“I was just wondering.” She paused, fidgeting with her bottle. “Is there a reason you don’t date? I’m not judging you for being single. I’m just curious. You’re such a great guy, it’s almost impossible to imagine you not getting snatched up by some lucky girl. See? Awkward.”
Had she just called me a great guy? A sense of warmth spread through my chest.
“That’s not awkward. I get asked that a lot, actually. Mostly by my family. I, um…” I trailed off, trying to decide how much to say. “It’s just what’s best for me, I guess.”
“So it wasn’t because something happened? You just like being single?”
“Not exactly.” My love life wasn’t my favorite topic, but I had a strange desire to tell her. “I was dating a girl in college. We met my senior year and stayed together after I graduated and started playing pro ball. I thought everything was great. She was getting into sports journalism and got a great job working for one of the networks. I was living my dream, playing pro football. It was like we had it all. I actually asked her to marry me.”
“Did you? I didn’t realize you’d been engaged.”
“It didn’t last very long. A few weeks after I gave her the ring, I was injured in a game. It was clear pretty quickly that it was a career-ender. Neck and spine injuries are no joke.”
“But…” she hesitated. “What did that have to do with your engagement?”
“It was too much for her. The injury, the rehab, the possibility that I’d have ongoing mobility challenges. She called it off.”
She huffed. “Are you kidding me? She broke up with you when you were severely injured?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“That’s…” She scrunched her nose. “That’s so awful. How could she do that?”
I appreciated that she was angry on my behalf, but I had to fight back a grin. She was cute when she was mad.
“I’m glad it happened. She wasn’t the person I thought she was.”
“Clearly not.” Her voice softened. “So, that was it? You decided to stay single?”
“No. My recovery took a while, and then I went back to school to get my masters. After that, I decided to try dating again. Eventually, I met someone and we hit it off. We dated for a while, and things were getting serious. That was when my migraines got bad.”
“Did you get them right after you were injured, or did it take that long for them to start?”
“I had mild ones for a while. I didn’t even know they were migraines. But then they started getting really bad. One took me out for about four days, and I had no idea what it was. They were debilitating. Eventually, my doctor and I found ways to get them under control, but for a while, my quality of life was not great.”
“So, you were getting serious with someone and the migraines got bad. Are you about to tell me she did what your other ex did? You had medical issues that were too much for her and she bailed?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.” I huffed out a resigned laugh and shook my head. “She couldn’t imagine herself coping with my migraines for the rest of her life.”
Her brow furrowed. “That’s not right. If you love someone, you don’t leave when things get hard. You stay by their side no matter what.”
“I guess she didn’t love me.” I shrugged. “Anyway, that was it. I decided I was done. I was teaching and coaching, and that was fulfilling enough.”
“I can’t say I blame you.”
Silence settled between us as we finished our drinks. But it wasn’t uncomfortable. It felt natural to sit with her, quietly enjoying a beer. Sharing things I didn’t usually share with anyone.
After a while, I broke the silence. “You ready to go, or do you want to hang out here?”
“I’m ready to go. The alarm will go off all too early tomorrow.”
“Yeah, it will.”
We stood, and as she came around the table, she dropped her purse. We both bent to grab it, and I found myself within inches of her face. Again.
Don’t kiss her again, Theo. Don’t do it.
I picked up her purse and straightened, handing it to her. Her cheeks flushed with a hint of pink as she took it.
