Page 32 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

I scratched my cheek. “None, I guess. I just imagined her name starting with a K.”

Maddie looked away from the needle to gaze at me. “Is that a fetish of some sorts? Like, you only eat white food? You’ll only sleep with women whose names start with K?”

“Wh-What? I don’t only eat white food!”

Maddie shrugged. “It’s just an example. What I mean is that people get into weird stuff.” She spoke with knowledge. “I always wondered if I was going to get one of those at some point.”

“One of those what?” I’ve never been so confused.

“A fetish, Z.” She rolled her eyes and crocheted again. “Now that I broke up with Pete, I have time to rethink my sex life. I think I’m too vanilla. What do you think?”

“Hey there, Cathy!”My voice was high and weird, quickly talking over Maddie’s rant about being vanilla.

Cathy stood in front of us, a bright spirit moving on the balls of her feet.

“Hey Maddie, hi Zeek.”

“Have you heard about next week’s quiz? Walter is brutal,” Maddie talked. It must be for my benefit, because I knew for a fact the class wasn’t advanced enough for Maddie. There was no way she was worried about a quiz in an intro anthropology class.

“I know!” Cathy groaned. “This class is impossible. I can’t believe for a second I thought it would be ok. Walter has a reputation. I super need to study.”

“Oh hey, Z here said he was going to hit the library later. Maybe you should go with him?”

I didn’t remember asking Maddie to play matchmaker, but I couldn’t say anything in front of Cathy. It wasn’t the time in my life to get into a relationship, and Cathy looked like she wanted exactly that. It was something about the way she looked at me, like she was imaging our ginger, curly-haired kids running around.

“Would that be ok, Zeek?” Cathy asked sweetly. So I coughed and nodded. “Of course.”

“Great.” She smiled and moved along, finding an empty chair at the back.

Maddie forgot about her crochet and turned to me with a smile. “Am I a better wing man than the boys?”

“You’re a pain in my ass, Mendoza.”

She pouted. “Cathy is cute and I could tell she likes you.”

“You date her then.”

“I can’t, I’m healing,” she said with so much truth ringing in her voice, I couldn’t stop from laughing.

“Now, now, settle down everyone.” The voice of Professor Walter cut in. “What are you making today, Miss Mendoza?”

“Would you like a scarf?” Maddie asked as she spun away from me.

“It won’t help your grades. I can’t be bought with knitting.”

“Never mind, then.”

The entire class chuckled. Walter tsked and turned to the blackboard, starting with his lecture.

The fact that I couldn’t remember the last time I went on a date was worrisome. Not that I had forgotten about women altogether, but it had been a while since I made an attempt.

I knew I had to try, but I couldn’t come up with any reasons why. In the back of my mind, I was very content on staying single. Yet, it felt weird that it had been longer than a year since I put in any effort.

I tried to not blame my injury, but it was hard not to tie things together. A year has passed since I’ve done many things. Parties, dating… life. Last year I was happy and content. I followed the rules. I knew what my future held because I had a coach screaming it in my ear.

Now I had no idea who I was and what I was doing. I missed playing, but I also worried I didn’t miss it enough. It felt like such a fundamental part of myself to lose, but in the back of my mind, I wondered if other guys would suffer more.

Matt would definitely go down into madness without basketball. Even Jonah. Whatever hell was happening to him, I could spot the fire in his eyes from the first time we trained together.

---