I rap my knuckles on the desk, pasting a tight-lipped grinon my face then head toward the common room. The bold scent of coffee hits me first, followed by the crowdedness of the room. I scan over all the heads—which isn’t difficult considering I tower over everyone in here—eyes searching for my favorite blonde. People are shuffling left and right, hands filled with coffee and pastries. By the time I make it to the table in the back featuring the breakfast spread, I realize to my disappointment, that she’s nowhere to be found.
“Try the raspberry tart,” William says, coming to stand beside me.
“Oh. I don’t really like desserts that have fruit in them.” I pick up the chocolate croissant instead.
“Oh, grow up,” he scoffs, rolling his eyes as he turns, heading to the back door.
I snort a laugh and follow behind him. “You heading out for a walk?” I jog over, holding the door open for him. “I’ll join you.”
Outside, the clouds hang low, like rain is on the horizon but it might hold off long enough for us to walk. William leads the way, and I’m surprised when he heads off the path, around the building, and leads us down the same path I took with Chloe not too long ago. For a moment, I wonder who told who about this secret spot.
“I heard you play hockey.”
“Checking up on me, Willie?”
“Hardly. Your girl was telling Rosie about you. They were gossiping for over an hour. I think they both forget sometimes that Rosie is creeping up on a hundred.”
I stop in my tracks, ignoring how my neck heats when he calls Chloemy girlagain, and instead, focus on how old Rosie is. “She is not turning one hundred.”
“Well, alright, not a hundred, but eighty-five. I like to give her a hard time about her age.”
“How old are you?”
“Eighty-four.” He lifts his chin proudly.
I give him a once over with one eye brow raised. “You don’t look a day over eighty-three.”
We share a small laugh and his head shake calls me a smart ass before he speaks up again. “I was a boxer.”
“Get out.” I turn to face William, and now that I know this information, it seems crazy that I didn’t guess this about him before. “Were you any good?”
He smiles, mostly to himself, and then nods his head. “I was an undisputed champion.”
“No shit? You used to give guys the old south paw?Pow pow.” I shadow box the air in front of me.
“Oh lord.” He rolls his eyes and reaches his hand out to the fence, stopping for a break.
“Does anyone else here know?” I ask, leaning an elbow on the fence beside him.
“No. And I’d appreciate it if you kept it that way.”
“What? Willie, an undisputed champion whether for one year or fifteen, makes you a legend. They probably have Wikipedia pages about you.”
“The problem is, once people label you a fighter, they don’t bother learning the rest.”
Thankfully, there’s a fence here to keep me from falling over. William’s words hit me like a punch to the gut. One from an undisputed heavy weight champion.
“I can relate,” I murmur, turning to face the rolling hills.
The hills are still out there, the trees and the blades of grass sway the same way they did last week, only none of it is basked in the warm glow they had then.
“Well, go on. I’m old, I don’t get to hear many stories anymore, and I can’t wait forever to hear them,” he says with a straight face, but I hear the humor tucked in there and I shake my head.
“When I was in fifth grade, some punk kid was picking on Noah.”
“Your friend?” he asks.
I pick at the little wood splinters in the fence and shake my head. “I didn’t really even know him then. I think I might have known his name, but we weren’t friends. We were never in the same class. I don’t even remember ever playing with him on the playground.” My memory sucks on a good day, but I remember that afternoon so clearly. From the Detroit Saints shirt Noah was wearing to the rainbow chalk drawings on the four square court. “Anyway, I forgot my lunch that day; my brothers were probably rushing me out of the house or something. Either way, I didn’t want to tell anyone that I forgot it, so I grabbed some ketchup packets from the cafeteria, thinking those would suffice.”
