Page 6 of Hello Forever
“Yeah?”
“Women’s volleyball isn’t really my thing. Actually,womenaren’t really mything.”
His monobrow furrowed. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” I braced myself for a clarifying slur or a fit ofdisgust.
“Youmean…”
You’re a faggot,is what I thought he wouldsaynext.
“You mean I can have volleyball and maybealsocheerleading?”
A surprised bark of laughter escaped my chest. “It’s all yours, man. And field hockey. And gymnastics if you want it. But you should let me take soccer. I don’t have a fallsportyet.”
“Deal.” He grinned like a kid on Christmas. “Let’s make a list.” He reached for a pad of paper, but then checked his watch. “Dude, it’s gettin’ towards quittin’ time. What if we made this list over at Bruisers? If I don’t eat regularly, I getcranky.”
“Okay?”
“I mean, if I’m going to work overtime, there needs to be a burger or a beer involved. One or the other, preferably both.” He stood up and yanked the Barmuth Football jacket off the back of his chair. I stood up tofollowhim.
And that was the whole story of my coming out at work. Or rather—I thought it was. The messy part wouldn’t come until muchlater.
* * *
Ispentthe rest of that first week learning how our mailing list and social media accounts were organized. As Friday approached, I started to get excited for my first men’s basketball game. I was really looking forwardtoit.
Boz had given me a little talk about our hours. “You’ll be working late on Friday. The game won’t end until 9:30,prolly.”
“Right?” That didn’t bother me at all. Becausebasketball.
“So you gotta take the afternoon off. I mean, this job has irregular hours. If you work your forty hoursplushit three sporting events a week?Boom!All of a sudden you’re working a fifty-five hour week. Don’t set that precedent, man. It’s not good for morale.” This speech was delivered with a big, bear-likeBozgrin.
Unlike Boz, I had no life in Henning. A fifty-five hour week wasn’t much of a hardship, but I didn’t want to be the new guy who showed up the older guy. So I took his suggestion and left work a little early on Friday, hitting the gym for a quick workout. And when game time came around, I was itching to get down tobusiness.
Henning was a small school, and the basketball arena only seated three thousand people. But I still felt like I’d won the lottery by getting this job. Taking a courtside seat at the officials’ table felt as glamorous to me as walking the red carpet on anawardsshow.
I was gettingpaidto tweet about basketball.Pinchme.
Since my set-up was crucial to my success, I checked and re-checked my Internet connection, and I made sure that the graphics and the video snippets I’d assembled were in the folder where I’d left them. This had to go well. I wanted the guys in the athletic department to say, “I’m so glad we hired that marketing guy. He is suchastud.”
Okay, that last bit was a stretch. But I wanted todowell.
And there was nothing like a live sporting event to get my blood pumping. The seats began to fill behind me and across the gym. We were playing Princeton, which was a major Barmuthrival.
Directly beside me, the announcer picked up his mic. “All rise for the national anthem, sung for you tonight by Barmuth’s very own BarmuthBaritones.”
As I rose, a group of twelve guys wearing tuxedo jackets formed a half-circle on center court. One of them raised his hands, and they all began to sing the Star-Spangled Banner in four-partharmony.
Okay, so maybe this town had a few other guys who weren’tstraight.
I filed that away to think about later. Because after the anthem and a few announcements, the game began. I put a hundred percent of my attention on the players in front of me. A minute after the tip-off, a Barmuth player scored on a breakaway, and I made my first ever post to the @BarmuthBBall account.It’s game time here in Barker Arena, and #14 Josh Bramer puts Barmuth on the board!I followed that up with a tweet linking to the radio station covering the game and another link to the live-statswebsite.
Just like that, I was on theboard,too.
Hunkering down, I watched the action as if my life depended on it. I was so invested in getting things just right that I actually forgot to look around for Cax. I didn’t think about him at all for the first ten minutes of play. The game paused for a media time-out, and I sat back in my seat, actually sweating. That’s when Iheardit.
Hislaugh. Goosebumps broke out on my arms. Rich and hearty, it was amazing how well I knew his laugh. As if I’d heard it just yesterday. He might have been laughing at a fart joke I made when I was twelve, or some silly thing I whispered during the church service. The sound of him was so achingly familiar that I had to close my eyes just to takeitin.
