Matt waved to Debbie. He didn’t care whether Coach saw it.
Eight hours later, Matt eased into a booth at Johnnie’s, facing William. It had been a long and exhausting day.
“Hello dahling,” William said. He fluttered his fingers in greeting. “Happy three weekaversary! I looked for a card, but Hallmark was all out.”
Matt managed a wan smile. Had it really been just three weeks since he had tumbled down the rabbit hole into this gay Wonderland?
It had been a whirlwind of days, twenty-one apparently, punctuated by these tea times/meals with the Mad Hatter/Godmother, until Matt had met the Queen of Hearts,Colton Langley.
Matt remembered what Evan had told him, that William still wore Colton’s promise ring, that it dangled from a chain around his neck.
“I got you some food to replace all those calories you burned on the field today,” William said. He pushed a plastic tray towards Matt. Burger. Fries. Soda.
Matt appreciated the gesture but left the food untouched. He leaned forward. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked earnestly. His tone was equal parts concern and accusation.
William gestured towards the food. “Eat up. You’ll need your strength. We’ll have company in a few minutes.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Matt said.
“Patience, dahling!” William said. “I’ll get to that. I just wanted to warn you about our company.”
William lowered his voice. “Lesbians.” He said the word as if it carried its own foul taste.
Matt picked up some fries, stuffed them in his mouth in an exaggerated gesture, swallowed quickly. “Now. Why didn’t you tell me about the ring? About your connection with Colton?”
William sighed heavily. “About this ole thing, dahling?” He reached into the open collar of his shirt and fished out a plain, gold band.
Matt nodded. Yes, that “old thing” that William still clung to three years after Colton had broken his heart.
William tucked the ring back into his shirt, out of sight. “Why does any girl guard her secrets?” he asked. “Shame. Embarrassment. Hoping that if we don’t talk about it, the pain will go away. Same reason you didn’t tell us about your rape until you had to.”
Matt instinctively looked around to see if anyone had overheard about his rape. He needn’t have bothered. There were at least a dozen empty tables in Johnnie’s lobby. The only customers besides William and himself were a small family and two old couples. That was the real mystery: how could a place with the best fries in Oklahoma always look deserted?
“Do you still love him?” Matt asked. “Colton?”
William shrugged. “I don’t think anyone ever truly gets over their first love. Yes, I still love him, dahling. I love the person he was, not the person he is now. But I don’t mope around like Miss Havisham, letting my cooter get all moldy.”
Matt gave up on the idea of getting any sort of apology from William for not having warned him about Colton. Maybe none was owed.
“Final warning,” William said. “The lesbians will land in T-minus five minutes, assuming they’re on time, which they rarely are. Any food still on that tray will be hoovered up in a heartbeat.”
“They can have the food,” Matt said. He had pressing questions to ask. “What’s the plan here? Why did you have me run for SGA?” He’d gone into his first SGA meeting with only Evan’s advice to lie low. That hadn’t worked out so well. He was certain that Colton now knew he was gay. He had a target on his back.
William waved his hand dismissively. “When your coach sent you out on the field today, did he tell you to intercept that pass from Saints’ #11, dribble it past their defenders, and pass it to Johnson for the goal?”
“Of course not,” Matt said. “He expects us to execute in the moment.” As soon as the words escaped his mouth, he saw William’s point. He also realized that William seemed to have first-hand knowledge of the game.
“Wait,” Matt said. “Were you there? Did you watch the game?”
William nodded. “You were impressive, even though we ultimately lost. What people will remember, though, is that you were instrumental in scoring our only goal.”
Matt was confused. There had been fewer than thirty people in the crowd. He knew he hadn’t seen William.
“‘Execute in the moment,’” William said, repeating the phrase Matt had used. “A bit too much of a sportsball term, but I’ll go with it. At SGA the other night, you executed in the moment. You persuaded your peers to buck Colton and instead vote to send a card and flowers to Adam Maxwell. Absolutely brilliant, dahling! I would have advised against doing that. I would have been wrong.”
Matt was only half listening. His mind was back at the field, replaying faces he had seen, trying to puzzle out where William had been. William was not a person one easily overlooked. He did not allow himself just to be part of any crowd.
Unlike Paul, who upon entering any room, would migrate to a wall and plaster himself against it. Paul, whose sole interest seemed to be chess. Paul, who still deserved to be in the GM.
