Authors: Jenna Payne
For a second I just sat there thinking…I’m Miles Anderson, women didn’t walk out on me, usually
I
told them to leave. Then I realized that after all we did last night I didn’t even get her fucking
number
!
“Hey wait! Christina, wait!” I called after her and then ran downstairs in my boxers to try and catch her. I raced to the front door just in time to see her getting into a car through the window, my housekeeper, Linda, was locking the front door and she looked at me apologetically.
“I’m sorry Mr. Anderson, I had a car waiting, I know that you prefer to have one ready when you bring a woman home…” she said and I waved away her concern.
“It’s alright Linda…she was in a hurry anyway I’m sure you helped her out by having that car waiting,” I assured her and she smiled in relief.
“Alright then Mr. Anderson, can I get breakfast going for you?” she asked and I nodded. She walked off in the direction of the kitchen and I simply stared outside until the car was no longer in view driving away. After having a quick breakfast, I showered and changed to head over to the arena for a team practice. As soon as I walked into the locker room, Jackson came up to me and nudged my arm with a dumb grin on his face.
“So, what happened last night man? You were all wrapped up in that girl, the guys were makin’ fun of you, said you had stars in your eyes,” he joked and I rolled my eyes.
“Man whatever, Christina was just different and I guess I liked her,” I tried to play it off, but of course Jackson pressed for more. He was basically the team’s gossip and if anything private got out to the tabloids it was usually him that was behind the words, ‘sources tell us’.
“It was
nothin’
man just give it a break,” I said and he rolled his eyes.
“Clearly
you
didn’t get any last night,” he said and I whipped him in the back with a hand towel. After that we went out onto the practice court and ran drills and plays as usual. I couldn’t say I wasn’t distracted though; all I could think about was how much of an idiot I was that I let Christina just get away from me like that. Any guy worth half his own dick would know to always get a girl’s number as one of the first steps in trying to pick up a girl worth anything.
“Yo Anderson, you better get your head in the game. You’re staying after practice to work on those three pointers. You usually make those naturally,” coach caught my attention after the fourth easy shot I missed.
“Anderson’s head is in the clouds, he met a girl last night and she didn’t give it up,” Jackson said and everyone ganged up on him, tellin’ him to shut up and whatnot.
“Always in someone’s business Jack, why don’t
you
find yourself a woman and leave the rest of us alone,” Parker berated Jackson and got a few laughs from the guys. But coach was serious in the look he gave me, I was stuck after school basically.
“Alright coach, I’ll be good for the game,” I promised and he nodded.
“Good, everyone let’s run that play again,” he got the team back in gear and I tried to push Christina out of my head.
*****
Christina
“Mommy are you done typing yet?” Caleb asked me as he passed by the little office nook near the living room for the tenth time. I told him that we’d go out for pizza as soon as I was done sending in applications to a few law firms in the city. Chicago was a big place with many big firms, I was sure that I’d get a hit from at least
one
of them.
“Yes honey, just a second. If you’re hungry there’s some cut up apples in the fridge, I put them in the green Tupperware,” I said absently as I finished up my last inquiry letter.
“What’s a tuppware Mommy?” he asked me and I couldn’t help but chuckle. I turned away from the laptop and opened my arms. He came willingly and I gave him a kiss on the forehead.
“A
Tupperware
is a plastic container that preserves food. Like how we had leftover apples from this morning, I put them in the Tupperware and then stuck it in the fridge so they wouldn’t go bad or go to waste,” I explained and he nodded as understanding crossed his features.
“Okay, so can we go to pizza now?” he asked and stuck out his bottom lip, giving me his classic five-year-old, ‘this pout will get me pretty much anything I ask for as well as get me out of trouble’ look.
“Yes baby, give me two minutes. Go and have some apple,” I told him and he sighed before stepping out of my embrace.
“
Two
minutes Mommy,” he said sternly and then walked over to the kitchen. I smiled and chuckled to myself as I finished up my email and hit send. I quickly ran back to my bedroom to put on some shoes, a sweater, and to grab my purse. Caleb was waiting by the front door with the small container of apples in hand.
“Are you ready?” I asked him and he gave me a dramatic sigh.
“I was ready before
you
,” he said a bit saucily and I smiled.
“Oh that’s right, I’m sorry. If it weren’t for you I’d always be running late,” I said and he nodded as if that were completely true.
“And you’d always forget your keys too,” he added and then handed me my set just before I could realize I didn’t have them in my purse.
“Well, that’s because I think you always
take
my keys,” I said and he shook his head.
“No, I keep them for you because you always lose them, and birds could get them like that hawk. Remember?” Of course the hawk story came up again. A year ago Caleb and I had been having a picnic at a park nearby and a hawk simply swooped down and grabbed my keys from on top of my purse. I then proceeded to chase the hawk until it landed in its nest high up in a fir tree. Luckily there was an odd character nearby; a white guy with long dreads and no shoes. He offered to climb up and retrieve my keys, which he actually did despite my protests. Ever since then that’s been a major moment in Caleb’s life that he still to this day often refers to.
Caleb and I went to a nearby pizza parlor and shared a medium cheese pizza. We were discussing his habit of taking my keys. One thing I’ve learned as a mom was that I had to rationalize with Caleb on certain things or else he would continue to go against me.
“Ah, excuse me miss?” both Caleb and I looked up at our waitress who was standing at the end of the booth and holding a white envelope. “Someone brought these to the counter and asked us to give them to you…” she said and then handed me the envelope.
“What is it?” Caleb asked as I opened it and pulled out two tickets, courtside it seemed like, to a Chicago Red’s game! “Are those tickets mommy?” he pressed and I nodded then looked up at the waitress.
“Oh my goodness, who dropped these off?” I asked and the waitress shrugged.
“He didn’t say, he looked like a regular guy to me. Must be one of those good Samaritans or something you know. Like the ones who pay for people’s meals at a restaurant or give like huge tips or something,” she said and I looked down at the tickets again in shock.
“Wow, that’s this is quite generous of whoever that was,” I said and looked across at Caleb who was standing on the seat and leaning over the table to see the tickets. “They are tickets to a Red’s basketball game,” I enthused and his entire adorable face lit up with excitement. “It’s for tomorrow night too.”
“Wow Mommy that’s so cool!” he yelled and I shushed him a little and motioned for him to sit down properly. The waitress giggled at Caleb’s excitement and then left us to our dinner. As I safely put the tickets in my purse and told Caleb not to steal them for ‘safekeeping’, I remembered that not too long ago I had woken up pretty much naked next to Miles Anderson. How coincidental was that?
“You know what?” I said conspiratorially to Caleb and he lit up in interest.
“What, what?”
“I think we have to go and buy a couple of Red’s jersey’s,” I said and Caleb exclaimed in enthusiasm once more before I shushed him again. We quickly finished our pizza after that and then took a trip to the mall. All Caleb could talk about was how tall basketball players were and if they are actually giants. Any chance I could get to make my son happy like that I took, because moments like those were so precious to me.
*****
Miles
“Anderson I need you focused tonight. We have to keep our record intact from here on out in order for us to keep our spot in the playoffs,” Coach had pulled me aside just before the team went out onto the court and stressed to me the importance of not fucking up my shots. It was unlike me to be distracted on the court so I could see how he’d want to make sure I was focused.
“Alright coach, I got it. I won’t fall short,” I said and he nodded, satisfied with my answer.
“Good, now get out there,” he motioned for me to leave his office and he followed me out. The announcer had just started to present us to the crowd out in the stadium. The team jogged out to the court and as usual the volume of the cheering home crowd was pretty deafening. Our fans were some of the best, win or lose, even though there were more wins than losses, they were always cheering for us. We were playing against Cleveland that night and I was up against another of the best forwards in the league. It was bound to be a good game, but a hard one that was for sure.
Before I knew it the warm up drills were over and the whistle was being blown to start the quarter. I was on the starting lineup and went into my zone as soon as the ball was tipped. Defense was pushing hard from both teams and for the first quarter it was a low scoring game. I picked up the pace in the second quarter and managed to get around my defender more often to make space for perfect shots. Every time the basketball sank through the hoop for our team the crowd went wild. Then a member of the other team was trying to shake his opponent off of him and must have tweaked his ankle because he went down hard and the whole stadium took a collective gasp. Time out was called and the medics swarmed the court.
“He looks alright, though, maybe he just tweaked it,” one of the guys said and I nodded.
“Yeah that what it looked like to me…” I said and then glanced to the left and took a double take. There sitting in a second row floor seat was none other than Christina! “Holy shit,” I muttered and then before I even realized it, I was walking quickly towards her. She was wearing a Red’s jersey and dark colored jeans with matching kicks. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she looked just as beautiful as I remembered her. She was also wearing big square glasses that did resemble the ones SpongeBob sometimes wore.
“Mommy, Mommy look!” a little kid to her left that looked somewhat like her, what with his full lashes and blue eyes, pulled on her shirt. He appeared to be four or five. He had light brown hair and it was clear to see that he would be a handsome guy when he got older just from the shape of his youthful face. Christina turned her attention from the scene on the floor and her eyes widened when they met mine.
“Miles…shouldn’t you be on the court?” she asked a bit nervously and her son simply looked up at me with wide eyes and an awed gaze.
“You know
my Mommy
?” he asked, in shock and I chuckled then lowered into a crouch in front of him.
“I do and I need your help a little bit,” I said to him and he simply nodded. “I met your mom the other day and well…I like her very much, but I couldn’t call her because I didn’t get her number,” I explained to him and he actually laughed at me and hit his hand to his head.
“That’s silly!” he said and I couldn’t help but laugh. Even the kid knew what was up when it came to talking to girls. I heard Christina giggle and glanced up at her with a grin.
“I know, so I was hoping you could help me out and convince her to give me her number,” I told him and he gave his mom a considering glance before looking back at me.
“Are you shy or something?” he asked me and by that time the people around us had tuned in to the conversation and laughed at the kid’s comment.
“I guess so little man.”
He nodded as if that were understandable and then looked at his mom.
“Mommy would you give him your phone number so he can call you, he was just shy that’s why he didn’t ask before,” he said earnestly, and I looked to Christina who had an unsure expression on her face. “He’s a tall basketball player and he didn’t fall once!” he continued to rationalize to his mom and I couldn’t help but think the kid might grow up to be a lawyer just like her.
“Not once,” I chimed in and Christina chuckled and then ran her hand over her son’s head.
“Alright then, I guess I can give him a shot,” she said and then pulled out a scrap of paper from her purse and quickly wrote her number on it.
“Yes!” the little man exclaimed and offered his hand for a high five which I gave. Christina handed me the piece of paper and I took it from her with a grin. She shook her head at me, but smiled anyway.
“Thanks little man. Hey, what’s your name?” I asked him.
“It’s Caleb, what’s yours?” he asked and I introduced myself. The sound of a whistle went off and then I glanced across the court and saw my coach shaking his head at me. “Well I gotta get back, I’ll see you soon Caleb and you Christina,” I said and flashed her another grin before jogging over to the bench to safely hide her number in my bench clothes.