“True.”
He glanced at his phone, winced, and then powered it off.
“Bad news?”
“Huh?”
“That look on your face. Did you just get bad news?” I asked, pointing my drink in the direction of his phone.
“Not necessarily news, but my ego is taking a bashing.”
I smiled. “I’m a good listener. Who’s doing the bashing and why?”
He dropped his head, chuckled, and then shook it. “Trust me, baby girl. You don’t want to hear this story, or you’ll be on the side with all the other women who are bashing me right now.”
“Try me. I’m not a conventional thinker.”
He angled his head, chewed on his bottom lip, and looked at me through narrowed eyes.
“Okay, here goes. I was in a relationship with a woman, who I dated for about a year. It wasn’t serious at first, and we were dating other people. After a while, I changed my mind and wanted to become serious. I proposed and she accepted.”
“Sounds like you didn’t get your happily ever after.”
He sipped his drink and eyed me. “Fast forward one year later, after an awesome win over the Chicago Seals, and we were leaving the arena heading back to the hotel. Everyone planned togo out and celebrate later, but first, I wanted to call my fiancée and celebrate with her.”
“I’m guessing your fiancée didn’t want to celebrate.”
“Oh, she was celebrating. She was kissing another man on a big jumbotron right outside of the arena I had just played in. Turns out, she was at a basketball game with a football player, and the team they were rooting for had just come back from almost certain defeat and tied the game. They were celebrating that with a kiss for the whole world to see. I invited her to my game, and she was not able to come because she had an out-of-town work trip. Yet, here she is . . . in the same city that I was all along.”
“Damn. Did you confront them?”
“Yeah. Right there at the game. I headed over to the stadium with my entire team and coach begging me not to go, threatening me if I did. I went anyway. I confronted them, he and I fought, she begged me to forgive her, and I told her to get her shit and get out of my place. That was last year on Valentine’s Day. Now here we are one year later, and she’s marrying him in the same church we were supposed to be married in, wearing the dress that I had said I would love to see her in.”
“Ouch! That’s gotta hurt.”
He shrugged his head from side to side as though weighing the cost of his decision. “I mean, I’ll get over it. In the meantime, they’re blasting it on social media, sharing videos of the fight that occurred, and ragging on how I lost the girl. The horrible part is that a lot of the women are homing in on how I moved toward her, and she shrunk back. They’re trying to insinuate that the violence I exhibit on the ice extends at home, and that’s why she probably found her a new man.”
“I’m sorry. I hate that for you. That’s not fair.”
“It’s fine. It’s all a bunch of bullshit.”
“No, it’s not right. I mean, haven’t you gone through enough? I hope she cheats on him, like she cheated on you.”
He laughed. “Anyway, we’re on a bye week, and coach decided I needed to head home to spend time with my family.”
“That sounds like a plausible resolution.”
“What about you?”
“Mine isn’t so dramatic. My boyfriend wasn’t who I thought he was, and I broke up with him. I was thirty-one and ready to settle down. Now I just love and value my freedom, independence, and not having to answer to anyone. I’m sure you can understand that.”
He chuckled. “Obviously.”
“Anyway, my family doesn’t get it. They are always talking about my eggs, ovulation, and age. I hate that society places these expectations on women. As women, we do it to each other too. My mother, grandmother, and aunts are always pressuring my sister and me to marry and have kids.”
“How old is your sister?”
“Twenty-five. She’s living her best life right now. She’s my PA, and like me, she’s enjoying her freedom. I mean, don’t get me wrong. In the last year, my views have been changing, but I don’t need anyone pressuring me to feel how they do. I’m not even sure that I want kids, but does that make me a bad person?”
