I grab my phone off the desk in my room and...
AVERY: Hi
What the hell? Did she read my mind?
AVERY: I had a commercial shoot with Rori yesterday and just wanted to say hi
Okay, guess there’s no more punting on the friendship issue.
Fuck. I can’t ignore her. Then I’ll just obsess overthat.
RAWLEY: Awesome game last night. I didn’t watch, but I saw the stats.
She responds quickly.
AVERY: Thanks! It felt good.
AVERY: Training camp started yesterday?
Huh, so she really does want to talk.
My heart does a dangerous leap, but on the positive side, my gut settles. The sick, twisting feeling I’ve been experiencing at the thought of not talking to her again dissipates.
RAWLEY: Yeah. Three weeks stuck with a hundred guys. Yay
AVERY: C’mon, your first NFL training camp. You’ll probably be soaking up every minute.
RAWLEY: Yah.
The message sits, neither of us responding.
Maybe that’s for the best.
Butinteresting.
I guess she meant what she said about being friends. Can I handle that though? It feels awfully close to what I got stuck in with Stef.
I fall asleep much later after my head spins around in circles trying to make sense of everything.
41
AVERY
LATE JULY (TWO DAYS LATER)
“Avery, wait up!”
It’s the Thursday night of All-Star Weekend, and Sarah’s in the lobby of our glitzy Brooklyn hotel. She got here a day early to handle some extra media duties and must have seen me dragging my roller bag inside.
“Hey, Sar.” I put the bag down and accept her hug. “Let me get checked in.”
“They’ll help with all that.” She flags down a hotel employee. “Hi, this is Avery Parker, she’s on the Eastern squad. Would you mind grabbing her room key and making sure her bags get up there?”
“Of course.” The staffer turns to me. “I’ll be right back, if you want to set the bag down. And it’s an honor to have you both here, I’m a big UConn fan.”
“Even better,” Sarah says, slipping him a tip.
As he heads off to get my room sorted, Sarah glances around and waves to another player from Detroit.
