Him & I

I Wear Glasses

I wear glasses so that I can see you better
I put shoes on so that we can walk together
Late at night when all I see are spinning faces
I wear glasses so that I can see you better
----I Wear Glasses, Mating Ritual

November 2, 2018

Grayson had spent a lot of the previous evening trying to reassure his fiancée that he wasn't upset with her for not telling him what she'd found out about Stacy sooner. He knew she was feeling guilty and scared. And he knew that she was feeling like she hadn't learned enough from her meltdown in the spring, when she'd kept something from him, trying to protect him and not distract him.

He told her that the situations weren't at all similar. That he understood. That she couldn't have known. And he told her the other thing that he'd realized.

They had to go about their lives. About their business. Live normally. They couldn't hole up in their condo and be afraid to leave the premises. Fans, even some that were over the top, were going to be a fact of life and they needed to deal with it. They could be smart, be aware, but they couldn't be paranoid.

Then he'd tried to distract her by sharing some big news. He was getting his first start the next night, since Donovan was out with his hamstring injury.  Cait had hugged him hard and told him he'd be great.  But he could tell she was still upset.

Eventually, he'd stopped talking and picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, telling her that he'd gotten cheated out of his day in bed and it was time they made up for it. That seemed to work as well as anything at relaxing her.  And they really needed that connection with each other right now.

Grayson knew that Cait was supposed to go to Park City today and even though it was difficult, he pasted on a smile and told her to go. She needed to get ready for her meeting the next day. And he'd see her at his game that night, before he left for Denver.

*****

They kissed goodbye, tried to make it normal, and Grayson headed to his shoot around, while Cait headed to Park City. On the drive, she thought about what he'd said to her. What Jae had said the night before. And she resolved that she wasn't going to be held hostage by some batshit crazy fan. She was moving from scared to pissed again.

It was good to see Phil. He was always excited for the beginning of ski season and it made her a little excited too, although she wouldn't be competing this year. She was anxious to help out his juniors and to get her own program underway.

And Jared surprised her by saying that he'd arranged for a new pair of skis for her. "I figured you wouldn't be using your competition skis much," he told her, "so we had a nice pair of K2s set aside for you. Recreational skis. If you go down to the shop and pick out the bindings, we'll have them ready for you in a week or so."

Cait had been a little touched by his thoughtfulness. She hadn't even stopped to consider what skis she would use for the teaching she'd be doing. She only had comp skis here in Utah.  She was glad that Jared had thought ahead.

She met with some of the other instructors again. They would all be on hand for the meeting the next day and they went through the points they needed to reinforce, the parameters of the program and the goals and objectives. And they reviewed the plans for introducing these kids to skiing. The training methods. Moving from snowplowing to hockey stops, things that Cait honestly hadn't had to think about for years.