Chapter Twelve
To: mail@
From: milawritenow@
Hi!
I love the aesthetic of the shirt you sent. It looks just like a vintage high school sports shirt, and it’ll be great to offer a choice of character names on the back.
Only one thing: The team is the Hornets, but the mascot you drew looks more like a wasp. Can we tweak that so it looks more accurate? Insect pics attached for reference. Thanks!
If Misty had been stuck in the office, her inability to concentrate that morning might have sucked her into a social media vortex.
But leaving the apartment to go to the gym for a workout had calmed her down a bit and helped her regain her focus.
That was fortunate, as she’d have to get back to work for the author client who’d just emailed her.
As she sat down at her desk, she mused that her time on the weights floor also had the benefit of keeping her in shape and ready for anything.
Weeks had passed since she’d sent her video, she hadn’t heard anything yet, and the World Winter Games were in four-and-a-half months.
Every day that passed without word increased the likelihood that she’d hear something the next day, but she hadn’t yet.
Was she running out of time, or were they politely blowing her off?
If nothing else, she was now strong enough to move her refrigerator from one end of the kitchen to the other without a dolly.
An incoming call interrupted her look at the different pictures of stinging insects, and Misty’s eyes widened at the caller. Tish sometimes snuck the odd text during the school day, but never called. As such, she greeted her friend with, “Are you okay?”
“Have you checked your email?” Tish’s voice sounded quivery.
“Not in a while, I’ve been working out and doing research. Why, what’s up?”
“I’m going to the combine!” Tish’s words tumbled out as fast as she would normally run.
“Of course you are! That’s awesome.” Even as Misty congratulated her friend, her heart lurched into her throat. The moment of truth had arrived, and she was and wasn’t ready for it at the same time.
“Hang on, where’s...?” It was a sign of how long they’d known each other that Tish didn’t ask what she was looking for.
Misty dug around in her gym bag before remembering that she’d put her lucky duck in her underwear drawer after getting back from filming the video.
She opened the drawer, rifled through the contents, and unhooked a black bra strap from around the duck’s neck so she could take it out.
She took a deep breath, rubbed the duck’s head, and logged into her email on the computer. “Okay, I’m ready. Who was it from?”
“The World Federation of Winter Games and Sports. I had a hunch I’d gotten in when I saw the attachment. I didn’t think they would have sent anything extra just to tell me no.”
“Right.” It came out absently as Misty scrolled through the flood of new messages that had come in the last hour. Spam...upcoming Double Star Day at Starbucks...marketing email from a company she’d bought a dress from three years ago but hadn’t shopped at since...
“Wait! Here’s something, and there’s an attachment.” Her finger shook as she tapped the message.
“That’s what mine looked like.” Tish sounded giddier than Misty had ever heard her. “What does it say?”
“‘Dear Ms. Kaufman, We are pleased to congratulate you on your acceptance...’” She didn’t have to apologize for yelling in Tish’s ear, not when her friend was shrieking in joy at the news.
Jen burst into the room halfway dressed in her flight attendant uniform. “What’s going on?”
“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.
Not now, anyway. The people who mattered most deserved to hear it directly from her. Tish already knew, but there was someone else she wanted to tell now.
****
Spencer left his apartment on a rare full day off.
He’d gotten a workout in in the morning and had just finished laundry.
He should head to the grocery store...and then what?
How had his job taken over his life to the extent that he didn’t know what to do on breaks anymore?
He didn’t know but was sure he’d rather be preoccupied with other people’s workouts than see spreadsheets behind his lids every time he closed his eyes.
“Spencer!” The voice came from halfway down the block.
Misty’s hair flew behind her as she ran toward him, and the sun turned her into a full-on redhead.
He rushed to meet her, dodging a man with a stroller.
He felt bad for a moment, but it faded when he registered that it was filled with grocery bags and there was no sign of a baby.
“What’s going on?” he asked once they were face to face. Up close, he could see how bright her eyes were and how high her color was.
“I got in!” she said, flinging her arms around him.
“Congratulations!” His own excitement ticked up almost as if he’d gotten into the combine himself. He hugged her back and spun her around.
She let out a happy shriek before leaning into him again. “And it’s thanks to you!”
He pulled back slightly. “Are you kidding? You worked your ass off, trained so hard, and probably met every requirement they had and then some.”
“And I could do all that because you got me strong enough.”
She squeezed him extra-hard as if to prove her point. Spencer laughed with pleasure and tightened his grip too. She squealed as she pressed herself closer, and he leaned in further. She was back in sneakers, which put them close to the same height and let her laughter ring in his ear.
As he became more aware of how close they were, the humor of the moment faded.
Misty’s smile faded too as she looked him directly in the eye.
He’d stood close to her any number of times in the gym, but hadn’t noticed that freckle under her right eye.
She tilted her head, he leaned forward, and he couldn’t have said who kissed whom first. He lost all awareness of anything but the softness of her lips and the warmth of her mouth.
Some small part of him registered the taste of coconut, but it soon got subsumed in the taste of her.