Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig
"Ronnie?"
As soon as I heard his voice, I put down the iPad Pro. I'd been sketching my nieces as they played, but my heart skipped a beat hearing his voice again. He was supposed to be in New York City. What was he doing here, in Ohio?
Forcing a smile, I slowly turned. "Hey, John. Did you travel all this way to hit on girls at McDonald's?"
Unlike mine, his smile seemed genuine. "Not hitting on anyone." He lifted his brown paper bag. "Just grabbing a quick lunch and heading back to the office. Your girls are beautiful. Congratulations."
That was BS. John knew they were my nieces. He'd met the girls before. My brother was a popular professional athlete. Nicky was retired, but still did commentary for ESPN and had his face on the cover of video games. John was the art director for the video game company, and that's how we'd met.
"Thanks." I took a sip of my sweet tea. "I have seven more at home. It gets hard keeping track of them, but I love them so. Why aren't you back in New York?"
"I got a job offer I couldn't refuse. I'm working for the US Olympic Committee now."
"Great. That's fantastic."
It wasn't great, and it wasn't fantastic. Nicky had forced the game company to use some of my art in his games. When I met John, I was shy, unsure of myself, and inexperienced. I was also into him, probably too much. He was cute, sophisticated, and nicer than he had to be. Disappointingly, John was also completely professional.
I eventually wore him down, and we began a relationship. John was my plus one when Nicky married Cat, my maternal aunt. Nick and I shared a father, but had different mothers. I had familial ties to both, but their only relation to each other was through marriage. Most of my firsts were with John. Things tend to get delayed when you have kidney failure as a teen and don't get a transplant until your early twenties. He was my first adult relationship. He was the first man I lived with. He was the first man I walked away from.
John didn't do anything wrong, really. I just never felt like he was truly present. I wasn't his priority, and he didn't seem to care. His mother was his only family, and he never even introduced her. If I ran into her at a store, I wouldn't know who she was. Promises to do better went unfulfilled.
Eventually breaking down, I spoke to Cat, my aunt. She convinced me that I deserved better, and I moved back to Ohio, taking with me a broken heart and leaving a piece of myself in the City That Never Sleeps.
He wasn't a bad guy; I just needed to be with someone who loved me as much as I loved them. Being with someone who is constantly guarded and distracted just didn't work, regardless of how obvious it was that he cared for me.
I chalked it up as a learning experience and worked through the pain.
Standing in the loud and garish McDonald's, he looked over my shoulder at the iPad. "That's really great. You always had a talent for bringing your subjects to life. It was good to see you, Ronnie. I've got to get back to the office."
With a smile that had turned a bit sad, John was about to leave when Calvin approached and extended his hand.
"Hello, I'm Calvin. Do you know Ronnie? Can you join us?"
Calvin had been in the US for more than a decade, yet his accent was still present, and his speech was a bit stiff. He pronounced his name "Cuhlvin" and was one of the country's most talented collegiate wrestlers.
John looked at me, eyebrows raised, and then back to Calvin. "No, thank you. I have to get back to work. It was nice to meet you, Calvin. Ronnie, it was great seeing you. Sorry I missed your other seven kids."
Calvin sat down as John walked out, my eyes following his every step. I let out a small laugh as I looked back to the table. The dedicated athlete had a large fry and two Double Quarter Pounders. So much for the body as a temple.
"Don't you have to make weight this weekend?"
He shrugged. "I'm not worried about cutting weight, I'm worried about keeping weight on."
After scarfing down his food, he grabbed two toys that usually come with a happy meal and joined the girls in the play area. I had never pressed, and he didn't talk about it often, but I knew he had young siblings back in Croatia.
I'd stopped by the university to take more photos. I had been commissioned to create a portrait of each of the three Olympic hopefuls from the school. It was supposed to be an in-and-out visit, so I brought the girls with me. Calvin made extra money working for the athletics department, so he escorted me while I was on campus.
We'd met before. He was one of the three athletes, so we'd spent some time together. My nieces begged for McDonald's, so I asked Calvin to join us and was planning on paying as a thank you. I found it difficult to tear my eyes from him as he squatted down and handed each of the girls a toy. Lean but solid, everything about him suggested controlled power.
Trying to push John out of my mind, I went back to sketching. Liz and Lori were never more than ten feet away from me, but I watched them like a hawk. My fingers and the creative center of my brain kept on working, a little shading here, extending a line there, but it was all secondary, just something to do while they tired themselves out. Liz came over and insisted on sitting on my lap.
She knew to be careful, and picked up the iPad. "Calvin!"
Looking down, I saw the rough sketch I'd done of Calvin as he spoke to the girls. I quickly switched over to the sketch I had done of the twins and looked at Calvin, embarrassed. Which was odd. There was no reason to be self-conscious. I was going to have to do dozens of sketches of him.
"Lori, it's time to go. Come back and take your apple slices. Did you girls thank Calvin for the toys?"
"Thank you." They spoke in unison, in the way strangers found adorable in twins, but was so commonplace for me that I barely noticed it. We were barely a block from campus, so I had left my car in one of the parking lots. Calvin walked us back.
"That was fun. I don't get to see kids that often."
"I'll let you in on a secret. The key is to be a favorite aunt or uncle. You get to spoil them, give them fast food, and as soon as there's a problem, you can give them back to their parents."
He laughed. "It is always good to have a plan. I am not sure how this works. You're the only artist I know, but would it be possible to get a copy of that drawing? I would be happy to pay for it."
"The... from McDonald's? Sure, I guess. I can email it to you, but it's barely anything. Just a few minutes of sketching."
"My aunt, she would like it. If I am in the paper, she will cut out the article and save it. She has a YouTube channel where she puts my matches. My aunt and uncle collect everything. I think they hope that one day we will hear from my mother, and they'll have everything saved."
