by Claire Adams
"Maybe it'll be better once you start school?"
"Hm. Maybe. I'm going to visit the campus tomorrow. It looks like a cool place, but only one way to find out for sure."
"I wish I could come with you."
"I know you would if you could," she said, rubbing her hands over my biceps. "You're busy. I have to get used to that."
"It's not going to be like this all the time," I told her.
"I know what I signed up for. I get it," she said. I didn't want her to think that I had asked her to come here just so I could ignore her. I wanted her to be able to start school so she had something, too. So she wasn't just here for me and my job.
"Have you heard anything from them?"
"Just confirmation for the campus visit," she said. "I hope it works out."
"It will," I said, surer than I felt.
"Fingers crossed. I just got here. I'd like to be able to stay."
"I'd like that, too," I agreed, kissing her. I could get used to coming home to her. Even if she wasn't there when I did get home, it would be good knowing that she would be soon.
"Are you hungry?" she asked.
"Do you want to order something in?"
"No," she said smiling. "I cooked."
She was in the kitchen when I joined her ten minutes later. I had been up in the morning to get to the facility before she had gotten up, so I had just eaten a bowl of instant oatmeal standing by the sink before leaving. The dining table I had told Rachel I'd never use was all set up. Two place settings, a bowl full of salad, and dishes I was certain I hadn't seen in my life.
"Do you need help?" I called into the kitchen. She asked me to get the salmon out of the oven. We were eating it with baked potatoes and pasta salad.
"Are these new?" I asked when she walked into the dining room.
"Some of them. You didn't have anything that could go in the oven," she said. "Is this okay?"
"You know you don't have to cook, right?"
"I want to. Especially now before I start classes and might not be able to anymore." With her around, at some point, this place would start feeling like home. I poured us both some water as we sat down. I definitely wasn't complaining if what she wanted to do was cook dinner every night. I liked it. That was a good thing. It would probably save money on restaurant food anyway and her cooking was good. It would just take getting used to.
This was a change for both of us, even if it was a good change. I didn't want this to feel like work for her, like she was trapped. I had already had some time to get used to this place. Now it was her turn.
"Do you have any idea about your course load this semester?"
"Nope," she shook her head. "I might be looking at some course repeats because there's a chance not everything transfers, but I might be able to ask during the campus visit."
"Don't take too many," I said.
"Why? So I can be here every night before you to cook dinner?" she asked slyly.
"No. Because you're in a new city. Why would you spend all your time studying? I know you've always wanted to be near the water."
"I also want to get all this book learning done off top so I can take some time off," she said.
"You just spent all of the summer in school. You can take it easy this semester."
"We'll see," she said shrugging.
"Are you happy?"
"I'm excited. I never thought I'd be transferring out. Finishing my degree somewhere else."
"I am, too," I said, honestly.
That had to become my new priority. Making sure this was the right move for her, for us. I needed to make sure that whatever was happening, it was what she wanted and there was nowhere else she would have rather been. It was a tall task, but I was up for it. I already knew what it was like to be without her and nothing, nothing would get me to go back.
Chapter 38
Veronica
I rolled onto my back and stretched my arms out. I could feel a breeze, like the balcony had been left open. I opened my eyes and squinted around the room. It was still pretty dark, save for the early morning light from the sun rising. My arm stretched across the bed, not even touching Roman. It was a big bed, but I knew he was up already.
I leaned up on my elbows looking around the room. The bedroom was empty, but the light in the closet was on. I could hear rustling and movement in there. He must have opened up the balcony. It wasn't cold. It was sort of nice since it was so warm here anyway, but it had woken me up.
When he had told me that training camp was starting, I thought I had had an idea what that meant. I had not because my guess had not included the almost 6:00 a.m. start times. The facility was really close to the house, but he still had to be there early. This wasn't college ball anymore. This was a multi-billion dollar industry, and he had signed a contract. This was his job. I lay back on the pillows.
"Roman?" I called. His head popped out of the closet. His hair was wet, and he didn't have a shirt on yet.
"You don't need to be up yet, babe. Go back to sleep." I slid out of bed and found a t-shirt on the floor. Mine from last night. Roman had peeled me out of it after dinner when we came to bed. I slid it on and walked out to the balcony. The wind coming off the water was fresh and cool. Maybe I'd go to the beach today.
"This woke me up," I said, coming back inside and sliding the door closed.
"Sorry about that," he apologized coming out of the closet. It was huge in there, like a whole other bedroom attached to ours. One side was for my stuff and the other was for his. He had told me that I could get basically whatever I wanted on his card, and he needed to be careful for the day that I actually took him up on that. With a closet that big, the challenge he presented me with was obviously to fill it. I walked up to him and hugged him around the waist.
"You don't have to leave now, do you?"
"Yes, Ron. I do," he said, kissing me gently unwrapping my arms from around him.
"I hate your job," I pouted.
"I'll be back as soon as I can."
"That's not soon enough," I said. I stalked back to the bed. I peered at him over my shoulder and pulled the shirt back off, throwing it on the ground so I was naked again. He was staring at me when I looked back at him. We had both fallen asleep naked the night before. With any luck, I could get him out of those clothes again. He didn't even have to take it all off. Just the pants.
"Can't argue with that," he muttered, walking over. I crawled onto the bed, feeling him palm my ass and run his hand up my back, up my neck and then grasp a handful of my hair. He tilted my head back to kiss me. His tongue plunged into my mouth, curling with mine. I whined when he broke it.
"Wait for me," he said, planting another kiss on my forehead. He smacked my ass again on his way out the door.
I flopped onto the bed and sighed. Well, I gave it my best shot. He obviously had his priorities straight, and I wasn't going to start complaining about that. This was the reason we were here. One of the reasons. I was getting a new reason today. I was and wasn't looking forward to it all at the same time.
It was going to be a journey, finding out our routine, together and apart. Then changing it when regular season started, when he was on vacation, I was on vacation, or when he had to travel. The most important thing was going to be making sure we were on the same page. We had done so well with that in the past. So well it had led to not one but two breakups.
Things would be different now. This was the real deal. It had been real before, but this was more than that. It was the two of us separated from what we used to know and do, setting off on our own. The beginning of our life together. Our journey.
My part started today, checking out the campus. Rome had been right about me not needed to be up, though. I dozed in our unmade bed for another couple hours before I started getting ready to leave.
Roman had taken the car, so I ended up calling a cab. I'd have to get my car down here from Aberdeen or get another. I knew how Roman felt about my car, but it still worked, I didn'
t know what his problem was. I had to be there at ten. I was meeting a woman from the alumni society, Betty Lange, for the tour. She was a short woman with frizzy black hair, dressed in a weather appropriate sundress. I had looked at a map of the campus online, but it was massive and I didn't trust myself not to get lost. Betty apparently didn't, either. We met at the main admin building.
Five minutes into the tour, I was glad that I had worn flats that morning. My college back home had been smaller than this, but maybe some of the size here was just an illusion since I wasn't familiar with my surroundings yet. It was beautiful, though. Green and lush, loads of flowers and tall palm trees everywhere. Maybe it would feel smaller when it was filled with students. There weren't a lot of people still on campus since fall semester hadn't started yet.
"Do you want to see the residence halls?" Betty asked me.
"No need. I'm living off campus."
"I thought you transferred. Where did you get a place?"
"I live about fifteen or twenty minutes from here. I have an apartment."
"Yeah? That's a nice area," she commented, sounding complimentary but also curious.
"It is," I said, agreeing.
"Right by the water, too. Right?" she asked. I giggled. She was digging. The area Roman and I lived was definitely not in the budget of the ordinary college student who no longer lived with her parents.
"I don't live alone. I live with my boyfriend."
"How did you make the jump from South Dakota to here?"
"I transferred after summer semester at my old college because he got signed to play for the Hurricanes."
"Ooh, an athlete. I guess I don't have to ask whether he'll be joining us too since he's already a pro."
"Yeah," I said proudly. "He worked hard to get here, and we wanted to be close. Transferring wasn't too much to ask for us to be able to stay together."
"You must really love him," she said. She didn't know how right she was. She asked me questions about myself after that, mainly what I wanted to study. I looked after every question for a way to steer the conversation back to Roman. She didn't care, obviously, but it felt good talking about him.
It took coming up the elevator, letting myself into the apartment and face-planting on the bed to realize how tired I was when I got home. I rolled onto my back, trying to summon enough motivation to at least wash my makeup off. It had to be the heat. I hadn't acclimatized yet. It sucked the life right out of me. I closed my eyes, telling myself I'd open then again in five minutes. Yeah. Five minutes and I'd get up. It would be easier getting up and washing my face now than it would be to try to wash it off the sheets later.
I sighed, feeling the bed depress behind me. Roman's arm wrapped around me and pulled me back into his chest. He was back. I smiled, rubbing my hand up his forearm.
"What time is it?" I grumbled, remembering that I had meant to get up again.
"A little past ten," he said. There was something else about training camp that I had had no idea about – how long the days lasted. They weren't running around practicing all the hours that they were gone, but it was a long, stressful workday. I respected the hell out of him for it.
He would tell me about it when I asked, but he wouldn't talk about it like it was hard, or share just how demanding it was. It made me want to go full Stepford Wife, have food on the table and turned down sheets for him when he would get home.
"I wasn't supposed to fall asleep," I sighed. I rolled over so I was looking at him. He had gotten some color already, it was so hot here. He looked a little tired too though.
"Sorry I woke you. Again."
"No. I have to wash my makeup off anyway. Are you hungry?"
"I ate before I got here. How was the tour today?"
"It was good. The woman who took me around the campus was nice. It was nice," I said dreamily. "I'll be able to register no problem in a couple weeks."
"That's great, babe," he said.
"I need to bring my car down from Aberdeen."
"No. You're getting a new one. I'm getting you a new one."
"My old one still works."
"It won't survive the trip down. Let me get you another one."
"Okay," I conceded, sighing. I was agreeable when I was tired. "How was practice?"
"Counting down the days to my first day off."
I touched his cheek. "Was it that bad?"
"No. I'm just away a lot. I don't like spending all this time apart, not right now when you just got here." I leaned in and kissed his forehead.
"I understand that you have to do it. One day, the tables will turn and you'll be the one waiting up for me."
"You weren't waiting up, you were asleep," he said, grinning.
"I should really get up," I said, not moving.
"What'll happen if you leave it on?" he asked. I thought about the breakouts I could look forward to having if I kept lying there and finally pushed myself up onto my elbows.
"Bad things," I sighed, pushing up to a sitting position. He got off the bed and stood in front of me, offering me his hand. I took it and let him pull me up. His hands held my hips and he trailed them up under my t-shirt. I raised my arms, letting him pull it off. "I don't need to take this off to wash my face," I said. He unhooked my bra behind my back with one hand.
"I know. I want you to take a shower with me," he said. He unbuttoned my shorts, and I let him. I pulled his shirt off, and we took turns till we were both naked. I ran a hand down his abs. Could we skip that shower and just jump into bed?
"Don't worry so much about me," I said, looking up at him. "I want to be here from you. I'm ready for whatever's going to happen." He kissed me gently.
"I know. I need to be, too," he sighed. "This time we're making it stick."
"Third time lucky," I said, smiling.
"I love you."
"I love you," I said back. Our lips met again. He kissed me deeply before hoisting me up and walking us to the bathroom. He told me again as we made love in our huge multi-head shower, then again as we dozed in each other’s arms and fell asleep.
Chapter 39
Roman
Six Months Later
35 to 31. It had been close. Almost too close, but we had taken it. Only just, but it was still a win. That last whistle and the roar from the crowd never got old. At some point, I figured looking up and seeing walls of people everywhere I turned would feel normal, but it hadn't yet.
I had asked Ron to sit in one of the private boxes but she hadn't. She had been right up close in one of the field seats. I liked that she could see me from where she was, even though the boxes were safer and more comfortable.
I was so distracted looking for her I almost missed the question the man with the mic in my face had asked. I looked at him, smiled, and said thank you. Safe answer for whatever he could have said. It must have been the right one, too, because he kept talking. I tried to look over his shoulder back at the crowd to see whether I could find Ron.
"Can we expect this for the rest of the season?" the guy asked. This had to be the most boring part of this job. Talking to the press. They were kind of our worst enemy, but coverage was good. Good coverage was the best. Lord knew how easy it was to get bad coverage.
"Absolutely," I told him, giving him my practiced interview smile. We all had to do it, but they didn't media train us the way they trained us for the games. If you could schmooze, people liked you more. You sold more jerseys, and that meant your management liked you more. All in a day's work. The guy thanked me and took his mic out of my face.
Finally. I scanned the crowd, looking for where Ron had sat. Every time I had tried to look over at her during the game, the cheerleaders had been in the way.
I finally saw her, hair up, wearing her Hurricanes jersey. I jogged over pulling her down onto the field, past the rope barricade. She jumped into my arms, hugging me.
“You did so good, baby,” she said.
“That’s right. And, I’m not done yet,” I shot back.
> She laughed. She couldn’t make all the games, and I didn’t expect her to, but she was always in the crowd supporting me when she could be. She was cordial with some of the other girlfriends and wives that came to the games, but she wasn’t exactly being invited to brunches with them. Not really her scene. She was almost done with her senior year – she had other things on her plate.
“Are they going to let you leave now?” she asked.
“After the press conference, for sure,” I told her. She nodded. I was glad she got it, but there were still things here and there I felt a little bad for making her put up with. Someone came up behind me clapping me on the back.
“Good game, Rome,” Marcus, our wide receiver, said to me.
“Don’t lie to him,” another guy, Luther, said. He played tight end. “Veronica, tell your man if he lets it get that close again, it’s his ass,” he said. She laughed. A number of the guys knew her from practices and games; she’d come with me to parties they had at their places sometimes. They’d give her shit, some would flirt with her, but she ran with it.
“I don’t know. He played pretty well from where I sat,” she said. Luther was holding the game ball, passing it between his hands.
“I think we need to start looking for a replacement. How’s your throwing arm?” he asked.
“Mine?” she asked, catching the ball as he tossed it to her.
“Now we know you can catch,” he said, grinning at her. “Come on,” he said, walking backwards, “give me your best throw.” She looked at me, holding the ball in her hands.
“Go on. Show us what you got,” I challenged. The ball looked huge in her hands. I was going to say with some confidence that she’d never tossed one of those in her life. She threw it, straight and long right at Luther. He caught it and came towards us.
“Damn, and that’s with no practice?” he said, gassing her up. Veronica laughed.
“Watch out, Rome. I might have a career in this,” she said, looking at me. Luther tossed the ball at me. I handed it to her.