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“Stacy, no, would you get ahold of yourself? When would we have slept together? We had lunch. For work. At a restaurant. There were people around.”
“And a tablecloth?”
Maggie laughed and had to set down her coffee cup lest she spill it all over herself. “We did not have sex under the tablecloth.”
When Stacy opened her mouth to say something else, Maggie cut it off with a raise of her hand. “No! We didn’t have sex at all, anywhere. And I’m not going to. You know his reputation just as well as I do.”
Stacy gave a thoughtful frown and shrugged a shoulder. “Sure, but still. Could be fun.”
“You sleep with him then.”
Stacy laughed. “Right, when would I get the chance?”
Maggie had been waiting the whole conversation to spring it on her. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the two tickets to Bryan’s next game. “How about two nights from now?”
“Shut up!” Stacy screamed and grabbed the tickets. “Oh, shut up! These are floor seats, are you kidding me right now? Are we going? Are we really going?”
“Hey, I may not sleep with the guy, but there’s nothing wrong with getting some free tickets, right?” Maggie said, not a little proud of herself. She ran her tongue over her front teeth and sipped her coffee. It tasted like self-satisfaction. It was delicious.
“Maggie,” Stacy said, holding the tickets to her chest.
“Yes?”
“I want to be you when I grow up.”
Maggie laughed again and once more had to set her coffee cup down.
The next two days went by quickly, yet somehow slowly at the same time. Maggie was swamped with work, but she kept finding herself thinking about Bryan. At first she was confused about why he would flirt with her. Stacy had a point about guys liking a challenge, but why would she be a challenge for him? She wasn’t anything, especially not compared to the girls she’d seen him with on TV or in the tabloids.
The man loved his women. Never stuck with one for more than a week. It was an ongoing joke in the office about his most long-term relationship was a model he saw twice in two weeks before breaking it off. It was ridiculous. He was a playboy that didn’t respect anyone, not even himself.
After that, she even doubted whether he had been flirting with her at all. By the time the game came around, she had convinced herself he hadn’t flirted with her at all. She’d somehow made it all up. She had the tickets because he was being nice, and she’d read too much into it.
Stacy was there in her team jersey, giddy like a little girl on Christmas. They found their seats, and Maggie couldn’t stop from feeling excited. She’d been to a few games before. Perks of the job. Nothing like this though.
It was surreal to be sitting there, level with the court. It was one of those things that was just never meant to be seen like that, like when she was stopped in traffic on the freeway. The pavement of the freeway was always seen passing as a blur. Whenever she could look out of her car window and see the freeway in all of its detail, it gave her this odd feeling of being out of place. Of not belonging where she was. Looking behind the curtain.
That was how she felt at the game, and it only got worse when the players ran out onto the court and started warming up. Stacy just laughed and giggled, stomping her feet quickly in her excitement. Maggie, though, just couldn’t get over how weird it felt.
When the game started, it was like being a part of it. She was there, could see the players in all of their detail instead of the slight blurs they were from far away. It was incredible.
After the second quarter, she had a surprise she hadn’t anticipated at all. Three men came down the aisle and stopped by their seats. One of the men asked to see their tickets. Maggie’s heart jumped into her throat. Were they in trouble? Somehow she instantly convinced herself that they had been sitting in the wrong seats this whole time. She knew it was unreal! Some things were just too good to be true.
She and Stacy pulled their tickets out of their pockets and produced them. After the man looked them over, he gave a nod and a smile and handed them back. Maggie only had time to think about how odd this was when the man waved to someone else up at the top of the stairs. A small team of people came down with a small table, flowers, candles, and food. They placed a pitcher of beer and two glasses, hot dogs, bbq chicken, fries, and an assortment of other things on the table in front of Maggie and Stacy.
During the game Maggie had noticed there were no seats in front of her and Stacy. She’d thought it weird but paid it no mind. Now it made sense.
Across from her, sitting on the bench, sweating and drinking his water was Bryan. He just sat there, elbows on his knees, grinning at her. She didn’t know if he could see her mouth well enough, but she mouthed a few choice words for him.
All she could do was try her best to hide her embarrassment at the attention. Meanwhile, Stacy was just gobbling it all up, laughing and waving at everyone around her who was staring. Maggie didn’t want to seem rude, so she ate and had a beer. Truth be told, it was pretty good. Not that she’d ever admit as much to Bryan.
After the game all Maggie wanted to do was get out of there, but a number of people milled about the floor seats chatting and asking Maggie and Stacy about the food. Stacy was only too happy to talk about it, despite how much Maggie wanted to go. She didn’t know if they just took a long time, or if Bryan had rushed his time in the showers, but when she saw him crossing the court over towards them, she knew it was too late to duck out gracefully. She swore under her breath and turned her head away.
“What is it?” Stacy asked. When she looked over and saw Maggie looking away, she immediately put her head on a swivel. “Bryan,” she shouted excited. “Hi! Great game.”
“Hey,” he said. “Your Maggie’s friend, right?”
“Yes,” Stacy said, surprised to hear that he knew who she was. Stacy gave Maggie a quick backhand across her shoulder. “I’m Stacy.”
