“Is that it?” Rue asks as she stirs the soup. “That doesn’t sound like a big deal.”
“I may have been…a little upset,” I admit.
“Don’t pussyfoot. It’s me. Tell me what you said.”
I cringe, taking a generous sip of wine. “I assumed he had it and was lying. I was angry. I called him…a pus-filled sore on the asshole of humanity.”
“Shut up.” Rue’s lips part with shock. “Are you punking me right now?”
“I wish.”
“That’s not you, Indie. That’s like ten times more me than you.”
“I know.”
She sighs softly. “Hey, everyone makes mistakes. Just apologize to the guy and move on. It’s not like you ever have to see him again.”
I lean a hip against the kitchen counter, gently swirling the wine in my glass.
“I assumed he was lying because he’s a man. I know how irrational that is.”
“You were burned pretty bad by a man and it’s only been a month.”
“Right, but am I a bitter man-hater now?” I walk over to the stove and take the spoon from Rue. “Let me finish. I need to do something besides think about what a jerk I was.”
“Maybe you’re a bitter man-hater now, but that doesn’t mean you will be forever. And even if you are,” Rue shrugs. “There’s a lot more to life than just men.”
I bring a spoonful of soup up to my mouth, blow gently to cool it, and then taste it.
“All I can do now is apologize to him,” I say. “I just wish I hadn’t acted like such a crazy person in front of his entire team. I lost it. The whole past month hit me in that moment like a gut punch. I only have the money from the sale of the baseball. And when I thought I’d have to spend the money to get the ring back…”
“The entire team?”
“And an intern. He had a front-row seat. My life is like a meltdown that never stops.”
I turn the heat off on the burner and get a ladle from a drawer, then take two regular bowls and a plastic one for Nolan out of a cabinet.
“I once accused my boyfriend of having another woman at his apartment, and it turned out to be his mom,” Rue says. “Not my finest moment.”
“Which boyfriend?”
“Jack.”
“Oh, I liked him.”
“Yeah, he was nice. Super freaky in the bedroom, though.”
“Mommy, I peed!” Nolan cries from the other room.
“You did?”
Rue and I race into the living room to see Nolan grinning at us, completely naked and pointing at his plastic training potty. Unfortunately, the pee is in a puddle on the floor next to the potty.
“Good job,” I say half-heartedly.
“That’s…progress,” Rue says, smiling brightly.
“Sorry,” I say under my breath.
“It’s okay. At least it’s not carpet. I’ll go get the floor cleaner.”
“No, I’ll get the floor cleaner. Can you grab a clean Pull-Up and some pajamas for him?”
“Sure,” she says, running up to Nolan and tickling him. “But first—the potty dance!”
Rue shakes her booty and sings a song she apparently made up called “Where the Potty At.” Nolan joins her, beaming as he shakes his naked little ass and tries to sing along.
She’s adapted very well to her change in circumstances. Rue was loving her single, unattached lifestyle, but when Dean left, she insisted that Nolan and I live with her. Now she’s got a potty, a Lego table, and a giant basket of toys in her living room where she used to have a drink cart. Not to mention that vacuuming crunched up Goldfish and never sleeping in has become her new normal.
“Get over here!” she calls to me as she takes both of Nolan’s hands and dances with him. “You need to learn the potty dance, Indie!”
So I do. I take a five-minute dance break before I clean up the puddle on the floor. After the day I’ve had, I’m not passing up any reasons to smile.
I’ll face the music for what I said to Pike tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to do the potty dance.
Chapter Six
Pike
* * *
“You’re alive!” my sister Kylie says in answer to my phone call.
“Hey, sis. Sorry it took me so long to call you back.”
“Well, you’re famous, so if I’m ever worried about you, I just check the ESPN website to see if you’re okay.”
I scoff. “Don’t worry about me. I just get busy and it seems like every time I think about calling you back, it’s too late.”
Kylie laughs. “Please don’t go into detail about why you’re up late every night. I’ll either worry or get jealous.”
At age thirty, Kylie only has two years on me, but she’s been through so much that it feels like she’s much older. She married her high school sweetheart, Eric, right before he left to serve in the Marine Corps after their high school graduation. When they were both twenty-four, Eric was wounded in action serving in Iraq. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and will never be the same. Eric lives in a nursing home and Kylie is now pretty much a single mom to their daughter Jasmine, who is eight.
“How’s Jas?” I ask her.
“Good. She loves her dance classes and asks me at least ten times a day why all the other kids at her school get to watch Squid Game, but she doesn’t.”
“Why are you so mean to my niece?” I always tease Kylie about being the mean mom, but in reality, she has to be the parent that lays down the law because she’s the only one Jasmine has.
“Oh, please. Between you and Mom, she’s plenty spoiled.”
I switch Kylie over to speakerphone so I can unload the groceries I just had delivered. I’m leaving in an hour for a short road trip, and don’t want to have to deal with grocery shopping the day I get back.
“How’s Eric doing?” I ask.
There’s a pause for a second before Kylie says, “About the same. I didn’t make it for my weekly visit last week because Wednesday was a half day of school for Jasmine.”
“That’s okay. You know he’s getting the best care, and I hate saying this but he doesn’t know if you’re there or not.”
“I know, though,” she says softly.
I set down the box of crackers I’m holding and lean back against the kitchen island.
“Tell me you’re not feeling guilty about missing that visit,” I say.
“It’s so hard. Even after six years, it’s still so hard.” Her voice is choked up with emotion and I close my eyes, wishing my sister and I didn’t live so far apart. It’s tough to feel like you’re really there for someone over the phone.
“I can’t imagine,” I say. “But remember what the therapist told you. What happened to Eric was a death in some ways. The man you knew isn’t there anymore. He doesn’t know you anymore, or Jasmine, and he’s not able to get back to a place where he does. He may still physically be on this earth, but you’ve had to grieve for him as if he’s not. That’s…”