Read Online Interference by Michelle Berry - Free Book Online Page A

just matters that you hit the damn puck. You really hit it.” And everyone laughs. Someone has brought beer and they all sit there on the change-room benches half in and half out of their equipment, and some of them drink a beer. Just one. Someone starts talking about the weather and Dayton quickly realizes that she has no idea of the winter that is to come even if she grew up in Toronto, that she can’t predict the future any more than she can justify stealing Carrie away from John and leaving California.
    He’ll find her someday soon. Losing is for losers. John does not think he is a loser. Someday John will show up on her front doorstep. He’ll look at that big honking tree in front of her house reaching out to grab him and eat him, and he’ll take Carrie back with him and things will never be the same. He always does this kind of thing. He surprises her with his predictability and Dayton is sure that his next surprise will be huge, and destructive.
    But, for now, it’s Dayton 1 , John 0 . Dayton scored a goal. Who cares, she thinks, if it was in the wrong net?

Build-Your-Bear™
    Your way is the right way . . .
    Come Build, Come Play, Come Love.
    Your Bear.
    Dear Ms. Patricia Birk,
    We are writing to inform you that we are considering serving you with a Cease and Desist order regarding your line of specialty bears. Here at Build-Your-Bear™ we take pride in our uniqueness. Your “The Bear Company” has trod all over our brand. Are you even trademarked? The variety of clothes you offer — everything from tutus to three-piece, pin-striped business suits — the custom-made Career Bears, including Astronaut Bear and Plumber Bear, even the line of Sports Bears, were all original creations of Build-Your-Bear™. We are aware, of course, that you cannot possibly be operating on the scale of our company, but it has come to our attention that there are several similarities with your bears that are simply too close for us to ignore. How many other people have thought to make a Lady Gaga Bear, for example? Or a Dick Cheney Bear? We can understand your Obama Bear, but a bear based on Richard Nixon seems unlikely to be an original idea without the backing of the major advertisers that we have.
    At the moment we will not serve you with papers. However, if you do not prove to us that your ideas are original AND cease making these bears, we will be forced to take legal action.
    Build-Your-Bear™ goes back many years. We were founded in 1997. We are proud of creating original bears for young girls and boys that, when combined with certain clothes and accessories, make each bear someone highly recognizable. Besides, we had to pay for permission to create look-alikes of the famous celebrities. Why shouldn’t you?
    Sincerely,

    Maisy Crank
    CEO and Head Bear of Build-Your-Bear™
    Madison, Wisconsin

4
    Is it any wonder, Trish thinks, that I’m always yelling? This morning, for example, the candy bar wrapper on the front-hall bench, the rotting apple in the lunch bag, the gym clothes on the kitchen table. And Rachel’s basketball rolling at her feet. Every morning she trips on the damn thing. Plus the dog. He’s underfoot all the time. Trish finds herself leaning over him to fill up the kettle in the sink. It’s easier to bend over him, as he lies there on the floor like he thinks he’s the kitchen rug, than to tell him to “move it” every fifteen seconds. Trish gets tired of saying the same thing over and over. He slinks back. That’s the problem: he leaves — at least he listens to her at first — but suddenly he is there again, always underfoot. She didn’t want the dog but she’s the one who has to deal with him. And he latched onto her as if she were his long lost mother. Everyone else gives him love, walks him, feeds him, Trish does nothing, but the damn dog is always following her around, sticking to her like glue.
    They all