“Okay, we’ll say for a moment that you really don’t care about men or women,” I said. “But how are we going to get around everything?”
“Like what?”
“Like, the geography, dude. You’ll be god knows where, and I’ll be in Buffalo. Unless I get drafted someplace too. That’ll make matters worse, won’t it? More complications.”
“You’re thinking of possibilities thatcouldhappen, not necessarily the ones thatwill.”
“I’m sorry if I can actually see the problems even if you can’t.”
When my boyfriend drew a deep breath, I realized how close I’d brought us to another fight. I didn’t want that, even if I did want Kayden to start thinking about cold, hard reality.
Someone had to do it, right?
“I’m not gonna lie to you,” he said. “You’ve probably thought about my being drafted by the Leafs more than I have. It’s like you’re obsessed or something.”
“Seriously?”
He nodded. “It really feels like that. And I’m not saying that it’s about jealousy or anything. It’s just…”
“No, you got that comment out the other day.”
“I thought we both apologized for that argument.”
“You’re right. Fuck.”
God, I hated it when my boyfriend had a point.
“I’ve noticed something,” he said.
“About what? Us?”
“No, Erik, about life.”
“And what’s that?”
“That things tend to work out in the end. That’s why I don’t worry about the little shit.”
“I can’t believe you think something as important as this is just little shit.”
I felt my own temperature rising, and Kayden must’ve noticed because he paused, seeming to reconsider.
“Okay, bad choice of words,” he said. “Let’s call it something I can’t control. I mean, I can dosomething, but for the most part I’ve got to just let things play out. When that stuff happens, it always seems to work out okay.”
“It’s still not nothing. We’re talking about being drafted by an NHL team. The freaking big-time. How can you ever call that small?”
“Again, it’s just a bad choice of words. I don’t really think it’sthatsmall. But the things that come with it are definitely out of my control. And you know what you do with the things you can’t control?”
You can’t worry about them,was the answer he wanted, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
I shook my head. Like I said, this could devolve into an argument at any moment, which I didn’t need, so I wanted to be careful. At the same time, I couldn’t believe my boyfriend could treat the topic so casually. I knew he could be thick-headed, but this was getting ridiculous.
“I know you don’t believe me,” he said, “and I know it drives you crazy, but things really do have a weird way of working out for the best. At least in my world they do.”
“So, we’re just going to have to wait around and see? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Sometimes you’ve got to live with some uncertainty, bro.”
“Says the guy who’s mapped out his entire life.”
