I never thought I was made for a particularly extraordinary life. Ever since I was a little girl, all I had ever wanted was to be a mom and a wife. I had often found my value to be in the eye of the person looking at me and that might explain why I hadn't been feeling so confident lately.
When I first got pregnant with Ellie, I really thought, for a second, that I could have it all. My never ending optimism had led me to believe that having a baby would make her dad grow up and be the man I wanted him to be. That we, one day, would be one big happy family. But Josh never wanted that. He had left me to fend for myself and our unborn child at eight months pregnant. It had taken me months to heal from that. I'd had to piece my heart back together, and I did. And now, three years later, I could genuinely say that I was doing alright. I had gotten a job as a secretary in a clinic and my daughter was growing to be smarter, funnier and more beautiful every day. I had made incredible friends here, in Burlington, and I could truly say that I was proud of the road I had taken. Given, my life was not the one I had imagined growing up. The guy I had thought would be my prince charming had turned into a frog real fast and my dating life as a 22 year old single mom was pretty dull, but still. I wouldn't have traded my life for anyone else's. Especially considering what came next.
****
I got up at 6:30 that morning and quickly got Ellie ready for daycare. As I walked out the door, I stumbled across my neighbor, Ms. Brown.
"Aren't you the cutest thing", she said, pinching Ellie's left cheek and making her giggle.
"Are you still okay to watch her tonight, Ms. Brown?" I asked.
"Of course! Aren't we going to have a ball, little Ellie? Now, tell your mama she has nothing to worry about!" She said cheerfully.
"Thank you, I'll bring her by around 6! Have a good day Ms. Brown," I said, rushing down the stairs. I loved that woman so much. I don't know how I could've gotten to where I am today without her. Ever since Ellie and I had moved in next door, Glenda Brown had always been willing to help us out. Whether it be watching Ellie for a few hours, cooking us dinner once in a while to give me a break or bringing us groceries every time she goes to the store, that woman had always been willing to help. And I was thankful.
I dropped Ellie off at daycare and when I got to work, Jared was already waiting for me in the parking lot.
"Aubrey! Are you excited?" He asked, visibly a lot more excited than I was.
"Yeah, sure," I chuckled.
"Oh, you'll love it! Getting a couple beers with the boys, watching the game, you'll wish every Friday night was like this!"
"Don't overdo it Jared," I chuckled awkwardly.
"You'll get to meet my friends too, which I am SO excited about!"
"Yeah? What if they don't like me?"
"Since when do southern guys not like pretty girls?" He winked. I sighed and pushed his shoulder playfully, rolling my eyes at him.
"Alright, time to clock in Dr. Munsen."
****
The day went by fairly quickly. Jared kept coming to see me in-between patients to remind me of how excited he was for me to meet his friends. He had moved here from Tennessee for school and had ended up getting an internship here in Vermont. One thing had led to another and seven years later, he was still here, telling people every now and then how this was his "last year in Vermont" and that he was "getting ready to move back to Tennessee" without ever making concrete plans about it. I was a little nervous to meet his friends. Not because I feared they wouldn't be nice or anything like that, but just because he spoke so highly of them. It was one of these things where if you don't get along with the friends, it might change your whole relationship and I did not want that to happen. Jared was the one who had gotten me the job at the clinic once he found out I was a single mother trying to make ends meet. He was one of my closest friends. I owed him a lot and I wanted to make him happy.
I had no idea who his friends were. He had mentioned them a few times; Jesse, Ernest, and Morgan- but had not wanted to give me any more information on them. "No last names, no looking them up on social media, I don't want you to have any preconceived ideas" he'd said to me. I was about to find out why.
I went to pick up Ellie around 5 and gave her a quick bath before dropping her off at Ms. Brown's for the night. I wasn't a big baseball fan. I have to admit I don't think I'd ever watched a game before that day, but I was still excited to get out of the house. I had agreed to meet Jared at his place. I pulled into his drive-way but barely had time to get out of my car before he came out of the house, ready to go.
"C'mon Aubrey, we gotta leave if we don't want to be late!" he yelled, already sitting in the driver's seat of his gray chevy pick up truck. I opened the passenger door and got in.
"I can't wait for you to meet my friends," he said, pulling out of the driveway. "And, we have really good seats too! VIP box baby!"
I looked at him shocked.
"What do you mean VIP tickets? That must have cost you a fortune! I'll never be able to pay you back!"
"Girl you're not paying me back. That's not even an option, regardless of the seats I won't take a penny from you. I wanted you to come to the game and meet my friends, it's not about the money. Plus I had to get box seats, can you imagine the commotion it would've caused to be seated with everybody? No privacy, people coming up to us all night?"
I looked at him confused.
"Huh? Why would people come up to us?" I asked, trying to understand what he meant by that. He chuckled and scratched his neck awkwardly.
"It's not- I just wanted to spoil you. And my friends. Nothing weird, just me being my usual generous self, that's all," he said, brushing off my confusion.
"You're being weird," I said. He dismissed my comment and turned on the radio.
When we got there, the stadium was already packed. The minute I got out of the car, I felt the emotional frenzy emerging from the parking lot. People pre-gaming, drinking beer in camping chairs and placing bets on which team was going to win- or whatever people bet on when they watch baseball. I suddenly realized just how good it felt to be out and about, just spending a fun night with a friend. Thank you Ms. Brown, I thought to myself.
We got our tickets validated and walked into the stadium, looking for our seats.
"Looks like they got here before us!" Jared said, clearly impatient to see his friends. He grabbed me by the arm and started walking in their direction, dragging me through the busy crowd. I was trying my best to keep up with him when I tripped over a chair that had been taken from the bar and left right by the side of our box.
It was like an out of body experience. I could already see myself busting my two front teeth over the hard concrete floor or breaking my leg getting caught in the chair. I was almost on the ground when I felt a strong hand grab me by the arm and pull me right back up.
"Careful there", the voice said in a rough southern accent, "damn near broke your pretty face over that chair."
I looked up to see who my knight in shining armor was. All I could see was how beautiful his eyes looked. Like the sky on a sunny cloudless day. A blue like the one you see at the beach in the middle of august where the sea meets the horizon. He smiled at me -a slightly crooked smile with a somewhat coarse mustache resting on his upper lip. His wavy hair was mid-neck length and was covered by a black backward cap. My heart skipped a beat. Who was he? I closed my mouth, just now realizing how long I'd been staring at him.
"Um, yeah, thank you", I mumbled, probably inaudibly over the noise of the crowd. He smiled and nodded his head.
"Morgan!" Jared yelled, bringing me right back down to planet earth. "How've you been brother, how's the touring life been treating you?" He asked as we walked into our box and heading towards the private bar. Touring life?
"Yeah, not too bad man. Trying to keep myself out of trouble y'know", he answered scratching the back of his head. "Who's this little number?" he asked, pointing towards me with his chin.
"Oh, that's Aubrey," Jared said nonchalantly. What an introduction.
"Better than the last one," he said, winking at me.
"We're not dating," I said dryly. "I'm his secretary."
"And friend," Jared added, squeezing my shoulders, trying to make up for his rough introduction.
"Oh, so you're the secretary," he said. "Yeah, we've heard about you."
Jared nudged him, semi-subtly, probably thinking I wouldn't notice. I furrowed my eyebrows.
"You have?" I asked. He looked at Jared, who gave him a warning look, and chuckled.
"Well, I think I better keep my mouth shut," he said before turning to the bartender to order his drink. "Hi darling, whiskey, neat." God he's hot. Jared turned to me.
"Come, I'll introduce you to the rest of the gang." He pulled my forearm lightly, walking towards two other guys who were already talking to each other. One was bigger, blond haired and blue eyed. The other one was heavily tattooed, tall, dark haired. Also incredibly hot.
"Jesse this is Aubrey, Aubrey, Jesse," he said as the tattooed guy shook my hand delicately.
"Pleased to meet you," he said, his voice a lot softer than I had imagined and his accent not quite as defined as Morgan's.
"And I'm Ernest," said the other guy, beaming at me. I nodded my head slightly and smiled back at him. We made small talk for a bit, but it wasn't too long until the guys started talking amongst them. I turned my head discreetly to see what Morgan was up to. Still chatting up the barmaid. Should I go talk to him? I turned my head back. Jared was now deep into a heated debate about which player was going to be this year's MVP. I turned around and started walking towards Morgan.
"Hey. Where are you going?" Jared asked.
"Just getting a drink. Am I allowed, daddy?" I said mockingly. He rolled his eyes at me and returned to his conversation. I giggled and went to sit down at the bar next to Morgan.
"What's your poison?" He asked me.
"Tequila"
"Hey sugar, two tequilas please," he told the bartender. She stared me down from head to toe and turned around to get our drinks, probably disappointed I had crashed their little party.
"Don't cowboys drink whiskey?" I said playfully. He smiled to himself.
"Only if you drink it with me," he answered.
"Sure tang baby," I said in his accent. He chuckled.
"Hey darling, how about two whiskeys instead?"
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Hi darlings, this is a short chapter just to get you started on this new fanfic I've been writing! Hopefully you like it, feedback is always welcome
Ps: If you're reading this fic after it's been completed and like it, please feel free to vote on the chapters! Its still makes me really happy to know people still enjoy this story <3
XO
LadyBug