Page 63 of Hitting the Gap

What the fuck? The dude seriously stopped him for that? “It wasn’t our best showing.”

“No shit,” the guy scoffed. “You guys gonna win this time?”

Gonzo’s jaw clenched at the guy’s douchebag tone. What he wanted to do was just keep walking, but he’d had the whole PR optics talk drilled into him so many times he knew the importance of at least trying to be nice to the fans. “That’s always the plan,” he said.

Douchebag snorted. “Yeah, that’s working well.”

What the hell was wrong with people? Gonzo closed his eyes briefly and sighed. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to wash my hands and get back to my table.” He flashed a tight smile and stepped away from the table. “Asshole,” he muttered to himself.

He’d barely walked past two tables before he was stopped again. “Sorry to bother you,” the man at this table said.

“Mmm-hmm.” Gonzo pasted on a tight smile.

“Any chance I can get an autograph for my kid?” the man asked.

A little girl who looked like she was about eight years old looked up at him shyly in her Hawks jersey.

He smiled down at her. “I like the shirt.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Turn around and show him the back,” the dad said.

The little girl spun in her seat. Gonzalez was sprawled across the back of her jersey.

“Nice. You’ve got good taste.”

The dad held up a pen hopefully.

Gonzo looked down at his hand and winced. “Ugh, let me just wash my hand. I stuck it in some gum. I’ll sign it for you on my way back.”

“Sure, thank you.”

He quickly washed his hands. Why the hell would someone stick their gum under the arm of the chair? Under the middle of the table maybe, but the arm of the chair? Gross.

On his way back to his seat, he stopped at the family’s table. “Who am I making this out to?”

“Her name is Sadie.” The dad looked fondly at his daughter as he said her name.

Gonzo scrawled the little girl’s name and his signature on the napkin and handed it to her. “Dream big, Sadie,” the little girl read out loud. “Thank you.”

“I want one too,” her little sister whined.

“You don’t even like baseball,” Sadie scoffed.

“Do too.” The little girl scowled back at her sister.

Gonzo grabbed another cocktail napkin off the table. “What’s your name?”

“Jessica.” The little girl stuck out her tongue at her sister.

He quickly wrote on the napkin and handed it back to her.

“What’s it say?” Jessica asked.

The dad chuckled. “Jessica, Baseball Rules. Ramon Gonzalez.” He ruffled his daughter’s head, then turned to Gonzo. “Thank you so much, sorry to pull you from your evening. We really appreciate it.”

“No problem, have a good night,” Gonzo said.

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