The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Chapter 11

"Meet me in the lobby, ok?" I called to her down the hall.
"Got it," she called back.
I walked to the elevator and pushed the down button. The elevator dinged and the door opened. Out came a little girl wearing an old-looking USWNT jersey and her mom. I smiled at her and her eyes got as big as a soccer ball.
"Mommy, look," she whispered as she tugged at her mom's shirt and stared at me, "it's her. Can I have your autograph?"
"Sure," I said with a smile as I pulled out a Sharpie from my bag. "Are you going to the game on Wednesday?"
"No," the little girl said and looked down sadly.
"We tried to find tickets but they were all sold out," her mom explained.
"What's your name, sweetie?" I asked the girl.
"Alexandria Marie Jacobs, but my friends call me Alex," she replied proudly.
"Well, Alex Marie, did you know I have a friend named Alex too?" I asked her. By this time, I had taken a knee so I could be on her level.
"Yeah, I saw you talking about her on TV!" she said excitedly.
"We both did. I thought it was very kind of you to bring your friend on all these trips," Mrs. Jacobs complimented me.
"Thanks. She's really special. I promised her I would take her around the world when we were really young. A promise is a promise. Hey, Alex, would you like this?" I asked as I took my backwards U.S. Soccer snap-back off.
"Really? You'll let me have this?" she asked as I put it on her head.
"Yep. And..." I ripped off a sheet of paper I had scratched some words on and handed it to Mrs. Jacobs, "this. Just show it to the person at the box office and they'll call me up to escort you down to your field-side seats. Then after the game, you can come with me to the locker room and meet the rest of the team. Sound good?" I asked.
"Yes! Mommy did you hear that? We're going to the game!" she screamed. I give her a big hug and smiled for a couple pictures her mom was taking. I signed the jersey and the snap-back and stood up.
"Well I have to go now. I'm meeting up with big Alex. I'll see you on Wednesday!" I said with a wave.
She waved back. Her mom had to practically drag her away. When they were almost to their room, Mrs. Jacobs turned her head and mouthed "Thank you." I nodded and smiled in response. I pulled out my extra snap-back and positioned it like the other one. I reopened the elevator doors and went down to the lobby. When the doors opened, I saw Alex patiently waiting in a chair facing away from me. I quietly walked up behind her. I grabbed her shoulders and she let out a loud scream. I started laughing as she turned and looked back to see who it was.
"Why you little..." she started.
"You're not mad at me. You said when we met you would never get mad at me," I smirked as her face went slack with defeat, "Besides, you love me too much to be mad."
"You're right," she admitted.
"Sorry it took so long for me to get down here. I met a fan who wanted an autograph," I explained.
"It's alright. I understand. I get that there are probably going to be people that stop you in the street to talk to you," she said.
"Thanks," she raised an eyebrow like she didn't get why I said thanks, "for understanding. It's been crazy. Fans will do anything to get my attention. It gets overwhelming sometimes. I didn't realize I would get this famous. I just want to play soccer," I finished.
She nodded. We walked in silence for a while before I spoke again.
"Makenna told me you talked to Coach," I said slowly.
"Yeah, I asked for a job," she said nonchalantly.
"A job?"
"Yeah I figured that as long as I'm here, I should make myself useful, right?"
"Well sure I guess. I had just figured that this would be more like a vacation for you than just another place to work though," I said with a shrug.
"I can't just stay and travel for free. I know how expensive things are," she defended her statement.
I saw she wasn't going to cave anytime soon.
"Fair enough," I gave in, "do you want to get coffee or something? Or do you want to go sightseeing and look around?"
"How many times have you been here?" she asked.
"A couple," I replied.
"Coffee is fine. I think we have some catching up to do anyways," she said with a giggle.
"Yeah something like that," I responded, laughing, "I know this really good coffee place a couple blocks down. You can see the Opera house from there," I suggested, trying to suppress my excitement. It had been so long since we had talked. It was nice to be hanging out like old times.
"Sounds perfect," she replied with a small smile. We walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence.