Chapter 4 - Micah
We watched each other for a long moment and I had no idea what to say but I didn’t want the moment to end. “Do you, uh, want to hang out sometime? Catch up? For old time’s sake?”
“Yeah. That would be great. What did you have in mind?”
I racked my brain for ideas. We hadn’t seen each other in so long and I didn’t know the town as well as I had as a kid. “Baseball? Isn’t there a halfway decent baseball team around here still?”
“The Guardians. They’re pretty good, actually. You want to catch a game sometime?”
“That’d be great.” I looked at my feet, not sure what to say next. Why was it so awkward? When I glanced up, Asher was on his phone, tapping away.
“They have a home game tonight, actually.”
My eyebrows shot up. “That’s some good luck.”
“I’ll meet you at the stadium? First pitch is at six thirty. We can meet out front a little before the game starts, if that’s okay for you.”
I nodded. “Sounds perfect.” We quickly exchanged numbers so we could meet up later. With that, I gave him a little nod and headed off to my car. “See you later.”
Back at the house that I shared with the show’s interior designer, Kieran, I planned to busy myself with showering and getting ready for the game. Kieran intercepted me as I came into the house.
“You’re back early.”
I nodded and hung up my keys. “I did a site tour and got everything I needed.”
“What are you doing tonight? You want to go out and see if we can get into some trouble?”
“Actually, I have plans.”
His eyebrows shot up. “You do?” His tone was suggestive.
With a laugh, I shoved his shoulder. “Don’t even. I’m just going to a baseball game with an old friend.”
“I forgot, you’re from around here, aren’t you?”
“Port Grandlin born and raised. Well, sort of.”
“And who’s the friend?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Asher. We grew up together. Totally platonic. As his buddy put it he’s ‘tragically straight,’ apparently.
Zero chance of anything happening. Less than zero.
Like I said, we grew up together. It would be weird.
” I realized I was protesting too much and shut my mouth quickly.
“It’s not like you’re related.” He shrugged. “But whatever. You do you.”
“Thanks.” I headed to my room to take a quick shower before agonizing over what to wear. Eventually I settled on a pair of shorts and a loose V-neck shirt in red, the team’s jersey color, and headed out.
I made it to the stadium a few minutes ahead of Asher and wandered around outside, enjoying the antics of the mascot, someone wearing a giant foam baseball head with long, flowing blond hair and a red baseball cap on top.
As I was standing there, chuckling at his interactions with the kids, I caught sight of Asher in my peripheral vision.
I turned to get his attention and my mouth went dry.
He was wearing black shorts and a baseball jersey to match the team, but something about him, his hair pushed back, his shirt straining to contain his muscles, did things to me.
“Hey,” he said, a confident, easygoing smile on his face.
“Uh, hey.” My voice was gravelly and dry. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hey there.”
“Ready to head inside?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
I followed Asher into the stadium and to our seats, which were actually pretty good. He’d managed to get us field-level tickets along the first base line, and as we took our seats, he waved over the kid peddling beer and grabbed us a couple of cans.
As the game started, we began to chat, catching up and filling each other in on our lives. Asher started by asking me what exactly had prompted my parents to ship me off to Vermont. “You pretty much disappeared without a word one day. What happened?”
“Well, like I said, they weren’t happy with my performance at school. I was… slacking off is a nice way to put it. They told me I had two choices—shape up here or go find success with my grandparents. They were at their wit’s end, I’m sure of it.”
“And you chose Vermont?”
I shrugged. “I mean, not really, but I wasn’t interested in doing what they wanted here, either.
I don’t know what was wrong with me, really.
I just… didn’t have it in me. Vermont was a real wake-up call.
My grandparents didn’t put up with any of my shit.
They weren’t farmers but they sure did keep farmers’ hours.
We were up at dawn doing chores and lights out at nine every night.
Whatever they did, it worked. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to be able to keep doing what I had been, and eventually I just got with the program. ”
He snorted. “You make it sound so simple. You just… didn’t want to and then you did.”
“Hardly simple. There was a lot of fighting, a lot of yelling. I don’t know. I went through a lot of therapy as an adult to get my head right about it. But I’m happier now. I’m in a good place. How about you? How was high school without me?”
His voice was quiet when he responded. “I wish we’d had a chance to say goodbye. I missed you.” He placed his broad, callused hand on mine briefly, and heat rocketed up my arm.
I forced myself not to panic and pull away, to keep my breathing steady and even.
Instead of pulling away, I nodded. “I missed you, too. But my parents didn’t really give me that opportunity.
They whisked me away one Saturday and that was that.
They were worried that if I kept up with any of my friends here, it would ruin any hope of progress I had there. ”
“I guess I get that. Well, I managed high school without you. I graduated and took odd jobs, like I said. I was pretty aimless until I got the carpentry gig. That was about fifteen years ago now.”
I grabbed my beer and took a sip, breaking the touch.
My heart was practically in my throat. As we talked, casual touches became more and more common.
I bumped against him with my shoulder at one point as we laughed.
When our team scored a run, he lightly slapped my back with one hand before jumping to his feet and whooping out a cheer.
When we finished our beers, I handed my empty can to him and our fingers brushed.
Every single time we touched, my heart raced and my mouth went dry.
He’s straight, I repeated to myself over and over, like an oath. He’s straight. Besides, you just got out of a relationship. You don’t need a rebound.
Regardless of the touches and the way my body was reacting, our friendship rekindled quickly. It wasn’t long until it felt like we’d been best friends the whole time, like we’d never missed a beat, much less twenty years.
The teams both played excellently, and eventually, we watched the Guardians break the tie to score the winning run, clinching victory.
We high-fived, laughing and cheering as our runner rounded the bases and made it home.
I was warm inside, comforted. I knew coming back to Port Grandlin would feel like a reunion of sorts, but I hadn’t expected to see Asher, and I hadn’t expected seeing Asher to feel like coming home.