Page 51 of Wild Pitch
CADE
“Go, go, go, go!” Garcia motions with her hands like she’s the base coach and we’re runners to home.
The three of us climb into my truck with the same intensity and I only slow down to make sure everyone’s seatbelts are fastened before peeling out the parking lot. The rearview mirror shows a clear coast, like the guy hasn’t realized quite yet that his date bailed on him while he was distracted getting our autographs and selfies.
I grip my steering wheel tighter as we merge into traffic. “Where to? Home?”
“No,” Garcia grouches and from the corner of my eye I catch her fold her arms tight like she does when she’s upset. “To the greasiest food joint we can possibly find.”
“Pizza?” Lucky and I ask at the same time.
“No,” Kim cuts in from the backseat. “You didn’t earn it.”
“Dude.” I sigh in exasperation. “I literally only let one more run through after the grand slam. Pretty sure I deserve pizza for that too.”
“A deal is a deal and you didn’t uphold your end.”
“I don’t know what the hell you all are talking about but I’d really love a pizza right now,” Garcia says.
Since traffic is light, I jerk us to make a quick U turn.
“Starr.” Kim’s voice comes out like a growl. “Where are you taking us?”
“The lady wants pizza. Who am I to deny her request after she just had a bad date?”
“Good boy,” she says, and since I’m driving I can’t fend her off when she stretches over to mess my hair. Not that I would have, anyway. She deserves her revenge.
The difference, though, is that I don’t bother fixing my hair after that. I probably look like I put my finger in an electric socket as I lead us into my favorite pizza place.
It works out great because what I like about it is that it isn’t fancy at all. A bunch of bored college kids are at the counter, the kind that don’t care about sports and would rather spend their time studying—and I’m not stereotyping, dude literally has a chunky physics textbook open by the register. And so, every time I come here I’m ignored and left to eat my greasy pizza in peace and quiet. It’s perfect.
Someone shoves me with enough force that I have no choice but to step aside, and Garcia bursts through. She turns back to us, oblivious to how the college kid ogles her like she’s the single hottest entity he’s ever witnessed IRL. “Everyone okay with a meat lovers?” she asks.
“Oh yeah,” Lucky responds.
Kim sighs. “Fine. But I’m not buying because Starr doesn’t deserve it.”
“I’ll buy it.” Rolling my eyes, I reach for my wallet in my back pocket and add, “Make it stuffed crust, though.”
She turns back to the kid. “Extra large stuffed crust meat lovers. One large Coke, two large unsweet iced teas, and one medium sweet iced tea.”
“Um, um. Yes. Will that be all?” He blinks hard.
“And a brownie.” Garcia nods more to herself than to the kid and stomps away to a table by the window.
The kid is still staring at her as he says, “That’ll be thirty seven and fifty two cents.”
I slap a fifty on the counter and say, “Hey kid, you do know she’s way out of your league right?”
“Oh yeah…” He drags the last word until he manages to snap himself out of his stupor.
As I head over to the table, I contemplate whether I should tell her what just happened, so she can clinically understand that her problem with dating isn’t her. But as I take the last free chair across from her, I realize there’s no way anyone’s getting a headway in right now.
“Can you believe that?” she’s saying, angrily waving her hands around. “Like I get that he’s probably chatting up a bunch of women at the same time, but he couldn’t even have the curtesy of rereading our chat to refresh his mind, instead of asking me something he was supposed to already know? Way to make a girl feel special.”
Beside her, Kim sits ramrod straight, eyes wide as he glances first at Lucky across him, and then at me.
Lucky’s also uncharacteristically quiet. I don’t dare to move to see what he’s doing, in case that attracting her attention will remind her that I’m male and therefore also guilty of the shitty things other men have done to her.
