Page 132 of Elevator Pitch

“It’s like that movie Never Been Kissed,” Laurel squeals.

Only I’ve been kissed, a number of times and in a number of places, by the man holding up a sign waiting on me.

Flustered, I’m already moving down the row. “Excuse me. Pardon me.” I don’t have far to go before security surrounds me and I’m hopping down the stairs toward the dugout entrance from the stadium seats.

As I near the dugout, I see Kip Garcia standing on the dugout stairs, arms crossed, shaking his head with a big grin on his face.

Comments fire toward me from the players watching their coach.

“Damn, who knew coach was such a romantic?”

“Do you think she’ll date him?”

“There she is.”

I reach the entrance to the dugout from the stands, where I’m assisted under the netting and over the fence. Then I’m helped up to the dugout roof by a number of players’ hands, but it’s Ross I’m concentrating on, who has dropped the poster and holds out his hand for me.

“Hi,” I whisper after he tugs me close.

“Hey, happenstance,” he says, bringing me closer to him. “So, what do you say?”

“Will I date you?” I glance at the posterboard face up near our feet. With tears in my eyes, I laugh. “I’ll do one better, Ross Davis. I’ll sleep with you as well.”

Ross chuckles, the grin spreading his round face. Then, he’s cupping my cheeks and bringing me in for a kiss before forty thousand fans.

Suddenly, “hit it’ blasts over the loudspeakers and I pull back, laughing at Ross’s former walkup song. Happy tears stream down my face.

“Think I should share my rap dance moves with everyone?” I ask him, unable to contain my glee.

He chuckles as well, noticing the past video of me waving my arms and swinging my hips which is suddenly projected on the screen.

Nothing is sacred on the internet.

“Let’s keep all your moves just for me, sweetheart,” Ross says.

“Whatever you say, Coach.”

“I say kiss me, Vee, because I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

And I do kiss him, to the cheer of baseball fans and the background sound of Rob Base and DJ EZ.

Epilogue

August

Mid-season

[Vee]

“The End.” The bold type-print is dead center on the page.

“And they lived happily ever after?” Ross jokes, turning his head toward me as we both sit upright on his bed.

“Happily for now,” I explain.

Ross scowls over the reading glasses at the edge of his nose. His broad, naked chest is on display. “I don’t like that ending.”