Chatard 6
Oh. I knew her.
“Hi, Kiya,” I said, and my Woodsmen colleague spun around. She wore a shorter-length dress than she would have for work and I thought that her shoes were going to make it tough on her tonight, but she looked great.
“Cate?” Her eyes widened and she smiled happily. “Oh my God! I didn’t know you were coming!” She hugged me and I hugged her back. “I was so excited to meet one of Channing’s friends. But I didn’t know he was your boyfriend,” she told me. She also smiled at Ronan.
“I’m not,” he said.
“No, he’s not,” I quickly agreed. “We’re friends and he wanted me to come because I’m really good at miniature golf.”
“Cate’s a ringer and I’m here to win,” he told Kiya, who seemed a little confused.
“He’s kidding,” I explained. Kind of.
“Oh, ok,” she said. Then her boyfriend Channing walked up and I got introduced to him before we hit the course.
With the addition of the overhead lights, everything looked different here.
I could clearly see that the dragons I’d noticed before were actually snakes.
My confusion made sense because they were the same size as the various palm trees, which were also the same size as the sarcophagi and a pyramid. Someone hadn’t considered scale.
It seemed like the lights also affected my game, because I just wasn’t hitting like I had the first time I was here.
“I don’t want to pressure you, but you have to make this shot or we’ll lose, and I’ll never be able to show my face around town again,” Ronan told me on the final hole. “I’ll also owe Channing for dinner.”
“You guys are betting on this game?”
“I only did because I was sure we’d win,” he explained. “But even in those pointy shoes, his girlfriend is an ace.”
Kiya was very good, totally carrying their team. “I’ll do my best,” I said, but we ended one stroke over. There would be no prize of a one-eyed crocodile tonight.
“You’re awesome,” Channing told his girlfriend. He swept her into his arms and kissed her, and it turned into something long, deep, and a whole lot for a mini golf place where a bunch of kids were running around.
Ronan glanced at me and I stared at an asp. “Chan, we’ll meet you in the parking lot,” he said loudly.
They broke apart and she put her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” he told us, but neither of them looked sorry. They looked like they were in love.
“So, my friend’s new girlfriend is one of the lunchroom pals you told me about,” Ronan said as he opened his truck/car for me. We were planning to work on that door problem, but other things were more pressing, like him becoming a Woodsmen.
“Small world,” I mentioned when we were both seated. “She calls him ‘Cado,’ because he loves avocados so much. That’s why I didn’t recognize his name when you talked about him.”
“Disgusting.”
“You don’t like avocados? I’ve seen you eat them,” I said.
“I don’t like pet names,” he explained. “I don’t like hearing ‘babe,’ ‘baby,’ ‘honey,’ ‘cado,’ ‘psycho,’ ‘killer,’ or anything else. But she seems nice and she’s a great golfer.” He looked across at me and raised his eyebrows.
“Sorry for letting you down.”
He sighed. “I’m just thinking about the drinks he’s going to order and how I’ll need that Woodsmen paycheck to cover it all.”
“I’ll split the tab with you.” I thought for a moment. “Do you bet on a lot of stuff?”
“What? No, and I was just kidding about being mad about the golf. You knew that,” he said, and he looked over at me again, like he was making sure.
“I knew that,” I echoed. “I’m asking about the bet because I don’t like gambling, not at all. It’s the adult human version of a dog chasing its tail and then biting it.”
“That’s an interesting analogy.” He shook his head. “Before tonight, my last bet was with a guy on the offensive line over the number of push-ups that he could do. I won, so he had to carry the water jugs even after doing all those push-ups.”
“My dad gambled,” I said. “He couldn’t stop himself. It was out of control and it drove me crazy once I figured out what was going on.”
“That makes for a hard homelife.”
“It would have, if we’d had a home.” I realized that I had sounded bitter. “His job meant that we were always on the move. I was glad that he made enough to support us until I could do it for myself.”
“He made enough, minus what he lost gambling.”
“Minus that,” I concurred. That had been plenty.
Kiya and Channing got to the restaurant before us, and they were kissing again when we walked in but broke apart as we sat down.
“Sorry,” she said. “Cate, have you been to this place before? I love Greek food.” We chatted about the area, with the three of them telling me about other new places I should go and things I should try.
Channing was from northern Michigan and Kiya had been living here for longer than I had.
“You can show her around,” she told Ronan. “Right?”
“Yeah, sure.” He pointed at something on the menu. “Do you think this has enough protein?”
“You can have a smoothie when you get home,” I suggested.
“I’m eating better,” he explained to Channing, and clinked his glass of water to his friend’s beer. It was already the second round, so he’d been correct about the alcohol tab.
“He’s trying out for the Woodsmen,” Channing mentioned to his girlfriend.
“Are you? That’s so exciting,” Kiya said, but Ronan was shaking his head.
“It’s not. I’m not sure that I’m doing it but I needed to make changes anyway, so I can keep playing for the Juniors. I want to quit on my own terms and not have my body give up on me. Sucking down a bunch of crap at every meal isn’t a good idea.”
He’d been doing this with me, too—he went back and forth over the idea of the tryout. “It’s a better plan to eat healthy, for a lot of reasons,” I said. The top one was becoming a Woodsmen, of course.
“Kiya was a track star,” Channing said proudly. “She could probably give you tips.”
“You played lacrosse in college,” she reminded him. “You did all right, too.” That mutual admiration led to them kissing again.
“Did you play any sports, Cate?” he asked when they had separated. He signaled to the waiter for another drink.
“No, I never did,” I answered. “I’m not a sports person in general, either participating or viewing.”
“But you’re a Woodsmen fan,” Kiya said confidently, then stared open-mouthed as I shook my head. “Oh my God, Cate! I won’t tell anyone.” She looked around anxiously, as if checking on the possibility that I’d been overheard. “Everyone is a Woodsmen fan. You have to get on the bandwagon.”
She sounded so serious that I got a little anxious about it, too. “I don’t hate them,” I told her.
Ronan laughed. “You don’t have to like football,” he said, and Kiya stood up.
“I’m going to ladies’ room,” she told us, and looked at me.
There was a short silence before I picked up on the hint.
“Oh, me too,” I said. I also stood and we went together.
She started putting on lipstick instead of going into a stall. “Want some?” she offered. “No, wait. This will be too dark on you. What do you have?” I showed her my gloss and she approved. “Nice!” But the next thing she said wasn’t so positive. “I can’t believe that you hate football.”
“I really don’t,” I promised. “I’ve just never watched it, read about it, or cared about it.”
“But you are going to do those things now,” she stated, and waited until I nodded. “Ok, good. Because it’s important for your career and also for your relationship.”
I hadn’t thought of it as a career-breaker but I immediately saw her point. “I’m going to start learning all about the Woodsmen,” I promised.
“And the Junior Woodsmen,” she suggested.
“I mean, I really hope that Ronan makes it to the next level, but just in case, you should support him where he is. One of the reasons that I broke up with my college boyfriend was because he was such an asshole about my sport. He never cared about my times, or—”
“But Ronan isn’t my boyfriend,” I said.
“Yeah.” Now Kiya looked sympathetic. “I heard how quick he was to deny it. Did it hurt your feelings?”
“No.”
“Yeah,” she repeated. “It’s ok. You did a good job with what you said.”
“With what I said?”
“How you were like, ‘We’re not together, I don’t care.’ You covered it really well.”
“My feelings weren’t hurt. I swear. I promise,” I told her. “Ronan and I are friends and that’s it.”
“Oh. Why?” she asked me.
I said something about working together, which didn’t make a lot of sense, and then I said something else about not wanting a boyfriend.
“Did you just get out of a relationship, so you’re having fun with him? I did that after I broke up with the guy from college,” she commiserated. “It took me a while before I wanted to even think about being serious with someone and I’m so glad I met Channing when I was ready.”
She was happy to tell me more about him and after a while, we returned to the booth where the two guys were making fun of each other’s golf scores.
Kiya joined right in. We talked about fun, non-invasive topics and Channing drank more than his girlfriend and me combined.
It was really too bad that I’d shanked that last shot because the tab was a lot and Ronan wouldn’t let me pay any of it.
“That was fun, right?” he asked me when our dinner was over and we were back in his car.
“Yes. My food was great.”
“Why were you so quiet? You’re never very boisterous, but you hardly said three words. Did Channing annoy you?”
He had a little. He was extremely self-confident, which by itself wasn’t a bad thing.
But with his girlfriend also blowing him up, it got to be a lot.
“I don’t mind him too much. I don’t know why I didn’t talk more.
” My mind hadn’t been on the conversation, actually.
I’d been stuck in the bathroom—not physically, but my thoughts kept hopping back to what Kiya had said to me in there.
I looked across at Ronan. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shit,” he swore. “Yes.”
“Why are you reacting like that?”