Happenstance Circumstance
Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2019 6:08 am
She played her fingers along his back as he lounged topless on the couch in her apartment and Winnie slept on obliviously across the hall. She didn’t say anything to him, and he didn’t say anything back. She traced her initials on his skin, still well-muscled, pulled taut even though at 27 he was seeing his college athlete self recede further into the distance each day. She brought a hand up his neck to the fade haircut and the curls he still wore on top to add an extra inch or so to his height. He was distant. Janessa knew why.
He was watching a baseball game. Yeah, Janessa Alston knew why too. Her current man wasn’t too hard a book to read. The game and the guy in the pinstriped #31 she’d teased him about on their first date. He’d laughed it off; hell he’d said he liked a girl who knew enough about ball to recognized the name, but underneath she’d seen that chip on his shoulder, that bit of envy, and she’d seen it grow when he got stressed or angry at something. At those times you’d expect a guy like him to lash out but instead he seemed to go inside like a turtle. And do stuff like watch the game and build up that petty resentment to avoid the other thing, the thing that was really eating him. The Chattanooga thing. She’d know about his connection there too, wasn’t nothing wrong with Janessa doing due diligence on the guys she saw. Went both ways. She knew full well that he’d been warned before they got set up that “hey man, bitch has a 3-year-old, just so you know.” It was good for him, and good for her to know too. So that she could bring up Winter in conversation to him on her own time secure in that she wasn’t dropping a bomb that’d jet him straight on home. And he could have time to come to terms with dating a single mom, and telling her he was cool with it. And she could realize right then and there that he might be cool with dating a single mom, but anything more than that was right the fuck out so she’d better just enjoy him while she could cause this wasn’t gonna last.
So she knew about the whole Survival of the Fittest thing. But he’d never brought it up before, so she’d kept her mouth shut on that. Wasn’t like Winnie Alston who was kinda impossible to ignore.
So she still kept her mouth shut until the time was right, and figured that was probably gonna happen soon after the other Aaron Hicks finished striking out to strand two runners in the eighth and seeing that slight smile on her Aaron’s lips.
“You feed off his failure or something, babe?” she asked.
And he finally turned to her.. Paused and she could tell he was thinking on what he was gonna say. Was he gonna start with a joke? She guessed yes.
“Just thinking. Bout circumstances, I guess.”
No points.
“But fuck it I should be rooting for him, he gets enough name recognition and I can get a way bigger shitload of people thinking I’m him and comping me free stuff.”
There it was.
She smiled back.“Yeah cause you look so much the fuck alike, I confuse you myself-“
“Don’t make me do my white asshole ‘ah you all look the same to me’ Janey. Don’t make me.”
And it was funny and so fucking aggravating all the time because it was true. Aaron Hicks the Yankees outfielder was at least two shades lighter, four inches taller, and 40 pounds heavier than Aaron Hicks in her apartment. Aaron Hicks the Yankees outfielder looked like a 60% less handsome Derek Jeter and played like him too. Her Aaron Hicks, well, she liked to think he was more a wiry young Chadwick Boseman but that was just her entertaining her own fantasies thank you very much.
So she laughed and so did he, before she doubled back to the first thing he said.
“Circumstance?”
“Yeah. Circumstance. Coincidence. Whatever you wanna call it. Like you know he was actually just getting drafted by the Twins when I was in high school in Minnesota? What are the odds there? I mean, it sounds dumb but I was already wondering how we’d do it if we both became household names. Different sports but still, like would one of us have to use our initials? My middle name’s fuckin’ Quincy, fuck that shit. But it just seems like such long odds for stuff like that to happen.”
“Like Chattanooga right now too, you mean,” she said. There. She’d gone and put it out there. Figured she had to at some point. Cause she knew this wasn’t forever anyway. And may her dead religious grandma forgive her, she had to admit to herself she’d been real curious to know about it from the start.
“Yeah,” he said finally. “You find out yourself or someone tell you?”
“Both.”
“Not gonna ask who, don’t worry. It ain’t something I hide. Just something I don’t brag about. But yeah, circumstance. Unfortunate unforeseen fucking circumstances. Even more than you think you know. I’ll bet you know about St. Paul and me there. But… there was another one, too. Bet you don’t know about that.”
She caught herself almost holding her breath and she asked him and he and sat there in thought another minute before he told her.
He was watching a baseball game. Yeah, Janessa Alston knew why too. Her current man wasn’t too hard a book to read. The game and the guy in the pinstriped #31 she’d teased him about on their first date. He’d laughed it off; hell he’d said he liked a girl who knew enough about ball to recognized the name, but underneath she’d seen that chip on his shoulder, that bit of envy, and she’d seen it grow when he got stressed or angry at something. At those times you’d expect a guy like him to lash out but instead he seemed to go inside like a turtle. And do stuff like watch the game and build up that petty resentment to avoid the other thing, the thing that was really eating him. The Chattanooga thing. She’d know about his connection there too, wasn’t nothing wrong with Janessa doing due diligence on the guys she saw. Went both ways. She knew full well that he’d been warned before they got set up that “hey man, bitch has a 3-year-old, just so you know.” It was good for him, and good for her to know too. So that she could bring up Winter in conversation to him on her own time secure in that she wasn’t dropping a bomb that’d jet him straight on home. And he could have time to come to terms with dating a single mom, and telling her he was cool with it. And she could realize right then and there that he might be cool with dating a single mom, but anything more than that was right the fuck out so she’d better just enjoy him while she could cause this wasn’t gonna last.
So she knew about the whole Survival of the Fittest thing. But he’d never brought it up before, so she’d kept her mouth shut on that. Wasn’t like Winnie Alston who was kinda impossible to ignore.
So she still kept her mouth shut until the time was right, and figured that was probably gonna happen soon after the other Aaron Hicks finished striking out to strand two runners in the eighth and seeing that slight smile on her Aaron’s lips.
“You feed off his failure or something, babe?” she asked.
And he finally turned to her.. Paused and she could tell he was thinking on what he was gonna say. Was he gonna start with a joke? She guessed yes.
“Just thinking. Bout circumstances, I guess.”
No points.
“But fuck it I should be rooting for him, he gets enough name recognition and I can get a way bigger shitload of people thinking I’m him and comping me free stuff.”
There it was.
She smiled back.“Yeah cause you look so much the fuck alike, I confuse you myself-“
“Don’t make me do my white asshole ‘ah you all look the same to me’ Janey. Don’t make me.”
And it was funny and so fucking aggravating all the time because it was true. Aaron Hicks the Yankees outfielder was at least two shades lighter, four inches taller, and 40 pounds heavier than Aaron Hicks in her apartment. Aaron Hicks the Yankees outfielder looked like a 60% less handsome Derek Jeter and played like him too. Her Aaron Hicks, well, she liked to think he was more a wiry young Chadwick Boseman but that was just her entertaining her own fantasies thank you very much.
So she laughed and so did he, before she doubled back to the first thing he said.
“Circumstance?”
“Yeah. Circumstance. Coincidence. Whatever you wanna call it. Like you know he was actually just getting drafted by the Twins when I was in high school in Minnesota? What are the odds there? I mean, it sounds dumb but I was already wondering how we’d do it if we both became household names. Different sports but still, like would one of us have to use our initials? My middle name’s fuckin’ Quincy, fuck that shit. But it just seems like such long odds for stuff like that to happen.”
“Like Chattanooga right now too, you mean,” she said. There. She’d gone and put it out there. Figured she had to at some point. Cause she knew this wasn’t forever anyway. And may her dead religious grandma forgive her, she had to admit to herself she’d been real curious to know about it from the start.
“Yeah,” he said finally. “You find out yourself or someone tell you?”
“Both.”
“Not gonna ask who, don’t worry. It ain’t something I hide. Just something I don’t brag about. But yeah, circumstance. Unfortunate unforeseen fucking circumstances. Even more than you think you know. I’ll bet you know about St. Paul and me there. But… there was another one, too. Bet you don’t know about that.”
She caught herself almost holding her breath and she asked him and he and sat there in thought another minute before he told her.