I'll Find You

Hurts So Good

Hurt so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don't feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
----Hurts So Good, John Cougar

November 11, 2017

Cait left the meeting feeling better than she had when she went in. They'd been receptive to her plan. She wanted a diploma with the Duke name on it and there was a path to get there. She'd been emailing with her advising dean for a few weeks now and they'd worked it out. The trick had been getting the Provost to agree and to promise to persuade the Academic Council. She suspected that President Price probably would have handed her a diploma now in exchange for the endowment that she had promised to the University.

She'd only told her dad and Grayson's parents that she was going to catch up with a few people and would just see them at the game. So she headed back to Cameron, feeling at least a little better about her life after skiing.
*****

The game was the reverse of the previous night. Utah Valley played Grayson tight and he didn't have any open looks early. But the freshmen were fantastic, at least after the first few minutes. And eventually Grayson found his rhythm and scored 18.

After the ceremony honoring Coach K's 1,000th win at Duke, the media seemed to want to focus on that and on the upcoming game against Michigan State. His relationship with Cait was apparently old news and Grayson was relieved by that.

And she was waiting for him after the game again, smiling and giving him a hug and a kiss. He was looking forward to a time when she would always be there, waiting for him.
*****

Much later that night, Grayson decided to revisit the issue of her heading to South Korea in time for the opening ceremony.

They were in the kitchen, her in his shirt and him in a pair of shorts. She was leaving in the morning and although she was still insisting that Grayson needed to rest, he was determined to spend at least a decent part of the night with her. Cait was making coffee.

Grayson wasn't even sure why he was so bothered by this, but he was. If this was going to be her last Olympics, he wanted her to have the full experience.

"It's later," he started. "Can we finish our conversation from the car?"

Cait looked at him. "There's no reason to jump off that bridge yet, Grayson," she sighed. "Let's see how I ski in a few weeks, at least."

"You're gonna make the team," he rolled his eyes at her. "You won gold in both events four years ago. They aren't gonna leave you home."

"If I post shitty results all winter, they damn sure will," she huffed.

"Let's operate on the assumption that you're going," he said. "Why would you stay here?"

"Maybe to see you. Maybe because I don't want to sit my ass in fucking South Korea for a week with nothing to do. Maybe because I might need to go to class," she shot back.

"The fuck are you talking about, Cait?" Grayson was confused.

"I'm re-enrolling next semester," she said. "I met with the Provost today. I can still go to the Olympics. They're going to try to make my classes available online but if they can't, I might need to be here as much as possible during the semester."