If only Erik could be more like Ryan Detenbeck.
“I hear what you’re saying,” I said, “but I don’t think it’ll be that simple.”
“So, you’re going to let it threaten the championship for the whole team? Is that it?”
“No way, dude. We’ll get it figured out.”
I laid back on the bench, positioned myself under the barbell, lifted it, and began pushing it off my chest, one rep after another.
One part of me wanted to believe what I’d just said, and the other part didn’t. Like, I thought Erik might’ve come to his senses. Sure, he’d been silent and cold, but that would only last for a day or two until he came around.
Unless he didn’t.
He could be stubborn enough to put up walls between us forever. Doing that would become a problem, and it seemed like our teammates had already noticed. If Ryan Detenbeck had caught on, then the whole world could figure it out. You would think that I wouldn’t be blamed for Erik De Ruiter’s bullshit, but I’d already gotten shit for not being the one to wave a magic wand and fix it.
If only Detenbeck knew…
I sat up after my first set, hoping my teammate would’ve tired of the topic. No such luck.
“So, what happened?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“What was the argument about?”
“It wasn’t really an argument.”
“What happened?”
“Oh my dod, dude, I told you it was nothing.”
“But it’s not actually nothing. You said so yourself.”
“You know you’re going to drive me batshit crazy, right?”
“That’s my job, isn’t it?”
When he smiled at me, I couldn’t help laughing a little. At least he could inject a little humor into a totally tense situation.
But what was I supposed to tell him? So far, Erik had made no move to patch things up. Since this was our first serious fight, I didn’t know how long it would take for him to see reason…ifhe ever did. “So, you’re not going to tell me what’s going on?”
“No, and I don’t know how this is going to pan out either. Like, for all I know, Erik is going to be as stubborn as a mule for the rest of his life.”
That earned a laugh from my teammate.
“We’ll get it figured out one way or another,” I said.
“So, you guys haven’t figured out who gets to have custody of the kids, right?”
I side-eyed him, but he seemed not to see it.
“I guess in your case, it’s who gets to keep the teammates.”
He started laughing, but I didn’t join him. I knew he was trying to be funny. I even tried to appreciate that, but I couldn’t laugh along with him.
And then he stopped cold, almost like he knew he shouldn’t have said anything. That was my opening.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
