Page 107 of The Future Play

“I love you too. I’m sorr?—”

“Nope. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“But I’m supposed to be supporting you.”

“We’re supposed to be a team. I’m sorry I was snappy with you when you walked in. I was stressed. But it’s going to be okay. I’ll call Dave back later.”

“And tell him what? What should we do?”

“We either ignore it and give them nothing, or—if you think you’ll spend more time with Mark—we make a quick social media post about it or ask him to. It establishes what your friendship is. And mine too. I’m glad he’ll be in the city some of the time when I am. It’s not the same road, but he’s walked a similar one and I could use his advice.”

“Is it a total copout to ask him to post something?”

“No. Dave even said it would make more sense. He was yelling at me because we didn’t get our stories straight this time.”

“I didn’t think about this side of things,” I whisper, feeling pathetic.

“Neither did I. But we’ll figure it out. Even if we make mistakes along the way, we both have good hearts and good intentions. That’s all that matters.” He wipes the tears off my cheeks. “Now, I need you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“That you won’t read any more comments.”

I bite my lip. That’s going to be hard. The curious and people pleasing pieces of me will always want to know, even if I shouldn’t.

“I’ll do my best.”

He narrows his eyes but lets it go.

We sit in silence for a moment. I still feel like shit, but it’s not quite as bad with him next to me.

“How was your day?” I’m desperate for a subject change, and I’m hoping maybe he’ll have something positive to tell me.

“It was good. The apartment is ours, so we can start moving things in this weekend. Dave recommended renting furniture, and I agree that sounds easier.”

I nod. “That makes sense.” Plus, I don’t want to move my shit into an apartment I hate that I’m determined to be out of by the end of the season.

“We can start with the basics, then make a list of specific things. Oh, and I officially picked my number today.”

The tinge of excitement in his voice perks me up. In the past, he never cared much about his numbers, and took whatever he was assigned.

“What did you pick? Did you stick with six like high school? Or keep thirteen from the Knights?”

“Neither. I picked twenty-six. Do you know why?”

I shake my head, and he smiles, eyes shining. “Because December twenty-sixth was the day my life changed forever.” He caresses his thumb over my hand as I stare at him wide-eyed. “The day I met you.”

“Jamie…”

“Now I’ll always have the most important piece of my life with me.”

More tears well in my eyes, but at least these are happy ones. I squeeze his hand, and he squeezes mine back.

“I also found out when my first game pitching will be.”

I grab his arm in excitement. “When?”

“Next week. Tuesday. In L.A. Will you come? The Metros allow wives or girlfriends to travel with us. We’d have our own room, and?—”

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