Page 3 of The System

“I was, yes.” He laughed. “But I’m a partner in a law firm. You’re an engineer.”

“Diego, you know I actually like my work, right?” she replied and started down the stairs. “And we’re on a tight deadline to release a new feature. I’ve got to get my stuff done and over to QA by Wednesday so they can test.”

He followed her down the stairs and pointed to the corner, where there were three small boxes and a bat bag that would all easily fit into her car. This had Kieran pulling air through her front two teeth because he’d made it sound like bringing it all home in her car would be an impossible task.

“This is it?” she asked.

“Uh… Yeah,” he replied with a look that told her he was about to try to lie his way out of this. “I guess I thought it was more than that. There’s probably some other stuff to look through to see if you left anything else here. Maybe that’s what I was thinking.”

“I’ll get these out of your way. If you find anything else of mine, you can just text me or send me a picture, and I’ll let you know if I want to come back and get it. I’m sure most of it could be donated or thrown out. I swear that I had these boxes on the moving truck. I remember the bat bag being there.” She slung it over her shoulder and picked up one of the boxes.

“Weird.” He shrugged. “Anyway, let me get this one.”

“Diego, you spend an hour in the gym five times a week – you can grab two at once,” she told him, nodding to the two boxes on the floor.

“No problem,” he said. “And I was thinking that the basement is big enough for maybe a gym, too. That would save me some money on my membership. I could put a treadmill in here for you to use, if you want.”

“You want me to drive an hour here to use a treadmill? My apartment has a gym with two treadmills, Diego.”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t been over to see it yet,” he remarked as they walked up the stairs.

“Not much to see. It’s just a two-bedroom apartment, but it’s nice enough. It has a parking garage instead of a lot and a gym with more than just the treadmills. I haven’t used it yet, but I’ll get back to my routine in a few weeks, once things settle down a bit.”

“Well, the invitation still stands,” he replied. “I’m thinking about putting in a wet bar, a pool table in the back, and maybe doing the gym where the big storage closet is. It’s huge and could easily fit the equipment. That might still give me the space to wall off the front part by the stairs for a small theater, but I’m calling a contractor out to tell me what I can reasonably fit.”

“A gym now and a theater, too?” she said as she made it to the top of the stairs. “Diego, you’re hardly ever home. When are you going to play all this pool and watch all these movies?”

“I can work while I watch a movie. And I can invite partners and senior associates over to play pool, so it’s working and playing at the same time.”

‘It’s just showing off, really,’ Kieran thought to herself.

“Well, thanks for carrying the boxes for me,” she said after pulling open the screen door.

“No problem. Are you sure you don’t want that coffee or to go through the other boxes with me?”

“I’m sure. And, Diego, that big storage closet you’ve never used – you might want to think about that before turning it into a gym. You use the rest of the basement to store things now, but if you’re putting things there, you’ll need the storage closet for the boxes.”

“Maybe, yeah,” he said.

They were quiet while she got the boxes in the back seat and the bat bag in the trunk. The smell of it reminded her of her father. He’d wanted Kieran to be a fan of the game. And she had been to watch it, but when she’d been five and her dad had taken her to play T-ball for the first time, she’d mostly sat on the bench and hadn’t been able to hit the ball even off the T. He’d kept trying to teach her, but she’d been much more interested in the bulky kid’s laptop they’d gotten her that allowed her to play math and spelling games. Her dad had given up on that by the time she was nine and had only logged the innings required by the league to promote kids, giving even the bad players like her time to play. She’d been hit by pitches but hadn’t gotten a single hit in all those years outside of the ones on the T because they literally let her stand there until she connected with the ball, and it ended up rolling fair. Her father hadn’t ever gotten mad at her, though, and never seemed disappointed. He’d just wanted something to share with his only child, and he wasn’t a techy guy, so computers were out.

Breathing in that scent took her back to the practices and games and their time together. Her dad would always buy her a candy bar, and while she ate it, they’d sit on the bleachers, and he’d tell her about the strategy of the game, explaining the rules and where each position was supposed to stand during certain plays. As much as baseball wasn’t her thing, she still missed those candy bar chats.

“Thanks again,” she told Diego after closing the trunk. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Yeah. No problem,” he said. “If I send you the stuff the contractor sends to me, will you take a look at it?”

“Why?” Kieran asked as she slid into her car.

“I’d like your opinion.”

“It’s your house, Diego.”

“I know. I’d just like to know what you think.”

“Sure. Yeah,” she told him reluctantly. “Send me the blueprints or pictures or something. I’ll take a look.”

That wasn’t something she wanted to do at all, but it was the fastest way to get her out of there. Diego wasn’t a bad guy, but Kieran was pretty sure that he’d taken those boxes and bat bag out of her moving truck just to have a reason for her to have to come back, knowing she’d never want to part with her dad’s baseball things.

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