Falling Effect

38. Cup Finals

Lose Yourself - Eminem

3 months later...

I have no idea what Greyson is like right now, but boy was I a nervous wreck.

I paced back and forth in front of the glass as we waited for the officials to make a decision.

This was the final playoffs game for the Mavericks, they lost this game, they lost the Cup Finals this year.

They win this game, they win the 2022 Cup Finals.

The score was tied 1-1 and we were 3.7 seconds away from going into overtime.

"Sit down!" A guy yells from a couple rows back.

"Fuck off!" I yell back, flipping him off as Asher reaches his arms out for me from Anne's lap.

"You fuck off and sit down!"

"Do you know who I am?!" I yell back, starting to march my ass up there before Ellie grabs my arm, yanking me back.

"He's probably drunk, knock it off." She says, chuckling. But, the grip she still had on my arm let her know she was just as anxious as I was. The tension was thick and through the roof. We were playing North Carolina.

I grab ahold of Asher, resting him on my hip as he points to the ice. "You see Dada?" I ask before he claps. Let me tell you, having a 10 month old is worse than me on my period. One minute he's laughing, the next he's screaming because the old lady at the grocery store that waved at him.

He reaches his other arm out behind him towards the diaper bag that currently took my place in my seat. "Mom, will you grab the puffs out of the bag?" I ask as she nods before reaching over.

"Banana or vanilla?"

"Uhh, we'll try banana first." I say as she nods, digging around in the bag and pulling out the round blue container of Gerber Baby Puffs and hands it to me. I open the lid pulling out a couple as I set them in my hand and Asher reaches down and grabs one. I pull his pacifier out of his mouth as he shoves the star shaped puff in his mouth before reaching for another one.

The whistle blows, catching my attention as I return my gaze back to the ice were the Ref skates to the middle before his voice starts to echo through the speakers and I hold my breath.

"We're going to go ahead and go into sudden death, 20 minutes." He says as I sit back in my seat. "5-on-3." He says making the whole crowd start yelling.

"Oh come on!" Ellie yells, standing up before letting out a string of profound words and I cover Asher's ears over his beanie.

I scoff, that's ridiculous. 5-on-3 in the regular season was shitty enough as it was but to do it in the goddamn Finals, not even the Playoffs?! That was a whole other level of dick moves.