Page 23 of Brick Wall
“No problem,” I say sincerely.
Today is Friday night, and my last day volunteering at the sports camp. The staff has been diligently cleaning and restocking for next week, but most are finished and are on their way home now.
I told Tristan and Ryan I’d meet with them at the end of the day to regroup and talk about the past week. We have hadlittle time this week to do so.
It’s been a fun week coaching, and I’m going to miss it. It was much more fun, and busy, than expected, and I realized how much I love working with kids.
Yes, I work with people younger than me every day, but I don’t really consider rookie players kids, although sometimes they act like it. This week was more rewarding than I anticipated, and I loved teaming up with the Moore Good Foundation.
I’ll have to return next year, which is exactly what I tell the guys during this meeting.
We go over camp stuff and what improvements I think should happen for the following year, but honestly, everything went pretty smoothly, and I feel bad I don’t have too many ideas to contribute.
They seem upbeat and still enthused about this partnership, despite my lack of suggestions.
We move onto my side of the business and what I need help with, which is not much at the moment. “We are almost sold out of tables for the gala. I think Scarlett said we have one more left, so thank you for your help.”
“No problem. We look forward to attending. Do you need us to do anything before the event, like help with setup or anything?” Tristan asks.
“Nah, we got everything covered for the day of. Just enjoy yourselves and mingle.”
“Will do, man,” Ryan eagerly says. “We can probably use one more table for Moore Fitness if you don’t sell it soon. I don’t think we Moore siblings were planning to bring a date, but if we have another table, there will be plenty of room for our whole team and a plus-one for each of us,” Ryan says with awag of his eyebrows while Tristan just rolls his eyes at him.
I take a sip of my beer. “I’ll let you know if that’s needed, but we still have some time to sell it.” We are actually now ahead of schedule of where we were this time last year, so I’m not worried.
“Who are you bringing to the gala?” I look up and notice that Ryan directed the question to me, although I don’t understand what he means.
“I’m going to be busy, but my sisters are going to be there with me. No extended family, though.”
“Are you bringing a date?” Ryan rephrases his question, and—gotcha!—I realize what he is asking.
“I’ll be too busy.” I keep my reply short. I don’t have time to worry about someone else, but I also don’t have anyone that I’d want by my side all night besides my immediate family. I’ve never brought a date to the gala and I don’t plan to do so moving forward. It hasn’t ever been on my radar, to be honest.
“Gotcha,” Ryan says. “I’ll check in with Scarlett next week about that table.” He must see something on my face because he adds, “I know you have a mandatory minicamp next week, so you’ll be busy.”
He’s right, I do. We have a few different training camps in the spring and early summer before our official training camp starts in late July. I will be extra busy, but I don’t love that he’s contacting and working with my sister, Scarlett, directly.
Shit.
Is this why he mentioned dates? Does he want to date my sister?
We primarily work with other women in the shelter and don’t often work with men. Well, I do obviously a lot, butScarlett mainly works with other women with the foundation work. She hardly dates, I don’t think.
Tristan carefully sips his beer and tactfully says, “We’ll email you both next week to get a status update.”
“Okay,” I say. That sounds fair. I mean, I can’t prevent Scarlett from dating one of them if she wants to, and I don’t want to be that type of brother anyway, but I’m protective, nevertheless.
The Moore brothers are protective of Annie, too, according to her, so we have that overbearing brother gene in common. I probably have nothing to worry about. It’s just business and not an actual date, hopefully.
We finish up a few last talking points and then start shooting the shit as the three of us hang out on the plastic folding chairs in the empty all-purpose camp room. Another round of beer is added to the table, and our laughter gets louder after each round.
I look at my watch to check the time. It’s a little after nine, two hours since we started our meeting. It’s still completely bright out, one benefit of summer in June in New England. I think it’s actually the first day of summer, the longest, brightest day of the year.
As if reading my thoughts, Ryan yells, “Let’s take this party outside!”
I look around to see if anyone else has joined us, but nope, it’s only us three guys.
I don’t argue and silently get up and follow the two of them outside. I’m never one to complain about fresh air or water views; even if it’s a lake, the views are still calming.
