Page 24

CHAPTER 24

Cami

Brookdale Retirement Home is buzzing with activity, the monthly family day coming to a close. I weave through the families in the lobby and make my way to the community room. I made sure to be five minutes early this time, so no one has any excuse to make any comments about my tardiness today.

When I enter, only Linda is sitting on the couch. Her basket of yarn is placed next to her and she has the beginnings of something in her lap. I can’t quite tell what it is just yet.

“Hey there, you. Long time no see, get over here so I can squeeze your neck.”

I walk over and lean down, wrapping my arms around her. It’s been a little while since I’ve come to knitting. The last couple of weeks have been busy with helping Charlie and getting work settled with Alex and Alana gone. I haven’t been able to make it and I always feel bad when that happens.

“I’m sorry, but I promise to make it up to you. I have lots of personal drama.”

“Oh, you know how I love hearing about the drama. Take a seat.” She pats the space next to her and I sit down before pulling out my materials. “Rhonda and Emery had family come in, but they should be here soon. I think Gladys too.”

Sure enough, a moment later all three make their way into the room.

“Oh, she’s decided to grace us with her presence,” Gladys says in a dramatic tone.

“Leave the girl alone, she said she has drama to share.”

“Oh, well then let me just get comfortable.”

As the three women make their way to the couches and get settled, I contemplate how much I want to share with them. Even though they encouraged me to ask Charlie to be my date to the wedding, they know nothing about the fake dating for his hockey career thing. That information is on a tight lock down, because if anyone found out we were faking this it would ruin everything. As I mull it over, I decide that these ladies are probably some of the only women I could tell this secret to. I’m not able to talk about this with anyone, and they are some of the most trustworthy people in my life as they’re essentially my chosen grandmothers. Not only that, but they don’t know anyone in the media, nor do they follow professional hockey. I’m not even sure they know he plays hockey.

I decide to go ahead and just tell them, thinking they’re going to be seeing more of him if we follow through on all of the items on the list, and I trust them not to share with anyone.

“Okay, what happened?” Rhonda asks, not even picking up her knitting materials. Everyone in the room is staring at me and I suddenly feel shy, a feeling I’m not familiar with in the slightest. I’m lost in thought, trying to decipher what about this situation feels particularly sensitive, when Rhonda speaks again.

“You don’t have to share if you don’t want to, sweetie.”

“No, I want to. I just…it’s a lot is all. I think I’m starting to come to terms with how overwhelming this whole situation is. I need to talk about it though.” I play with the yarn in my lap, gathering the words I want to say. “But before I tell you, I need you to promise me you won’t talk to anyone about this. It has to stay a secret.”

I glance around the room to see four pairs of wide eyes all staring at me and nodding slowly.

“I have to say, you’ve got me a little spooked,” Linda says as she picks up her needles and begins to knit slowly. “Go on.”

The rest of the women pick their projects up, too, and start to knit as they wait to hear what I have to say. The normalcy of it calms me, so I pick my materials up and start knitting as I speak.

“So remember how last time I was here, you all told me to ask Charlie if he would be my fake date to Colette’s wedding?”

“Oh, did you ask?” Emery asks, perking up in her seat.

“I did. But there’s more to it than that. So, he plays hockey.”

“That’s hot.”

“It is, Rhon. It totally is. So he’s played for the New York Rangers for his whole career, which is essentially unheard of in the professional hockey world. Only a handful of players have stayed with the same team their entire career.”

“Wow, they must really like him if they’ve kept him this long,” Gladys chimes in.

“I think his coaches see his value. He’s coming up on a contract year, though, and his manager wanted him to do some work to up his public image. She thinks this will be one of his last contracts before he retires, and if he wants to stay with the Rangers he needs to do an overhaul on how the public views him.”

“What do you mean?” Linda asks.

“Well, he’s a closed off guy. He doesn’t let very many people in and he likes to put his head down and get his work done. He isn’t one for public appearances or getting photographed, so a lot of the time he isn’t what people think of when they think of the New York Rangers. Sophie, his manager, wants him to put himself out there so fans start to consider him a part of the Rangers brand. That way the team wouldn’t consider a trade and they’d re-sign him.”

“I see. So what does that have to do with you?” Emery asks.

“One of the ways his manager suggested he up his image is by publicly dating someone.”

The room is bathed in silence for a few moments as the words land. Each of the women have stopped knitting and are staring up at me.

“And he asked you,” Emery concludes.

“He did.”

“And you said yes?” Rhonda asks.

“I did. And then I asked him to be my date to the wedding in exchange.”

“Well, that sure sounds fun. So are you two official yet? To the public I mean.” Gladys leans forward as she asks. Her easy acceptance surprises me, but I answer her question.

“We had our first date last night. We went to the Nutcracker Ballet, which we do every year, we just don’t typically do it alone or with the presence of cameras and media.”

And I don’t usually freak out over my best friend touching my knee .

“How did it go?” Linda asks quietly at my side. I notice she hasn’t said much in this conversation so far.

“It wasn’t bad. I think it hit me how real this all is. There were a lot of cameras and intrusive questions. The article went live this morning. Here.” I hand over my phone to Linda and let her scroll through the photos, then pass the phone around.

When I saw the headline this morning it made me giggle. I was flattered they referred to me as ‘gorgeous’ and the photos were surreal. We looked famous and important and weirdly comfortable. I guess that comes from years of being best friends, but to see his hand on my lower back and the shot someone got when he leaned in to whisper in my ear was shocking. Just seeing the photos caused a phantom heat at my back, like I could feel his hand there all over again.

“Oh, she’s smitten,” I hear Gladys say.

“What? No I’m not,” I insist, panicked.

“Considering you just went all melty eyes and transported to another world, I would say you’re full of bullshit.”

“No, I promise you we are just friends. We’re best friends. He promised me we wouldn’t let this arrangement mess that up. I don’t know what I’d do if things ended badly.” I worry my bottom lip and feel Linda’s warm hand land on my knee.

“Just be careful. Even the nicest of boys can lead us astray sometimes, and this seems like quite the whirlwind with all of the media attention. I think I can speak for us all when I say we worry.”

“I know and I appreciate that. I will be careful.”

“We love you, sweetheart,” Rhonda says and they all nod their heads in agreement.

“Thanks, I love you too. Now, how do you feel about having an extra attendee at the next meeting? Because one of the things on our list to make Charlie more lovable is him having a hobby, and I think I know one that might fit well.”

“You know we can make room for anyone. And we won’t ask too many questions,” Emery says with a wink.

“Hell yeah we can,” Gladys says.

“Gladys,” I exclaim and playfully nudge her shoulder. “You know I’m trying not to swear. The more you do the more it’ll wear off on me.”

“I’m an old lady, I can say what I want.”

I laugh at her brashness and shake my head.

“So, what are we going to teach him ladies?” Rhonda asks with a conspiratorial smile on her face.

“We could try to teach him a lace stitch,” Gladys says.

“If we teach him a lace stitch first we’ll ensure he never tries again,” I joke.

The lace stitch is one of the more difficult knittings. It creates fabric that looks like lace, including all the small holes. It can be difficult to create stable holes while also making sure the whole thing doesn’t unravel. I tried it once, and it ended with an emergency slice of cheesecake and a trip to my therapist.

“Don’t worry, honey,” Linda says. “I won’t let these three give him too much trouble.”

“And, Gladys, no naughty pictures in your projects the day he comes,” Emery says.

“Please,” I say as I turn to Gladys and flash her my puppy dog eyes. “I don’t think I’ll be able to handle an interrogation and embarrassing pictures.”

“We’ll see about all that,” Gladys says with an eye roll.

Over the next hour and a half together we laugh and knit, and the more time I spend with them the more I feel grateful I shared this with them. I didn’t realize how much I needed to just tell someone about what was going on, and although I’m still overwhelmed with the whole thing I do feel lighter.