Mitchell's Power Play

Uncertainty

MITCHELL

A lot can happen in three weeks. In our case, the Empires didn't make it to the final. Nash and I weren't overly upset or distraught about it. At the time, we'd been just about as upset as the rest of the team, of course, but after a couple of days, life took over. The season was over, but we both had personal things to deal with that would keep us occupied.

Normally by this time Nash and I would've planned a vacation somewhere, but will E around and a lot of moves on the map we hadn't even talked about traveling.

The Millers had purchased the apartment they'd put the bid on, and accepted new jobs in Manhattan. The Reeds - and by that I mean Nash and Isaac's parent - put their townhouse upstate on the market and were now serious about finding their own apartment in the City. Then Jackson dropped a bomb when he announced that he too was moving.

"Wow," Sammy had said as we laid curled up in my bed next to each other, "everyone is moving."

"Not everyone, I'm still here."

She rolled her eyes like I was the most frustrating person on earth. "I know that," she groaned, "but you know what I mean."

I did. Things were changing all around us, but not in a bad way. Sammy had talked to her landlord about a month-to-month lease, and after some back-and-forth negotiations, they'd settled on quarterly notices. I'd never heard of that before and I didn't even know if t was a legit thing, but Sammy had agreed to it and was therefore locked into her lease for another 3 months.

I didn't love that idea, especially not since Jackson declared he was moving out. It was springtime, and I got that he wanted his own place and I was excited to get mine back, but all the changes were happening so fast. In less than a month, he'd be moving into a small one-bedroom apartment and I'd be back to living by myself. The only thing was, I didn't want to be by myself anymore. I wanted Sammy to be with me.

We hadn't discussed it in detail, but she knew what my wishes were and she seemed to agree but had made it clear she didn't want to rush. I didn't blame her. Well, maybe I did, in the beginning. But Kennedy had pulled me aside one night when we had dinner at her and Nash's apartment and told me to lay off of Sammy for a bit.

"You haven't been together that long, Mitch," she said. "Both Nash and I love the fact that you guys are a couple, but it's still relatively new between you guys. I can tell that you make her happy. She has this peace about her she never used to have. Just don't rush her too much."

Kennedy proceeded to tell me about Sammy's shitty up bringing with her mom's constant parade of new men and the copious amount of moves Sammy had to endure. It made me realize that moving in together would be a gigantic step for her.

Neither one of us had lived with a boyfriend or girlfriend before, and I didn't want her to stress about it. We loved each other, and that would be enough for now. We'd get to the moving in together part eventually, but it was important that Sammy was comfortable and completely on board with it.

I had asked Nash that same night if he thought I'd be rushing it if I got Sammy an engagement ring, to which he had responded with a quick no.

"I don't have to ask her right away, but I'd like to be prepared."

"Makes sense. I did the same thing. I had that ring for a while before I finally decided to do it when we went to visit Kennedy's parents."

I remembered when he'd told me the plan. It had worked out great for them, not that anyone had expected anything different. They'd been so in love, people around them had been jealous. Nobody admitted that out loud, of course, but you could just tell.