“You choose this today?” Coach asked. “You’ve been choosing this all along? I knew something was different about you.”
“I’m sorry, Coach,” I said. “I didn’t plan for it.”
“Just answer one thing,” Coach said.
“What?”
“This Hans situation,” he said.
I nodded. “Yeah. It has to do with Madison. There’s some history there. Even with Alonso. I lost my mind. That’s love, right?”
Coach grabbed my left shoulder and swallowed hard. “That’s love. It makes you do some wild things.”
“I’m sorry if I let you down, Coach.”
“I could think of a lot to say to you, Maverick,” Coach said. “But I’m at a cancer event for my wife. My wife who should have succumbed to this. But she keeps fighting. I keep fighting with her. Everything we do is based on love. So if you love Madison, never stop. Don’t ever screw that up.”
“I plan on…”
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.
I casually looked, it was a text from Madison.
To come talk to her in the women’s restroom.
“I have to go really quick,” I said.
“He’s in love and floating away,” Abel called out after me.
I didn’t care.
I hurried to the restrooms and snuck into the women’s room.
Madison stood there, arms folded.
“This is what you planned?” she asked.
“I love you.”
“I know that part.”
“I don’t care what happens to me next. I can’t lose you.”
“So that’s it? Just all romance all the time?”
“That’s it,” I said.
“Come here, Mav,” Madison said.
I moved closer to her.
I saw her start to smile a little.
When I reached for her, she slapped my hands away.
“Too soon?” I whispered.
“No,” she said. “I have something else in mind.”