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“Hey, mom, are you almost done? Coach is here.” Max jumps up and down in the kitchen as I am finishing up some of the dishes for Martha.
“You two go ahead. We’ll finish up here.” Martha says with a smile.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Yep. Get that boy to the arcade before he jumps out of his skin.” She laughs watching Max race back out the door.
I go to the back to wash up and to try to settle the nervousness I feel in my stomach. It’s not like this is a date or anything. Right?
Walking outside, I see Brian and Max standing beside a car in the parking lot so I head in their direction.
“Here you go.” Brian says, holding the front passenger door open for me.
“Thank you.” I say, taking a seat inside.
I honestly thought he’d have some kind of fancy sports car or something since he was a well known ball player. Instead it’s just a regular kind of car. Brand new but still not what you would think a guy like him would drive.
Max talks non-stop all the way to the pizza place. Pulling up into their parking lot you can tell that it is packed this evening. I figured it would be, which is the cause of some of the nervousness I feel. What if someone says something nasty to Brian about me? He probably wouldn’t ask me out again, that’s for sure.
***
Brian
We are seated in a booth towards the back closer to the arcade entrance. This place is really huge and is packed with kids running around everywhere.
I made sure to buy a hundred dollars worth of tokens for Max as we walked in. Becky looked like her eyes would bug out at the amount and Max was extremely appreciative. It feels amazing to give something to a kid that really appreciates what he gets. He’s a lot different than most kids these days.
As our drinks are delivered, I look over at Becky. She is so beautiful but I don’t think she actually knows that she is. She doesn’t wear makeup as far as I have seen and honestly, she doesn’t need it. She’s just naturally beautiful.
“He’ll probably spend all of that within thirty minutes.” She chuckles nervously.
“Then, we’ll get a hundred dollars more.” I smile at her.
“I don’t want him getting used to that like it's an everyday thing.” She looks hard at me.
“Becky, I seriously doubt he’d ever think like that. You have raised a truly great kid. Most kids are unappreciative of what others give to them. I don’t think you have that to worry about.”
I reach over, putting my hand over the top of hers on the table. She looks up at me quickly but doesn’t try to pull away. I take that as a good sign.
We stay like that for several minutes until someone walks up to our table. Becky pulls her hand away quickly and I look up to see who interrupted us.
“Well hello Coach Brian. I’m surprised to see you here.” She looks between Becky and I.
“Mrs. Hall.” I say in greeting to Karen. “We brought Max to play in the arcade and get some pizza.” I smile broadly, reaching over, grabbing Becky’s hand again and lacing our fingers together.
Karen notices and seems to curl her lip a little.
“Yes, well, I bring Luke here every Sunday. He loves it.” She says, still not speaking directly to Becky. “I see our food is at our table now. We’ll see you at practice tomorrow.” She turns on her heels and walks away without another word.
Becky starts to laugh behind her hand a little bit, trying hard to not laugh out loud.
“Why are you laughing?” I ask her seriously.
“They are going to eat you alive at practice tomorrow.” She shakes her head. “If after that, you decide you don’t really want to acknowledge me in public again, I’ll understand.” She says sadly trying to pull her hand away.
Gripping her hand tighter, I bring it to my lips and kiss the tips of her fingers.
“There is not a damn thing those people could say to me that would ever make me not want to speak to you. In public or otherwise.” My statement and the look I give her, causes her to gasp. “Our food is here.” I grin wide, turning to the server.
