Chapter Fifteen Rome
W E WOKE UP together on our last day before the weeklong stretch when Alex would be by himself in my home.
That morning, he made coffee while I made breakfast, a new routine that I could see forming between us when things eventually grew.
I’d enjoy the morning with him before heading to the stadium for our second and final game against the Pensacola Piranhas.
We won the first game, eight-to-seven, and I could already feel it in the air that we’d win the second game.
That second win would put us at ninety-two wins total.
We flirted dangerously close to making postseason but none of the players would speak it aloud.
I had no doubt each of us thought about it every day.
I plated up breakfast for my man and sat next to him at the kitchen island. He had poured us both a generous mug of coffee and I let mine cool before taking my first sip. As always, I took a quiet moment to myself to say grace, when Alex surprised me by taking my hand.
I looked at him, curious and a little confused. “Go ahead. Aren’t we supposed to hold hands?”
Something hitched in my throat, preventing me from answering. I cleared it away with a quiet cough and said, “Yeah. We are.” I squeezed his hand and bowed my head to say, more audibly this time, a blessing. I crossed myself when finished and Alex release my hand to begin eating.
We consumed our food in silence. That gesture, however small, would stay with me for the day and, I knew, well into the week.
He hadn’t done that before. Each meal we shared started out semi-awkward as the token Catholic did what he needed to do.
And yet, Alex moved past it, pushed us into a new territory, and joined me.
It was only halfway through our breakfast that Alex broke the silence. He had drained his coffee and stood to grab another cup. I still nursed my first. “So listen. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
Felt like I sank into the cold plunge back at the stadium. But no, I mentally came out of that. I needed to grow accustomed to Alex’s sudden truth bombs or whatever pressing issue he had on his mind. So far, none of them had been catastrophic to our relationship.
“Okay,” I said confidently. “Let’s hear it.”
He sat back down and held his coffee mug between his hands. “Remember awhile ago when you asked me when I pierced my ears?”
I did. It was during one of our earlier video chats, one that lasted late into the evening.
I had asked more out of random curiosity.
Alex told me he had them pierced on his twentieth birthday for a special kind of celebration.
Before I could ask more, he moved the conversation along to his twenty-first birthday and how he, literally, ended up in a gutter by the end of the night.
He had me howling with laughter. So much so that I forgot about the odd comment about the earrings.
“I do,” I said. “You said it was a special celebration.”
He nodded. Took in a breath, and released it slowly. “Ten years, cancer free. I turned thirty a few months ago and I haven’t quite figured out how to celebrate twenty years of being cancer free.”
My hand went to his thigh and gripped hard enough to make him wince.
“ What ? H-how… w-when? Alex…” I clamped down on my shock and banished it to the desert.
This was not how someone should react to receiving this kind of news.
I called on my better half, my conscience, that guided my next words.
“I had no idea but thank you for finding the courage to tell me. Is it all right if I ask more? Are you comfortable sharing that?”
He rolled his eyes, but not in a way that conveyed annoyance—more like bewilderment. I saw tears form, though they didn’t fall. “How on earth are you such a gentleman?”
I dismissed the compliment. The moment was not about me. “Just being polite. Alex, I am so, so sorry to hear about this. Twenty years? That’s amazing. Incredible even.” I muttered a praise to God under my breath.
“I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma when I was eight. Devin was twelve at the time.” The way he said his brother’s name.
Like his personal hero. “High survival rate for kids with Hodgkin’s and I was lucky enough to be included in that bunch.
Children’s Hospital in Boston is amazing.
We did chemo and radiation. And by ten, they declared I was cancer free. ”
I had loosened my grip on his leg the more he spoke. I kept my mouth shut and let him continue but conveyed with my eyes how much I appreciated him sharing this with me.
“I survived. But… my parents…” He shook his head.
“They stayed together until I was ten, but the cancer wrecked their marriage more than it did my body. They couldn’t handle the stress of it.
I had no idea, but every day was torture for Devin and all three kept it from me.
” He let out a long puff of air, then took a careful sip of his hot coffee.
“The divorce was awful. My medical bills were insurmountable and that came into play during the hearings. Things got nasty. Really nasty. Suddenly my well-being meant nothing to them.” He shrugged, as if that could shove away the scars that must have formed during his most formative years.
“Devin took care of me. While Mom and Dad battled it out in court, Devin made me dinners, made sure I got to school. Hell, he even made lunches for me.” He smiled while he spoke, like he peered into a past memory that played out before him.
“He’s the one who got me into running. Told me to join track and just… go .”
He finally turned to look at me. Something passed between us.
A newly formed cord, perhaps. Something to tether us closer.
“They died within six months of each other. Both from alcohol. Both from drunk driving. I was in high school and Devin was in college.” He looked down and away from me.
“I don’t like talking about it. Neither does Devin.
In fact, I almost never think about it. Not my parents.
Not the cancer. My thirtieth came and went before I realized it had been twenty years. ”
Alex sighed and I felt the weight of something drift into the wind. “I want you to know because it feels right that you should know. There’s a piece of me in that bit of knowledge that I want you to keep. To have.”
I wanted to kiss him. To hold him. To press our bodies together. To lock him at my side with a sword in my hand and vanquish anything that dared try to hurt him.
“Thank you for telling me. I have to admit I wondered about your parents. You never mentioned them.” I tutted and rolled my eyes at myself. “Once again, all I do is prattle on about myself and my family. Jeez. I hope that didn’t sting whenever I talked about them.”
“No. Oh, Rome, no.” His hand was on my arm. “It’s what attracts me to you. I don’t have what you have. It’s amazing to hear about your family.” He smiled and gripped my bicep. “I would love to meet them one day. Your folks, your siblings. The rest of your cousins.”
I took his hand in mine and kissed it. “Done. But what are we going to do about this twentieth anniversary? You’ve got tattoos. Piercings. What else?”
Alex laughed and looked away. “I really don’t know. If I do something at twenty years cancer-free, what am I going to do at thirty? And forty?”
“Well, you don’t have to do anything, but I think you should.” I snapped my fingers as a thought sprung into my head. “Can I take this one? Can I think of a way to celebrate?”
He readjusted our hands so he could now kiss mine. “Best idea ever. I would love that.”
I nodded. “Great. I’ll start thinking about it.” He kissed my hand once more. “Thank you so much for telling me, Alex. Really, it means a lot that you can open up and share something like that with me.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “I’ve never had someone thank me for telling them about my cancer.” He pressed his lips together as I saw the mist renew in his eyes. “You really are something else, Number Sixteen.”
I kissed him like I couldn’t get enough. We left our breakfast half finished and found our favorite corner spot on the couch to start out the day the best way we knew how.