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“I still feel like I’m not old enough to be out in the real world,” he jokes.
“I know. I feel the same,” I agree, “It’s kind of scary actually.”
He touches my cheek. “We’ll figure it out together. You won’t be alone, okay?”
I smile, and I can feel the peace fill me instantly. “Okay.”
FORTY
NOW, WINTER
My phone rings, again, as I’m making my way out of my office and home for the day. I feel bad but I’ve been ignoring this call for a few weeks now. After that initial time I answered Haven’s call, she’s called a lot more but I’ve ignored her each time. I even started getting calls from her mom, but that was a call I absolutely could not answer. Not yet. Not ever, maybe.
David invited Elliot to play soccer tonight, so Maddie and I are going to be their cheerleaders. I meant to grab a change of clothes but I forgot, so I’m going to be the out of place moron in dress pants with a matching blazer and high heels at this indoor soccer field.
And of course I’m running late.
I drive just a tiny bit over the speed limit and still get there ten minutes late. I park and grab my phone before doing the high heel run inside the big building with a huge domed roof that says ‘SportPlex’ on the sign outside. There’s a little lobby inside but I follow the sound of the crowd and figure out easily where the giant indoor field is.
I walk in the doors and steer away from the large green field and towards the stands where masses of people sit. Who knew so many people came out to cheer for an adult rec soccer league?
I stand at the bottom of the bleachers, looking for my blonde. My eyes go over dozens before I see her small head and hands bobbing up and down trying to get my attention. I smile and make my way to her, trying not to trip or impale anyone with my heels.
She is obviously wearing her work outfit too, but her colorful flowing printed alphabet pants and white T-shirt are a little more fitting in this environment.
“Cute pants,” I say with a smile when I finally reach her.
“I know, right? I found a woman online who makes and sells teacher inspired clothes. I’ll never shop anywhere ever again,” she says while hugging me. We both sit and look forward to the field.
“I didn’t know Elliot could play soccer?” I say.
She shrugs. “Well, he played baseball. How different could they be?”
I look at her incredulously, “Like…ridiculously different, pollito,” I say and she waves my words away with her hand while making a face at me.
“Well, he’s fine. He’s very athletic,” she says and I give her a knowing smile.
“Oh I’m sure he is.”
“I didn’t mean like that,” she blushes. “Well it’s true…but I didn’t mean that, you punk!”
I laugh and lean my shoulder into hers before pulling away.
“You know David almost played in college right?” she asks, trying to make her voice seem even and uninterested but I can hear the underlying message.
“Yeah, until he tore his ACL in his senior year. Must have been awful,” I say.
“I can’t imagine,” Maddie says sympathetically, sadly.
I look at the players, men and women, trying to find the guys. “Where are they?”
“They’re on the green team,” she says, pointing out the players wearing neon green as opposed to the players wearing bright purple. “David is the one kind of like, towards the front and doing a lot of running. Elliot is staying near the goalie.” I spot each of them, noticing their positions.
“Oh, so David is a striker and Elliot is playing defense,” I say, watching David run full speed while keeping the soccer ball close to him, gracefully and impressively maneuvering it to keep it away from those trying to steal it. “Wow, he’s really good.”
“Yeah, he is,” Maddie agrees.
We watch the game while simultaneously talking about work and random topics. Maddie says that she wishes there was cotton candy at least five times. I can’t keep my eyes off of David though. He’s good—really good. He seems to glide across the turf, the soccer ball an extension of himself. He has total control. The other players barely get a chance to get close to him. It looks like he is completely in his element and it makes my heart sad to know he could have had a chance to go professional. I can understand his grief over this loss so much more now.
