Page 33 of Wild Catch
“Everything would’ve worked out if you had agreed to delete the video.” Silence descends upon the circle and we all turn to Logan. He’s casually spearing a whole chorizo with a fork to eat it like that. “What?” He frowns at the attention.
The first one to react is Audrey. “Turns out that you’re all brawn and no brains, huh?”
“No, he has brains,” Lucky mutters. “He’s just being deliberately obtuse right now.”
Cade smacks Logan’s knee hard enough to cause an eye twitch. “You were supposed to apologize, you clown.”
“Apologize?” said clown asks like Cade just created a brand new word.
“You know what? Yes.” I set my plate down on the ground and twist in my chair to face him. “That’s exactly what you should do. Apologize for giving me shit about doing my job.”
Logan hastens the process of chewing a mouthful and swallows it down before shifting to also face me, putting his elbow on the armrest ofmychair and leaning into my space. “Excuse me, Mena, but you could just as easily do your job by recording the shenanigans of literally anyone else on the team.”
“I thought we were all on a first name basis by now,” Lucky says, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Well, excuse me right the hell back,Kim,” I say in a saccharine tone, “but then it wouldn’t go viral and I’d be doing my jobpoorly, which unlike your case, could really jeopardize my livelihood.”
“Hey,” Lucky protests. “Are you saying that the rest of us are less beloved by social media?”
“Dude, this isn’t about you,” Audrey tells him and chuckles.
Kim is giving me the same look as last night, like he doesn’t know in quite what category to place me.
I realize we’ve barely interacted one-on-one until the past few weeks, and if anything he’s just getting to know me and understand the fact that I’m not the Afro Latina version of a pretty bimbo, whose life revolves around his and the other players’s.
I take advantage of his lull. “Imagine if one day you’re practicing with the team and I go over to tell you that your catching form isn’t balanced enough. Or that you’re relying too much on your brain and not enough on your pitchers. Or that maybe you should consider rubbing Megababe on your butt cheeks so you stop getting wedgies. How would you feel about that, huh?”
Someone chokes.
Kim tilts his head. “Megababe?”
“Oh, c’mon. That’s not the most important part of my speech.”
“No, I’m genuinely interested in knowing what I can do to mitigate in-uniform wedgies.”
I can’t tell whether he’s being sardonic or not. Clearing my throat, I explain, “It’s an anti thigh-chafing product that looks like a deodorant stick.”
“Ah.” Oh, no. That dangerous amusement is back on his face and it makes his eyes glint like they have their own constellation of stars. “And where exactly would I rub it?”
Lucky bursts out laughing with no self restraint. He has one of those contagious laughs and as the others start to join, and the extent of ridiculousness comes to me in waves, I crack.
And something terrible happens. Horrible. The kind of thing one can’t come back from.
Logan Kim also joins in my guffaws. It crumbles my annoyance like it’s but a soda cracker.
Damn, he has a warm laughter. I didn’t even think there was any warmth in this man.
But it starts ebbing away almost as soon as it comes. He coughs into his hand and leans away from me. That same hand travels to the top of his head, but the man bun doesn’t let him play with his hair. He ends up massaging the back of his neck.
After clearing his throat twice, he finally recants. “Okay, I get it. I’m sorry for overstepping.” He slouches on the chair, which makes the fabric of his tank top crumble awkwardly and I catch a flash of corded muscle. “It’s just that I don’t enjoy having the attention on me.”
“What?” If anything Lucky laughs harder. “You?The fully tatted up Asian viking?”
“Asian viking?” Kim shakes his head.
Audrey snorts. “So glad there’s no one from HR in here.”
“Ahem.” Cade calls us to attention indiscreetly. “So, does that mean you’re back to being friends?” Then he turns to his girlfriend and asks her, “Did I do well, darlin’?”
