Center Courtship (27 page)

Aaron wrapped his arms around my neck and gave me a friendly hug. “I am so sorry. How can so much happen to one person in less than a week, Mae?”

The front door opened and closed and I heard a throat being cleared. I turned around to see Elsu standing tall by the counter. I walked to him and stood on my tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. His eyes never left Aaron. “Am I supposed to be concerned here?” he asked.

Aaron started laughing. “Uh, no. We're friends. The one who should be concerned is Mae when I try to steal her tall, dark and handsome boyfriend.” Aaron stepped cautiously around Elsu and left the shop.

Elsu took my hand then stepped back and looked at me. “You wear the Owl well,” he said. “Everything fits?”

“Yep, the pants are a little long, but nothing a few rolls can't fix,” I said as I lifted the sweatshirt to show I had rolled the waist of the pants to lose a few inches at the ankles.

“Hmm, how long should they be?”

“I don't know. When you're short it's the way life is. Don't worry about it.”

“You sure? I can get the team uniform guy to fix them for you,” he said.

“I am not having track pants altered, silly.” I smacked at his stomach and realized there was no movement. I touched him again through his shirt and realized it was because he was solid muscle. What did I expect? He
was
an athlete.

“Whatcha doin'?” asked Elsu as he eyed me curiously as I continued to stroke his abdomen.

I pulled my hand away quickly and blushed. “Ummm, nothing.”

“You ready for lunch?”

“Yep, let me grab my stuff.” I ran to my office and grabbed my purse, jacket and phone. I noticed I missed a call from my mom and rolled my eyes.

“Your other boyfriend calling?” asked Elsu.

“Hmph, I wish. It was my mom. She didn't leave a message,” I said as I stuck it in my pocket.

“You wish?”

“It would be easier dealing with breaking up with the other guy than talking to my mom.”

“Just as long as I'm not the other guy.”

When we arrived at Meldrum's, I told Elsu to find a seat because I needed to wash my hands. I noticed I missed some grease under my fingernails. When I was done, there were three young women standing at his booth and a fourth and fifth were sitting in the booth across from him and next to him. They were all gorgeous. Thin bodies, long perfect hair, big boobs, long legs. They were all pushing their assets at him to make sure he saw what they had to offer.

They each took a turn sitting next to him, taking their picture with him in a selfie. He was cordial to all of them. Everything seemed to be going ok, until the last to sit next to him in his booth put her arm around him and started whispering in his ear. I decided this was my cue to step in. I walked behind the three standing girls. “Can I help you ladies?” I asked.

They all looked at me, a few snickered. “We'll all have a Diet Coke,” said the one sitting in the booth across from Elsu.

Elsu's eyebrow went up. “She's not the waitress, ladies. She's with me.” The girls looked at me from head to toe. Yeah, I knew I looked like a groupie in my Whoopsters outfit, but I didn't care.

The girls who were standing moved out of the way and the one sitting across from Elsu got up. The one who had been shoving her tongue in his ear stayed in her seat. “There aren't any open tables, Mae. We can just stay here, if we squeeze in we'll all fit. Maybe you could pull up a chair on the end. Besides, we seem to be getting along.” She looked back at Elsu and placed her hand in his lap. She was one of Candice's friends. One thing that really stinks about living in a small town is it's hard to go anywhere without seeing someone you know.

“Jasmine, you're not getting along with him, you're shoving your tongue down his ear. That's kind of nasty.”

“Look who's talking, Miss asparagus sucker,” she glared at me but stayed in the seat next to Elsu. “And it's kind of rude to call his ear nasty.”

“I wasn't talking about his ear, I was talking about your mouth,” I said as I glared at her. “Now move before I make you!”

She looked at Elsu. “Tell her you've found a woman you want to get to know a little better. I know that's what your eyes are saying.”

“Then you're really bad at reading eyes. These eyes are saying ‘I'd like to sit with my girl.'” He looked at me and I nearly fainted.

“Elsu, when you realize she's not any good, come find me, I'll make sure you're taken care of the way you need to be.” She kissed him on his cheek then looked at me. “You do know you're going to screw this up, right? Just like you've screwed up everything else in your life.” She rolled her eyes at me and walked away.

I sat down across from Elsu and stared at him. “Are you sure you want someone like me?” I finally asked.

“Don't start that, Mae.” I could see him eyeing someone over my shoulder. Were the girls still catching his eye?

“What's wrong?” I asked as I looked behind me.

“That man in the booth over there is a reporter. He's been hanging around after practice trying to get gossip. I want to believe he's here for lunch, but I don't know.”

I was relieved that he wasn't looking at the girls, but this probably wasn't good either. I looked back again and saw that the man was nearly done with his meal. “Maybe he's just here for lunch?”

“I hope so, he hasn't looked over here, but that doesn't mean he isn't paying attention. Especially with the scene those tramps caused.”

I smiled when he called them tramps. “So, what looks good?” I asked as I pulled out a menu.

“I want one of those burgers you had when I was here the last time.”

Our waitress came and took our orders, and I looked back at Elsu. “So, what did you have to talk to me about.

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about my schedule.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it in front of me. There was a list of dates a mile long. They were highlighted in green, yellow and pink.

I looked at the colorful piece of paper. “They let you play with highlighters?”

“Yep,” he smiled at me. “If we're really good they even let us have scissors.”

I watched his lips form a glorious shape as he smiled. I stole my eyes from him and looked back to the paper.

“Green means it's a home game and I can get you and a guest a seat any time, no matter what. Yellow means it's away and I can get you alone a seat, you just need to tell me you want one and pink means I'd love to have you there but seats are limited and I might not be able to get you one.”

I stared with disbelief at the list. “Elsu, I know you and I are new and all, but I'm hoping you've gathered one thing from me and that's my dislike of crowds. The only thing that has me hoping I can get through tomorrow is Aaron being next to me and the fact that the only people in front of me will be the teams playing and not a big crowd of people.”

“So you don't want to come watch me play?”

Shit, that all came out wrong. “I want to watch you play, I really do. But I need to take this one game at a time. Is that ok? If I have a bad experience, I may not want to go back too soon after. I don't know how I'm going to react. Where are your seats at home?”

“They're right behind the seats I gave you for tomorrow that were technically for Brandon and a guest. These are mine to hand out to anyone I want to give them to. I want to give them to you.” He sat back in his chair and looked over my shoulder again. “He's been looking over here.”

“What's he going to do? Report that you had lunch?”

“I just don't like it. He's sneaky. He's gotten into the locker room a few times. He's a weasel.”

“What does he do in the locker room?” I asked and my brain took a turn right off the curb to an image of Elsu taking a steaming hot, wet shower.
Snap out of it, Mae.

“We don't know, we've walked in on him a few times just standing there with a recorder in his hand waiting to bombard us with a million questions. We're not sure how he's getting past security.”

“I thought reporters came in after games all the time.”

“After games, not practices. They're supposed to be closed. And they're at the practice facility. Not at the arena.”

“So you take showers in the locker room?” My hands covered my entire face in the blink of an eye. I couldn't believe the words came out of my mouth.

“Yes, Mae. What do you think we do in there? Have a quilting circle?”

I smiled, but I just wanted to hide under the table. I don't think he understood why I was so embarrassed. “I'm so sorry. I don't know why I asked that.”

I peered between my fingers that still covered my eyes and looked at him as he looked at me. “Why did you ask that? And why are you so embarrassed?”

I uncovered my face and saw our food being placed in front of us. Saved by the dinner bell.

Just as I took a sip of my iced tea, Elsu leaned across the table. “Were you picturing me in the shower?”

How I managed to not spit the tea across the table, is still a wonder to me. I swallowed it down and was pretty sure I was about to burst into flames from the heat that had crept onto my face. I finally nodded.

He laughed out loud. “You were?”

“I'm sorry, I can't help it. My brain does what it wants sometimes.”

“Hmm.” He popped a fry into his mouth and looked at me again. “When you were demonstrating your asparagus eating skills, I was imagining you doing something, too. But it had nothing to do with a shower.”

“Oh my God! That damn picture is everywhere!!”

Elsu picked up his phone, turned it on, and showed me his wallpaper. “You mean this one?” Right there in his hand was the picture of me with my tongue sticking out tasting the hollandaise.

“You did not make that your wallpaper!” I said as I covered the picture.

“Oh, I did.” He looked at the picture for a few agonizing seconds. “And I have no current plans to take it down.”

I was mortified. But also honored. How is that even possible?

We ate in silence for a while. I had ordered a chicken salad but stole some of Elsu's fries. He didn't seem to mind.

“So, can I ask you a question?” he said as he wiped his mouth. His hands to his lips,
holy shit, Mae.

“I suppose.” I looked at him sideways. “Am I allowed to not answer?”

“I suppose.” He sat forward, his knees straddling my legs under the table, this time I didn't mind the touching. “When that asshole was at my house spouting shit, he said something. I just want to know if it's true.”

I knew the question was coming. I didn't want to answer it, but he had a right to an answer. “Ok.”

“Are you a virgin, Mae?” he whispered.

I put my head down and stared at my half eaten salad. “Not technically,” I said as I looked back up at him.

“Technically?” he asked.

I sighed and looked at my watch. Another late lunch was going to happen if I went into this story. “Can I tell you while we're sitting in Little José?”

He seemed confused by my reply. “Why?”

“It sounds crazy, but that's about the only place I can find comfort. Enough comfort as I'll need to tell you about this part of my life.”

Elsu sat back. “If it's too much, Mae. I don't want to hurt you. That's never my intention.”

“I know it's not, but it's also something you deserve to know. It's a big part of who I am. And it may change your opinion of our whole relationship.”

“Ok, then let's get out of here.” He waved down the waitress and we were out the door and in my truck in less than five minutes.

I stared at Little José's steering wheel. “Penny for your thoughts,” said Elsu as he sat quietly next to me.

“If this truck could talk, I'd have to shoot it for knowing too much.” I forced a smile. “If I could count the number of times I've smacked this steering wheel, yelled at the windshield, stomped on the pedal…I'd be in the thousands. But it has never once smacked me back, argued with me, or kicked me down. That's why I come to him for peace.”

“So someone has done all of that to you?” his voice was calm, but I could detect anger.

I nodded.

“When mom took the twins to Hollywood, she had her sister and brother-in-law keep an eye on me and Max while dad worked at the shop. We would stay over there with them a lot, it was just easier for dad to not have to keep taking us back and forth. Especially during the school year. They lived across the street from the school, so we could just walk.” I bit my tongue and stared out the window as some of the final fall leaves fell off nearby trees. I took a deep breath and looked at Elsu, his face was stone cold.

“It started with Max,” I finally said. “Apparently while my aunt was at work, my uncle would do things to Max that he shouldn't.” I saw Elsu's hands fist from the corner of my eye. “I didn't know anything about it. When we first started going over there I was in kindergarten and he was in fifth grade. Apparently my uncle told him it was part of growing up, he told him he was teaching him how to become a man. Max was very shy so he didn't know any better.”

I looked at Elsu again. His eyes seemed almost watery.

“If you don't want to tell me anymore, I'll understand, Mae.”

“No, I need to get everything out. So one night, Uncle Larry came into
my
room after I was asleep and he woke me up and told me that I was growing up into a woman, and there were things I needed to know how to do.”

“Stop. I don't want to hear any more of this.” He shifted in his seat and looked out of the passenger side window.

“This went on for a few months. He'd do little things, have me do things, every time he came to my room he'd add something new. Then one night, Max walked in on him just as he had done ‘the deed' for the first time.” I felt a tear fall down my face. “Max was now in eighth grade and puberty had started to hit. He knew now it was wrong but had kept quiet about his experience to protect our aunt. But when he saw our uncle on me he went into a blind rage. He grabbed him and pulled him off me and started beating the shit out of him. There was so much blood. I thought he was going to kill him. I called my dad who was at home and said Max was killing Uncle Larry. Dad came right away and long story short, Uncle Larry was in prison for about eight years before he was killed by another prisoner. The stories about other inmates not liking child molesters? Apparently they're true.” I forced a smile.