Offside

“I guess so,” I replied. Everything he said was swirling around in my head again. He really seemed like a pretty good guy, and I didn’t think he was feeding me any bullshit. What would it hurt? “Yeah, okay…um…What did you have in mind?”

“I have to go back to Chicago after this weekend,” he said. “I could probably make it back here about once a month or so. You could come out to Chicago any time you want. I have a ranch house over in Evanston, so no stairs. I’ve got a guest room, and there’s a great view of Lake Michigan.”

I hadn’t really thought about traveling at all. How would I even get on a plane? It’s not like a wheelchair would fit through those tiny aisles. That would be a damn long drive, though if Nicole went with me…

“Maybe,” I finally said.

“Maybe?”

“I mean, maybe to Chicago. The other stuff would be okay.”

“It would?”

“Yeah.” I looked up at him, and for the first time since I met him for lunch, he was smiling.

“Thanks, Thomas,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” I replied. “So, um, what should I call you?”

His forehead scrunched up.

“Um, what do you want to call me?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I always called…um…Lou, Dad. I don’t really want to call anyone else that.”

“I’m not so sure I’d be completely comfortable with that, either,” he admitted.

“I’ve been just calling you Gardner in my head,” I told him.

He laughed.

“Well, no one’s really called me that since I played in the band, but that would be okay with me.”

“Cool,” I said. I reached out and shook his hand. “Gardner it is.”

Shortly after that, I had pretty much had enough of sitting in the fucking wheelchair and gave Nicole a call to tell her where we were. She came out to find us laughing since Gardner had been telling me about his co-worker going off on a construction guy who had taken her handicapped parking spot and how she just about had the poor guy in tears.

“I take it things are going well here,” Nicole said as she approached.

Gardner and I glanced at each other, chuckled, and ran our hands through our hair. Nicole blinked a couple of times as she looked back and forth between us.

“O…kay. That was a little freaky.” She took a step away from us. She shook her head and asked if I was ready to go. Gardner followed us back to the Jeep, and after I got situated in the passenger seat, he leaned in toward me, holding the top of the door.

“Hey, Thomas?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll be back in four weeks, okay?”

“Yeah, that’ll be good,” I told him.

“You can call me anytime you want,” he reminded me again, “and if it’s okay, I’ll call you sometimes.”

“I said it was.” I rolled my eyes. He seemed to think I was going to change my mind and tell him to fuck off.

“Cool!” He stood back up and closed the door.

Nicole and I both waved, but as she started the car, he knocked on my window. I rolled it down for him.