June: But also the charm. I guess.
Rhett: I’ll take it.
June: What are you guys doing for New Year’s Eve? Any big plans? My parents have told me they’re going to bed long before midnight, so I’m suddenly free.
Me: We have a noon game on January 1. Can’t stay out late.
Rhett: You’re a buzzkill, you know that? Next season I’m going to ask Coach Jay to make someone cooler the captain of the team.
Me: It’s not my rule. It’s coach’s. Because someone, who shall remain nameless, stayed out late last year and was too hungover to play the next day.
June: Does that person’s name rhyme with ‘fret’?
Me: It does! Great guess!
Rhett: It’s not my fault I drank too much. The bar we were at gave out free drinks to all the hockey players.
Me: No, that’s definitely still your fault.
June: I guess I’ll make my own plans New Year’s. Too bad.
June: But after that game… I have plans for the three of us.
Rhett: SEXY plans?
June: Maybe.
Me: Looking forward to it :-)
I chuckled as I read the texts. The three of us had a cute little thing going. June had a way of brightening my mood with just a text.
It was too bad that we had the New Year’s Day game every year. That was the downside of this job, along with Christmas always being dictated by our schedule.
But the upside of the job was everything else. And speaking of which…
The man I was meeting, Ted, weaved through the coffee shop toward my table. “Happy Holidays,” he said while shaking my hand. “It’s been a good year for you.”
“Tell me,” I replied.
Ted was my financial advisor. He managed all of my money from the moment it hit my bank account, which was a relief because math—and finances—weren’t my strong suit. He opened a fancy printed binder and slowly went through all of my accounts and investments, explaining what my portfolio looked like now that we were at the end of the year.
“The last page shows how I’ll distribute the next Reapers check you receive on January first,” Ted explained. “I only made a few tweaks from what you requested.”
I scanned the page, stopping on one number. “Why is the amount going to Alice so small?”
“Her account is already heavily front-loaded,” Ted said. “You have more set aside for her than she will ever need, even if you never made another contribution, and I think you should—”
“No,” I interrupted. “I know I pay you to think about these numbers, Ted, but I want more set aside for her. The care she’s going to need…”
Ted held up his palms. “Hey, no worries. Message received. I’ll reconfigure things and send you an updated report.”
I thought about Alice the rest of the day. Her twentieth birthday was last week, and I was looking forward to seeing herwhen we were in Vancouver on the next road trip. Although it would be harder to sneak away from the team now that June was around.
I should tell her about Alice.
After considering it for a moment, I shook my head. That was a bad idea. Maybe I would tell June more about my life in the future, but not yet.
Alice was a secret I didn’t share with a lot of people.
