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“I do.”
“What do you want me to do here, Alice?”
“Can the league prove wrongdoing on my part? I mean, they must want me gone because they think I gave Alex or the Lakeland team in general some sort of preferential treatment, right?”
“That’s the suspicion.”
“I’ve only called one Lakeland game since he came back, and I was at second. They lost that game, and I never once got to call any of his at-bat plays. Tell me how I’m supposed to have given him preferential treatment. You know me better than that. I take this job seriously.”
“You don’t take it seriously enough if you thought you could sleep with a player and the league would look the other way.”
“I wasn’t trying to be sneaky,” she lied.
“Sure you were. You knew it was wrong and you were hiding it. Otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here having this chat, now would we?”
Well, if he was going to be logical about it…
“No.”
“So you knew you were doing something wrong.”
“It’s not that simple, Donovan. He’s going back to San Francisco in a week. We wanted to—”
“I don’t need to know the details of your tryst. I didn’t call you in here for excuses.”
That sounded ominous.
“Why did you, then?”
“I told you what the league wants. It’s right there in the rule book, Alice. We have to be courteous, impartial and firm. We have to command respect. How can you be impartial if you’re sleeping with a player?”
“You’re firing me.”
“I don’t have any choice.”
“You do have a choice. Review the game records. Have the league review them. I didn’t do anything inappropriate during game play. I’ve only done my job and I’ve done it well.”
Donovan was impassive. “They’ve made their decision.”
“And did you fight them on it at all? Did you argue in my favor?”
His demeanor softened. “Of course I did. I don’t want to let you go. I don’t want any of this. But it’s impossible to argue against the evidence.”
“It’s a kiss.”
“It’s an inappropriate interaction between an umpire and a player. It’s not something we can brush under the rug.”
“I’ve kissed my brother goodbye in the same way I kissed Alex in that photo.” She pointed at the garbage can like Donovan would be able to see it through the bin. “I can’t believe that’s proof of anything.”
“Are you denying you’re carrying on a relationship with Alex Ross?” Donovan asked, a hopeful hint in his voice, practically begging her to say it wasn’t true.
She wanted to deny it.
Instead she said, “No.”
“Go home, Alice.”
Could she kick and scream and stir up a fuss? Make a big scene and freak out? She wanted to. She wanted to act like an insane person right then, flip the desk over or something really dramatic.
