Real Players Never Lose by Micalea Smeltzer
Vanessa
There’s onlya day left until dinner with Teddy’s parents. This week has gone by in a blink, and suddenly as I’m standing here in my dirty yellow work uniform, I realize that I have nothing appropriate to wear. At least nothing nice and expensive that people like his parents would expect me wear.
I hate to say it, but I think I’m going to have to dig into my savings for something. Maybe I can convince Danika to go shopping with me. I’d rather not have to brave stores on my own when I have no real sense of style or idea of how to put pieces together.
The bell above the front door chimes, and on instinct I glance over to see who’s entered the diner. I recognize him instantly from the cut of his shoulders, even clothed in a warm winter coat. A school baseball cap is pulled low over his eyes as he walks over to the same table he sat at earlier in the week.
I haven’t talked to him in two days, not since I confessed what my sister and her then-boyfriend, now husband, did to me. I’m not sure if I disgusted him or—
“Excuse me, can we get some napkins?” One of my tables flags me down, and I realize I’ve been standing there staring for way too long.
I grab up some extra napkins and pass them out. Filling up a cup with water, I bring it to Teddy and set it in front of him. “If you want something else to drink let me know.” He looks up and I gasp. “What happened to you?” There’s a small cut on his lip, a faint bruise around his eye, and when I look at his hands resting on the table, I see that his knuckles are cracked.
“Would you believe me if I said the other guy looks way worse? Because it’s true. I told him he could get one punch in, and as a man of my word I let him.”
“What did you do?” I start racking my brain for any hint I might’ve heard on campus of Teddy getting into a fight, but there was nothing.
“Vanessa,” my boss calls, “order’s up.”
I sigh, knowing I’m going to have to wait to interrogate Teddy further. Grabbing the order for one of my tables I drop it off and freshen up their drinks.
“Do you want anything to eat?” I ask Teddy when I swing back by his table.
“The Caesar salad with chicken like last time.”
I put his order in, check my tables, and then return to him. “What did you do?” I ask again, leaning against the side of the table.
Those piercing green eyes of his glimmer with an intensity that nearly rocks me backwards and somehow I know, I know, before he even opens his mouth.
“You didn’t seriously think you’d tell me what that prick did to you and I’d just stand idly by and do nothing?” My lips part. “Come on, Van. I’m not that kind of guy.”
“How did you even find him?” I blanch, clutching my order pad to my chest.
He sighs, removing his hat and running his fingers through his hair. “It wasn’t that hard once I found the online yearbook.”
“I … I can’t believe you did that.”
“Believe it, babe. Mascen and Jude helped too. Tristan isn’t looking too good right now.” And if there was any doubt in my mind that he might be making it up, they’re erased with the mention of Tristan’s name. His eyes hold mine, somber when he says, “I hope you know that you never deserved to be treated and used like that. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
I look away, unable to handle the intensity in his gaze. “You don’t know that,” I mutter, toeing the ground.
“No one deserves that, and I might’ve only just met you, but I know that. It’s taken care of now. He’ll never even look at you again. I also had some choice words for your sister, sorry about that. Actually, scratch that,” he makes a noise like a record scratching, “I’m not sorry at all. She deserved it.”
“I can’t believe you—they—that all of you did that … for me.” My voice cracks embarrassingly, and I press my lips together to hold back tears.
Teddy laces his fingers together on the table, and my eyes once again go to the bruises marring his normally flawless skin. “I’d do anything for the people that I care about. That includes you now.”
“R-Right,” I stutter. I toss a thumb over my shoulder. “I … um … I’m going to check and see if your salad is ready.”
I dash away, wiping a tear from my cheek that I hope he didn’t see. I don’t need anyone to fight my battles for me, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.
Teddy’s salad is done, and my boss tells me when I finish my current tables I can go on break. Most of them are almost ready to leave, so Teddy isn’t quite done eating when I sit down with a B.L.T.
“Can I ask you another question?”
My lips tick with a smile. “Don’t you always?”
He chuckles, a glimmer in his eyes that gives me a glimpse of what a mischievous little boy he must’ve been. “What’s something you should know how to do by now but can’t?”
I have to think for a few minutes before I answer. “I can’t swim,” I admit shyly, looking at my plate. “That’s definitely something I should know how to do by now. What about you?”
He answers without hesitation. “I can’t ride a bike.”
“What?” I gasp. “But that’s like … a rite of passage as a child.”
“Not for me.” He lifts his water glass, chugging down the rest of it. “Please, don’t take this the wrong way. I know I have many things to be grateful for but growing up all I wanted was a normal life.” He gives a humorless chuckle, looking at the wall to his left and the neon sign of a burger with a crown. “I guess that makes me sound so incredibly selfish.”
I don’t know what makes me do it, but I reach across the table and place my hand on top of his, rubbing my fingers over his injured knuckles. “Teddy,” his name is a soft exhale, and his forest green eyes shoot to mine, “I’ve only known you a short time, but even I can tell that you’re the least selfish person I’ve ever met.”
“You think so?”
I rub my lips together, thinking of how he paid my tuition, how he drove all the way to my hometown with his friends to defend my honor.
“No, Teddy. I know so.”