Page 56 of Catch Me
“My fastest clocked at ninety-seven,” I replied. “Obviously, I don’t try to pitch that regularly. My arm is delicate.”
He laughed. “Oh, yeah?”
“I require constant pampering during the season.”
“Gotta go easy on it.”
“I’ll be in it for a decade. Just watch. Next season, they’ll have me on that mound more than Anthony. When I become a household name, you can say you slept in my spare room and swam shirtless with me. It’ll blow all the women away.”
He rolled his eyes, then stared at the ball in his hand. After a moment, he threw it. I was surprised by how solid the throw was.
“Can we go now?” he asked brusquely.
“Yeah, sure. You don’t have to come if you have things to do here.”
“Do you not want me to?”
“It’s whatever you want, man.”
He grunted in a way I thought meant he was annoyed. Or it was an affirmative. It was hard to figure out, but I was trying.
Regardless of what it meant, he went in the opposite direction. It felt like I did a lot of internal shrugging these days.
After making it to the parking lot, I got into my Jeep and scrolled through my playlist. Picking a song was impossible, so I set it to random and decided I’d match whatever vibe came on.
Just as I was about to back out, the passenger door opened. I pursed my lips as I watched Roman climb in. He didn’t even look at me.
“Okay,” I said, drawing out the word.
When the second song came on, I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel while I waited for a light to turn green. Roman looked out the window, and I heard him start singing along softly.
“A fan?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Til is.”
“Oh?”
“This is his favorite song.”
“Hm. Well, this is just a random playlist I pulled up, not Tilian’s.” I glanced at him a few times and begged myself not to say it, but my brain and mouth weren’t fond of communicating. “What’s the deal there?”
When he looked at me, his eyes were narrowed. “The fuck do you mean?”
“Just asking. Sorry.”
“Don’t.”
“Alright, fair. Marked as hostile territory. That’s all you gotta say and I won’t bring something up again.”
I parked in front of the sub shop since it was everyone’s favorite. Patrick and Ron were on the schedule, and nobody else was hanging around, so we didn’t need nearly as much food. It was busy inside, though, and I didn’t want to wait in there. After placing the order at their kiosk, I moved outside and started pacing like last time. And like before, Roman oscillated between staring at the road and watching me.
“Think I’m nice to look at?” Immediately, I clenched my teeth, knowing that was the wrong thing to say.
“You already know you are.”
“Hm. Thanks for stroking my ego. I try to keep it in check, but it might blow up now.”
“You seem super humble to me,” he noted.
