“If it isn’t too much trouble, can I have a hotdog?” The food over there looked fancy, come on, they had carving boards—oh, excuse me, salabars—but I just wanted something simple.
“No trouble at all. A lot of people still want their stadium dogs, kind of a staple. Anyone else?”
“Me, hotdog,” Stella agreed.
“Me too, mustard only,” Mikki added.
“I’ll bring you all sorts of condiments.” She left, and I turned to Stella, who had handed the note over to Mikki.
“He really likes you.” Stella placed one hand on top of mine.
“You can tell that from this letter?” I asked, taking the letter back and tucking it into the tote.
“Yeah. He seemed genuine about wanting to spend time with you. It was sweet.”
“You got that from four sentences?”
“Positive affirmation, I tell you, he was going for positive affirmations.” Stella locked eyes with Mikki. “Don’t you agree?”
“Yep. He didn’t give you fan stuff; he gave you his real jersey. The expensive signed stuff is on jersey replicas. Oh shit, I didn’t look. Turn around.” Mikki grabbed hold of my shoulders and twisted me.
“What are you doing?”
“Awwee, here it is. He wrote, ‘My Vivian,’ and signed it.”
Stella pulled out her phone, snapped a photo, and then showed me the screen. “Here.”
“God, you know me so well.” Sure as hell, Mikki wasn’t lying. Something about those words reached into my chest and squeezed. But I didn’t have time to ponder those thoughts.
“Here you go.” The server reappeared with our drinks and hotdogs. “Also brought you some pretzels, nachos, and popcorn. All of the stadium favorites.” She handed food trays to each of us.
“I’m in love with you,” Stella proclaimed as she dipped her pretzel into the nacho cheese. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” She held out one last container and opened it to us. It was a small divided bowl filled with condiments, relish, onions, and shredded cheese. We each helped ourselves, loading our hotdogs full. “If you need anything else, just wave to me, my name is Andi, I’ll be right over there.” She pointed to an offset area that was out of the way, but close enough that she could still easily watch the area.
We turned and got comfy in our seats as the crowd started to get restless. “They’re getting ready to come out.” Mikki stomped her feet.
“How do you know?” I asked between bites.
“The auxiliary staff is coming out. See.” She pointed to a few men and women meandering on to the court and making their way over to folding chairs that were behind another row of chairs and off to the side of the players’ bench.
A bead of sweat rolled down my back, and my heart felt as if I had a murmur with erratic rhythms. I sat forward, my knees bobbing. “You nervous?” Stella whispered.
“No. I don’t know. What if I’m handling this all wrong?”
“You aren’t. Calm down and enjoy the ride wherever it takes you.”
My knees were well into a cantor as the sports announcer called out the Celtics eight bench warmers followed by their starting lineup.
Then it came to the Lightning. Mikki grabbed my arm and pulled me up. I counted player after player as they ran to the center and shook hands with each of the Celtic players.
“And tonight’s starting lineup, let’s hear it for your home team, Lightning.” The announcer called out a name, then another, and another. I was holding my breath when he finally called, “Shooting guard number thirty-three Aaron Skkye.” The announcer began another name, but I didn’t listen, I only had eyes for one person.
He ran forward, but his eyes were locked on me. Suddenly, I felt shy. I waved, and a wide smile spread across his lips. A scuffle in the audience threatened to steal my attention, but I didn’t want to turn my head and risk breaking our eye contact.
“Jesus Christ, Vivian, the crowd is going crazy trying to figure out who he is looking at, who is making him smile so brightly.” Mikki shoved my shoulder with hers.
My attention snapped to her. “What?” Then I glanced around to find several people were staring at me, others staring in our direction but not sure exactly where.
I faced forward and leaned back, contemplating what I was going to do.
“Right there, what I saw proves it all, you’re crazy about him, and the feeling is clearly mutual.” Stella grabbed my hand. “Enjoy it, hell, enjoy him.”
Andi appeared with three takeout-style boxes. “I thought you might like these.” She handed one to each of us with a spoon.
We opened them while she collected our garbage.
“Red velvet cake? I’m in heaven.”
“Have I told you I love you?” Stella asked before she shoved a large bite into her mouth.
“Thank you. Let me know when you’re ready for refills.”
“Will do, thank you.” I smiled at her as she slid back into her small space.
With cake in hand, the three of us sat at the edge of our seats and watched tip-off, where the ball was tossed into the air and the tallest players jumped to hit and others were ready to grab it if it was headed their way.
The men were off, dribbling and passing the ball from person to person, moving closer to the basket until Aaron took control of it.
“Yes,” I shouted when Aaron shot the ball and it landed in the basket. When it came down, a Celtics player snagged the ball and they bounced it, passed, and slowly worked it toward the opposite side of the court.
“Way to go Gage,” Mikki shouted.
“What did I miss?”
“That’s Gage Armentrout, number nineteen, he recouped the ball for us, see?” Mikki pointed to the court, and I finally realized that the Lightning did indeed have the ball again.
The buzzer rang and Aaron ran and joined his team huddled together, but not before he looked over at me and smiled.
I nodded back, letting him know he absolutely had my full attention, and then I
