CHAPTER 51 Millie Monroe
Wad of Dick
I don’t need to leave to get to the stadium for another four and a half hours, and it feels like a good time to call Jackie and Chip to let them know everything that’s gone down since last night.
As I dial Jackie’s number, I realize my hands are trembling.
Maybe I should be calling Chip for this. I mean, I’m basically about to tell them I’m putting in my notice, right? Shouldn’t that call go to my boss?
Except…I’m really not putting in my notice at all.
I’ve already agreed to this, and I want to get started now, not in two weeks or a month or whatever an appropriate amount of time is.
Chip has always been flexible with me, and I don’t see that changing now.
He’s not suddenly going to tell me the bar can’t operate without me when it’s always been just fine when I’ve taken time off.
Including my recent monthlong adventure in the Bahamas.
If anything, he’ll probably be relieved he no longer has to accommodate me and my wacky schedule.
“Mike! Millie’s calling!” I hear her yell as she picks up. “Tell me everything. Did you make up?”
“Wait!” I hear Chip yelling in the background. “I’m coming!”
“I hope he means he’s running through the house to the phone and not the other thing,” I mutter.
“You really never know with him,” Jackie says.
I giggle.
“Okay, I’m here,” Chip says, slightly out of breath. “So?”
“She never did text me back last night, so this has to be good news. Right? Is it good news?” Jackie asks, flipping between talking to Chip and talking to me.
“Well, I talked to him after the game, just like Cooper set up, and he bolted,” I begin.
“Oh, shit,” Chip breathes. “I’m sorry.”
“What an absolute wad of dick,” Jackie agrees.
I giggle at the label. “He’s not a dickwad,” I argue. “He just said he couldn’t do this and walked out. I got your text last night, and I was about to reply in between my sobbing when there was a knock at my door.”
“A knock?” Jackie repeats.
“That sounds positive,” Chip adds.
“Sounds less like wad of dick behavior, I guess,” she agrees. “If it was him. Well, come on, then. Out with it, Monroe.”
I giggle. “Yes, it was him, and he said Cooper told him that since I came all this way to apologize, the least he could do was hear me out. Long story short, I guess on the way over, he realized he basically couldn’t live without me, and we made up.”
Jackie screams. Legit screams. It’s so loud, in fact, that I pull my phone away from my ear. “You made up?” she asks, her voice all weepy.
“We did. I apologized, he accepted, and we spent the night makin—”
“Don’t say making love,” Chip interrupts.
“I was going to say we spent the night making up,” I say. “But yeah. That too.”
“After you watched him on the field? What was that like?” Jackie asks, her voice dreamy.
I clear my throat. “Chip, mind your business for a second in the other room.”
“He’s gone,” Jackie says a second later.
“I know he’s not, and he’s just being quiet, but Jackie…holy hell. Wetter than a waterslide if you know what I mean.”
“Jesus Christ,” Chip mutters quietly.
“I told you to leave!” I protest.
They both laugh.
“So then what?” Jackie asks.
I give her the quick summary of everything we talked about and end with, “He said he’d fly me to see you, or fly you to see me, and he’ll do what it takes to make sure I’m not alone.
“If we can’t be together, we still have phone calls, texts, and FaceTime,” she says. “We’ll always be best friends.”
“Always,” I say.
“So it sounds like I should take you off the schedule, then?” Chip asks, and I can’t help a giggle.
“Do you need me to put in two weeks’ notice?”
“You know I got your back, Mills,” he says. “Take care of yourself out there, okay? We’ll miss you like hell, so you better fucking come visit.”
“I promise,” I say.
We hang up, and as I wander around this mansion that’s my home now, I can’t help but think about how life can throw us curveballs straight out of left field that we never saw coming.
I was so sure my dream was to earn that paid partnership, but when I saw what I had to do to get it, I learned the hard way that some dreams aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
But now I have a brand-new dream, and it seems to me that I’m actually living it. Archer’s right. It won’t always be easy. He’ll be gone a lot of the time, but if we both want this hard enough, and I think we do, we’ll do what we have to in order to make it work.
Maybe I can travel to the cities where he’s playing when the team is on the road. Maybe we can still find blocks of time to spend together. It won’t be traditional, but so much about what we’ve started here isn’t traditional, and maybe that’s just the way it’s meant to be for us.
I open up his laptop and do a little work on the foundations. I make appointments with the people he gave me as resources to start my onboarding. I’m working on getting set up to start my life here.
Archer arranged a car for me to take me to the game, so I head out front when the driver texts me that he's here.
This really is not the kind of lifestyle I'm used to.
I drive myself everywhere back home, and here I don't have to worry about things like driving somewhere, because it's taken care of for me.
I arrive at the stadium and head to the same suite as last time, where I find Gabby sitting in the bleacher seats watching practice down on the field.
“Hi,” I say a little timidly, and she turns to look at me.
“You're back!” she exclaims, and she jumps up and comes over to give me a hug. “I'm so excited to see you here again. I was worried you wouldn't show, and I was hoping we'd get more time together.”
I scrunch up my nose. “Truthfully, it was a little rocky and touch and go at the beginning, but we ended up working things out thanks to your husband.”
She leans in. “I want every detail. My mother-in-law took Sunny off my hands for a while, so I’m hoping to get to know my new gal pal Millie a little better.”
I laugh. “I’d really like that, especially because it looks like I'll be moving here to Vegas, and you're pretty much the only person in town I know besides Archer.”
“You’re moving here?” she gasps.
I nod.
“Yay!” She squeals and hugs me again. “And I promise to fill you in on who’s friendly and who you should avoid.”
I laugh. “Are there people I should avoid?”
“There are people I avoid,” she says, leaning in closer like we're sharing secrets. I guess we are. It's nice to feel like I already have a friend.
She sets her hand on her stomach. “I'm starving, and so is this little one. Do you want to grab a bite to eat?”
My jaw slackens. “You're pregnant?”
“I am. I'm about five months along, four to go, and honestly, it's a little easier the second time because you know what to expect. But nothing about pregnancy is easy.”
“Well, that's both terrifying and informative,” I mutter.
She laughs. “Oh, come on. I'm sure you guys have plenty of time before you need to worry about that.”
“I’m sure you’re right about that.” I give her another quick hug, and then we go up to the buffet, where we proceed to completely stuff our mouths full as we wait for the game to begin.
It’s yet another curveball out of left field. I actually have a new friend here, and it’s starting to feel like this was always meant to be.