Page 98 of Love in Fine Print

42

BEN

The Uber driverturned up the radio, and “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” blared in the backseat as I checked my phone again, only to be disappointed. Olivia hadn’t answered my text letting her know that I had landed.

I was supposed to have come home yesterday, but all of the flights were canceled due to a snowstorm. I’d stayed at the airport all night and caught the first flight out. I was guessing she was already in court. I knew she had a big case this morning.

I briefly considered going to the courthouse just to see her face but quickly dismissed that idea. Would it be considered stalking if she was my wife? It didn’t matter whether or not it would be. The last thing she needed was me showing up.

I’d see her tonight; I just had no idea when that would be. On good nights, she got home around six. On late nights, she didn’t get in until after one a.m.

In my life, I couldn’t count the number of times I’d come home from a trip, it had to be in the hundreds if not thousands. My football career involved a ton of traveling. I always enjoyed coming home. I was a creature of habit. I enjoyed the comforts ofhome, but this was the first time I had ever been excited, amped, counting the minutes until I could walk through my front door.

There was one reason for that. My wife. Well, two, actually. I really missed Dolly as well. She’d become my shadow over the year that I’d had her. I missed scratching her belly, her lying at my feet while I worked or played Madden, and her snuggling up next to me when we watched TV.

But she wasn’t the only lady I missed. I missed Olivia more than I’d even thought I was capable of missing someone. A psychologist once told me that I had attachment issues stemming from my mother walking out on me and my father and then him basically checking out emotionally. That disconnect imprinted on me and I had difficulty forming attachments because of that.

I’d never given it much thought, but it had been an issue in my previous relationships. Even the casual ones. It didn’t matter if I spent a night or a few months, or in the case of my college girlfriend, a few years with a significant other; Inevermissed them. Ever. That didn’t go over well with the women. I’d say the words back, like ‘miss you, too’ because I wasn’t a monster, but they could tell that I didn’t mean them.

Until now,nowI missed the shit out of Olivia. It didn’t feel right being away from her. And sleeping in a bed without her felt fucking wrong. I couldn’t wait until she got home tonight, and I could hold her in my arms.

It wasn’t even the sex that I missed, although I did miss that. It was just touching her. Hearing her voice. Being near her. I missed the way her nose scrunched up when I made a ‘dad’ joke. I missed the way she twisted her hair whenever she read anything. I even missed her hair being on the shower pan and having to clean it up.

As the Uber pulled up to our home, I started to get out.

“Hey, man. I have to ask. Is it true that you might come back next year?”

If I had a dollar for every time someone had asked me that question since I retired, I’d be a millionaire. Or at least have a few thousand more dollars in the bank. Usually, my answer was the same. It was some version of no. But this time, when I opened my mouth, a different response came out. “You never know what might happen.”

“Yes!” The guy pumped his hand in the air. “The Rocket Man is coming back.”

I grabbed my duffel bag from the seat beside me. “Thanks for the ride.”

As I stepped out, I saw a sign outside Miss B’s house. It was a For Sale sign.

“What the fuck?” I said out loud as I started to cross over the lawn to head up to her house.

I stopped when I heard Dolly whining at the front window. Instead of checking on Miss B, I hurried up my front steps, opened the door, dropped my bag inside, and said a quick hello to the whimpering ball of fur. “I missed you, too. Let’s go check on Miss B.”

Panic rose in me. Had something happened to Miss B over the weekend? If it had, why hadn’t Olivia told me?

When I made it over to her door, I knocked several times before I heard Miss B calling out, “Hold your horses!”

She finally opened it, and I saw that boxes were stacked in the entryway. “What’s going on? Are you moving?”

As soon as I heard the question leave my mouth, I knew it was ridiculous. All signs, including the one in the front yard, pointed to the fact that she was, in fact, moving.

“That’s right. You’re not gonna be the only newlywed around here.”

“Newlywed?” I repeated, sure that I must have heard her wrong.

“Morton asked me to be his bride.” She lifted her hand, revealing a beautiful solitaire diamond engagement ring. “I’m moving in with my betrothed at Bay View. Now, I can’t take PB and J with me, but Olivia said that you two will take them. And she’s already helped me find a realtor and spent yesterday helping me get things packed up. It tuckered her out, poor girl. She was dead on her feet when she left here.”

I’d only been gone for the weekend. For one weekend. “When did all this happen?”

“Well, we’ve been talkin’ about this for a while now, but Morton asked me to be his wife on Saturday night, and that made it official.”

“Saturday night? I talked to Olivia yesterday and she didn’t?—”

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