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“Ah, did she cancel or did you?”
“She did,” he replied. “She apparently has a work thing that she can’t get out of.”
“So, she is lying?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. That goes with the territory. No biggie. Now you and I can have a blast at the game.”
“You have a very refreshing attitude that is utterly immune to rejection. Are you just that big of a narcissist?”
He laughed. “Yep. It works for me. I gotta run. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Ok,” I said. “Talk to you later.”
Charlie left and I said goodbye to the rest of the guys. I packed my shoes in my bag, grabbed it, and started to head home. I was thinking I might pop in a frozen pizza and watch a movie. It was still early enough.
I was almost to the door when something caught my eye. A beautiful woman was bowling by herself a few lanes down from where our league had finished up. She must have just started because I had not noticed her until right now, and a woman this stunning would not have escaped me. In fact, she probably would have been a huge distraction to my game.
And after a moment of watching her, I knew why. She actually looked very familiar to me. As I observed her rolling a long, winding roll that hooked towards the end and only grabbed two pins, I realized that this was a woman I had seen before.
It was Shelly.
What were the odds?
I sauntered over to her and waited until she was done with her current roll before I tried to talk to her. “Hey,” I said. “Funny meeting you here.”
Shelly smiled up at me, surprised and a maybe a bit embarrassed. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Good. Just finishing up league night. I didn’t know you bowled.”
“You never asked me,” Shelly said with a grin.
“That’s true,” I replied.
“And I don’t bowl,” Shelly said. “I’m really just trying to get a handle on it.”
“What sparked the interest in this sport?”
“You will probably laugh,” she said.
I sat my bag down on a chair. “Try me.”
“I was watching it on television and I figured it might be a good way to relax.”
“Yeah, the stress of the job will do that to you.”
“I feel bad even comparing my stress to what you have. You guys are out in the field. I haven’t been out there in a little while. But I do worry that I haven’t done my job well enough if one of you gets hurt. That sort of thing keeps me up at night, so I thought I might just try some bowling and see if that helps.”
“It is a good recipe for calming the mind,” I agreed. “It’s probably one of the reasons that I do it.”
“Would you like to give me some pointers? All of my rolls keep going to the left,” Shelly said.
“Sure,” I said. “Happy to help.”
I looked around instinctively as if trying to make sure that no one else from work was around. I did not need any rumors being spread about Shelly and I getting too close. And I was honestly a bit apprehensive about us getting closer. I had a crazy, strong attraction to her and I wanted to hold her in my arms, pull her close, and kiss her strongly on the lips, but those impulses could very easily get us both fired.
Shelly grabbed her ball and looked to me for some guidance. “Ok, now the thing you want to remember is that when you bowl, you want to keep your wrist straight, but not rigid. And when you release, you need to step forward, bend down with the back leg, and then bring your arm through. That’s important to have that basic foundation. So let’s roll a few that way.”
Shelly followed my instructions. She knelt down the way I showed her and stepped forward with it. Then she brought her arm through and released the ball. Her hand was pointing towards the center pin when she let go of the ball. It rolled down the lane and hit the center pin, knocking several down but leaving a split.
