“That cousin of yours is a piece of work.”
“Did you want to slap her?”
“I don’t hit women, darlin’.”
“But if you did, you’d want to slap her, wouldn’t you?”
He chuckles lightly.
“No, but I almost thought you were going to.”
“You knew my mom wanted to look at the photos instead of a movie, didn’t you?”
“I think she wants to introduce me to your father and I can’t wait to meet him.”
I give him a chaste kiss on his lips.
“Thank you. I knew I didn’t walk into The Wild Boar for nothing.”
“Your father sent you there to meet me. It wasn’t an accident.”
I kiss him a little longer this time.
“You are amazing, Jason Jett Caraway.”
“I know, beautiful, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for months.”
AFTER HIM
ADRIENNE
I am a fortunate woman.
All my hard work has finally paid off, and I’ve just been offered a permanent position as a physician in the Mercy West Pediatric Clinic. I remember when my father bought me my first toy doctor’s kit. My bedroom was the hospital, my Barbie dolls were the patients, and I’d play in my room for hours. I pray that wherever he is, he’s watching and he’s proud. It’s a dream come true.
Another cool thing? Our clinic now works closely with Jason’s organization, Belief Village, in administering one of their suicide prevention screenings to help identify at-risk patients in our practice.
My mother and I now spend two nights a month researching and cooking new recipes together, and we try to plan one of those nights when Jason is in town and available for dinner because my man loves to eat just as much as I love to cook for him.
Jason never got the chance to play in last season’s playoff game (which they lost), but the good news is that his shoulder is totally healed and he’s back as the starting quarterback of the team. He’s been giving me weekly lessons on the rules of the game, so that I can better understand it and eventually like it, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t flinch every single time he throws the ball and I watch all of those huge men whose sole goal is to “sack” the quarterback.
“I rarely get sacked, beautiful. I’m too fast. That’s why they call me Jett.”
“Quiet, I’m telling my version of the story.”
The universe kept trying to teach me the lessons I needed to learn in order to grow as a woman and help me arrive to this place in my life but I continued to fail the test.
The truth was, Jason was right. I did have a list. It may not have been written down but it was in my head and it influenced all of my bad decisions. Even when a small part of me knew that my relationships weren’t quite working, I put my Kindergarten Adrienne blinders on and saw what I wanted to see. I romanticized them like the perfect couples in all of the movies Mom and I watch.
What I was missing was the belief that I was good enough for someone like Jason: raw, honest, and more romantic than any rom-com protagonist could ever be. How ironic that it was that this man I thought had none of the qualities on my “list” was put in my life to teach me what love should really look like and that I was worthy of it.
Yes, the greatest fortune I’ve found is not one that every woman is lucky enough to find in a lifetime: Unconditional love + mind-blowing sex + unflappable trust.
And he also just happens to be a great quarterback.
“Wait, what?”
“The best player that ever lived.”
“That’s better, beautiful. Just remember to say that when we record Caroline’s video testimonial afterwards.”
“After what?”
“You strip.”
* * *
