“Sorry. It’s been a long week. You don’t mind if I drink right? I know you’re sober but when you suggested Marty’s, I figured it would be okay if—“
I interject before he can finish. “Relax, it’s cool. I’m fine with people drinking around me. Me not drinking is more out of choice rather than necessity,” I explain.
“Okay. Good. So, how you been and how’d you get that fucking shiner?”
“Practice was terrible and I played like shit. Not sure if you caught the end of the game Saturday but it was more of that. Evans got a cheap shot in today when I wasn’t paying attention and I took a bow to the face.”
“Well hopefully tomorrow night you’ll get your shit together and you won’t suck ass,” he replies, taking a long swig of beer. If I had to guess, Aiden has money riding on our game tomorrow night in Philly. He works as a pharmaceutical sales rep and makes more money than he knows what to do with. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume the cobalt Maserati parked out front is his.
“Yeah maybe,” I grumble noncommittally.
“Maybe?” he presses.
“I need to tell you something and I need you to not freak the fuck out about it okay?”
“Okay?” He arches his eyebrows and leans further towards me. Before I can unload everything that has happened between last night and today, a waitress appears at our side with a pen and pad in hand. She’s cute, perky, and young with blonde hair and blue eyes. The kind of girl I would take home and wouldn’t call again.
“What can I get you guys? Do you need a drink?” she asks, glancing at me and the half empty table in front of me.
“Just a club soda. Thanks,” I reply harshly, barely making eye contact.
“That’s it? Any food?” She looks between us. Aiden gets an order of wings and she begins making small talk with him, realizing I’m not in the mood to chat.
“Wait, do I know you from somewhere?” she inquires, staring back at me. “You have a very familiar face.”
“Nope. Don’t think so,” I brush her off.
“He plays for the Boston Bucks. You’ve probably seen him on a billboard or two around here,” Aiden supplies with a shit-eating grin, knowing full well I hate this kind of recognition. I go to great lengths to avoid it.
“That’s it! I knew I recognized you. I’ll get your orders right in, superstar,” she muses, winking at me and flitting off to the kitchen. On any other night, I would flirt back, engage with her, make her feel special. Then do what I always do and have meaningless sex that will amount to nothing. But that wasbefore. Before Kendall dropped a live grenade in my lap. Before I found out she doesn’t hate me. Before, when I didn’t have any hope that we would ever reconnect. Finally being able to talk in private again, I lean into the table.
“Listen, I saw Kendall at my game the other night and I met up with her today for coffee. She has a son and he’s…he’s mine,” I stammer. I conveniently leave out the part about running into her yesterday, when I had to convince my body I wasn’t being hunted by an apex predator.
“What the fuck, Kai, why didn’t you lead with that? Elaborate please,” he insists, his eyebrows nearly meeting his hairline.
“Remember when she broke up with me a little after I got drafted? Well, before that, we found out she was pregnant. I told her I would support her whatever her choice was. She wouldn’t let me go to the clinic with her even though I begged her. She told me she had the abortion and basically cut off all communication with me a few weeks after that. But she never had it.” It feels good to finally get it off my chest and tell someone, although Aiden was not the first person I imagined breaking this news to.
“Holy shit! Do you need me to intervene and ask her to homecoming again so you guys can get back together?” He makes light of the situation in a way only he can, in a way that only someone who has known you since childhood can. And humor is exactly what I need right now, that and something to take the fucking edge off.
“No, I think we’ll manage without your help.” I smirk.
“Seriously though that’s fucking crazy. How are you feeling about it all? How are you doing with the news and seeing her?” He keeps bombarding me with question after question that I don’t have answers to.
“I mean, she lied to me about something monumental for a long time and now I have a son. Things are messy with us…complicated.” I acknowledge, wringing my hands together.
“Listen, I know things are…” he hesitates, choosing his words carefully, “…challenging right now. You are literally living in one of my worst nightmares—a girl from one of mymanyone night stands knocking on my door and telling me she’s pregnant. But the difference is that this is Kendall, and if there are two people that can figure this out, it’s you two. Honestly, I thought you guys would be married by now.”
I sigh. “Me too. But I guess that’s life, right? God laughs while we make plans.”
“You don’t believe in god,” he states, cocking a brow.
“I don’t, but someone has to be laughing at us while we sit on this spinning rock and try to make sense of everything.”
“It’ll be okay, you know,” he replies.
“That’s easy for you to say, you didn’t just find out you have a child. What if I’m not cut out to be a dad?” I noticeably lower my voice to a whisper. You never know what dark corners press are lurking in these days and the last thing I need is rumors or versions of the truth about Kendall and Akio circulating right before playoffs.
“Kai, I've never seen you fail at anything. Being a dad won’t be any different. Will you make mistakes? Sure. Will you have moments of doubt? Absolutely. But you are going to be a great fucking dad and you had a pretty good role model.”