2. Sloane #2
“Thanks.” His half-smile reveals a dimple I’d also forgotten about on the right side of his mouth. I used to daydream about that dimple.
My chest feels a little too tight and my face is hot. He’s so comfortable in his body. I remember that too. I always felt a little too skinny, a little too awkward.
“Are you going to the reunion Saturday night?” I ask him. It’s one of the reasons I agreed to come tonight. I figured getting it out of the way before the reunion would make me less nervous about possibly running into him there.
“That’s this Saturday?” He laughs a little like maybe he got the invite but trashed it immediately. “No. You?”
“I’m going,” I confirm. “They’re opening our time capsule early because of the renovations to the baseball field.”
“Right.” The way he slowly nods it’s obvious he never seriously considered going. I’m surprised. He was a big deal back then. Maybe that makes it easier to put high school behind you. “We have a game tomorrow so even if I wanted to, I don’t think I can make it.”
“I thought since your old girlfriend Emily was in charge of everything you might be going back just to reconnect.”
“Emily. Wow. I haven’t seen or heard from her in ages.”
“No?”
He shakes his head.
“I thought you two would have been married with several kids already,” I say with a trace of sarcasm.
“Really?”
“No.” I smile. I did not think that. Plus, I saw on her Instagram that she’s dating some tour manager.
Her feed is filled with behind the stage photos of various popular bands.
But Emily was always so smug about dating Danny back in high school, like he was a prize to be won.
Between her personality and my all-consuming jealousy, it was hard to like her.
Our drinks come and Danny lifts his beer in the air toward me. “To Starville High.”
I let out a surprised laugh and then clink the side of my glass to his bottle.
“So tell me—” He doesn’t finish the sentence before a couple of guys approach us, fans both wearing his jersey, to congratulate him on the game.
“Thanks,” he says, gracious as he bobs his head. “I don’t know how much I contributed out there tonight but the team won.”
“Good luck on the rest of the season.” They back away, giving him space, like they don’t want to intrude for too long.
“Thanks. I’m going to need it.”
“Need what?” another guy asks as he falls in on the other side of Danny. He gives me a small smile as the bartender hands him a beer. I recognize him from the game but can’t remember his name.
“Luck to get out of this slump,” Danny says.
“You had some nice looks. Things will turn around for you soon.”
“Maybe,” Danny says. “That all depends on if Shep starts shopping for me again.”
“Here we go again with the banana,” Conrad says. He and Whitney must have been hovering nearby because they join us, creating a circle where I’m somehow in the middle with my high school crush.
“Banana?” Whitney asks.
Conrad waves a hand toward Danny. “He has to have a banana before every game.”
“O-kay.” Whitney laughs. “Potassium is good.”
“And how much he enjoys it determines how he plays,” the other guy adds.
Whitney’s brows furrow. “Seriously?”
“I used to buy the bananas and apparently I have the magic touch,” Conrad says.
“Yeah, you do.” She winks at him, and they are way too adorable.
“Why a banana?” I ask Danny, pulling my gaze from the couple.
“I don’t know. I like them. They’re easy to transport and they don’t need to be refrigerated,” he says definitively like he hasn’t thought about it, but it makes perfect sense anyway.
“You could say the same about apples.” The other guy finally stretches a hand out to me around Danny. “I’m Travis.”
“Sloane. Nice to meet you.”
He grins back. “Likewise.”
Danny continues, “Yeah, but I don’t like to eat apples without slicing them first and I don’t want to carry a kitchen knife everywhere I go.”
“Yeah because carrying a banana in your bag isn’t weird enough,” Conrad mumbles.
“I carry a banana with me most of the time.” I shift and pull my purse around in front of me, then reach in and grab the fruit I put in there this morning. The cafeteria food at the high school is terrible, so I always carry a few snacks with me.
When I hold up the banana for them all to see, the entire group stares at me blankly. Then they burst into laughter.
And I just realized how embarrassing it is that I pulled a piece of fruit out of my bag in the middle of a bar like I’m performing a magic trick. My face is on fire.
“What are the odds?” Travis asks, smiling in a way that makes me feel less like he’s laughing at me and more at the situation. Still, I am horrified.
“Sloane always has snacks on her,” Whitney says.
I start to stash the banana back in my purse and die from mortification right here on the spot, but Danny snatches it from me.
“Now this is a perfect banana.” He holds it out, admiring it in a way I’d think he was joking, except I can tell he isn’t. “The perfect size. Not too big, not too small, a hint of green so it’ll be ready tomorrow.” He turns his serious expression on me. “Can I have this?”
“You want the banana I’ve been carrying around in my purse?”
“Yeah,” he says with no shame in his tone. “That’s a nine. I need a nine.”
The group’s laughter shifts now to Danny’s blatant awe for my banana.
“Consider it my gift to the team,” I say.
“You’re the best, Wingrove.” Danny tucks it in his back pocket. A man with a banana in his back pocket shouldn’t look so sexy.
After the banana is out of sight, the conversation around us shifts to other topics and I start to feel like the outsider.
Danny catches my gaze and smiles. He has a tiny gap between his front two teeth that keeps his smile from being otherwise perfect.
I hadn’t forgot about it, but it’s even better in person.
Danny steps closer, edging us away from the group.
“Sorry about that,” he says.
“No, it’s fine. You’re with your friends. You should celebrate. I should get going anyway. I just wanted to say hi.”
“You’re leaving already?” There’s a hint of disappointment in his tone. Maybe he’s hoping I have another banana in my purse.
“Yeah. It’s late and I have school tomorrow,” I say with a small laugh.
“Right.” He scans my face like he’s trying to capture it in case we don’t see each other for another six years. I really should be doing the same.
“Maybe we’ll run into each other again,” I say, knowing it’s likely given that our friends are getting married and having a baby.
“Yeah, I hope so.”