“In English, please.”
“Sometimes called Halo, it’s a performance-enhancing drug. An anabolic steroid,” he clarifies.
“And did it work?” I drop my voice low and tease him. “Were you unstoppable?”
“For a hot minute.” He grins wide as if remembering a specific game.
“What happened?”
“The team did random drug testing and it showed up. Simple as that.”
“I still can’t wrap my head around you knowing this was league-wide policy and you still did it.”
“People do crazy things when they want to stay on top of their game. The timing was the final nail in my coffin. I got suspended for the standard eighty games, but in the middle ofthe suspension, it was time for my contract renegotiations. They opted to drop me and bring up a kid from our farm team instead. I think I would’ve had a fighting chance to stay on the team if the timing of my contract hadn’t been an issue.”
“So you can’t ever play again?”
“I can. It’s a matter of getting my agent to sign me again and finding a team that will take me.”
I tip my head to the side and huff. “How hard can it be? Man, you’re lazy.”
Max pulls his lips down with his fingers into an exaggerated frown and I laugh as a video chat rings through on my phone.
“It’s Emma.” I give him pleading eyes. “Stay quiet, okay? I don’t want to have to explain why you’re here.” He nods, and I swipe to answer the chat, realizing I’m not completely sure myself why he’s at my house, picking at nachos and swapping life’s disappointments.
My daughter’s happy face lights up my screen and I angle my phone so I’m staring right at her. “Hi, monkey! How are things at Grandma and Grandpa’s?”
Her lips twist and her eyes gleam. “The real question, Mother, is why are you all over the internet saying you’re married to Coach?”
12
NOLA
The second Emma says that, Max gives me wide eyes and lips rolled between his teeth as he pulls out his phone. Furiously tapping, he finds what he’s looking for and gives me a resigned sigh. He flips his phone around and sure enough, there we are, a video of us at the bar. I’m pulling the woman off of Max and lying my butt off for reasons I still haven’t decided.
I keep a neutral face even if I’m feeling anything but inside and look at my phone again. “Em, why are you on YouTube?” I stall, half listening to her as my brain decides the best way to explain this.
“I wasn’t, I swear. Grandma, please tell Mom I wasn’t on the internet.” Emma flips the camera to put my former mother-in-law in the frame.
“Hello, Nola.” She puffs the back of her hair and wipes some stray lipstick off the corner of her mouth. When Elliott was alive, we got along as well as could be expected. She really stepped it up when he passed and always makes sure Emma doesn’t lose touchwith that side of the family, even as time continues to move forward. Sending her up to Seattle is a no-brainer that Emma looks forward to and it gives me a chance to breathe a little.
“I promise Emma wasn’t on her phone until it kept making the chirping sound over and over. Her friends were texting her to say you and Coach were making the rounds on all those apps kids are on, so we looked. You two most certainly are trending.” She gives me a cheeky grin.
“Oh.” I bite my lower lip. “Shoot. Pam, Em, there was a misunderstanding and I’m figuring it out right now.”
“Why were you even with him tonight?”Emma asks, flipping the camera back to herself. Pam walks behind her, both of them studying me.
A little string of white lies is on the tip of my tongue when Max chokes on a chip and begins to cough.
“Mom! Who’s there?” Emma shrieks in panic and Pam chuckles knowingly.
“Oh, Nola. Call us later—we’ll stay up. I’m very curious to hear the story.”
The call ends and Max has apology written all over his face for the ill-timed spasm. He crosses the kitchen to help himself to a glass of water and gets the coughing under control before looking at me and saying, “Guess we should talk about our marriage, then.”
I crane my head back until I’m staring at the ceiling, fixated on a spot where the mud texturing looks like a baseball bat. “What’s the damage? Are there videos truly all over the internet?”
“From what I can see, we’ve made all the social apps and there’s even a meme, which is quick. I found us on ESPN as a side story,People Magazineonline picked it up, and Page Sixonline has a throwaway paragraph about it, tucked around bigger sports news.”
