Page 345 of Well Played

Walking back into the hotel to place their order, Liam grinned at her.

“I didn’t think to ask. I assume you still have your wicked sweet tooth and insatiable dessert addiction?”

“Of course. I’m surprised you remember. As my one of my daily centering mantras states, ‘life is too short to end with dessert’?”

“That it is.”

The waiter returned with their pints and the massive ice cream sundae which sent them into spontaneous laughter at the size of the confection they were going to share. As their mutual mirth subsided, Maeve lifted her pint glass and extended it towards Liam as he did as well in her direction.

“Slante.”

After taking a drink, Maeve then put down her glass, avoiding direct eye contact with Liam as she lifted one the spoons next to the sundae, to take a bite. The sound of pleasure hummed from her mouth as she spoke her verdict on the dessert.

“Gorgeous, just gorgeous.”

Picking up the other spoon, Liam took his own bite, shutting his eyes with his own moan and smile of agreement.

“Liam, I owe you an apology for how I reacted to our conversation when we tried to have lunch. I wasn’t angry, just shocked and I needed some space to process what you said. Especially when you said you love me. It made things very confusing since there were so many loose ends and hurt beliefs.”

Liam stared at her with his lips pursed tightly. A mixture of changing emotions traveling across his features as he weighed the pros and cons of how to respond. Bollocks she whispered to herself internally, this wasn’t a good sign.

“Thanks; apology accepted. Despite the two of us avoiding each other over the last six years, I’ve enjoyed spending time with you and working together. I’d forgotten how passionate you were about Irish sports. You also made me realized that you didn’t have the whole picture of what really had happened the night we broke up, and I needed to bring that to light.”

“So why aren’t you addressing the elephant sitting next us here at the table.”

“Oh, the Giant’s messy sundae? It is huge, and …”

“Stop it. I’m talking about your love confession.”

“Oh yeah, that. Yes, I have come to the realization that I still love you and probably never stopped. It explains my dismal track record with the ladies,” Liam chuckled. “But if we are going to be bluntly honest with each other, how do you feel? I want you to be happy, but I also need to hear from you if there is even a chance we could start over.”

Tapping her spoon against her pint glass, Maeve took a moment to verbalize her thoughts to his question.

“If you had asked me this question an hour ago, I would have said, yes, ditto to your everything you have said or speculated.But, sitting here now, discussing all these big emotions and feelings, I know I really do need to take a step back.”

“In other words, yes the feeling is more than mutual, but you aren’t ready to commit.”

A slow burning anger and agitation crawled up her spine. Where was this sudden change of attitude coming from? Talk about mixed messages and crossed signals.

“That’s not what I said. I need time to process. Yes, I love you, but we need to take things slow, let things progress at their own speed. Did you think we could just flip a switch, and things would go back to how they were before we broke up? We may not see that now, but we are two different people and have both changed more than we think. Do my feeling even have any validity?”

Lifting his pint glass, Liam knocked back its remains, before reaching into his pocket for his wallet to extract a few bills, tossing them onto the table.

“You’re right. We both need to take a few more steps back to seriously think about where we go with this earth-shattering reveal. Maybe it was immature of me to think that if we cleared the air, all would be happy. But it makes sense. Do we want what we had, or find something new? Either way, it’s getting late, and I must be at the grounds early for warmups. Again, thanks for the pint, and the serious craic to consider.”

Leaning in, Liam bent down to kiss her cheek as Maeve’s hand shot upwards to caress the spot warmed by his lips as he continued turning away, walking back up the street and into the crowd of people still milling around at the roads’ insertion. If his gesture didn’t seal their situation’s end, then she was more of an idiot than she had previously thought.

6

Match day couldn’t have been moreperfect as cloudless skies and the subtle breeze coming off the Mourne Mountains kept the August morning temperate at a comfortable twenty-three degrees Celsius. Parking her car into a reserved parking space, Maeve stepped out to give a quick once over of the ground at Pairc Esler GAA Stadium. Several fans, and families with their kids in tow, were lining up at the entrance to take in a bit of the pregame warmups between The Mournesmen of Down and the newly formed Olympic Gaelic Football Team, just as a long line of fifteen busses from around the County, waited in lines to let off their passengers ready for a fun day of watching what everyone called ‘the beautiful game.’

For anyone who might be experiencing a Gaelic football game for the first time, Maeve made sure that in the special commemorative program each person received as they began entering thought the gates, they had an explanation of the odd rules and athletic stamina needed to understand, watch, and play a form of football that used numerous skills from just about every aspect of rugby, soccer, both Australian and American football and even basketball. But as many fans would tell you with pride, it is because of Irish football those games even exist.

A new fan was born every minute. It only took watching a couple of games in person or on the television to convert new devotees to the fast-paced game. With its unexpected moves, rules on how long a player could possess the ball, how to pass it, and even gain possession again in a matter of seconds while running down the field to the goal post was addictive. There was excitement in every play as the strategy and power used were never the same or the outcome expected.

Approaching the staff and player entrance to the stadium, a gentleman dressed in a red and black tailored suit to support the Down team, greeted her as she opened the door to step into the building.

“Good morning, Maeve. Are you ready? Congratulations on the sell out.”

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