Center Courtship (8 page)

The men looked at each other, not knowing what to answer to the question. “Does this have anything to do with Brandon Rogers?”

Before any of the men had a chance to reply, Millard appeared from the guarded hallway. “Millard?” I said, shocked.

“Mae, why are you sitting out here?”

“I don't know, they told me to sit. I sat. What are
you
doing here?”

“Come on, I'll show you to Brandon's room,” he said and held out his hand to me, which I did not take but followed him down the hall.

Once at the nurse's station, I saw four unfamiliar faces all dressed in Whoopsters warm-ups. Tall and strong, I had no doubt they were members of the team. I continued to follow Millard to Brandon's room. Once inside, I saw it was packed with people. Four familiar faces were standing around the hospital bed. Brent, Saul, Peter, and Casper were talking to Brandon whose face was glowing. Gina was standing in the corner with tears in her eyes as she watched her son. My brother, Max, stood holding my nephew Mitchell's hand as they watched the scene unfold.

Casper was the first of the men to see me. “MAE!” he came to me and gave me a hug.

With that the other three came to me and each gave me a friendly hug in turn.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked as I tried to recover from the hug overload.

“Elsu said he was putting a care package together and we decided the little hero man needed more than a care package. We gathered up as many guys as we could and came on over to cheer him up and some of the other kids in the hospital, too,” said Saul.

“That is so sweet of you. What do you think Brandon? I bet you never expected this!”

Brandon looked at me with the biggest smile I'd ever seen on anyone. He had bruises on his face, his arm was in a sling, and his casted leg was done up in orange and black. On closer examination, I saw that it was filled with signatures from the team. Thank goodness for silver markers. He was in heaven.

Mitchell finally saw me and came running. “Aunt Mae!” I hefted him up and gave him a big hug and kiss.

“How are you, big guy?”

“I'm good,” he said in his sweet little boy voice.

“Your brother is pretty awesome, isn't he?” I asked.

“Yeah, he's the best!” I gave him another hug and put him back on the floor.

When I stood up I realized I had the basketball balloon's string wound around my wrist. I pulled it off and handed it to Brandon. Gina stepped away from the corner and I saw what looked like a bouquet of basketball balloons floating off weights in the corner. “Great minds!” I said as I leaned down and gave Brandon a kiss on his forehead. He wrinkled his nose at me but I didn't care.

I was impressed by the show of affection for my nephew, but the small room with nine people was not doing my claustrophobic self any good. I could feel the sweat start to bead on my forehead. Max came over to me as if on cue. “Let's step into the hallway.”

We walked out of Brandon's room and to a small waiting area across the hall to have a seat. “That's a lot of people, I'm surprised Brandon is handling it so well.”

“Me too,” said Max. “He's kind of bummed, though.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Just about the whole team is here except for the one he wanted to meet the most,” he smiled.

“Oh, where is Elsu?” I asked, finding myself feeling strangely upset.

“They said he'll be by a little later.”

I nodded and sat back as I looked through the door into Brandon's room.

I sat quietly for a few moments when someone appeared at the doorway behind me. “Mae?”

“Carl? What are you doing here?” I asked him.

“I'm the team's PR guy. This is what I do,” he said as he pointed to Brandon's room.

“OH, this was
your
doing? I thought Elsu did this.”

“Yeah, well, he'll probably tell you it was his idea. But I came up with it as I was driving down to my meeting with the coaches last night. Called the hospital in the car and got it all set up,” he smiled proudly.

“Good for you,” I said. I wasn't as impressed with him as he was with himself.

He started to leave the room then turned back to look at me. “Those pictures and videos I took last night, can you send them to me?” he reached into his pocket and retrieved a business card.

“I thought you didn't want them since Brandon wasn't there,” I said.

“Nah, there might be some usable footage in there,” he said as he walked away and I stared out the door.

“He was interesting,” said Max.

“Yeah, interesting.”

“You don't like him?” he asked me.

“I don't know. Not that it really matters, but he just seems shady to me for some reason.” I sat back in my seat and looked at Max. “Seriously though. About Brandon, how is he, really?”

“He got hit pretty hard in the back. They're worried about the kidneys. Gina won't say anything about it in front of him, for fear of making him upset.”

“What about the driver?”

Max put his head in his hand, “The jackass sped off. All we have to go by is Mitchell saying the car was blue. But he's five and his favorite color is blue so who knows?”

“Shit,” I said, wringing my hands in my lap.

“Yep, I don't know how people can do that. For as bad as Brandon is hurt, the car has to be damaged.”

“He looks pretty banged up,” I felt tears welling in my eyes.

“Don't cry, we've cried all the tears we can. He's in good spirits, let's not dwell on the negative, ok?”

His phone beeped from inside his coat. “A text from Christopher. He wants to know how Brandon is.”

“Oh, now he cares?” I refrained from informing him that Christopher didn't want to speak to Gina because he felt her voice was too whiny. “He's in hot water with me. I'm waiting for the wrath of mom to call me.”

“What did he do now?”

I told him the story of the thong and the missing gas. “That ass, you could have been stranded on the highway or who knows where.”

“Actually, I'd rather have been stranded on the highway than face Bart.”

“Bart?”

“He delivered the gas,” I said, as I put my forehead in my hand and rubbed my temples, my elbow resting on the arm of the chair.

“Goddamn.”

“Elsu saved me after Bart hit me with every insult he could come up with in the short amount of time he was there.”

“Ass,” stammered Max as he sat back in his chair.

“Do restraining orders expire?” I asked curiously.

“Yes, Mae. If he becomes trouble, we'll have to go back to court. He's only been out a month. I'd like to know which judge he went down on to convince them to let him out.” Max was my lawyer for the domestic violence case. He was the best at what he did. Attorney Maxwell Rogers was so protective of his favorite sister that he made sure Bart got what he deserved.

“You know, he told me those orders expire when I told him I was going to call the cops. I guess I just kind of let it slide.”

“We let yours lapse because he was supposed to be in jail for another fifteen years.”

I nodded and sat back in my seat as I watched some basketball players walk by. “They really went all out for Brandon, didn't they?”

“Yeah, you must have really made an impression last night, those four in the room with him talked about you nonstop when they first got here.”

“They did not,” I blushed.

“Ask Gina, she'll corroborate my story.”

“Corroborate, you're such a lawyer, big brother.”

I could see something had caught Max's attention above my head and before I had a chance to turn around to see what it was, I felt two large hands on my shoulders giving them a squeeze. “There's my buddy,” I heard Elsu's voice.

I tensed at the touch, I wasn't a massage fan. Too much touchy feely for me, but Elsu's hands were surprisingly nice. Not too much pressure. Weird.

“There you are,” I said as I stood up and accepted a quick handshake instead of the hug he started to give me.

“Here I am, I had to take Saraya to the airport,” he smiled.

“Ahh, where is she headed to now?” I asked, not really wanting to know but trying to keep the conversation going.

“Ummm, Vegas. She has some sort of appearance there.”

“You're not going to go with her?”

He looked at me sideways and shook his head no. “So where's the hero?”

I pointed to the door across the hallway. “In there, being entertained by your buddies.”

“Ok,” he started to head out the door but I grabbed for his arm but missed and accidentally grabbed his jacket and the elastic of his pants. “Whoa, honey.”

My cheeks were burning with embarrassment. “I am so sorry, I want to get you entering the room on camera. Let me go in first and get a good spot.”

Elsu stepped aside and motioned to me in a polite gesture to go ahead of him.

I walked into Brandon's room and saw that Casper, Gina and Mitchell were the only ones still in the room. I wasn't sure how I had missed the other three leaving, but at least it was no longer crowded. Casper was sitting on the edge of the bed showing Brandon and Mitchell images on his phone. He looked up at me and smiled. “There you are, we wondered where you had gone.”

“I just needed some air, that's all.”

From Casper's point of view, he could see out the door and saw Elsu. I discreetly put my index finger to my mouth to indicate my needing him to stay quiet. He stood up and I moved around to Casper's side of the bed. We both held our phones up to take video and I motioned Elsu to enter. Casper whispered into my ear “You get Elsu, I'll get Brandon.” I kept my phone trained on Elsu as he walked in, but watched Brandon's face. I thought I had seen a big smile before, but this was something magical. Every boy's dream is to meet his hero and here he was, doing just that. I followed Elsu as he walked to stand beside Brandon.

“I heard there was a super hero in this room,” said Elsu as he looked at my nephew.

Brandon froze briefly, then smiled, then yelled. “ELSU! Mom, look! It's Elsu!”

“I see, baby, I see!” said Gina as she moved to his side. Mitchell quickly climbed up on the bed with Brandon and stared in disbelief.

I was so happy for Brandon that tears began streaming down my face. Max came to stand beside me and put his arm on my
shoulder. I looked at him and I could see tears welling in his eyes as well.

A few minutes later, Saul, Brent and Peter returned to the room and stood around Brandon. The rest of the team started filing in as well. I immediately got the suffocated feeling again. Brandon was over the moon with excitement at the newest arrival to his room, so I knew he wouldn't miss me too terribly if I left. I'd check up on him later when he wasn't so busy. I stepped up and leaned down to give him a kiss during a lull in the conversation. “Hey, buddy, I'm going to get going. For someone who's in the hospital, this is probably your best day ever!”

Brandon gave me a huge hug. If a smile was rare, a hug was even rarer. I could tell by his grip that he was overjoyed.

I walked to the elevators and saw the door for the stairs, I decided I could use a little movement to get my energy up. I opened the door and started down the steps expecting to hear the door slam behind me, but when it didn't I looked up to find Elsu at the top of the steps holding the door open. “Where are you going?” he asked as he walked toward the edge of the landing.

“Home, I'm pooped.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“What? NO! You did way more than you needed to! You made Brandon's day! Possibly his life!”

“It just felt like I came and you wanted to leave. What about last night? Bart? I never pegged him for an asshole.”

“I'd like to peg him…to a cement block that gets thrown into the deepest ocean.”

Elsu laughed, his smile…was charming.

“So, what happened with you two?”

Some things in life were not meant to be rehashed. Bart was one of them. “It's a really long story. I'll just leave it at that.”

My phone in my pocket began playing the Imperial March from Star Wars. I knew it was my mom. I looked at it and sighed. “Do you want to answer that?” he asked.

I sighed again, my heart suddenly felt heavy in my chest. “It's my mom. I'm going to be yelled at.”

“Why?”

I rolled my eyes and put the phone to my ear. “Hi mom.”

Elsu took a step back to allow me some privacy. I had a feeling he'd be hearing both sides of the conversation with little effort very soon.

“Where are you?”

“I'm up at Akron Children's visiting your grandson. I could ask you the same question.”

“Gina said I didn't need to come.”

I knew the reason Gina would have said that, she wasn't a fan of her mother-in-law, either.

“Just because she said you didn't need to, doesn't mean you shouldn't have. This is your grandson, mom.”

“Christopher said you yelled at him.”

“Yeah, I did. He stole Little José, emptied the tank, and I drove to Independence on fumes.”

“Would you stop calling that stupid truck Little José? It's a truck, not a person.”

I rolled my eyes. I looked at Elsu as he leaned on the wall, looking at his phone. I wasn't sure if he was listening or not.

“I know it's a truck, mom. It's just what I call him.”

“You need help deary,” she said with a hiss. “Why did you go clear to Independence?” Her volume rising with every statement.

“I was running an errand for Brandon. Did you know yesterday was also the day he was supposed to meet Elsu?”

“Oh, that stupid thing. It's a good thing he didn't get to go. Elsu's probably an ass. Would have broken his heart.”