Playing with Forever

Chapter 10: Fire

"So what was so important on Saturday that you couldn't cancel for our museum trip?" I asked Sam as we drove to back to my place to write the paper.

"I do yardwork for an elderly neighbor once a month," he explained, glancing over at me before returning his gaze to the road. "Some of the things I could have pushed off, but he has a little garden that needed to be harvested before the weather turned colder this week."

My heart warmed. "That's sweet of you."

"He is a nice man, and he lost his wife last year. She used to do all the outdoor things."

"Sounds like hard work."

"I do not mind it," he replied. "I imagine with your volleyball schedule you do not have the time for a job."

I shrugged in return. "Actually, I kind of work for my cousin, Birdie Scott." I explained the situation of me keeping track of Nate in the evenings. "I don't get paid, but I get to live with them for free. Truth be told, she probably would have let me live with her even if I didn't watch Nate, but I want to repay her favor."

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah. I wasn't sure if I liked kids at first, but Nate is great. We get along really well, and he's a good kid."

"Is it hard to balance with volleyball?" he asked.

"Sometimes it can be, but we've worked it out pretty well. I'm grateful Birdie was willing to put him into childcare for an extra two hours so I can do volleyball. And that Nate was willing to do it, too."

"You really like volleyball that much?"

"Definitely." I associated it with so many good memories. My best friend in elementary school and I had learned it from her dad, and we played on our middle school and freshman teams together. Her dad had been tough but attentive and spent so much time teaching us, and it was something Lexie and I shared and bonded over together. 

"It's like," I added, "whenever I'm talking about it, or even just thinking about it, I get this shot of adrenaline and excitement." I thought for a second, then mused, "I wonder if that's what it like to be in love." Sam looked over at me in surprise. "I wouldn't know," I clarified with a shrug.

"You've never been in love?" he asked.

I shook my head firmly. What I had been through was decidedly not love. "No. I haven't lived a very social life. Not a lot of opportunities for falling in love when you don't talk a whole lot to anyone. You?"

He tensed, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. "Once. A long time ago."

I was quite intrigued, but caught off guard. He didn't talk to anyone. Had he fallen in love with a ghost? From the way he was acting, it seemed as if I had stumbled into an uncomfortable subject. "Oh no, did it end badly?"

"You really want to know?"

"Yeah," I said. I hoped I wasn't being rude. I just wanted to get to know him better.

He tossed me a disingenuous smile. "Eleanor and I fell in love, real deal love. I was so naïve, I fell so hard. We were together a long time, and started making plans for the future together. Then, I found out she was cheating on me. She said she never loved me after all, and she left me for him. The end."

"What? What a jerk!" I burst out. Sam looked over at me, surprised by my response. "Man, Sam. That's awful."

"It is in the past," he said. His words had developed a thick French accent that usually was much more discrete. I wondered if it came out when he was emotional, like he could suppress it when he thought about it, but when he was distracted, it came out naturally.