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Still, I wasn’t the world’s most outgoing person, even with all the changes. I blushed as I ran back to the table, hoping I would get a chance to put a bit more of whatever new drink of liquid courage Tessa and Kat had replaced my old one with in me before my name got called. I was halfway through downing a drink that was ostensibly tea-based, but neither resembled sweet tea nor had anything recognizable as being from Long Island, when Tessa pointed behind me toward the door.
I looked around, and my eyes widened, my heart began thumping in my chest, and my breath hitched. Why now? Of all days?
“Aren’t those guys from back in high school?” Tessa asked.
“I mean, yeah, that’s likely. Small town,” I said, quickly turning around and sitting with my back to them.
“Holy shit,” Kat said. “That’s Graham Miller!”
I didn’t need to turn around and look. I’d seen him, too. It was why my back was turned as it was.
“My God, time did that boy some favors. Not that he needed them,” Tessa said.
“You know he’s famous, right?” Kat asked. “He got drafted his first year in college and joined the majors right after that. He plays for some major league team now.”
“The Expos,” I said. “Montreal.”
The table went silent as my two friends stared at me over their drinks.
“What?”
“How did you know that?” Tessa said. “I didn’t even have time to Google it.”
“I just happened to hear his name one day on the news. Whatever,” I said.
That wasn’t entirely true. Back in high school, our encounter had left me so flustered that I ended up avoiding him entirely afterward, and we only ended up speaking a handful of words to each other before he graduated. I hadn’t seen him since.
At least, not in person. The high school crush I had nursed and my desire to reach for any crumb I could of him always lingered. I had seen his games on television when no one else was around. I even subscribed to the baseball streaming service and occasionally put the games on in the background while I did laundry or studied. It felt a little pathetic, but I tried to console myself by convincing myself I was a baseball fan, and it was good to support the hometown boy.
Of course, I couldn’t pinpoint any other time I had ever watched a game that didn’t involve Graham Miller. Ever. So the lies were building up.
I put my shame away and turned back, looking over my shoulder again, and my eyes went right to him. He was as handsome as he had ever been, and though I had the benefit of having seen him on TV a bit, he was even more impressive in person. The large athletic frame and boyish smile was still there, but all of it was just… more. There was more of all of it.
He smiled, apparently noticing me staring at him, and I blushed fiercely. My arm, moving on its own accord without any instruction from the rational part of my brain, raised up, and I waved, then turned, facing Tessa and Kat again and staring down at my drink.
“I think I’m going to need about a hundred more of whatever this drink was,” I said.
“I think a hundred of those would kill you,” Kat laughed.
“Then ninety-nine,” I said.
“You heard the woman,” Tessa said. “You’ve got bar bitch duty until eleven, then we swap.”
Groaning and rolling her eyes, Kat stood and headed to the bar.
She came back just in time for my name to get called, and she handed me my drink as I passed her on the way to the stage. I heard a large whooping cheer and looked over to see Graham clapping loudly for me as I made my way over. The heat on my cheeks was intense, and I couldn’t tell if it was the alcohol or the attention. I wanted to blame the former, but I started to expect it was the latter.
Five years later, and that grin still did me in.
I took the stage, shut everything else off, and belted out the tune I had picked. Halfway through it, I felt like myself again, performing without care and letting my voice fill the room. It wasn’t until the instrumental part of the song before the last chorus that I noticed Graham had moved a little closer and was watching me with that wide grin on his face.
4
GRAHAM
Iwas stunned when I saw Mallory sitting there at the table, stunned enough in fact that I barely registered when she waved at me. I was too distracted simply looking at her. She had been so cute in high school, but now that she was a bit older, she was simply gorgeous. Immediately, a host of regrets assaulted me, along with a flood of springing hope that maybe I could make those past mistakes right.
For some reason, we’d never connected in high school after the paint incident. I could remember it so clearly, and I thought for sure I would catch up with her afterward, and we could see where that chemistry led. But things got so intense so fast with the end of the school year, exams, and baseball that I barely had time to breathe, much less chase a girl.
