I hung my head in mock horror. As far as professional athletes went, I was pretty tame. I was never in trouble, not with my career or personal life.
“Let me guess: I’m your dad’s favorite player, and he’s coming to town to take a photo with me?” I leaned back in the chair and grinned widely.
Antonia laughed, and this time the sound went right to my heart. Why was everything so easy with her?
“Actually, he said you had a great career until you had to have surgery, and he wanted me to ask why you didn’t return to the game.”
I ran my fingers along my cup of coffee. My manager had asked the same question. At the time, the answer had been simple: Brianna.
“If it’s too personal, you don’t have to answer.”
“No, it’s not that.” I sat up straight and picked at my food. “I thought about returning, but there were things I wanted out of life that I thought my wife wanted. Turns out I was wrong. When I said I wanted to retire, she asked for a divorce. She wanted the glamorous life—the big city, the spotlight, traveling to away games. When I got injured, I realized there was more to life than baseball. I wanted to settle down in a small town, maybe start a family; she realized we wanted completely different things. She didn’t want kids or the quiet life I was craving. She wanted a husband who could give her the lifestyle she thought she deserved.” I paused, meeting Antonia’s eyes. “The ironic thing is, she’s now married to a basketball player, living exactly the life she wanted. We just weren’t compatible when it came to what really mattered.”
“Brianna was your wife’s name?”
This time, I laughed. “Thank you, Wiki.”
“She’s very pretty.”
“Ah, yes. Thanks to the internet for storing every image ever posted.”
“Did she really leave you because you wanted to retire?”
I nodded and took a bite of my sausage, egg, and cheese burrito. “It took a lot of therapy for me to learn Brianna left because she wasn’t happy. Not with me, her life, or the life we shared. She was right for leaving. We’re both happier being who we are now than who we were together. We were always better as friends, which is what we are now. We text or call each other occasionally.”
My eyes were on Antonia’s expressions, waiting to see what she would do or say. At first, Brianna leaving had gutted me, but then I’d woken up and realized I had so much more to offer than baseball.
“Wow, I’m sorry.”
I gave her a small shrug. “It was a long time ago, and I’m well over it.”
“Well, that’s good then. I still have to work with my ex, so there’s that.”
“Ouch. That might be a tough one.”
“Eh. He’s probably over it.” She scooped a forkful and ate.
“Are you?”
Antonia nodded quickly. “Oddly, I’m not even bothered by it. It was probably for the best.”
It was definitely for the best for me.
The rest of the morning and into the afternoon, I sat in my office at school with my thoughts. One might think those thoughts would’ve been about the upcoming game, but they were all about Antonia. My mom had always said to believe in the signs. Was this a sign?
This one being that Antonia was single, and from my guess, she wasn’t heartbroken over it.
She wasn’t hard to read, but then again, she could be masking her emotions because of what she was going through with Miriam.
My fingers drummed on my blotter, the rolled edges catching my attention. I moved the scattered papers off the calendar and looked at the date, shocked to see it was exactly three years old. How come I’d never replaced it?
With more observation, I noticed the sentence I had written down:Start dating again.
I frowned, not remembering writing those words. The messy scrawl was definitely mine. The date itself didn’t mean anything to me, at least not something I could recall. The team would’ve been heading into playoffs, and my mind would’ve been on basketball and the upcoming baseball season.
Now my mind was on not only my responsibilities as a coach but my interest in Antonia.
I had to put her out of my mind, at least for right now. We had a game in a couple of hours, and I needed to plan. I brought my computer to life and pulled up game footage and notes Jerome had put together for me, taking my own notes as I watched.
