Page 12 of Play the Game
Me
I’ll see what I can do.
Mom
Wonderful. We’ll save a seat for you.
My mom’s confidence that she won this round and that come next Tuesday I’ll be sitting right there in the box with her andmy dad and their fancy friends, watching my brother pitch in the World Series, has the contrarian in me exiting out of the text thread with my mom and pulling up the one with my brother.
Me
Any chance you can get me a seat behind the dugout for Tuesday?
My phone rings in my hand, and I smile when I see Chris’s name on the display.
“Hey, superstar,” I say when I answer.
“Mom trying to get you to sit in the box again?” my brother asks, a smile in his voice.
I sigh heavily. “Yeah. I hate that damn box.”
My parents bought it when my brother was traded to the Boston Strikers five years ago, and even though it’s a great view of the field and the best snacks in the stadium, I hate it with a passion.
“I hate it too!” Chris’s partner, Rio, yells in the background. He must grab the phone from Chris because suddenly his voice is crystal clear. “I wouldn’t sit in that stuffy, boring ass box for all the money in the world.”
I laugh, leaning back in my desk chair, feeling the tension drain out of my body as I talk to my two favorite guys. “You’re some kind of genius managing director at an investment bank and you live with a professional baseball player. You already have all the money in the world.”
“True. And yet, I still wouldn’t sit in that box. Sit with me, Ev. Save me from having to deal with the WAGs.”
“Shut up, you love those bitches, and they love you right back.” As the only male partner of a Strikers player, Rio is the most popular WAG of the bunch, and those women are a damn good time.
He sighs dramatically. “I do, and they do. But I’d still rather sit with you. Chris will get us prime dugout seats where I canogle his ass in pinstripes, and you can eat all the hot dogs your little heart desires.”
“I do love a hot dog.”
“I know how you do, honey girl, and I’m buying.”
I grin into the phone. “Throw in a cherry slushie and you’ve got a deal. Want to pick me up? I hate driving to the stadium.”
“You got it, but we’re going early for batting practice.”
I scoff. “As if I would miss batting practice.”
“That’s my girl. See you Tuesday. Here’s your brother.”
There’s some whispering on the other end of the line, and then Chris comes back on. “I think my boyfriend likes you better than he likes me.”
“Of course he does. I’m delightful.”
“I’m glad you’re coming to the game. It’s not the same without you there. But are you sure you’re okay to get away from work?”
“Chris, you’re pitching in the World Series. Nothing could keep me away.”
“Even your littlewho can make partner fastercompetition with your extremely sexy fellow associate?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s not a competition because obviously I’m going to win. And he’s not sexy.”
He is so sexy. Especially with his pants around his thighs and his shirt in tatters on the floor. And when he makes it clear that he sees what it’s like to be a woman in corporate law. The sheer unfairness of it all.
