Page 25 of Wild Pitch
I open and close my mouth. Open it again. “I admit I got distracted.” I’ll never admit that it was by his fashion sense.
“Pay attention or I’ll flunk you.” He flips a strand of my loose hair with his fingers, which somehow makes the hair fly into my mouth. I’m too busy spitting it out to even consider any sort of revenge. “Anyway, as I was saying ever so patiently, we’re going to a bar and I want you to find some dude there to flirt with.”
I stop moving. “What?”
All three of them halt their steps too.
Starr rubs his freshly shaved chin. “You thought this was just going to be theoretical with no practical component?”
“I—Well… Kinda?”
“Fess up,” the commanding voice of our catcher says. “What is it that you two are really up to?”
Points to Starr for clamming his mouth right away. But Kim is the nearest one in the team to the human version of a vault, and if Rivera hasn’t told the four winds, Kim won’t either. I wave my hand in the air to signal to Starr that it’s okay to say it.
He jerks a thumb at me. “Garcia here asked for my help with dating.”
“Whyyourhelp? You never keep the same girl around for long.” Kim blinks as if confused. “Actually, none of the single guys in the team do.”
“Yourself included?” Rivera nudges Kim with his elbow.
The latter shrugs. “Sure.”
“Listen, beggars can’t be choosers,” I quip with a slow shake of my head.
“Ouch.” Starr puts both hands above his heart.
“Plus,” I add, “he went viral and now can’t get a stick large enough to beat women off with.Thatis the energy I want, but with guys.”
Kim scrunches up his face. “You don’t want many men around you, trust me.”
“That’s what I said too,” Starr chimes with.
“I know, men tend to suck, no offense?—”
“None taken.”
“Yeah, no. It’s a fact.”
I shake my head and finish saying, “But as a heterosexual woman, I’m shit out of luck.”
“That’s rough, friend,” Rivera says in a heartfelt way as if he wasn’t part of the population that makes dating so miserable.
“So what’s the plan? Let’s hear it.” Kim jerks his chin at Starr.
The pitcher responds with a shrug and, “I just wanted to gauge what kind of game she has, see where I can advise. I want her to find a target, walk up to him, and talk him up until he gives her his number.”
To my surprise, Kim doesn’t shoot down the idea right away. “Not bad. And if the guy turns out to be a douchebag the three of us got her back.”
“And that is the real reason I tagged along,” Rivera says, expression all serious even though I don’t know if I can believe him.
“But…” I desperately grasp at any way I could get myself out of this, and only come up with a flimsy argument. “I’m already not good at this. I’m going to be so much worse with an audience.”
Starr cocks a supremely annoying eyebrow. “Didn’t you admit to needing help? Because the next step is actually doing shit, you know?”
Damn it. It’s like he knows exactly which buttons to poke. I may not be an elite athlete like them, but I sure am just as allergic to being seen as weak or cowardly.
“Fine, let’s do this.”
