The next evening, I got all glammed up for Blake’s football banquet. I wanted to look good for him. I was sure that Blake had already made a good impression with the folks in his town. After all, he’d been living here for years.

I was so nervous, and suddenly, I realized how Blake must have felt all those years ago when he claimed to be out of his element whenever I needed him to be my date. What would his work colleagues think of me? Did he have any ex-girlfriends that were going to be there to judge me? Did he have any mentors that would instantly label me unworthy because I had once failed at being a wife?

I didn’t tell Blake how I felt. I didn’t want to ruin this night for him.

“The banquet is going to be in the auditorium,” he told me as he took my hand and we walked in together.

I didn’t know why, but I felt proud to be his date tonight. It seemed like we had comfortably fallen back to our old ways, but we were older and wiser now. I was grateful to be going on an actual date with him. It made our arrangement seem deeper than just the surface attraction and hungry lust. But back in high school, I’d ignored the possibility that I was in love with Blake. Now, there was no doubt that the feeling we shared, aside from attraction and sexual lust, was love.

“The parents will be there too,” he said. “So be on your best behavior.”

He was teasing me. “I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises,” I said with a saucy wink.

Blake squeezed my hand. One thing that I appreciated about him that I never shared with my ex-husband was the fact that Blake had the same kind of sarcastic humor as me. He had the same clever wit, and he was always up for joking around. If you couldn’t laugh and joke around with your significant other, then what was the point of being in the relationship at all? I was just going through the motions with my first marriage, but I felt confident that I could be whoever I wanted to be with Blake.

We walked inside together, and Blake began introducing me to players on the team and their parents. Everyone was dressed nicely, but not elegantly formal. The players all wore khaki pants and long sleeved, collared shirts with ties.

Everyone seemed friendly to me so far. The guys on the team were giving Blake winks and whistles as we walked by as if they were impressed with me, his date. I couldn’t lie. I had a surge of adrenaline. I was loving every exhilarating moment of being his date, even if it was just to a high-school football banquet. It brought back memories. Good ones.

We approached a middle-aged couple. The woman had blonde chin length hair and was wearing a red dress. The man was standing next to her in a suit and tie. He was balding on the top but still had hair on the sides of his head.

“Good to see you, Coach Clemons,” the man said and enthusiastically pumped Blake’s hand.

“Please,” Blake chuckled humbly. “It’s Blake. You don’t need to be so formal.”

“Okay.” The man brightened. “My boy here loves being on the team.” He cupped his hand over the shoulder of a strapping young man with sandy blonde hair in a buzz cut trim.

“He’s one of the most promising quarterbacks this affiliation has seen,” Blake said. “Trust me when I say, he’ll be a shining star with college agents just waiting to snatch him up.”

The parents of the hopeful athlete were beaming with all the compliments that Blake was tossing out at them. I watched him as he interacted with parents and football players alike. He certainly seemed to have a knack for the job. I had to say, I was impressed with his bubbly spirit when it came to his favorite sport.

It seemed like everywhere he went in the auditorium where the banquet was taking place, he had the ability to be the brightest light in the room, even above the athletes themselves. Blake showed promise in a companion that I had never seen before. Perhaps it was always there, my mind just wasn’t open to the concept at the time.

But as I watched him up on the podium making a speech about their upcoming football season and how much he believed in his players, it suddenly dawned on me that Blake had always been the type to have that optimistic personality about him. He’d found himself, and I admired the man he was today.

He had those unique and complimentary qualities. When he was put in a position where he could grow and be challenged, that was when his soul was enhanced the most. I sat in my seat, just marveling at his witty jokes and the ability to make an entire room full of people laugh. Blake was the best catch at the lake, and I never wanted to throw him back now.