Page 86 of Somewhere Only We Know
“Welcome back toLife Not Simplified. I’m Jax and I have a very special guest with me. But before I get into who is in the studio with me, I want to go back to six months ago when I talked about new patterns. Do you all remember that? It started when I met this girl at the dog park. And before you think you know where this story is headed, I’m going to stop you right there. This isn’t a love story between her and I. Although, I should thank her for where this story is going. Had I not met her and had my sister not gotten tickets to this specific baseball game–” I look over at Nate and he winks, “I wouldn’t have found him again. I was doubtful of introducing a new pattern into my life. You all know this as I’ve let you in on my thoughts and how skeptical I was. But after my last relationship, I needed to find a way to incorporate color into my life. And I’m not talking about changing up the clothes I wear or what my house looks like. Because, to be quite narcissistic, I love those two things about my life and I was not looking to change those. I had already spent so long molding myself into a version ofwho my ex wanted me to be that it took me almost a year to find me, as Jax, me as the person who’s able to stand on her own two feet.”
I pause to take a sip of water. Nate’s gaze is the most reassuring look that I could have ever hoped to have.
“So back to the pattern and how I resisted, but then finally welcomed that change. In college, I had this best friend. I told him everything. Maybe way too much considering we were just friends. One day in our third year, he told me he had a crush on me. Shocking, I know. Who couldn’t resist me back then?” Nate’s foot reaches out and kicks my foot. “Are you denying this?” I ask him.
“No.”
“But I shut him down. I refused to believe that he would ruin our friendship over a silly little crush. Until he told me, and I quote, ‘I won’t rush you, okay? We can take this as slow as you need to. But just so you know, as soon as my lips touched yours, I became yours. And I hope you became mine?’”
“You remember that?” he asks, and I’m sure people will melt over his voice like I do every single day.
“Of course I do. We said a lot of words to each other in the early days of our relationship, but I remembered those so vividly. Now, you may be asking yourself, if you two were so great together why are we just now finding out about this mystery guy? Well, friends, life is not as simple as it seems. That’s why I titled this podcast. If everything was simple, we’d be a lot more boring than white paint. We veered off track. He went one way and I went another. Did I think about him? Every single day.”
“That’s why I have the tattoos,” Nate chimes in.
I huff a soft laugh into the microphone. “Yes. And Ipromise we are going to get to that, but first we’re gonna take a short break.”
I push my mic away from me and obnoxiously stretch. Nate is more reserved as I feel he doesn’t want to touch or break anything.
“How long are your breaks?”
“About five minutes. Just enough time to stretch my legs and hips before camping out in my chair again.”
“Do you go on vocal rest after?”
“Not usually.” I tell him, sitting back down and pulling my mic close to me again. “But today I might.” I wink and turn on the intro music. “Welcome back, friends. What were we talking about?”
“My tattoos,” Nate speaks up.
“Ugh, not quite.” He and I laugh. I’ll never get over that sound. Nate’s laughs are rare, but around me, I’ve noticed he lets them out easier. “The burning question for you all is how we got here? How did a simple baseball game over the summer lead us to this spot? First, you have to know that I was angry and hurt. I hold onto my anger and hurt longer than anyone. That’s something I should talk to a therapist about. Anyways, I’m going to skip the in-between because it’s painful and tell you that we have mutual friends who just want the best for those in their lives. One trip to Las Vegas on a joint bachelor-bachelorette party and we woke up married.”
“You’re married?” Nate asks.
“I should probably introduce you?” I raise my eyebrows at him questioningly.
“I think your listeners would love to put a name to the voice.”
“If you insist. My husband is Nathan Holloway. Yes, thatNathan Holloway who plays baseball for Cincinnati. I call him, Natey.”
“Don’t say that on the air,” he whines with a smile.
“I’m sorry, it can’t be edited out.”
He and I fall into laughter again. This is what I’ve always wanted in a relationship. Laughter. So much laughter that my stomach hurts.
And love. Yeah. A lot of love.
“That’s fine,” Nate begins as we finally compose ourselves. “What my wife wants, my wife gets.”
I hold my flaming cheeks and Nate smiles like the cat who caught the canary. “Yes, he is this romantic all of the time,” I say into the microphone. “So, Natey. Tell the people what our second chance has been like.”
I sendoff the podcast and video files to my editor and make sure the studio lights are unplugged before turning off the overhead light and heading to the living room. Nate is laying on the couch, the TV playing some highlight reel of past games, and pats the spot in front of him. I greedily squeeze in next to him, wrapping my arm around his waist and settling my head on his shoulder. He’s like a furnace most days and it doesn’t take long for my body to accept the heat to pull me into a sleep.
“Sophie said she wants to celebrate our getting married,” I tell Nate with my eyes closed.
Nate’s chest shakes with a suppressed laugh and a snort. “Do you think Sophie just wants an excuse for a party?”
“I didn’t think that at first, but now I do.” I throw my leg over Nate’s and burrow closer into him. “When I saidSophie wants to throw us a party, I mean she already planned it.”
