Chapter 1
Elle
“Archer! Hi! You probably don’t remember me.
We had World History together freshman year.
We were friends, well I considered us friends.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you that you’re doing a great job, the city loves you.
” Sadie cackles and continues reading through her laughter.
“And well, if you ever want someone to talk to, I’m local!
We could meet for drinks or coffee. Well anyway, keep your head up, you’ll get us to the Super Bowl. I know it.”
“Ellie” Sadie stretches my name between the two syllables as she wipes tears from her eyes, “You sound like Kris Jenner when she yells ‘You’re doing great sweetie.’ How much did you have to drink when you sent this?”
My best friend Sadie adopted me my first-year teaching and I never let her go since.
I even followed her when she left the first school we both started at to the school we are at now.
She would move mountains for me, but she will mock me forever about this message, such is the nature of our relationship.
“Enough” I grumble, putting my head in my hands. “How embarrassing is it? Do you think he actually would read it, or do you think like a publicist or personal assistant runs his account?”
“Difficult to say.” Sadie responds by pushing my phone back to me. “What I want to discuss is that in our six years of friendship you never once mentioned that you were friends with Archer Bell.” Her voice is all business.
“You read the message; I clearly don’t know if we were friends.
I considered us friends, but then he transferred sophomore year and we never spoke again.
” I take a drink of my iced coffee. Sadie and I meet up every chance we get at our favorite coffee shop that’s between our apartments and school.
It’s a small and brightly lit shop decorated with light woods and white walls with plenty of flowers and plants to give it some color.
Since it’s our fall break, we can spend a little extra time on our drinks and dissect the disastrous message.
“I mean we went to a few parties together; I have a picture on my phone from a Halloween party— ” I don’t get to finish my sentence as Sadie snatches my phone back. Her face unlocking my phone. She immediately begins to use the search feature on my phone for the Halloween photo.
“Holy shit, look at your legs in this photo… Is that a sexy ghostbusters outfit?”
I roll my eyes. I hold out my hand for her to return my phone.
“I’m not finished with it yet.” She pauses “He looks so little in this. I mean he’s not little by any means in this photo.
He’s still a freaking D1 collegiate athlete in this photo but he looks so young.
All the floppy hair. No signature scruff either.
” Sadie continues to inspect the photo. “You could always send this to him to prove you actually know him.”
“Or I could hope that he never actually reads the message, and I can pretend I never sent it and continue on with my life and we never talk about it again.” I notice Sadie’s eyes are big and her lips are pressed together.
“What?” She silently hands me my phone, and I notice I have a new message on Instagram.
9:34am @ Archbell14 I remember you. Thank you for your kind words.
My coach and publicist will probably not like it, but I would like to meet up for coffee sometime soon.
My number hasn’t changed, if you still have it.
Otherwise we can continue to communicate through messenger.
I don’t want to give my number out through the internet. I hope you can understand.
Before I can lose my mind a second message comes through.
9:36 am @ Archbell14 we were friends, sorry if I ever made you think otherwise.
“Shut the fuck up” Sadie blurts out as I read her the messages “PLEASE tell me you still have his number.”
I quickly scroll through my contacts. “I don’t see Archer Bell at all…” I pause, trying to think of how college Elle organized her phone. “Man Giant. I have him saved as Man Giant.”
Elle: Hi Archer, It’s Elle. You said to text you, I’m on fall break all this week so I am pretty much free to meet when you are.
I click send before I can second guess myself. “Did that sound desperate?”
“Well, a little bit but it also sounded flexible and we know how much we teachers pride ourselves on being flexible!” Sadie smirks.
I groan and then see the three little bubbles pop up indicating that he is typing. “Shit! He’s responding!”
Man Giant: Does coffee work tomorrow around 10:15? I’ll have a break between strength training and drills.
Elle: yeah! I have a cute local place I go to often. It won’t be crowded at that time since it’s not quite lunch. I’ll send you the location.
I drop the location pin to Archer before taking a look at Sadie, “I’m having coffee with Archer Bell.” Panic starts to creep in as I utter those words out loud.
“What are you going to wear? You cannot wear yoga pants and a t-shirt.” She states as she looks me up and down. “And you can’t wear your typical teacher clothes either.”
“I was going to say I was going to wear something cute and fall-like.”
“Ah yes, the uniform of all white women in the ‘ber’ months.” She nods sagely. “Okay,” she continues, “What do you plan on wearing that is cute and fall-like?”
“I was thinking of my favorite mustard yellow sweater and my comfy light wash jeans.” I wince as I realize I will match Arthur from the book series. “Maybe I shouldn’t channel my inner aardvark.”
Sadie snickers at that comment. “We’re going to the boutique next door.
” She gets up knowing I will follow. “Now I agree jeans and a sweater are the way to go, it’s casual but not too casual, just the Arthur vibe is probably not what we want to give off.
” She tosses her cup in the trash before heading out the door and to the next shop down.
Luckily for me Sadie and I were able to find something that was cute for coffee and versatile enough to wear to work after, the only difference would be the shoes that I wore.
Cute boots for coffee and comfy white sneakers for work.
I have runners in my kindergarten class.
“Should we make talking points? What do I have in common with an NFL player?”
“Regale him with tales of your kindergarten classroom, you could tell him about the chicken.”
“Uhm, you know I have PTSD from that chicken, no way in hell am I sharing that story.” I say shuddering from the memory of the baby chick that was pancaked by a student who got overly excited. “I gagged through the whole ordeal; I don’t even know if I could tell it without gagging.”
“I meant the Lt. Dan story.” Sadie retorts referencing the baby chick I fostered whose leg did not develop properly. He had to be kept separate from the other chicks, so he stayed with me and I raised him until he was ready to go home with one of my students.
“Or I could stay away from school stories all together. They don’t seem to get me very far on my regular dates. I don’t think they will do well for me here either.” I say as I put my bag into my car.
“I don’t know! You said you would let him talk about whatever is bothering him, just do that instead of talking.
Keep true to your offer.” Sadie looks at her watch.
“Shit, I need to head to the gym, I have my training session in about 25 minutes, you message me the instant something happens. Understand?!”
“Yes, ma’am.” I salute as she gets into her car and drives off. I continue to stand in the parking lot watching her drive away as I wonder how the hell this spiraled so quickly.