“No, why would I?” I ask, feeling called out for my attraction toward her.
“I just know that you were being interviewed by her, so I thought that you might know when everyone else was. I have an interview with her, but I forgot when it was.”
“Sorry man, I know it only for my players, and I think she’s only interviewing Thompson. Check with Dwayne, he should know when and all.”
“Thanks coach.” Montgomery pats my shoulder and moves away.
We’re halfway through the day when I hear a familiar voice approaching. I turn and see Mila talking to a camera person. Her hands are energetically moving, she’s pointing from one end of the field and then another. Our eyes connect and she smiles, says something to the camera person, then makes her way toward me.
“Fancy seeing you here,” she says, pushing her hands into her jacket pockets.
“Why? I’m here all the time. Every single day of the year.” I joke.
“How’s practice?” she asks.
“It’s going well, what are you doing here?” I ask.
“I’m interviewing the head coach and one player. Figured I would have the cameras grab some practice footage as well.”
“As long as you don’t steal our plays and tell what we’re running over here to LA.”
“Aw, c’mon. You can give a girl more credit than that.” She bumps shoulders with me.
I smile at her and we lock eyes a little longer than what would be appropriate for strangers.
“Wilkens. Call your boys in, we’re going to set up some offensive drills, while Montgomery is being interviewed.” The head coach says breaking the silence between Mila and myself.
“Did you want to go first? I have all the time in the world for you guys today. If you need him to run any drills, we can focus on you.” She says.
“Nah. Montgomery is ready, he’s icing his shoulder and will be sidelined for the next hour.” Coach steps back, covers his mouth and shouts for Montgomery to join us. He jogs over and offers Mila a smile.
I know that he’s not being flirtatious since he’s in a very committed relationship, but I still want to wipe that smile off his face.
“What’s up, Coach? Ma’am.” He holds his hand out and shakes Mila’s hand as she leans across me. I smell her vanilla lotion while she pulls back.
“Montgomery, go grab a towel, drape it over your shoulder, and go look pretty in front of the camera.” Coach tells him.
“Now?” he asks.
“No better time like the present.”
Montgomery walks to the bench and grabs a few towels. He wipes his face with one, then drapes the other across to cover the ice pack.
“So, why does he have an ice pack?” Mila asks me.
“It’s more for strengthening his muscles. During practice he throws harder than he should sometimes, so just to keep him in shipshape, we like to cover all our bases.”
“So, he’s not injured?” She asks.
“Nope. It’s part of his process.” I add.
“That’s good news.”
“So, Mila. Who are you rooting for?”
MILA
My interview with the head coach from Seattle and Will Montgomery went quickly. I fared well with not getting too distracted by Topher Wilkens’s presence. I snuck glances here and there, between takes, and more than a few times his eyes were on me.
After the interview, I hung around the field a little longer with the excuse of catching more shots of the team and everyone on the sidelines. I lingered and mingled with the team, always with Topher in my line of sight. Before I left, I said goodbye to Topher.
There were still plenty of hours of daylight in the day, and I intended to use them wisely and to meet with my parents. They’ve been texting me since they arrived, and I’ve been so busy with these interviews that I haven’t been able to commit to a day or time to spend with them. I knew that my schedule would be lighter today since my last interviews would be in a few days.
I met mom and dad outside of their hotel.
“Oh honey, you must be freezing! You’re practically wearing summer clothes!” My mom exclaims while looking me up and down.
Since in Los Angeles, the weather doesn’t get extremely cold, like here, I can tell that my mom went all out and bought warm clothes to wear. I’m wearing black jeggings, a grey thermal shirt underneath a thin black down jacket. I’m warm, but I also know how to dress for this weather, since it also gets cold in Seattle.
“I’m fine, mom. I’m not cold at all,” I reply.
“Are you kidding me? It’s cold as Antarctica here.” My dad blows into his hands.
“Have you been to Antarctica before, dad?” I tease.
“No, but I’ve seen them nature shows.” He says stepping closer to me and wrapping me in his arms, “good to see you, kiddo.”
“So, you’ve been here for a few days longer than we have, what’s there to do here?” Mom asks.
“Well, there is a football museum that is set up by the league that we can visit?”
“Let’s do something that’s non-football. We dedicate this entire weekend to it, so let’s do something just with you in mind.” Mom replies.
“You realize that football is a heavy part of my life, right?” I grin.
“I heard there is a sculpture garden here. Why don’t we do that?” Dad asks.
Mom and I look at him and smile. Dad loves roaming around in gardens. He’s volunteered at the botanical gardens back home for the past twenty years, took on a passion of gardening once he retired, and even though the sculpture garden has sculptures rather than tons of flowers, it’s still something that is high on his list.
We spend the day roaming around. The grounds are covered in snow, but the sculptures are visible. We see the giant spoon with a cherry, the blue rooster, some wind chimes in a tree, and dozens of other immaculate pieces. After a few hours of meandering, my parents are wiped out and ready to go back to their hotel room.
After we say our goodbyes, I call an Uber and head back to my hotel to figure out the rest of my evening.
Do I order in for dinner or go out?
Chapter 6
TOPHER
“Hey, fancy seeing you here.” Mila stands in front of my table, with her hand clutching her purse as I look up from my phone.
“Hey, Mila. How are you?” I ask as if we didn’t see one another earlier today.
“I’m good but tired. Talking to so many people in a day can be exhausting.” She smiles.
“Care to sit?” I motion to the vacant space across from me.
She nods with a smile and slides in.
“You’re here alone?” she asks.
“I am. I didn’t have the energy to ask anyone to come eat with me. What about you? Are you coming or going?”
“Coming. I was just going to sit at the bar and take my food back to the hotel room.”
“I haven’t ordered yet, so please join me.”
“So, according to Yelp!, this place has amazing nachos and burgers.” I tell her from my research on where to eat in this city that was close to the hotel.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She grins while lowering her eyes to the menu.
After the server takes our orders and a drink is placed in front of her, we both lean back in our booth and wait for the other to say something.
After a few minutes of silence, she speaks up.
“So, this night is completely off-record. I don’t want you to feel like I’m going to make sure any of it gets on air. This is personal time, not work time.” She says.
“Oh, I wasn’t thinking it was. I mean, you don’t have your camera man following you around.” I laugh.
“Good point. So, Topher tell me about you?” She asks.
“I’m pretty sure my life is an open book, but I’ll play. What do you want to know?”
“Where did you grow up?”
“California, in Los Angeles. You?”
“Um, same.” She smiles.
“Westwood.”
“No shit! I lived in Brentwood Heights, but on the border. A good buddy of mine that I grew up with lived in Westwood and I pretty much lived at his house. Haven’t spoken to him in years though.”
She fidgets in her seat and looks nervous. I want to ask what’s up, but since I don’t know her that well, I’m afraid that I’m thinking too much into things.
“So, warning, personal question. Do you miss playing?” She asks, as I notice she changes the subject.
“I can toss a ball around for fun, so I still get the fix when I need it. At first, I thought my life was over. So much shit happened that first year after the accident. But now that I’ve been out of the woods for a while, I think that it was for the best.”
“Oh yeah?” She leans forward.
“Sure, I mean the accident put a lot of shit into perspective. Not sure if you knew, but my marriage ended within that year along with my career. Then a few friendships that I thought were important did too. I think that the accident, while it sucked, was a cleansing that I needed.”
“You were married?” She asks.
“Yeah, college sweethearts. We were Soph and Toph back then. Cute college couple and all that crap.”
“Man, things like that make me really wish my name could take on a cool nickname.” She playfully pouts.
Our server places our food in front of us, but we continue talking.
“So, divorced, ex-pro ball player and now a sought-after bachelor who may have a hand at winning the big game, what’s your next plan?”
“Sought after bachelor?” I quirk my eyebrow.
“Oh, totally. You’re not bad on the eyes, I’m sure that your dance card is always full.”
“Dance card? How old are you?” I laugh. “No, not at all full, not even one taker.” I catch her eyes and sincerely smile.
“Oh yeah?” She says on a breath, eyes locked on mine.
“If the right person was interested, I wouldn’t say no.”
“Oh yeah? And who would that right person be?” She asks.
“What about you?” I shrug.
MILA
He did not just say that. Did he? Did he mean it?
No, of course not, he’s just being nice. After all, I did barge into his dinner. But no, he offered for me to join him. Yeah.
But no! That’s not what he meant. He couldn’t be interested in me.
Could he?
“Wait. What?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sometimes too forward.”
I’m not sure how to reply to him. I am beyond interested in him. Back when I was a kid, I totally was, and I am now that I’ve gotten to know him briefly as an adult. But he doesn’t know who I really am.
What if I told him and he immediately recoiled at the thought?
What if I told him and he would laugh in my face and then tell my brother?
What if I just don’t tell him?
My head shakes. “No, it’s not too forward.” I reply bashfully.
“No?” He asks.
“I mean, why would you think that I’m the right person?” I ask for clarification that what I’m hearing is correct.
“I’m a tell it like I see it kind of guy. And I’m going to just come out and say it. I am very attracted to you. I have been since before we officially met last week in Seattle.”
“You are?” My jaw drops.
“To steal your words, I would think that your dance card would be full.”
I’m speechless. The feeling is reciprocated. He’s interested. I’m interested. What do we have to lose?
Oh yeah, the big elephant in the room that he doesn’t know is there.
Can I go through with lying to someone about something like this?
What if it’s just a quick fling and we both get it out of our system?
“My dance card is empty,” I say, popping a well-dressed nacho in my mouth, keeping my eyes on him.
I almost let it slip that I knew exactly what he was talking about when we talked briefly about where we grew up. It was my house that he practically lived at. But I had to pinch myself pretty hard under the table to force myself to keep my lips zipped.
But I’m feeling bold. And I’m going after something that I’ve always wanted.
Him.
“Well alright then. I’m interested.”
Chapter 7
TOPHER
The longer that I’m around her, the more comfortable I am, and it’s strange. I haven’t felt this level of comfort with anyone in quite a while. It’s as if we already know one another.
But that’s impossible. I never met her until the interviews. Sure, I saw her on the sidelines, but we didn’t have any opportunities to talk.
And here we are.
I admitted that I’m interested in her, and she did too.
She’s staying in the same hotel as we are as I walk her to her room on the fourth floor. When she stops in front of room 404, she turns back to me.
“I’m glad that I ran into you tonight,” she smiles.
I step a little closer.
“Tomorrow night, care to do dinner with me? On purpose this time?” I grin.
“Sure,” she whispers.
“I should be wrapped up around six. Maybe I can come and pick you up here around seven?”
“It’s a date.”
I smile and lean in. Place my hand on the wall beside her and my lips touch her cheek as I linger there for a moment. I pull back, inhaling her scent of vanilla, wishing that the night didn’t have to end.
She turns slightly and waves her keycard in front of the lock and the green light on the door lights up. She turns back to me, holding the door open with her hand.
“Would you like to come in?” she asks.
“I would love to. But I have an early morning with the team.” I say regretfully.
She nods and I know that she understands. She leans up and kisses me on the cheek.
“Good night, Topher.”
“Good night, Mila.”
She disappears into her room and I’m kicking myself in the ass for not taking her up on coming in, or from kissing her for real. But then again, I have restraint. I have control. And that will just make our first proper kiss together all that much better. Right? Yes, her lips looked kissable tonight. But a man can wait.
As I walk down the hallway, before I get to the elevator, I hear a door slam shut behind me, the sound of feet walking or rushing, and a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and Mila throws her arms around my neck, leans up on her tip-toes, and presses her soft lips against mine.
I’m slightly surprised and my mouth opens, and I feel her tongue wander into my mouth as my arms wrap around her. My surprise turns into need as I lift her up then walk us to the wall. I press her up against it and take control of the kiss.
She lightly moans into my mouth as I deepen the kiss.
The elevator dings beside us, and the doors slide open someone walks out talking, and then I assume that when they see us, they stop talking, then continue onto their room.
We pull back, breathless. I notice that Mila’s chin is red from the friction of my stubble. I press my fingertips to her chin and look up to her.
“Sorry about this.” I whisper.
“Don’t be.”
“I’ll shave tomorrow.” I tell her.
“No, don’t.”
“What, you’re not sure if you’d like me clean shaven?”
“No, it’s not that. I don’t want you to have to change anything for me.”
“What kind of man would not want to change up something for their lady?” I grin.
“Good point. But I’m not your lady,” she licks her lips.
“Not yet, but you will be.”
MILA
I felt bold. I didn’t want to end the night with a kiss on the cheek. I wanted something to think about for the rest of my night and until we go out tomorrow night.
I sei
zed the moment. I knew that he wouldn’t be very far down the hallway, so I chased after him. I threw myself into his arms and kissed him. It surprised him, but only momentarily before he pushed me against the wall, pushed his large thigh between my legs and against my core and kissed me hard.
Yep. I made an excellent decision.
I thought about that kiss for the rest of my night. I even dreamed about him and taking that kiss further.
Holy shit! I kissed Topher Wilkens.
My interviews today were a mix of Seattle and Los Angeles. I was interviewing a few players that the franchises selected along with the head coaches. It was a jam-packed day, and I was thankful that my last interview was with Randy.
“Hey there, want to do an early dinner?” He asks once we wrap the interview.
“I’m sorry, I wish, but I have plans.”
“How could you have plans in a city that you’ve never visited?”
“I’ve been here. I had a friend from college who was from here. But no, I have plans to prep for tomorrow. It’s my last day of interviews and I want to review some tapes to make sure I don’t ask the same questions.”
“Don’t you have a list of questions that you just cross off?” he asks.
“Well, yeah, but during interviews sometimes, we go off the questions and some questions get answered with planning.”
“It sounds a lot more complicated than I want to think right now. Want to at least grab a drink with me, since you won’t be sitting with mom and pop at the game and likely not coming with us to celebrate winning that night?” he asks.
“A drink can’t hurt.” I smile and I head for the door with him behind me.
I didn’t think about my being in public with my brother until flashes went off and people called out his name.
Well Shit!
Over here, Randy! Randy - Mila - look this way!
Mila Rossi, how long have you and Randy been dating? Yuck!
Randy! Are you ready for the big game?
My brother stands in front of me, protecting me, and I grab the back of his shirt with my head down as I walk behind him.
Love on the Sidelines: A Quick Snap Novella Page 3