I nodded. “Any given Sunday.”
“Any given Sunday,” he agreed.
“You’ve been with the Monarchs the whole time?”
“Yeah, that’s been the good thing. I was activated last year when the backup was in an accident.”
“Did you play?”
“Nah, Channing is the starter, and he was healthy, so I rode the bench.”
“The fact that you were activated shows they see your value,” I pointed out.
“Yeah. But anything can happen at any time, so I’m meeting with some investors tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens.”
“There’s no way they can’t see the vision. There’s no way they won’t want to help you bring this to life. It’s incredible.”
“That means a lot coming from you. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I smiled. “Lamar Anderson… professional athlete. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I never bring it up. I like to keep it private.”
“Why?” I wondered, incredulously. “It’s a pretty awesome job.”
He let out a light chuckle. “Yeah, I like it. Love it actually. But it, uh… falls short of the expectation.”
“Whose expectation? You get paid to play professional football. There are not a lot of people who can say that. You won.”
“I need to carry you around as my personal cheerleader.”
“I’m more of a coach than a cheerleader.”
“For me, you could be both.”
Grinning, I closed my eyes momentarily. “For you, I could do that.”
“You’ve been single for two years?”
It was such an abrupt shift in subject matter that I hesitated momentarily. “Yes… the divorce was finalized two years ago.” Wanting to turn the tables on him, I asked, “When was your last relationship?”
“It’s been a minute,” he answered.
“Does that mean you’re afraid of commitment? Or are you for the streets? Or you got out of something yesterday? Or does that mean you—”
“Hold up! What?!” He chuckled. “Why arethosethe reasons you’re assuming?”
“Because you were intentionally vague with your answer.”
“I swear I’m not being intentionally vague.” His amusement was evident. “There’s just not much to tell as far as relationships go.”
“Well, let’s try,” I probed.
“I’ll try if you try,” he countered. “I’m not the only one being vague.”
“What—”
“My last real relationship was in college,” he started, interrupting my protests. “Her name was Milan. We dated for a while, but soon after I started on the practice squad, we broke up.”
