Raleigh and Steven have also been hard at work scheduling us a few discrete events in Las Vegas. I’m so thankful for her and Steven; through all of this, they truly have had our best interests at heart, which is more than I can say for those online.
Pictures of us at the bar in LA and us in the car on the way to the airport leaked, leading everyone into a tizzy. Was I cheating? Are we fighting? Was it all just a publicity stunt from the beginning? Blah, blah, blah. They turned on us faster than I thought possible. Of course, Mae was ready for this. As soon as she posted a well-timed post of the two of us, her fans were back on board, and a lot of the rude comments on my pages ceased.
Hopefully tonight and the upcoming days will change the narrative further. We’ll inevitably be seen together, hopefully happy. As we get closer to game time, the media will be all over us again. Mae and I have both agreed to focus on our respective goals on this trip, which includes completely blocking out all the outside noise.
That was the plan until today. I simply couldn’t go another day without seeing her. A dinner for tonight is planned. We’ve both been very tight-lipped about our arrangement to hopefully stave off unwanted early attention. I’ve come to terms with the fact that the spotlight will follow us everywhere, and I’m just now figuring out how to cope with it.
I’ve been taking it one hour at a time today. Practice went well, thankfully, and I was let off the hook for the media conference. Free to get ready for my evening with Mae, I drove back to the hotel to get ready early.
Looking at myself in the mirror now, I adjust my dinner jacket. I feel like I’m in a much better headspace than I was back in LA. I’ve allowed myself time to think through every option, and the only ones that ever sounded doable to me were those with Mae in them. I’m excited to make that known to Mae in person tonight.
***
The Vegas strip, as lively as ever, lights up my mood. Steven Champ’s driver speeds down Las Vegas Boulevard toward the fine dining restaurant on the edge of town. Learning from my mistakes in Baton Rouge, instead of slipping a few extra dollars to the serving staff, I paid for the entire list of guests' dinners and got them tickets to the game. I know it was a pompous action but frankly, I don’t care. It’s worth it to have an hour or so alone with Mae and her thoughts.
I’m the first to arrive but not by much. Mae is accompanied by Dalton and Raleigh, who are also seated for dinner. They take a table on the opposite side of the restaurant from us. I can hardly complain about that; without them, I’d probably worry about Mae’s safety and wellbeing and then spontaneously combust. I’m sure they’ll be happy to have some time to themselves, as well.
Mae approaches me with her hands clasped in front of her. She’s wearing a red dress with a straight skirt down to her ankles. Her matching handbag hangs from her fingertips, and I worry it could slip to the floor at any moment. It isn’t until I look up from the floor into her eyes that I see her flash her familiar smile. She launches into a hug, and I wrap my arms around her. I’m not sure why I was nervous that our reunion wouldn’t be healing. With her, every moment is magic.
I take her hand and lead her to our table. “Thank you for letting Raleigh and Dalton tag along,” she says. All I want in the whole world is for her to keep talking; hearing her speak in person is the medicine I’ve been needing since the moment we said goodbye at the airport. I’ve stalled for too long. She looks down with a worried expression. “I know you said you wanted space from everything …”
I quickly correct myself while reaching to bridge the gap between us, “No, this is perfect.”
She smiles at that and then reaches her hands across the table to meet mine. “Our week apart was introspective,” she says, rearing back with a breath.
“It was.” I nod in agreement. “But I hated it, and I don’t really want to do it again.”
“You read my mind.” Getting a good grip on her left hand, I lean forward and kiss her knuckles. Running my thumb back and forth, I savor the moment.
“I’ve missed your hand in mine,” I whisper.
She blushes, and the conversation carries on from there. It feels like we’re our old selves again. She cracks a sassy joke, and I do my best to hold back a laugh. I caress her arm, and she bites her lip. Throughout the courses, we become comfortable with one another again and our troubles seem to slip away.
Everything is going perfectly until the end of the main course. She’s laughing at my bedazzled uniform idea when her phone suddenly rings. Her face goes slack when she sees the number. Speechless, she snatches the phone and scrapes the chair back as she hurries to get the speaker to her ear. As she steps away, she raises her fingers in a wave as her full attention goes to her phone.
So much for blocking outside noise.
Hesitating a moment with my annoyance, I finally think better of it and move to go after her, but I realize she hasn’t alerted Raleigh or Dalton. Whatever it is, she wants to handle it herself. As much as I want to be next to her and to know what’s going on, I also know she’d want to conquer this herself. Wanting to be better for her, I ease myself back into my seat and push the leftovers around with my fork. I can be patient.
She’s not gone long but when she returns, her face is unreadable. “That was my mother,” she says, looking up indisbelief. That disbelief slowly turns to joy as a smile tangles her lips.
I push all my stupid feelings aside as I race to engulf her in a hug. “She’s doing well,” she murmurs into my shoulder. The rest of her sentence is muffled, so I pull away. She repeats, “It’s the first time I’ve spoken to her when she wasn’t under an influence in … ” she runs a hand through her hair as she thinks about it, “maybe forever.”
I see something switch in her eyes as she looks up at me, and I can’t hold back any longer. “Mae, I’m sorry for everything.”
Neither of us have apologized for things said the other night, and while I believe we’re strong enough to forgive and forget without them, it’s still something she deserves from me. Mae motions back to the table, and I oblige her. We don’t let go as we go into the things we’ve reiterated over the past few days.
We talk about the stresses we’ve both been under and how we can be there for each other going forward. Not just for the upcoming game, but for life beyond that. It feels good to be able to be honest again. I count my lucky stars that Mae and I can so easily work through rough patches. It was our first true test as a couple, and I believe we both passed, with room for improvement of course.
The clock hits 11 p.m., and with it, the drinks dry up and the empty dessert plates are taken away. It’s time to part, and I simply don’t want to. I drape an arm around her shoulders, and she wraps her small frame around my torso.
Outside, we share a brief kiss before climbing into our respective vehicles and driving away. Knowing we’re in a better place, I let my worries about us reside and replace them with visions of running routes and touchdown catches.
Chapter 34
Mae
IT'S THE EVE OF THE big game, and all I can think about is the transition I’m supposed to make from my song into Emmy Tenny’s classic rock song. The concept of the halftime show is to combine a whole bunch of new artists from several genres across generations for one epic medley of sorts. I’ve been given the honor of playing a snippet of one of my earliest hits, “Winning Streak,” which shares a similar riff with one of Emmy’s rock songs from the 80s.
