“I got accepted to the bobsled combine!”she blurted.
Her roommate squealed and hugged her.All too soon, her expression shifted.“But what are we going to do about your room and the rent?Will we need someone else to sublet your room while you’re away?”
“We’ll figure it out later.I’m on the phone.”Jen left, probably to finish getting ready, and Misty did her best not to curse her roommate out.Of course reality and logistics would have intruded, but she would have liked to prolong the initial euphoria.
“Sorry about that,” she said to Tish.
“It’s cool.It gave me the chance to sign one of the forms.”
“What forms?”
“‘Should you choose to accept—’”
“Like anyone’s gonna say no!”Misty interjected.
“I know, right?Anyway, ‘should you choose to accept, please complete and submit the attached forms, contracts, and payment requests as soon as possible.’”
“Yeah, maybe I’ll do that now.Actually, I should call Mom first.”
“Okay.”
Misty put Tish on hold and pressed her mother’s contact.The phone rang three times before Janice answered.“Everything okay?”
“More than.I got into the combine!”
“What?”
Not as congratulatory as she had hoped for, but Misty kept talking.“I got into the combine to try out for America’s first four-woman bobsled team, and so did Tish.”
“Good for you!”While nowhere near as enthusiastic as when Natalie announced her pregnancy, it was something.It gave Misty the boost she needed to broach the subject.
“And what we talked about before...”
Janice’s voice was measured.“As long as you’re sure this is what you really want and don’t expect anything for a big wedding.”
“Mom, I’m sure.I don’t know what’s going to happen with getting married or having kids, but I know things like this don’t come along every day.”
“That’s true.”Misty heard a keyboard clacking in the background.“When do you need the money by?”
“Tish started filling out the forms as soon as she got her acceptance, and I want to get going on it, too.”
“All right.”A few taps of the keyboard later, her mom spoke again.“I just sent it.And congratulations.”
The notification from the bank came through on Misty’s phone.“Thank you!”
It was lucky Misty had gotten so much done on her client’s project because she couldn’t imagine how she was going to get anything done now.As it was, she was almost too excited to sit still to fill out the forms.It was only because Tish was doing the same thing that she could concentrate on doing this now.She returned to the other call, and they talked each other through the paperwork.As they found a form related to accommodations, they submitted a request to room together.
Misty was a little deflated by her mom’s reaction, and it felt a little anticlimactic to be doing paperwork now.At the same time, once all this was finished, she could officially say she was in the combine.Even as she looked back at the letter and read through everything pertaining to members, it was hard to believe.
“‘As you know, this is the first year the World Winter Games will feature a four-woman bobsled event.’”Tish quoted a line from earlier in the letter.“We’re gonna be part of history!”
Misty couldn’t think of anything to say to that, but her excited squeal seemed to convey the appropriate emotion.The thrill was building back up inside her.
“Maybe I’ll put that in my post,” Tish mused.
“I’ll post it too, but my whole floor might’ve already heard.”She couldn’t feel too guilty about it.It wasn’t every day she found out she was in the running for a major sporting event.
After getting off the call, Misty opened her social media and got ready to post her update.Two seconds later, though, she closed it again.She wasn’t in the mood for the same bland “Congrats!”messages from the most tenuous of connections.
