Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
AUDREY
SEPTEMBER
I canceled my morning yoga class because I stayed up all night watching replays and breakdowns of Noah’s scuffle.
I probably watched it a thousand times trying to make out the words.
Watching Noah push the other guy around.
It was scary and hot at the same time. Made me want to let him throw me around a little.
My doorbell rings at eight on the dot.
Who could be here this early?
I put my pen down and head toward the door. My comfy slippers make a wsh sound as I cross the room.
I peek through the peephole and see a man I don’t recognize. I’m not about to fling my door wide open for a stranger, so I angle my body to the side and barely open it.
“Good morning, miss,” the man says. He’s well dressed in a black suit jacket with a white button-down shirt and black tie. His black patent leather shoes shine in the morning sunlight.
“Good morning.” I’m sure he can see the confusion marking my face.
He hurriedly explains, “I’m Davide. I work for the Foxes.”
My eyebrows pop up. “Noah sent you?”
“Yes. He told me to pick these items up and deliver them to you.” He bends over to pick something up, and that’s when I notice all the boxes and bags at his feet.
They’re all different shapes and colors.
Stores I’ve never dreamed of stepping in to.
My face heats. Davide reads what appears to be a text off his phone.
“He instructed me to ask you what your Chipotle order is.”
“What for?”
Davide shrugs. “I couldn’t begin to guess. Mr. Fox is a good man, but he is a mystery.” Boxes in hand and bags hanging from his arms, he asks, “May I put these inside?”
I open the door wide and step back, letting him enter. I’m dying to know what’s in all these boxes.
My dining room table is covered from top to bottom when Davide turns to me, pulling a card out of his pocket.
“My card so you can reach me any time should you need further assistance.” He heads toward the door, and I trail behind to walk him out.
At the entrance he turns to me. “I’ll be back at five o’clock sharp on Sunday to pick you up. ”
“Pick me up for what?”
“The game. Did he not mention it?”
“No.” I cross my arms. “I’m out of the loop here.”
“He has box seats for you and your friend Nicole at the Hurricanes home game against the Vultures Sunday evening.”
“Oh.”
He peers over me to the dining table. “I assume everything you’ll need can be found in those.” And with that he shuts the door behind him. Leaving me to the silence that has been all too present lately.
For a second, I debate if I should invite Nicole over to enjoy this with me.
I’ve been pretty distant lately, and this will definitely make up for that, but I quickly decide that this is a message from Noah that I should see first. After two weeks of silence, this is him breaking the ice. Testing the waters.
The first box contains a beautiful bouquet.
I take a second to put it in a vase and fill it with water before moving on.
The next one contains one of Noah’s game-worn jerseys.
FOX is huge across the back, the number forty-nine in bright white.
There’s a handwritten note nestled among the tissue paper:
I need you.
- N
What does that mean?
I glance around, looking for more clues, and my eyes catch on a Good American bag.
I snatch it and find a beautiful pair of jeans inside.
I see what’s going on here. The next has a pearl Tiffany bracelet.
The next has a Prada mini bag. Lipstick.
Earrings. Shoes. Perfume. Everything a girl getting ready could possibly need.
I sit cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by carcasses of discarded bags and ripped paper. There’s one bag left. It’s black with felt details. What could I be missing? I pull the paper out of the bag. I reach in and my fingers touch the smallest stitch of clothing. If you can even call it that.
The bralette is beautiful. With black floral lace, one sparkling gem where the cups connect in the middle. The black thong matches it. One single gem right below my belly button.
So things are good between us? He doesn’t hate me? He’s not disgusted by me? These gifts are his sign of affection, not just words, but his action. By having these delivered to my house, he’s giving me an out. In case I change my mind.
It’s a good thing he finally decided because I was almost at my wit’s end without him. Haunting my own house. Moving from room to room in my robe and slippers. Not even wanting to get dressed to work. Ordering in food so I don’t have to leave.
This has been the longest two weeks of my life. Even though I was at peace with ending a relationship over this, it’s not the way I would have wanted it to go down. If I could do it all over again, I would have been more honest and forthcoming from the start—before feelings were involved.
I’ve had a lot of time to think. Laying it all out with Noah was the best thing I could have done, though.
I took back power that Sarah was trying to take ownership of.
I think it’s time for me to have the hard conversations with my family too.
They are all expecting something from me that they, themselves, wouldn’t offer in return.
I don’t want things to continue on like this.
I don’t want bad feelings to keep us from missing out on each other, specifically with my mom.
If there’s something to be saved, it’s time to do the saving.
Lying in savasana after a tough 9:00 AM yoga class at Big Power Yoga is definitely helping drown out the anxiety that woke me up.
I try to remind myself that oftentimes anxiety and excitement feel similar in the body.
The second my eyes opened, I knew that I couldn’t just be at home all day.
So I got up, made coffee, ate some yogurt, changed for yoga, and headed out the door.
Now that yoga is over and my body is tired, I have to find something to do with my mind for the next eight hours.
Excellent. I can still fit in a whole workday.
Nicole arrives at two with a huge backpack on her shoulder. “What’s all that?” I ask. She’s already dressed in her game-day outfit, so it’s not her change of clothes.
“Makeup, duh. Your skin needs to look just as stunning as all those gifts you’re wearing, babe.”
The sleek black Town Car Noah sends arrives at five on the dot.
I’ve been ready to go for about an hour.
My hair is hot curled into big waves, my makeup is more than I normally wear, but not anywhere near full glam.
I’ve got on my new jeans and strappy heels, but tonight it’s topped off with Noah’s jersey and everything else that he had delivered.
I tuck the purse Noah gifted me over my arm and look at Nicole. “Are we doing this?”
She throws her arms around me in a tight hug, and I breathe in her lavender scent. “You are.” She pulls back and looks right at me. “And you deserve it. Everything.” I smile back. My best friend who knows how I’ve struggled, doubted, and hurt. We’re both ready for me to be happy.
I drop my hand to hers and grasp it hard as we step out of the door.
The stadium is huge and looming as we pull up.
I stare out the window like the main character in a rom-com, pulling up to her new destination for the first time.
It’s giving Lizzie McGuire in Rome. Davide parks the car, and I unbuckle.
He comes around to my side to open the door.
“I’ll be outside this same exit when your evening is over. ”
I smile. “Thank you, Davide.”
I start off a little wobbly in my heels on the pocked concrete, but I quickly gain my balance, leaning on Nicole, just as I always have.
The passes on the lanyard Davide gave us make getting into the stadium easy.
A young woman with tight curls walks right up to us and tells us to follow her.
Her own lanyard says Lydia on it. We walk behind Lydia as she weaves through the crowd.
I recognize a few people from the day I was here for preseason and from Jaden’s house, so I assume this is the friends and family area of the stadium.
My nerves grow as we walk, a tightness in my shoulders and stomach.
Rows of suites roll out in front of us. I peek into each one as we pass. One has walls covered in gold. Lydia sees me looking and says, “That’s the owner's box. It was handed down to him by his parents. He grew up in Houston and went to college here as well.”
“That’s really cool. Like homegrown.”
She leads us to a box filled with people.
This must be a box that Noah and a couple other players pay for so their families can watch the game peacefully.
When I step in it feels like a hundred eyes turn to me.
There’s a pause, but maybe only I can feel the tension.
Might be all in my head. Smiles break out and I lower my shoulders back down from my ears.
I’m glad Noah got me all this over-the-top stuff.
I feel like I fit in better with the other women.
Of course, Chrissy was so welcoming that first day, but I didn’t know if that would last up to this point.
Everyone is all smiles until the small talk inevitably turns to children, and when I don’t have any of my own to coo over, I’m quickly left behind.
A smile breaks across my face when I finally spot Chrissy standing near the bar. I speed walk to her side, Nicole following me like a lost puppy. “Thank God you’re here!”
She turns to me, and I get the full brunt of her sunshine demeanor. “Thank God you’re here! I thought things didn’t work out with Noah!”
I wince. “I haven’t really spoken to him, but he sent flowers and tickets and this jersey.” I motion with my hands to the huge forty-nine on my chest.
Chrissy tuts like only a southern woman can. “You poor thing. Men’s heads can be thicker than the walls of this stadium.”