At around noon, a delivery driver came into the store. “I’m looking for Emily Brennan?”
Oh no. This was worse than regular mail. When you had to sign something, it was bad news. I stayed quiet behind the potato chip display.
“Emily!” Martha called. “She’s in aisle two,” she told the driver. Traitor.
“Here,” I admitted, standing up. Might as well face it.
He handed me a box. “Sign here.”
“What did you get?” Martha bustled over.
I had no idea. We slit open the box, and inside there was another box with a new phone. “What is this?” I asked in amazement.
“It’s a cellular phone,” Martha explained.
I plugged it in, turned it on, and saw that it had service. There were already text messages. From Luke’s number.
Put me in as your 1st contact. xo Luke
PS I’ve got this one. You don’t need to worry about paying me back. All right?
I hugged the phone to me.
MeThank you, Luke! I feel a lot better having this. Have a good trip. xo Emily[in case he was wondering who was writing him back]
Then I texted Tara too, and told her I was rejoining the land of technology.
Diego brought the kids to swim practice from school, but I wanted to be there too. It wasn’t that far a bike ride, and now that the rain had stopped, it wouldn’t be that bad. I left the NGS and got to the Aquatic Center a few minutes after practice had started. I gave Charlie a secret wave when he looked into the bleachers. His cap was on crooked.
I was super anxious about seeing Coach Sean. I had no idea what had gone on after my crazy conversation with Annie in the car ride after Roy’s, and to be honest, I had avoided thinking about it. But Coach Sean wasn’t on the pool deck—instead, the assistant coach, Charlotte, was leading the drills.
“Emily!”
Annie climbed up the bleachers to me, and engulfed me in a huge hug. “I’ve been thinking so much about you!” she said into my shoulder. “How are you doing?” She squeezed hard. “How is your arm?”
“I’m fine.” I patted her back awkwardly.
“Can we go for a run? Are you up for it?”
Well, I was already dressed in workout clothes from my bike ride. “Um, sure.”
We walked to the track and started running laps. I secretly checked my new phone. Luke must still have been in the air.
“So, just to fill you in on the backstory behind the team email, we had an emergency board meeting last Friday and fired Coach Sean,” Annie said, then commented, “Oops! I forgot to start my running app. How long do you think we’ve been going?”
I stopped dead. “What? What did you say?”
“I forgot to start my running app, but it’s been only two or three minutes, right?”
“No, the other part, about Coach Sean.”
“Oh, that,” she said, unconcerned. “Well, I drew up his contract, and he doesn’t have any grounds to contest it. Michigan is an at-will state for employment. Let’s keep running!”
My legs stared to move mechanically. “Annie, can you explain this a little more? I feel like I’m missing pieces. He’s fired? You fired him?”
She tightened her ponytail. “No, the Board decided to fire him. But I’m the only attorney, so yes, I wrote the actualletter. I guess I did fire him! We don’t need cause to do it, but he did lie to and manipulate a member of our team, and threaten the swim career of a seven-year-old child. I’d say that’s cause to get fired!”
We ran another lap. I was so confused. “You’re a lawyer?”
