I glance outside and see that he’s right. This drive seems to have flown by from the moment I started messaging Isa. I didn’t even realize we had made it so far. This is something that happens with her often. Time seems to disappear.
“Seriously though, dude. Who were you talking to? Was it your mom? Did she ask about me?” He whips the eye mask off his head, tossing it into the seat’s pocket and turning to face me fully with a sly smile.
I shove at his shoulder. “No, man. It wasn’t my mom. It was… a friend? I don’t know. She kind of wants nothing to do with me,” I say, rubbing my hand across the back of my neck.
He narrows his eyes at me, reading me in the way that only a best friend could. “It’s that girl from the game last week, isn’t it? The one with the production crew?”
I shake my head with a laugh. Of course he knows. “Yeah, it’s her. We kind of had a moment? I don’t know. It wasn’t quite a moment. But we got to know each other a little better.”
“Didn’t you ask her out already and she shot you down? How did you get her to hang out with your obnoxious ass?”
“I’m about to start sitting next to Hunter on these trips, I swear.” My eyes flick to where the man himself is slumped over in his seat, earplugs in, snoring like a trucker, oblivious to everything around him. “Her car broke down after the Arizona game on Saturday. I gave her a ride home, we stopped for food, and it was… nice.”
“I have so many questions. But first, nice?Justnice?”
I huff out a breath. “I’m trying to downplay it, man. It was great. Incredible, really. She’s so funny and she doesn’t even try. And she treats me like a real person, not a professional baseball player. And damn if that isn’t refreshing.”
He nods, knowing exactly what I mean. “Okay, my next question. This happened Saturday?”
“Yeah, why?”
He gives me a knowing smirk. “So, youdidchange your walk-up song as a message for someone.”
Busted.
I laugh. “Yeah, I did. When I dropped her back off at home, I asked if we could at least be friends, and she shot me down there too. But I’m going to keep trying…” I trail off with a thought. “At what point does it go from being cute and persistent to desperate and annoying?”
“Bro, I don’t know. I think right now you’re probably in cute and persistent territory, but it’s a real fine line. I guess you gotta base that off her reaction. Do you think she’ll cave?”
Do I? “Honestly? Yeah, I think she might. Whenever we speak, she holds back a bit in the beginning, but once she starts to let her guard down a bit? The conversations just flow. Like we’ve already known each other for years instead of barely a week. And as much as she tries to act annoyed with every text, she still replies. And I called her out of nowhere and she still answered. So, yeah. I think so.”
“Then definitely keep trying. But what happens if she does decide to let you in and be her friend? You’ve asked her out twice. You clearly like her, man. Are you really going to be happy only being her friend?”
I let out a sigh. “I haven’t really thought that far ahead actually. If she’ll only take me as a friend, then yeah. I’ll be her best damn friend. If by being her friend, she starts to develop romantic feelings for me? Then I’ll be the happiest fucking guy on the planet. But I’ll follow her lead. She’s the one in charge.”
“Well, I wish you luck man. She seems like a feisty one.”
“Oh, don’t I know it,” I say with a smile because he’s not wrong. She’s a firecracker, but she’s my firecracker.
The first thingI wanted to do when I woke up with the sun this morning was text Isa, but I held off. Waited for a more reasonable hour. Instead, I worked out my pent-up energy at the hotel gym before swinging through breakfast to snag a cup of coffee and a pastry.
Ryan
So, what’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever done?
Firecracker
I think what you mean to say was:
“Why good morning, Isabella”
“How are you doing this fine morning?”
I’m SO great Fletch, thanks for asking!
*eye roll*
Her sassy response makes me laugh out loud in the silence of my hotel room. I’m biting back a smile as I type my reply.
