his chin. “I think we’ve lost every game that Gina has been at. Maybe tell her to not come until the fourth quarter so we can get a bit of a lead first.”
“That’s not even true, asshole!”
“Definitely is. She was at that one playoff game and when we played Euless.”
“Maybe,” Carla said, leaning closer to him. “Y’all just fucking sucked.”
Devin laughed at what she said, but he knew the look in her eye. It was one that said she was finished studying. He was just about to suggest that they either go back to her room or drive back across town to Tulane’s campus – praying that Caesar was occupied elsewhere – when the door to the study room opened.
A guy walked in carrying two coffees and a bag. “Sorry, that took so long. Apparently their toaster oven thing broke so I had to wait for them to fix it to get these bagels.” He noticed Devin when he looked up. “Oh, hey. What’s up, man?”
Devin gave him a head nod.
Carla took one of the coffees from him. “Thanks, Ricky. Ricky, this is my boyfriend, Devin.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ricky said, offering his hand to Devin which he shook. “I wish she would’ve told me you were coming. I feel bad showing up with stuff and not having anything for you.”
“You’re good. I’m not much of a coffee drinker,” Devin said, waving the comment off with his hand. He turned back to Carla and said quietly, “You want to go back to your room?”
“Just give me like thirty minutes to finish going through this stuff,” she said as she sipped from the coffee and had turned her attention back to her laptop.
Devin shrugged and leaned back in his chair, pulling out his phone and starting to scroll through his social media accounts.
He had no problem sitting right where he was for thirty minutes.