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“Yeah. She’s hot,yo,” Devon said, mocking him. “Man, you can’t mess with Graham. You’re a rookie. He’s a superstar. You best leave that shit to guys like me.”
“Journeyman infielders batting at the Mendoza line?” Ronnie joked.
“At least I haven’t made four errors in the last month, Ronnie-boy,” he shot back.
“That’s enough, that’s enough,” Coach said, coming into the center of the circle. “We won the game for the sweet sake of all that is holy, let’s cut out the dick-waving. Devon, hit the music.”
Devon hit play on his phone, and the wireless speakers around us started blaring the music that was familiar for every win. We danced and chanted with it as we usually did when we won, and when we broke, we went to our lockers to change out. I was a little ahead of everyone. I just wanted to get my shower, get changed, and get the hell out of there. I couldn’t get Mallory out of my mind.
9
MALLORY
“Oh my God, what happened?” Dale asked as they reached me. “You left so long ago, we were about to leave without you!”
“Sorry,” I said. “I got tied up there for a minute.”
“Tied up?” Steven asked, suddenly very interested. “Please tell me that’s a euphemism. No, wait. Don’t. Tell me you are being literal. God, I don’t know. You are a perfect angel and I love you, but I also want to know if you did the nasty with the hot baseball man.”
“He was on the field most of the time I was gone,” I said.
Dale glanced at Steven very briefly and then rolled his eyes.
“Not all men need a long time, darling.”
“Excuse me?” Steven said, turning on Dale.
“Shut up, boys,” Tamara said. “She can’t tell us what happened if you two keep yakking.”
“Right. Correct. So,” Steven said, suddenly straightening himself up and pushing his glasses back up his nose. “What happened? Spare no details.”
“It was nothing, really,” I said. “No big deal.”
“Nope,” Dale said. “I refuse. That is not the story. Try again.”
“Really,” I said. “He just wanted to make sure it was me. We said hello, and we caught up for a minute.”
There was another stony silence as they all looked at me with expectant eyes. I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Fine,” I said. “He looked amazing, and we’re getting together later tonight. Tamara, I love you and I am sorry, but I have to.”
The last bit came out as if it were one word, but the cheer the three of them let out nearly drowned it out anyway.
“Baby, I don’t care,” Tamara said. “We celebrated my birthday last night. Today was icing on the cake. You go see this boy and then tell us all about that tomorrow. The juicy details will be extra, extra icing.”
“I don’t have any firm plans yet,” I said. “He has my number and said he has to go do some team-related stuff and get showered and would either text or call me.”
“So no idea when?” Tamara asked.
“No, but I wouldn’t think it would be too long. He asked me not to go too far.”
“Then we are going to a bar to wait,” Tamara said. “Because hell if I am paying twenty dollars for a Bud when I can go to a bar and have a cute boy buy me a better beer for free.”
“On it,” Dale said, pulling out his phone.
A few moments later, we were walking out of the stadium, heading to a bar that Dale had pulled up on his GPS. There was a place near Gerard’s and 161stStreet, and we ended up making our way there, filing into the crowded bar, and ordering beers while Dale found us a standing table to huddle around.
“So spill it. What was it like? What was he like?” Tamara said, her eyes sparkling as she sipped a fruity drink of various colors that I couldn’t identify.
