“Is Markie coming tonight?” Gianna asks, breaking through my thoughts.
Mira shakes her head, her braided ponytail that I helped her with earlier today swishes against her shoulder. “No. She’s interviewing another guy for the pickleball thing.”
Everyone chuckles. Markie’s pickleball obsession has been a recurrent theme for a few weeks now. I’ve never seen someone so determined to not lose a festival competition. Then again, most people haven’t been the reigning champion for a few years running and being challenged by her ex-boyfriend and the girl he cheated on her with.
Fuck Jasper.
“Oh, okay,” Gianna says. “That’s fine. I’m meeting with her tomorrow at the high school.”
“Why?” Audrey says.
Gianna sighs. “She wants to train for her sportsball thing.”
Drake shakes his head, making us all laugh. As a sportscaster, Gianna’s lack of knowledge about anything sports-related is kind of funny. I think she refuses to learn now just to irritate him, which is just how Gianna works.
“And you’re going to train with her?” Drake asks. “I’ve never seen you run for anything but my dick.”
Gianna laughs with the rest of us. “No, funny boy. I’m not training with her.Ew.Sweat? No thanks.” She takes a long drink of Drake’s beer. “I told her I’d come and take pictures of her while she’s working out. It would be a shame if she looked super hot and those got posted to Social and Jasper happened to see what he lost.”
“And who he is going to lose to,” Audrey says.
“Oh, Auddie, getting a little feisty,” Astrid says. “Better be ready for a long night, Brooksy.”
“I get her feisty every night,” he says, earning a swat from a blushing Audrey.
The chatter centers around sports, something I could really take or leave. So I tune them out and pull my wife a little closer. She melts into my side like she was made to fit there, and the familiar weight of her against my chest settles something deep inside me.
Mira and I have both been knocked around by life. We’ve lost people far too soon, and carried scars no one else could see. For a long time, those scars convinced us that we were better off keeping pieces of ourselves tucked away where nothing else could hurt them.
One of us buried our feelings through responsibility and obligations. The other tried to outrun theirs. Neither did us much good.
It took us a while to get here. It took Mira showing me that life is about more than responsibility. I helped her learn that some things are worth the risk of losing.
Just like our lucky coin.
Most people walked right past it, but Mira picked it up. She saw something worth keeping and handed it to me. In the wrong hands, it held no value. But in the right hands, the discarded piece of metal is the symbol of continuity that means so much to us. It hangs over our door, reminding us every day that the things that matter aren’t always shiny or obvious.
Sometimes they’re a little worn. A little dirty. Scraped and beat-up—without their luster.
But with a little love, the shine can come back again.
No matter where life takes us, through the rain and rainbows, we’ll be okay. Because we have each other.
Forever.
