Page 98 of Pity Present

The stadium is filling fast, and the excitement of the coming game is permeating the air around me. I’m still standing in the same spot when I see Ben’s family walk in with Molly. She’s so beautiful she takes my breath away.

“Hey, man,” I hear to my left. I keep my eyes on Molly and step aside.

This time I hear, “Yo, Blake.”

I look up and see Christian Woods from the Lakers standing over me. “Christian!” I greet enthusiastically. “What’s up?”

“Basketball?” he laughs. Then he says, “I hear you left us to come home.”

“Once a Chicago boy, always a Chicago boy,” I tell him.

Offering a fist bump, he says, “It’s good to see you, man.”

And that’s when I have another idea …

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

MOLLY

I’m standing at Will Call at the United Center when I see Ben running toward me. I bend down and open my arms to him. When we connect, I pick him up and spin him around. “Hey, big guy, how are you?”

“I’m so excited,” he tells me. “I think this is going to be the best day of my whole life.” My heart clenches when he says that. I hope Ben lives to see days much more exciting than this one. Like his wedding, the day his children are born. The day we colonize the moon …

“I’m pretty excited, too,” I tell him before handing him the giant foam finger I bought for him. He looks at the Bulls logo on the palm, and exclaims, “Cool!” Then he puts it on and turns to show his parents.

I give Francie and Ward both a hug before asking, “How are you guys doing?”

Francie says, “We’re all packed for New York. Heath Fox is letting us stay in his penthouse, if you can believe it.” I can believe it. Heath and Trina are two people who really walk the walk in life.

“When do you leave?” I ask.

“Tomorrow,” Ward says. “Ben’s first appointment is the day after Christmas.”

I think about one of the flower bouquets I got this week and announce, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” I can only hope that’s the case for Ben.

As for the flowers, I loved getting them at first, but then they started to feel kind of weird. I’m pretty sure Kyle is the one sending them, and there’s no way I’m going to buckle and date him again.

He’s been texting too, which makes me want to change my number. In fact, I finally told him that’s what I was going to do if he didn’t stop. He did, but the flowers kept coming. I’m not sure what it’s going to take for him to leave me alone, but I’ve decided that if he doesn’t cut it out soon, I’m going to text him pictures of the arrangements in the garbage. I wish he’d been this determined to have me in his life when we were together.

As we cross the court to get to our seats, a wave of excitement hits me. Our seats are nothing more special than folding chairs, but they’re right on the court, and even I know those are almost impossible to come by.

Ben sits between his parents, and I sit at the end. Once we’re seated, a waiter comes by and offers to bring us food. In true Chicago fashion, we all get the deep-dish pizza. The adults order beer and Ben gets a root beer. Ben shouts over the noise of the stadium. “We don’t even have to stand in line for food!” I find that pretty exciting as well.

The stadium fills quickly, and the players are all warming up when someone sits down next to me. I turn to look who it is and almost swallow my tongue. “Blake?” I croak. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m the one who got Ben’s family the tickets,” I tell her.

Ben jumps up from his seat and runs over to hug Blake. He says, “You’re the best, Blake. Thank you!”

Blake hands him a large bag and says, “This is for you. I thought you might want to open it before the game starts.”

Ben hurriedly rips into the bag and pulls out a Bulls sweatshirt that he immediately puts on. Then he takes out five Santa Hats with the Bulls logo on them. Handing them to each of us, he gushes, “This is the best Christmas ever!”

When Ben goes back to his seat, I lean over and hiss in Blake’s ear, “I didn’t realize that you knew Ben’s family well.”

I can’t quite define the look on his face. It’s sad, with a touch of longing and perhaps a good amount of hope. I try not to let it get to me. Blake tells me, “I kept running into them at the lodge. Francie told me what’s going on with Ben and I wanted to do something to help.”

While I think that’s nice, I’m still annoyed. “How did you get such great tickets?” I ask like he had to have stolen them or something.

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