Page 1 of Your Fan Forever
One
Callie
“Good morning Valentine.”
Yes, I actually start every morning singing thesewords.
Valentine’s tags and collar chime as she tries without success to jump on the bed. I roll over and reach down for her. She jumps into my hands andbarked.
And we cuddle until Noah returns from his morningrun.
“Nip.” I yell. He comes bounding up the stairs and onto the bed in two leaps. He stops in the center of the bed and stares at Valentine as if to say, I can do it and you can’t. They hadn’t warmed up to each other yet. A month ago, they couldn’t even be in the same room with each other. Now, they’d share the bed, as long as I was in it. As soon as I got up, Nip would try and knock Val off. She learned quickly and could hold herown.
I gave Nip some attention before setting them both down and opening mylaptop.
I had been working on a series of articles forbenchreport.coman online magazine for the not so serious sports fan. Garret, a freelance reporter helped me get the writing gig. Although Noah’s reluctance for me to work with him had calmed, I wasn’t naive. Garret hit on me every chance he got. He couldn’t help it. It was in hisDNA.
I skimmed through his latest notes and an alert popped up on myphone.
Robinski’s 11:00 pm DiamondDistrict.
It was an appointment set for today. It wasn’t my appointment. I clicked it open and it was on Noah’s practice/workout schedule. If it was a personal appointment, how did it end up on our shared calendar? I opened the web browser and pulled up Robinski’s. Maybe he was a tailor or an agent or something. As soon as the website came up, a huge shiny princess cut diamond appeared on thescreen.
I shut the laptop and lookedaround.
I opened the laptop and peeked. The sparkly twinkled back at me. I shut the computer off again and crawled out of bed. I jumped into the shower and out in record time. I sent Noah atext.
Callie: I was going to take Nip with me this morning, will you be in the city to pick him up before my 12 pmclass.
I stared at the phone and waited for his reply. I could picture him in his gym shorts and tight white t-shirt. His hair damp and sweat glistening off his body. He always gave me warm fuzzies. He’d usually text me a message rightback.
Noah: I won’t be in the city today. I have to go to Jersey. Love you. Have a goodday.
I blinked and read the messageagain.
Did he just lie tome?
I hit end. . If he were going to go buy me a ring, he wouldn’t tellme.
Why was he buying me a ring? We’d only been together for a year and a month. Last month, we had a rocky couple of days. As always, Valentine's Day had a way grabbing me by the heart and turning my world upside down. We righted the ship. I refused to let the celebrity wedding of the century break us. Things have been good. We hadn’t even talked about gettingmarried.
I put Nip and Valentine out to do their business. I brought them back in, put Valentine in her crate and grabbed Nip's stuff and headedout.
I didn’t usually bring my dog to school, but I didn’t have classes until this afternoon. I grabbed a cap and pushed my red hair into it and ordered an Uber to take me into thecity.
The driver dropped me off in front of the Robinski building. It was a tall old building in the middle of the block. I’d been inside of one of these buildings before. In the Diamond District, they didn’t have storefronts. They had offices. The security was tight. You had to be buzzed in and sometimes escorted by security. You’d be let into one door and they would have to close and lock it and then open the interior door. I didn’t have an appointment, so I found a coffee shop a few doors down across the street and perched myself inside of the covered patio. I had an unobstructed view of the building and the corner closest to the nearest subway stop. I took Uber everywhere, but Noah preferred the subway. He got recognized, but people left himalone.
Nip sat at myfeet.
Two coffees and a cherry cheese danish later, I spotted Noah as he turned the corner. He wore dark jeans and a white pull over. He pushed up his sleeves and studied the numbers on thebuildings.
When he reached the front door of the Robinski building, he stopped. He lookedaround.
Iducked.
“Can I get you anything else?” The waitress asked with attitude and a hand on herhip.
“No. I’m good.” I peered out the windowagain.
