Chapter Ten
MADISON
Zoe and Eva called it acareer breakdown.
That’s when I’d skip whatever job my father had me working on now and I’d sit home all day, sip wine, and spread out a whole bunch of pictures I had taken across the coffee table, then I’d just sit there and think about my entire life.
Total…career breakdown.
Today all it took was my father acting like himself on the phone and then Maverick acting like himself over a few pictures I took of him with some eager fans.
The thought of walking into that arena and then hanging around to watch the team practice… kind of made me feel ill.
So that was my excuse.
I felt ill.
And believe me, nobody wanted me around the hockey team if I was feeling sick. Those guys were high-paid athletes and in all reality, they were assets to the coaching staff, the management staff and the ownership. Without those guys on the ice—playing, selling merchandise and overpriced hotdogs—then nobody in a suit would be making millions.
Which meant mefeeling illwas the easiest and sanest excuse to avoid taking pictures for the day.
Miraculously though, when I got home, I felt better.
Well, I felt better after the first glass of wine.
Halfway through the second glass, I started to dig up some photographs and I began to spread them out.
I had no intention of getting Zoe and Eva involved, but they were the ones who showed up.
Unannounced.
I sat on the couch with a coffee cup halfway filled with wine.
Staring at a picture I took of an autumn leaf.
I had held it up in front of the sun and captured the beauty of the color and just how amazingly beautiful the leaf was.
In my mind, I told myself a story.
How this leaf began as some kind of spring bud. Then it grew and blossomed. Then it survived the summer heat and the summer storms. Only to have its sunlight slowly taken away, which was required by time and the seasons…
That’s when my apartment door opened and in came Zoe and Eva.
I jumped up off the couch and turned to look at them.
Zoe had a guitar case in her right hand.
She put the guitar case down and held her hands out.
“Is that wine in that coffee cup?” Eva asked.
“Does that matter?” I asked.
“Are those pictures you took spread out across the table?” Zoe asked.
“I’m just…”
Zoe and Eva looked at each other.