Page 34 of The Cadence
“I don’t mean to offend you, but it makes me feel self-conscious,” I explained. “Some people posted pictures and videos of me and then a lot of other people criticized how I look and what I do.”
The woman in the row in front turned around with a huff. “They’re just jealous because Will Bodine never looked in their direction, and now he brought his pretty girlfriend back from his hometown,” she explained. “Don’t pay attention to any of that bullshit.”
“Thank you for saying those things, but…” But I let my words trail off. Will didn’t want people to know about his life, which meant that I couldn’t get into a long explanation of who I was—not his girlfriend from home, but just me, Calla.
I was glad when the game started because they all glued their eyes to the field to the exclusion of everything else, like my presence. The Woodsmen lost the coin toss so their offense got the ball, something I didn’t understand and had never quite gotten in the other games I’d watched, either. Now was the time to ask questions, since everyone around me was a walking football encyclopedia.
But I was too excited to try to carry on another conversation. Being here, in this giant stadium with everyone wearing orange and all of us wanting our team to win so much…it was so thrilling that my voice shook and I could hardly yell as loud as I wanted to when Will came out to play. I did manage to get loud enough that the woman next to me leaned slightly away, but she only patted my shoulder when I apologized and she told me, “Go Woodsmen!”
Will was amazing. He always was, of course, but this was even better than when I’d gotten to watch him from the stands in high school. Everyone was so much bigger and faster, and he was very obviously the best player out there. I thought it was embarrassing for all the other guys, but when I mentioned that to the woman next to me, she only smiled and patted my shoulder again. They stopped the other dumb team from advancing very far at all, and they had to quit and let the Woodsmen offense back on the field.
For the first time, I really focused on the quarterback and his little group, and I had to admit that I was also impressed by them. They managed to score by running around with the ball a lot and catching it, too, but we all needed to be honest: thereal magic came from the defense. The other team couldn’t do anything! They hardly moved forward at all, and if you wanted to win at football, then you had to get into the end zone. Even I knew that about this game.
It wasn’t just a game to Will, though. This was his job and he was a professional. I watched him when he removed his helmet after coming out and how he talked to his teammates, and I watched him studying stuff on tablets and in discussions with his coaches. He took this just as seriously as everything else in his life, from decisions about the length of the couch in his living room (he’d marked that off with painter’s tape to get a good visual) to how far the cars should go forward into the garage (he liked to line them up, so that the front bumpers were even).
But when I said, “I don’t think a couch that size will be too big. It will fit you perfectly,” or when I told him, “I’m never going to get the cars to line up like that,” he listened. He went ahead and ordered the big couch (Annie Whitaker-Gassman’s suggestion) and he said that he didn’t care how I parked.
“That’s my thing, but it doesn’t have to be yours,” he’d told me.
He played the same way, so focused but also generous and ready to listen. I hadn’t been able to see that clearly when I sat on the floor in front of my grandma’s moderately sized TV. I was very glad to get to witness everything from this orange chair today. He was just—
The whole crowd stood up and started cheering and I realized that the Woodsmen offense was holding the ball, the quarterback was kneeling, and the clock on the big screens wascounting down to zero. I had been watching the players on the sidelines and not paying great attention to the score but I was very glad that the defense had come through, so that the home team won. I mentioned that to the nice woman next to me and she smiled again.
“I’m happy for all of them,” she said.
Everyone in the stadium was happy. They were yelling, cheering, dancing, and jumping up and down, and if this was how they always acted? Well, I was all-in, one hundred percent! This was great and I couldn’t wait to come back again. We stayed in the stands for a while to party and then it was a long wait to get up to the main concourse so that I could start following the next map Will had given me, the one that led down to the area outside the players’ locker room. It was very accurate and with that and the special pass I had, I easily found my way inside.
I couldn’t wait to see him, but that took a little while. They had stuff to do after the game, like some talking, some cleaning up, and some interviews with reporters. All of that delayed his arrival more than I would have liked. But I also got to see the people that I was now more familiar with, the wives, girlfriends, and families of some of the other Woodsmen. I was interested in specific information about this area, such as the location of the best ice cream place. I was also curious if they got bothered by the things that fans said about them.
They quickly agreed on where to go for ice cream and had a lot to say about the stuff online. “I used to read the Woodsmen posts and fan sites, and I watched all the videos,” the woman namedKasia told me.“For years, I believed everything. I thought they had insider knowledge, but now I know that it’s about fifty-fifty between truth and lies. People are so curious and if they don’t know something, they fill in with guesses and speculation. Like, they were saying that Tyler and I were already married and I was expecting a baby.” She put her hand on her flat stomach. “That’s totally wrong, and I don’t look anymore. Are they still talking about me?”
I didn’t feel like I needed to mention the poor opinions of her clothing, which many people voiced. Most of the items about her had been nice, though, like how they were happy for a local girl. “I guess I shouldn’t bother to look at that stuff, either,” I said. “It doesn’t matter much what they think, but I was surprised that anyone cared about me. After all, I’m not the guy playing in front of the big crowd.” I was only the woman living in the guest cottage.
“I think we’re in a unique position since this market is small compared to other teams in the league,” Audrey said. I had looked up her husband, who was on the offensive side doing something. “There are high school sports, but nothing else professional to focus on—well, there’s also Junior Woodsmen football, but they’re in the development league and not as good.”
“It has to be said that the Woodsmen are the best team ever, anywhere in history,” Kasia added, and they both nodded like that was a given. I actually hadn’t minded the Rackers when Will had played for them, but I kept that fact to myself.
“And you’re new here,” Audrey continued. “After you and Will are together for a while, people will calm down.”
“I hope so,” I said, “but Will and I really aren’t together. Not like how you and the fans are thinking.”
“But you said that you’re living with him,” Kasia reminded me. “It’s easy to get the wrong idea.”
It obviously led to confusion for many people. My grandma’s friends were texting and asking questions about when I planned to move out of the guest cottage and into my own place, because they were worried that I would get confused myself.
Kasia and Audrey kept talking about the game, analyzing everything about the offense and then discussing Kasia’s upcoming wedding, too. That part was more interesting to me but really, my thoughts were elsewhere. I was keeping close track of the door that led to the Woodsmen locker room and I was waiting for it to open.
It finally did, but not for Will. This was a different guy, one who looked vaguely familiar, and then a total stranger came out, and then a few more players who I recognized, somewhat. Gradually, the crowd of people waiting with me shrank in size, and Kasia and Audrey both left. Will still hadn’t come.
I started to get worried. He was always timely, always. It wasn’t like him to show up late for anything, and I didn’t think he would make me wait on purpose. I looked up pictures of the roster so I could see the defense, and I watched as several of those guys left and went home with their loved ones—so it wasn’t like one side of the team was being held back for some reason.
“You ok?” I finally wrote to him.
After a moment, he answered “yes.” And then the door opened again and he came out with a small crowd of his teammates, and I released a breath of relief and smiled at him.Will looked back at me and he smiled too, and I felt like things were ok.We slowly walked outside together, where he had to stop to sign autographs for the fans who lingered in the dusk to greet the players. Finally, we drove home, him behind me.
When we got there, I saw that things were not ok.
“Why do you have that on your leg? What is that?” I asked, pointing at his ankle. It was easy to see now that we were out of the waiting room area where too much furniture had blocked my view, and we were no longer in the parking lot that was more shadowy and filled with cars than it needed to be. He had sat on the new couch to put up his foot and the problem was as clear as day.
