Page 13 of The Christmas Mistake

I hear Aidan groan loudly again from his living room. The TV is on full blast. The commentators also seem to be as equally pissed off about our team’s inept quarterback as we are.

I come back to the couch and hand Aidan another beer, hoping it’ll quiet him down. He’s perched on the very edge of the furniture, straining in such high tension that I’m afraid he might pop like an overinflated balloon. Sport does this to him, but I totally understand. Even though I might appear calm, I too am heavily invested in our continuously losing team.

This is how Aidan and I have bonded over the past year. Nothing brings men together more than hope despite constant failure. And that’s our chosen team’s raison d’etre. They say insanity is repeating the same mistake over and over and expecting different results, well then Aidan and I must be certifiable crazy to follow this gang of losers.

“I can’t watch this anymore,” I say, pointing at the scores. There’s no way we can claw our way to victory on those points.

My words seem to make Aidan see sense. He leans back into the couch, sighs, then drinks his beer. He’s given up.

“I swear you or I could outperform these guys,” he says.

“I don’t doubt it.”

“What a pathetic excuse for athletes.”

“Yep.”

“Why do we put ourselves through this every week?” he asks me.

I shrug and swig my beer. “Because we’re masochists,” I reply.

“Yep, that must be the reason. Every fucking week.”

We chink our bottles together and drink to our insanity.

“Hey, I’m thinking of asking a girl out,” Aidan says, turning away from the TV.

“Oh yeah?”

He blushes. “She’s actually someone we both know. Someone we work with.”

My ears prick up.

“That’s exciting. Who is the lucky lady?”

Aidan smiles and circles the rim of his beer bottle with his finger, fidgeting. He avoids my eye contact. He doesn’t want to tell me.

“Someone I don’t think you’ll approve of, Nicholas.”

There’s a lot of women who work in our office that I don’t approve of. He’ll have to narrow this down.

“Who is it, Aidan? Come on, the suspense is killing me here.”

He blows out a lungful of air.

“Chastity. The girl who works in social media.”

“Chastity Wilde?”

Oh, I certainly don’t approve.

“Yep. The very same.”

Aidan waits for my reaction. I don’t disappoint him.

“You want to ask out Chastity Wilde? On a date?”

“Yeah, sure,” Aidan replies. “Look, I know you two don’t get on…”