Once safely inside, I went around a corner in the hall and whipped out my phone.
Delia: Guys. Guess who I just saw?
Zayna: Somebody famous?
Carol: Must be big. Sebastian Stan?
Delia: LOL, no. I wish, tho. No.
Keshondra: Well, damn, share with the group.
Delia: Will.
Dead silence. I pried myself off the wall, the shock from Will's sudden reappearance fading a bit now that I'd shared my news. I started toward my office; there was a good forty-five minutes before office hours started. I was settled into my office before the shock wore off in my friends as well.
Keshondra: Diamond Will????
Cass: NO WAY. What's going on????????????? The others also flooded me with questions.
Delia: He quit after that concussion during the playoffs, apparently. So now he's learning how to be a sports agent, I guess.
Maya: You guess???
Delia: He's taking me to dinner Friday night. Will know more then.
Carol: Why so far off?
Delia: Scheduling. His and mine aren't matching til then.
Zayna: Scheduling. Is that what they're calling it these days?
I laughed. Delia: Yeah, there's none of that unless/until I get more answers.
Keshondra: ??? Answers to what? It's WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Delia: Why didn't he tell me he was going to be back? I don't even know how long he's going to be here, what he's doing, even where he's living. And how did he know where I'd be and when? Has he been stalking me? Even if it's Will, that's creepy. He could have texted, it's not like my number's changed.
Maya: But at least he's not married.
They joy I'd felt at seeing Will was faded a little with these questions. It had taken a long time to get over him, and I had no intention of letting him play with my emotions again. I checked email, then opened up for office hours earlier than posted, looking forward to distracting myself with student questions.
The days between the encounter with Will and dinner kind of dragged, but I dealt with it by not thinking about it. At five on Friday, I shut the door to my office, changed to a pretty dress and heels, fixed my makeup and hair, and drove to Water Grill downtown to meet him for dinner at six. It was a clever choice; the food was really good but it wasn't one of the expensive, high-profile places that are so important in LA. It was special, but not over the top. He was early, waiting for me at the podium, and we were seated immediately. There wasn't much conversation until we'd ordered (seafood fritters to start with, and I had scallops with rhubarb, fiddleheads, radishes, and a citrus reduction, he had cioppino [I wouldn't have dared, I would have been worried about spilling the broth down my front, so kudos for the bold choice, but maybe guys didn't worry as much about that kind of thing?])
"So how've you been?" he asked, sitting back and swirling his scotch. I sipped my martini. Yum. "I've followed your Instagram, but it's pretty much about your travels. Which look amazingly fun, don't get me wrong."
"It's been interesting, my research is fascinating, at least to me," I said. "And the opportunity to travel has been wonderful. I especially love going places with my grandpa. I still surf, and now I've surfed at different places around the world too. I've had a good time."
"Did you ever fix your friendship with that guy John, the one who had the horrible girlfriend?"
"We're pretty good friends again, mostly possible because she dumped him, but we're not as close as we were before. His new girlfriend is a lot nicer." He nodded and looked up as the appetizer was served. The fritters were as good as they looked, and there was a greedy silence as we attacked them.
"I have to admit that I haven't followed your career once I heard you were engaged," I confessed, and he nodded, not bothered.
"I figured," he said. "Well, Theresa and I parted ways, and I didn't try to replace her, just did football. It's mostly a full-time job, all year around. You have to keep up your conditioning and fitness, and there's always new things to learn, new plays, we switched coaches twice, so that was three playbooks I had to learn. I socialized with my teammates, you know how that is." I nodded. "When I got the concussion, my grandma came out from Connecticut to take care of me." He frowned. "It was a couple of months before the team doctor cleared me, but of course by then we were out of the playoffs, the Super Bowl was over, and it was a lot easier to make my choice to retire. I met with the team, told them my decision and thanked them for everything they'd done for me, then I flew home with Grandma and told my family. Nobody was terribly surprised, but my family was sure relieved." I nodded. I could imagine. "So then it was time to put my plan into gear. I kind of leaned on my status as a football star and applied here for an MBA, and although I was late, they considered my application and admitted me."
"So what are you going to do with your MBA?" I asked as the server placed our entrees before us. My mouth watered. I love scallops.
"Well, I don't want to actually be a sports agent, contracts make me nuts. So I'm going to specialize in investment management, take some extra courses in executive management, real estate, global management, and entrepreneurship. Along the way, I met a few younger agents who are splitting off from their firms, and we're going to form our own firm. I'll handle the books for the company but also advise our clients on financial decisions. It's so easy to get caught up in an opulent lifestyle because you can afford it when you're playing, but what happens when that last contract is over? Athletes are still ending up poor in the years after their retirements, and it doesn't have to be that way. Our goal is to be a full-service firm, everything that the professional athlete could use. My former agent is making himself available to me for questions, being a mentor."
"That sounds impressive," I said.
"And it's not just football, our agents are attracting players in basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, and tennis too. The really nice thing about it is that we'll have a central office, but the nature of the work means that there'll be considerable travel, and effectively, it means that I could live pretty much anywhere because our work will be highly individual." We ate in silence a bit. "Damn," he said, crestfallen, as a shrimp fell off his spoon and hit his silk tie. He dabbed regretfully at the spot. "But that's way too much about me. When are you done with your doctorate?"
"June," I said. "I can't wait, it's been a long haul. I'm set to defend my dissertation in early February."
"Any job prospects?"
"Yeah, NOAA had the perfect job listed, I applied, and I was getting ready for the interview when the federal budget came out. The administration is hostile to climate change, so that budget.... isn't healthy. NOAA had to withdraw the opportunity." I frowned, still a little angry about it. Climate change was happening, independent of anybody's belief in the facts. Sure, some of it was the cycle of the planet and we are definitely in a warming trend, but the real game changer is the anthropomorphic contributions. Even my Knight grandparents, who didn't put much stock in climate change initially, had come around as they saw the oceans rise by their community in Florida. "But there are opportunities up and down both coasts. There are some possibilities internationally as well, but as much as I liked my summer sessions in Dublin and Copenhagen, I don't want to live overseas for an extended time. Right now my front-runner is AltaSea, the new proposed marine research campus in the Port of Los Angeles. It's a collaboration of marine research, education, business, government, and the community, so very interesting and interdisciplinary. I'd be working in the science hub, pursuing coastal research." I brightened up as we spoke. It really was an incredible opportunity. "And it works with the Southern California Marine Institute; I did an internship there and liked it too." His questions about that extended until the waiter came back with the dessert menu. Will decided on the maple cheesecake with sour cream ice cream, and I had the bitter chocolate souflee with chantilly cream and an ice wine to complement the whole thing. When the desserts came, we traded bites. Yum.
"So are you seeing anybody?" he asked, rather abruptly.
"No, I've dated, but nothing serious." He poked his cheesecake a bit nervously.
"I'm just going to put my cards on the table, be a straight shooter."
"I like that." He grinned a little.
"I would like to date you again. You had valid reasons for not wanting to continue our relationship while I was playing football, and I respect that. But I'm not a football player anymore." He sighed. "There have been a number of years since we were together, and we've both grown and changed, and maybe what we had is just what we had. But I'm hoping there's room for a new relationship between us. I was trying to replace you with Theresa, and it didn't work. She's a fine woman, but it was like trying to fit a plain round peg into a beautiful, intricate space. It fell short. I would like to see if there's room in your life for me, because I know that there's space in my heart for you."
I considered this as I spooned up the souflee, which was to die for. "It's October. School's been in session for over a month now. Why am I just seeing you now?" The words were abrasive, but my tone was curious. I wasn't prepared for his blush.
"I didn't want to just text you," he said, putting his fork down. I took that as a sign he was abandoning his dessert and leaned over with my fork. He laughed. "I wanted to see you, in person. I'm not very good at tracking people down, it turns out, and I had to shadow the Math Sciences building for awhile before I saw you."
"You were stalking me?" I asked idly, reaching forward for another forkful. He moved his plate aside and it was my turn to laugh. "Cause that's kind of creepy, Holmes." He smiled and picked up his fork again.
"I prefer to think of it as intelligence gathering. I came forward when I saw you, I didn't follow you anywhere," he pointed out, and I went back to my souflee.
"What did you think?"
"There you were, even more beautiful than I remembered, focused and bright as a star. Confident. Then you sort of tripped when I called to you, and that was endearing." It was a point in his favor that he found my klutziness endearing.
From the restaurant, we went up to Griffith Observatory and saw the Light of the Valkyries show about the Northern Lights at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, wandering around the formal exterior grounds, looking over the city lights, and going into Griffith Park. The date ended with a plan for a day outing on Sunday and a kiss.