CHAPTER 23
“I thought you said you weren’t testing her anymore,” Lainey noted as she sat on Maisie’s sofa next to Paige.
“I’m not.”
“Really? Look where you’re taking her. I doubt she’s ever even seen–”
“She might not know they exist,” Paige interrupted.
“Right,” Lainey replied.
“Would you two just go home?” Maisie laughed. “I have to go pick her up, and I’m nervous. You are not helping.”
“Why are you nervous? You’ve been out with her before,” Lainey replied as she stood and held out her hand for Paige to take.
“Because tonight feels different. It feels like a new beginning.”
“A new beginning from the one you had yesterday?” Lainey asked.
“I’ll apologize for her,” Paige said, standing up and taking Lainey’s hand. “She’s been under a lot of stress lately and is extra punchy.”
Lainey laughed and said, “I just meant that I don’t get what’s making this feel new.”
“It feels like we’ve put things out on the table today. I know about Colter and how she feels about me. She knows I like her and want this to happen.”
“You didn’t know that before?” Lainey asked.
Maisie walked out of the bathroom where she had been getting ready and said, “I did, but I guess it felt different today. She told me she never gave in to Finley when they were together, but she’s been flexible with me, you know? I think that means something.”
“I hope it means physically flexible, because–”
“And we’re going,” Paige stated, pulling on Lainey’s arm.
“Hey!” Lainey laughed.
Maisie laughed at both of them as they said their goodbyes and left her apartment.
She also did feel as if she and India were getting a fresh start.
India had seemed vulnerable today, really worried that she’d messed things up between them, and Maisie had tried to be vulnerable, too, given what Lainey had said to her before about that not being easy for her.
She knew Lainey had been right and that it had been a problem in their relationship.
Maisie had preferred to be the strong one, the one holding things together all the time.
She supposed she had gotten a lot of practice with that after her mom had left.
Then, again, after her dad died and her grams had needed a lot of help in the shop as she’d gotten older.
And maybe lastly, when her grams had died and Maisie had had to take it all on herself.
It was much easier to push through it and not focus on grief or pain or how hard it could all be sometimes, just to wake up and go to work, with all the pressure of holding her family’s entire legacy together.
She didn’t want that to be her legacy: just holding things together until they crumbled.
She didn’t want them to crumble. She wanted things to be successful, and she wanted to find someone who made her feel like she could be vulnerable with them, and it would be okay.
While Lainey had been great as a girlfriend, Maisie had never felt that with her, but with India, she hadn’t even noticed that she had; it had happened so seamlessly.
She’d been well on her way to letting India all the way in or close to it, at least, when the whole Colter revelation had occurred, and she had even let India hold her at her apartment and then again, in the shop, which was unusual for her. Lainey had been right about that, too.
Now, she was on her way to pick India up for a date, and she worried that India, like Lainey, would think this was another test, but when India had mentioned ice cream to her, Maisie had known just the place.
It also just happened that she needed to go there anyway, so she hoped it would make for that fun, relaxed night she had promised them both, because at least Maisie really needed it.
“Hi,” India said when she opened the door.
“India, I said casual.” Maisie laughed when she took in India wearing a pair of black slacks and a blouse.
“I haven’t changed yet. I just got home,” India replied with a small laugh. “You wanted to pick me up at six, but I had a meeting go long and only just got here.”
“So, you’re not wearing those heels?”
Maisie looked down at the black heels that India wore.
“No,” India said. “Come on in. I think I have a pair of shoes that don’t have heels somewhere.”
“Wait. Are you serious?” Maisie asked her as she walked inside. “Only one pair? And you have to find them?”
“I’m kidding,” India said and took her hand.
“Come on. You can just dress me. That way, you can approve what I’m wearing for wherever you’re taking me.
” She started walking but stopped. “You should know, though, that I’ve never let someone dress me before, without them being an actual stylist, so this is a big step for me. ”
“I am not a stylist.”
“I know,” India said softly.
They walked down the hall, through the open kitchen and living room, down the next hall, and into India’s bedroom.
“Okay. My closet is massive, but it’s organized. It won’t take long. Evening wear is back on the right. Work stuff is front right. Left is mostly shoes and accessories, but in the drawers, I think there are a few casual things.”
“You have drawers in your closet?”
“Yes, Maisie,” India said, laughing. “Want to check it out while I go to the bathroom?”
“Sure. Okay. You’re fine with me just going through your stuff?”
“Are you going to be touching everything as you do?”
“No.”
“Then, yes. I’m fine.”
India smiled at her and disappeared into the bathroom.
Maisie walked inside the giant closet, which was more like another bedroom in size, and noticed that most of the evening wear, as India had described it, was in hanging bags.
India’s work clothes were easily recognizable to her because Maisie had only ever seen her in them.
She turned to her left, where shelves and shelves were lined with shoes, and nearly all of them were heels.
There were a few flat boots in the mix, but Maisie didn’t spy a single pair of tennis shoes.
She pulled out a drawer and saw it filled with fancy pajamas – the kind women wore to sleep in movies, where they wore matching tops and bottoms, and the tops buttoned up.
Maisie thought about how cute India would look in the dark blue set, which seemed to come with a short-sleeved shirt and shorts.
She closed that drawer, opened the one beneath it that held T-shirts, and pulled one out, thinking it would be fine.
Moving on to the drawer next to it and expecting that to be pants or socks, she found it filled with lingerie instead.
Deep reds, dark greens, and navy blues, along with a few white and black options, filled her eyes, and they weren’t just in a pile, either.
They sat there in organizers, looking like they’d never been worn.
“Forgot about that drawer. I should have warned you,” India said.
“Huh? What?” Maisie slammed the drawer shut.
India laughed and said, “That’s my special-occasion lingerie drawer.”
“Oh,” she said.
“I have a regular lingerie drawer out in the bedroom.”
“You have two drawers for…”
“I do. And those are all new, by the way. After Finley dumped me for the last time, I went on a little shopping spree. Retail therapy.”
“So, no one has…”
“Seen me in those? No,” India replied. “And this shirt? Really?” She took the shirt from Maisie. “I got it from work.”
“Why not?”
“It’s ugly.”
“India, it’s just a plain white T-shirt.”
“That says, ‘Southern Roastery,’ on it.”
“So? Come on. Help me find some sporty pants, and let’s go.”
“Sporty pants? What about me says that I own sporty pants?”
Maisie laughed and said, “Please. You work out.”
“How do you know I work out?” India asked with that lifted eyebrow again.
“I’m looking at you. I can tell you work out.”
“I run, mostly.”
“There you go. Let’s find some running pants.”
“Running pants? Babe, where are you taking me, exactly?”
“To the batting cages.”
◆◆◆
“You realize my experience with any kind of ball doesn’t extend past mandatory physical education in high school, don’t you? And I got out of that more often than not by claiming that I was on my period and had massive cramps.”
Maisie laughed as she found a helmet and held it out to India.
“How did you keep pulling that off?”
“The teacher was a guy and too confused to question it. What do you expect me to do with this?”
India glared at the bright red helmet.
“Put it on your head, India.”
“I can’t put that on my head. Other heads have been in that.”
“Yes, mine. It’s my helmet,” she said.
“You have your own helmet?”
“I do. I’m in a co-ed adult softball league with Lainey and Paige.
We play in a spring league, a summer league, and a fall one, but I haven’t been able to go because of the election.
So, I needed to get some batting practice in and thought we could have some fun here together. Plus, their ice cream is amazing.”
“They have ice cream at batting cages?” India asked and took the helmet from her, finally, so Maisie could pull the bat out of her bag.
“They have a concession stand, and Trailer’s Ice Cream is the best in the city. It’s homemade, and I think it’s better than any of the stuff you get at the grocery store because they only sell it locally and make it in small batches.”
“Trailer?”
“They started by selling out of a trailer,” Maisie replied and held out her metal bat. “This is my bat. No one here has used it.”
“I’ve never held a baseball bat before.”
“We’re hitting softballs tonight.”
“That’s the bigger one, right?”
Maisie laughed and asked, “You’ve really never…”
“I had to go to a baseball game for work once. It was a minor league team, I think. That’s what my boss said, anyway. We got a suite. I drank bad red wine out of a plastic cup and stood in the corner talking about the new locations we were working on.”
“Okay. I’m going to show you how to hit. Then, we’re going to eat hot dogs and fries and get that ice cream.”
“Hot dogs?”
“Yes, all-beef hot dogs.”
“Not the parts of the pig that are left over, so they just mash them all into a big machine and spit them out in the form of hot dogs?” India asked, looking concerned.
“Oh, I have no idea. Maybe. But not pig. Cow.”
“Cow pieces?”
Maisie laughed, took the helmet back, and placed it on India’s head.
“Oh, my God.” She laughed.
“What? It’s bad?”
“You look so cute,” Maisie said.
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do.” Maisie brushed a few strands of India’s hair back out of her face. “I kind of never want you to take that off.”
“Well, if we get to the part where we have sex, it will not be with me wearing this thing.” India tapped the helmet with her finger.
“But will you wear something from the special-occasion drawer?”
“I should say no because you brought me here, but… maybe.” India stood up. “Okay. I want ice cream, so let’s get this over with. I am prepared to embarrass myself.”
Maisie stood up as well, and they walked to the cage she had reserved for the next hour. There, she opened the door and moved until she was on the other side of the plate, with India across from her in the batter’s box.
“Okay. So, bend your knees a little,” Maisie told her.
“Like this?” India asked, bending her knees slightly.
“Spread your legs, too.”
India glared at her with that eyebrow lifted.
“Not what I meant.”
“How far, Maisie?” India asked.
Maisie moved around behind her, placed her hands on India’s hips, and tapped the left one until India moved her leg a bit. Then, she just stood there and held on, even though she didn’t need to.
“Elbows up,” she instructed.
When India held the bat up, Maisie helped her put her arms in position.
“Okay. Now, eyes on the ball.”
“How fast is that thing going to be coming?”
“Not fast. I’ll set it for slow-pitch. That’s what I play anyway.”
“Okay. And it’s calibrated to only throw the ball in front of me, not at me?”
“Yes, India,” she replied, laughing as she walked to the box attached to the chain-link fence that separated them from the outside and pressed the button. “Okay. Get ready.”
Maisie then moved to the gate, opened it, and closed it behind herself.
“Wait. You’re out there? Why aren’t you in here with me?”
India was looking at her when the first yellow softball flung out of the machine, so she screamed, despite the fact that the ball hit the fence and was nowhere near hitting her.
Maisie laughed and told her, “Turn around. Stand how I showed you.”
India turned back around and held on to the bat in a way that would not allow her to hit the ball at all. When the next pitch came her way, she gave a concerted effort to hit it but missed it by a mile. Maisie laughed because it really was adorable. Then, she sobered when she realized it.
India swung, missing again, but she was laughing, too, now, and she was doing this for Maisie.
“I cannot hit this thing. Are you sure it’s on slow mode?”
“Any slower, and the ball would just roll to you.”
“Yes. Is that an option? I want that.”
Maisie laughed and said, “Six more pitches, and then I’ll go in and show you.”
“We should’ve done that first,” India said and tried to hit the next pitch.
She got a piece of it, but the ball just rolled slowly off to the right.
“Hey, you hit it!” Maisie said excitedly.
“I think it hit my bat. Not the other way around.”
Maisie watched India try again and again to connect with the balls that came her way, and she looked happy.
India was smiling, and she didn’t give up, either.
When the tenth pitch released, India swung hard, and while the ball didn’t go far after she had hit it, it would’ve been a solid hit to first base.
“Hey! I did it!” India jumped happily a few times, and the bat, which was still in her hand, smacked her in the helmet. “Ouch!”
“And that’s why you wear the helmet,” Maisie joked.