Willa

Chapter Twenty Five: Catfished

I look up and roll my eyes, placing the phone back in my pocket.

"Wills you are quite the hottie... don't think this is a reflection of your attractiveness... because I mean you are quite the catch... but this girl... she's not real... just tell us... you made her up right? So we would stop riding you about it?" Demi asks.

"Dear lord... Maria" I call "marrriaaaa"

She turns up with a smile, and a hand on her hip "what happened" she asks.

I point to her two blonde daughters... the terrible twosome, and she sighs and starts reeling off Greek words exaggerated with her hands.

"They aren't playing nice" I add.

She adds more words, sounding mad, as they spread out back to work, with collective eye rolls. "Who is this Morgan they speak of, and why is she catfishing you"

"I thought I heard that..." I say, taking out my phone and opening it up.

Teddy arrives, skipping to her mommas side and leaning over to view the picture "oh Willa" Maria calls out, letting air whoosh out of her lungs "no no no" she sings, shaking her head "not real" she says, shaking her head more urgently and thrusting the phone back in my hand as she disappears back into the kitchen "catfish" she calls out as she goes.

I turn my head and look over to Teddy who is looking up at me with large brown eyes "Well if you like her Willa... so do I" she says sweetly.

I smile "thanks Ted that means a lot"

She climbs up on the stool beside me and wraps her arms around my neck "Oh Ted" I say taken aback by her affection, but as she squeezes me sweetly she leans in and whispers in my ear, in her deep raspy little voice "There's still time to back out of this lie now and nobody would even know, just say she couldn't make it"

My eyes widen, as she releases me. She nods at me, not breaking eye contact as she whispers "still time" and she jumps down and disappears into the busy restaurant.

"You okay" Calliope asks, coming back to my side and brushing her hands down her apron.

"I think your entire family just roasted me" I confess.

She laughs "I believe she's real Willa. I just can't believe you got to tap that" she says jovially, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

Luke enters the restaurant and looks around for her, his face lifting to a loved up expression as she waves back " Are you and Luke together tonight or do I get to spend time with you finally" I ask, pushing out my bottom lip and pretending to sulk.

"Luke is taking me out" she confesses, bringing me in for a hug "and I know I've been a shit friend lately... but tomorrow let's do brunch before we take Teddy to her game" she says releasing me and looking at me expectantly.

"Okay brunch... but Morgan is due in the afternoon, so I will have to leave pretty sharpish at the end of the game"

"As long as you are at the game it's all that matters... you know Teddy will look for you"

"I know" I return, as Luke approaches and kisses Callie's cheeks, and she leans into him lovingly.

"See you later love birds" I say pushing off of the bar and walking back to the door to exit.

"Brunch" Callie calls after me.

I stick up my thumb "Brunch" I confirm.

As I am about to leave, Teddy grabs my wrist and stops me "Don't forget my game Wills" she begs.

I bend down and stick out my fist, she bumps it and smiles " Teddy I will never forget your games. I will attend each and every one that I'm in town for"

"Promise" she asks with her pinkie flexed.

I smile and stick my pinkie out and curl it around hers "Pinkie promise" I confirm, and she wraps her arms around my neck before releasing me and taking off across the restaurant skipping.

Theodora had come to depend on me, our bond over basketball was strong. I had helped her team out on weekends as a volunteering job. I loved coaching the little ones, they were fun and their parents were all good people who loved to watch them all enjoy the sport together.

I was never surprised as Theodora grew, that her game grew with her, because she outshone each and every kid I ever saw her play against. She was absolutely astonishing, and every scout, whomever came out to watch our high school games for other girls the years above her, always, and I mean always, took down Theodora's details from me after, so that they could circle back to her in her senior year and make the offer they so desperately wanted to make her. The letters that would arrive for her that year, they filled her mommas dining table and we all looked on with such pride as she opened each and every one, beaming with delight. I couldn't have felt more love and pride for her if she was my very own child, a child I would never actually have because since the day my parents had sent me away, my desire to have children had all but vanished. I think, looking back now, that it was a case of being terrified to have a child, a child I could damage just as much as they did me... and of course I would never have but the fear, the anxiety of what happened, it really did destroy my want of children. It absolutely terrified me to my core to consider having children, it may make no sense to another person, but to me, it was a very real fear, to be a parent, and yet I would find myself mothering Teddy throughout her life, taking Harper under my wing and doing the same with her. I had it in me to be the maternal figure when the child was not brought into the world, by me, or by my hand. It was a strange thing, anxiety and panic, and what it will do to you, making something so simple seem so haunting. I wished I had asked Morgan on that first date if she had wanted children, because it would have saved us a tonne of heartache. We would fall into a deep love, have our lives completely entwined for what we thought was life, before we even realised that that bomb was placed between us. A clock was ticking down to the day and the moment it was realised, we both wanted different things, which would bring a forced and torturous end to our whirlwind romance... an end that was not wanted by either of us but a reason that had the power to pull the cord on all we were, and it would, but not before we blissfully got carried away, and that all began, that great love, on a Saturday in July, when Morgan would arrive for that first date.

And I wouldn't take it back for anything, the time of my life that belonged to Morgan, it was one of the happiest and most peaceful seasons of my existence.