Comfort
Comfort
Jamie walked into the house and straight to his closet. He undressed, carefully putting away his suit, and threw on a pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt. Then he took a moment to press his palms against the door frame and lean into it, hard, feeling the soreness and tension in his shoulders, breathing deeply, trying to settle his mind.
After a minute or two, he blew out a breath and shuffled out of the closet and through the bathroom.
She met him in the bedroom with a drink and a sympathetic half-smile. Handing him the glass, she reached up to caress his face, smoothing the worry lines around his eyes, and he leaned into the touch with a sigh.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
“Of course,” she replied. “Netflix?”
Nodding, he took a sip of his drink, then let her pull him over to the bed. When they sat down, he downed the rest in one go and set the glass on his table.
Lying back on their nest of pillows, she pulled him down next to her and turned on the tv, settling on whatever tv show came up first in his queue and running her fingers through his hair, nails grazing up and down his scalp and the back of his neck.
“Mmmm that feels good,” he mumbled. “Can you dig in right there? My neck is killing me.”
“Here?” she asked, kneading the knotted muscles at the base of his skull.
“Mhmm,” he hummed. “Everywhere, actually. Everything hurts. My head, my neck, my back, my legs. My toes hurt.”
“Why didn’t you get a massage after the game?”
“They were busy. I had media. It just didn’t work out.”
“Baby, you gotta let them help.”
“I just wanted to come home. I couldn’t deal with any more people today.”
“I get that. It’s been a rough couple weeks.”
“I don’t know what to do. I can’t want it any harder. I don’t know what else to say. It’s just not good enough. I’m letting them down.”
“Oh honey, you’re not letting anyone down. You can’t do everything.”
“I want to. I want to put this team on my back and take them to the playoffs. To the Cup.” He sighed, burying his face into her shoulder. “I want it so bad.”
She kissed the top of his head. “I want it for you. But you can’t do it by yourself.”
“They’re all trying so hard. We just keep letting it slip away. We were so close.”
Not knowing what else to say, she held him tightly and rubbed his back, blinking away tears. It was so hard to see him down on himself like this.
It wasn’t long before his body slowly relaxed, as exhaustion took him and he fell asleep, curled around her like a very large child. She pulled the duvet over them and turned off the tv, glad she could at least give him enough comfort to rest. Everything else would just have to play out as it would.
