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“Good to know,” I said. I would definitely take her up on that offer. Just thinking about it was getting me a bit hot, but I was too spent to really give it a proper shot.
* * *
The next morning, I was awakened by a phone ringing. At first, I thought it was my phone and I reached through the darkness to find it. I was too tired to open my eyes yet. It felt like I had not been asleep very long at all. I was searching for the phone but not having much luck finding it in my current state.
I forced my eyes open and tried to shield them from the morning light streaming into my room through the dark curtains. I hadn’t meant to sleep so late, but Kat had worn me out. I was exhausted as if I had not slept at all.
I picked up my phone and started to answer it when I realized that it was not my phone ringing. It was Kat’s. She was asleep on the other side of the bed. I slapped her ass lightly and got her to stir awake.
“You are getting a phone call,” I said.
She rolled out of bed and grabbed her phone to answer it. As she did, I pulled up my own phone and discovered that it was almost nine. Damn, I’d slept way longer than I’d meant to. I stepped out of bed and took a good long stretch with a silent yawn to match. Kat answered the phone behind me.
“Hello? Yes, this is her.”
It sounded somewhat official. It was then that I heard her voice change to one of total glee. She stepped out of bed wide awake now and began to pace as she listened. I had a very bad feeling washing over me just then. I had the feeling that I was not about like what Kat was going to tell me when she got off the phone.
“Yes, that sounds great,” Kat said. “Thank you so much for calling. I’ll be there right away.”
She ended the call and practically jumped in the air for joy. I knew what had happened before she even said a word, but I had to pretend anyway.
“Good news?” I asked.
Her face looked suddenly a bit sullen. She understood then, what she had to tell me. I could see it all over her face. But I waited for her to say it anyway. I waited to see how she was going to say it. I had to give her that choice.
“That was the coach of the Cleveland Comets. They want me. They actually want me. And they want me to pitch for them.”
Kat practically had tears of joy in her eyes. I knew what was next. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I have to do this. It’s my dream. It’s what I want most in the world right now. I won’t make millions doing it, but this is what I want. And I need to be in Cleveland in the next few days for training camp. I’m sorry. I know you were counting on me to go in this marriage with you. But, I can’t. I’m not even sure how we would make a long-distance relationship work that way. We’d never see each other.”
I nodded. “I understand. And there is absolutely no way I can talk you out of it? We can pretend that you are still here. We don’t have to tell my father anything about that. We can fool him long enough.”
Kat was already shaking her head and I felt like a chump for even asking. Dammit. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I wanted to be happy for her, but I just didn’t have it in me. I was too crushed. I really cared about this girl.
“No,” Kat said. “I’m sorry. I have to do this. I’m so sorry. I do care about you and what we have, but I just don’t see it working out with this. I have to move to Cleveland and I’ll probably stay there even during the offseason.”
I felt like my heart was breaking into pieces. I was getting nauseas, and for a second I thought I was going to pass out in a dead faint. This was too much. This was not the way I had envisioned all of this going. I was back to square one as far as this thing with my father was concerned, and I was losing the love of my life as well. I supposed I could follow her and change stations, but I dismissed the idea as soon as it entered my brain. She obviously did not care about me enough for this to be anything more than a hard decision. I just couldn’t believe it. This was really happen
ing this way. I might never even see Kat again. The time we’d spent like last night… all of that was just going to be a wash now? Was that it? There were so many things I wanted to say to her right now, but I knew that if I did then, I would probably end up hurting her in some way.
It was better if I just took it like a man and didn’t say a word. “Well, I wish you the best of luck. I hope everything works out for you the way you want it to.”
Kat smiled. She walked over to me and kissed me softly. We were both still nude and I was oddly turned on, based on the current state of affairs. I was also hurt and emotionally wrecked and I was doing my best to ignore it, but like a sharp rock in my shoe, it kept jabbing at me. I figured it would pass in time, and I would just have to suffer through it until then. That was the way my life was going these days. But something good would eventually come out of it, I was certain. It had always been my experience that when something bad happened, that meant it was meant to happen that way so something much better could come out of it.
“Thanks,” Kat said. “You too. Call me any time if you just want to talk… or anything.”
“I will.”
I took that as a sign that she wouldn’t have been opposed to me driving up to Cleveland every now and then to spend time with her. But I would let her get settled for a bit first. I was willing to bet that she would realize quickly how much she missed me. Then maybe she would be willing to at least give the long-distance thing a shot.
I watched her get dressed, leave my house and my world. Just like that the love of my life was walking away from me and she would probably never know how I felt.
When I watched her pull out of the driveway, I felt a sense of loneliness and total isolation that I had ever felt. At least, I hadn’t felt this way since Kat came into my life. Dammit. Why did she have to go? What was I going to do about this money situation? I would have to see if I could find someone else. But I didn’t want anyone else, even if they were willing to marry me and have a child as a ruse to fool my father. I didn’t really want it unless it was real. And now I would have to pretend. My father would probably see right through it.
I sat down on the couch with a whiskey and sipped throughout the late morning to midafternoon. Yeah, it was a bit of a sad day. Now I just needed to regroup.
I needed to think of a plan.
