Page 7 of Looks Real Good Now
“Hey man, what’s up?” I said as I slipped Lenny’s backpack off my shoulder and handed it to her. She dropped down into her seat and started rummaging around her bag.
“I’m all good. What about you? What are you doing here?”
“Yeah, fine thanks. We’re going home for Christmas.” Iflicked my eyes to where Lenny was trying to disappear into her backpack. She looked up for just enough time to roll her eyes at me. I smiled.
“Oh, what happened to that blonde girl?”
The one thing no one ever warns you about when you get a modicum of fame is how much people start commenting on shit independent of what you’re ‘famous’ for. They also never warn you about how it never gets any less jarring when people you have never met ask you about your personal life.
“We are no longer seeing each other,” I responded.
“You didn’t waste any time moving on, did you? Guess there isn’t much else for you to focus on now that you’ve hung up your skates.” He tried to playfully elbow me like we were old friends. I struggled to keep a neutral face.
“Hey babe, do you have my headphones? I can’t find them in here and if you don’t have them, then I’ve forgotten them.” Lenny was standing again, looking at me and pointedly ignoring the man in between us.
“I think I might. Hey, sorry man, do you mind moving out of the way so I can give my girl a hand?”
The man nodded and moved out of my way, clapping a hand on my shoulder as he walked past. Just in case he was still looking at us, I made a point of looking through my bag for a moment, pulling out my headphones and giving them to her before putting both our bags in the overhead bin.
As I sat down next to Lenny, I waited for her to give me shit about calling her ‘my girl’. It wasn’t quite like her calling me ‘babe’ because she called everyone in her inner circle babe after a while. Although I was pretty sure it was the first time she hadever called me that.
“You get that a lot?” she asked instead, nodding in the direction the man had walked.
“What?”
“Comments on your personal life.”
“Oh yeah, kind of, I guess. Depends on the person and how much they know about me.” Fortunately, most of them only talked about my career and tried imparting knowledge about how I could make my game better.
“He knew enough about you to know that there used to be a blonde in your life. That’s so weird. What have I signed up for?”
“We haven’t entered a legally binding contract, Len. If you want out, just say the word.”
“The word was ‘no’ about half an hour ago when you asked. We’re in this now.” She offered me a humbug.
I never travelled without humbugs. There was always one in my mouth when we took off and when we landed. The guys jokingly gave me shit for it but also respected the superstition. When one of the newer guys asked how it came about, I said I couldn’t remember, it had always just been a thing for me.
Teddy had found my answer hilarious, but I never bothered to figure out why.
Looking at the bag of humbugs in Lenny’s hand, I realised now, three years later, why Teddy had found it so funny.
It was Lenny’s way of dealing with take-offs and landings and I’d pestered her enough once to give me one. Then she never stopped giving one to me until suddenly, I had my own supply, and it was a habit I couldn’t break. I’d been so distracted looking for headphones that I had left myown humbugs in my bag.
I took one from Lenny.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she said before putting the earbuds she hadn’t forgotten in and opening the book in her lap.
I sent a text to my mom to let her know I was about to take off and put on my headphones.
Another thing I had taken from Lenny? No talking, headphones in, for the duration of any and all flights.
7
Alana
“Shit.” I stopped just as I walked into the arrivals lounge giving Liam no choice but to walk straight into me.
