Hank was beginning to regret arriving early, as Yvette was running late. “Be there in 10” read the text he’d received 20 minutes ago. He raised a finger to get the bartender’s attention.

----

At precisely the same moment Hank ordered his second scotch in McKeown’s, a couple of beers were placed in front of Pike and Kate at Elephant & Castle on Greenwich. They stopped in for drinks after a furious game at the Village. Pike’s former club position had been earned more on his accent than his playing skills, but, damn it, he was a teaching pro, and to have this young woman so thoroughly whip him had been hard to swallow. Still, she was cute and he wasn’t about to abandon his real agenda for the evening.

“Do you think I should do this?” she was asking.

Oh lord, he thinks, that’s a cue for a response. What has she been yammering on about? Let’s see… she’s got a start up position with a good clothing firm in the garment district…hates it…something about wanting to design sportswear not fancy dresses… But his mind started to wander when she talked about a girl with tattoos she’d met in the shower after their match. The mental visual was so stimulating it had distracted him. Have to say something, though…

“Do you feel you should do it, luv?” It’s amazing how smooth and reassuring his accent makes even the most evasive response sound.

“Well, April seems really cool. She invited me to come see a game Saturday.”

Game…game…oh right, “Didn’t roller derby go out with the hula hoop?” He asked, getting back on track.

“There’s been a revival. She says it isn’t phony anymore, whatever that means…look, the point is her team needs new uniforms. They don’t have a lot of money, so it would be a ton of work for virtually no pay. But if I design them and outfit a whole team, it’s something for my portfolio. You know, start getting my own street cred as a designer.”

But she was beginning to suspect Pike wasn’t really listening.

----

“Sorry, I’m late,” Yvette apologized. “The asshole I work for always manages to dump some emergency in my lap just when I need to leave. But then, everything is an emergency to that guy because he is physically incapable of planning ahead. I really need a new job.”

“That makes two of us.”

“Oh, right. Sucks about the club.”

“Yep.”

“Hm. So you wanted my advice about something?”

Hank asked her to hold that thought and let the hostess know they were ready for a table. Once they’d put in their drink orders and studied the menu a bit, he decided it was time to lob the first ball.

“One thing I wanted to talk to you about does have to do with the club’s closing. I want to put together a farewell reunion event; bring back some old members…”

“Oh yeah,” she perked up, “including some of the celebs who’ve played there. Jerry mentioned it.”

“Jerry did?”

“We were talking about something else -- he wanted to know if my boss knew some developer guy -- and he mentioned your reunion idea, and how Mick Jagger had…”

“Wait, back up, you said he was asking you about a developer? Who?”

“Ah….Jerome Kucinich? I’ve heard the name but I don’t think our firm does any direct business with him.”

“Kucinich? Isn’t that the big guy Pike clocked after he was caught messing with his wife?”

“You mean the chick with the leopard prints? Her name is Kucinich.”

“I guess. The wife plays still plays at the club.”

“Yeah, Marlene, I think. Marlene Kucinich could be his wife. You didn’t notice she always wears spots? Anyway, I’ve heard some Pike stories, but not that one. He clocked him?”

Hank’s mind was trying to process this bit of news. Was Jerry looking into this guy because he was the developer planning to tear the club down? And could that mean this was all somehow a result of Pike’s philandering? Some revenge thing, maybe? Seemed a bit of a stretch.

Yvette looked concerned. “You okay?”

He assured her he was fine, and filled her in on his plans for the reunion. As he had hoped, she seemed not only open to the idea but enthusiastic about helping him track people down. He was a bit thrown that what she seemed most enthusiastic about was the idea he was thinking of actually playing in the Masters Tournament.

“I’d love to see you compete!”

“A couple of seniors slogging it out? Won’t be much fun to watch.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. I know you’ve still got moves,” and she flashed a smile that he felt to his socks.

----

“So the little Yorkie is piddling on this guy’s briefcase while I’m trying to figure out which leash to pull to get him off there before the businessman notices, when this elegant grande dame -- very upper east side -- comes by walking a poodle who must have been in major heat, because every male dog I’m walking is suddenly tugging me in that direction.” Pike is in full story telling mode and Kate is enjoying both the beer and the show. “That woman was not amused.”

“The guy was probably not amused either when he noticed his briefcase was wet.”

“Fortunately, I left before he caught on.” He angled closer to her. “I do enjoy your company. Shall we keep this going?”

Her reaction was not what he’d hoped for. “Hey!” she sat up and started rummaging in her bag, “Are you busy Saturday? Want to come to April’s game with me?” She pulled out a slightly mangled postcard announcing The Wall Street Traitors vs Manhattan Mayhem. “April is on the Manhattan team. She plays under the name Spring Fever.”

“Spring Fever?”

“She was telling me they use special names. She was born in April, her name is April, so Spring Fever fits her, I guess. Interested?”

“I’m not sure about my weekend yet, but I’ve got nowhere else to be tonight,” said Pike, not one to give up easily.

----

Hank and Yvette climbed into a cab to head down to the Carnegie Club for their after dinner cigar. “I think I saw my daughter climb into a cab on this very spot,” he said, confessing why he’d chosen to meet at McKeown’s. During the cab ride down to 56th Street Hank spilled the story of the painful separation and how unhelpful his ex was being. As they settled in at the Carnegie, Yvette was already laying out plans to hit up athletic clubs looking for both former members and the elusive Kate. Hank liked that she chased an idea as hard as she ran after a ball.

“Shall we have another round?” she asked, indicating their empty Scotch glasses.

“I don’t know if I should,” he replied, “I’ve got five flights of stairs to climb.”

She leveled those amazing blue eyes at him and said softly, “I have an elevator.”

So it was that in two pubs less than three miles apart, father and daughter were having almost exactly the same thought at almost exactly the same moment: Would I be making a huge mistake tonight if I go home with this person sitting across from me?

David Bickford
A Connecticut native and graduate of Wesleyan University, David is an actor and musician living in Los Angeles.  His only association with squash was a New York roommate many years ago who talked about it constantly and his only association with sports writing was a few articles for Banked Track News (all female roller derby).  Most of his writing career has been creating music and lyrics for theatrical productions in the Los Angeles area, where he received an LA Weekly Theatre Award nomination for his work on Theatre of NOTE’s production of DUCHESS OF MALFI.  His acting career has ranged from roles in three Woody Allen films to recurring on TRUE BLOOD as “Reverend Skinner;” playing HANNAH MONTANA’s dentist and being chased by LL Cool Jay as a villain on NCIS: LOS ANGELES.  More detail can be found on IMDB.com. 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.