Page 13 of The Progressions

“Isn’t it a bad idea to hurt a starting player before the season even begins? Is it even normal for guys on the same team to hurt each other? It shouldn’t be allowed—think of all the money they’re paying you. It would be a total waste if you couldn’t play!”

Tyler glanced over at me.

“I’m mostly concerned about your well-being,” I felt constrained to add. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“Maybe you could mention those ideas to the defense. They went after me.”

“What did you do to cause them to act that way?” I asked.

I didn’t think that he was going to answer, but then he spoke: “We haven’t been getting along.”

“That can’t be the whole story,” I disagreed. “In my life, I don’t always get along with people but they don’t beat me up.”

“Who doesn’t like you? You mean the people who live in the condos?”

“No, the tenants like me fine! I fix all their stupid problems, don’t I?” I shook my head and pointed at a restaurant. “This is it, right here.”

He squinted at the sign as he pulled to a stop. “Greek? They have more than burgers in this town?”

“Just get out,” I told him, and he did.

I was getting out, too, when he came walking around the car. “I would have opened the door for you,” he said.

“Really?” I asked skeptically, and he glowered.

“Yes, really.”

“Ok, next time. Plenty of the Woodsmen come here to eat, so no one will flip about your presence,” I mentioned as we walked toward the restaurant. “And why do you think the tenants don’t like me?”

“You know, because of all that bossy crap you do. ‘Don’t park there, stop moving in, you can’t have fun.’ That’s all in your lease, too. I read it through.”

“Hold on,” I ordered. “I didn’t write the lease! And I don’t care if they think I’m bossy. Without Iva, I’m in charge so Iamthe boss, and I have to get everything done in less time and with less help than before. It’s a big complex and…you know, you never finished explaining why your teammates are trying to beat you up.”

“You never told me about your class. Or your garden.”

After we were seated, I did tell him, because I wasn’t the one who seemed to want to withhold information. “I’m an undergrad at Emelia Schaub College,” I said, “which isn’t too far from here. My dad really, really wanted me to go, and I wanted to make him happy.” I had always tried to do that. “I’m getting my degree in history and then I want to go to law school, to do transactional law. Like real estate and land use,” I explained. “I’m only takingone class during this summer session, and I wouldn’t have signed up for it at all if I’d known that Iva was going to go on maternity leave so early. Iva Balderston was the other woman who was in the leasing office when you and your girlfriend came in for the tour.”

“I don’t remember her.”

I did remember how he hadn’t spoken to us and had been looking at his phone, and how they’d shown up forty-five minutes late for their appointment. “Right now I’m trying to balance things. I wasn’t able to balance well today because your moving trucks showed up.”

“That was because of Shay.”

“You two are a team, aren’t you? Don’t you plan things together?” He only shrugged a little instead of answering. “Didn’t you live together in California?”

“Yeah, she moved in with me when I got the house. I thought I’d be there longer.”

“And all that stuff was from your place there? Did you sell it?”

“It was a rental and I have no idea what all that shit is. The house came furnished, so if she had movers pack up everything and take it, it’s stolen.”

“Oh, no! You should call them and explain right away.”

“Sure,” he said, but he sounded unconcerned. He looked across the table at me. “I can just pay for it.”

“Right, of course. About me preventing fun—”

“What’s your garden? What do you grow?”

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