CHAPTER 25
“You look cute,” she said, placing her hands on India’s hips, her new favorite place to touch her.
“I do?”
“Yes. I like you in my sweater,” Maisie replied, tugging on the gray sweater that said, ‘Dinah Shores,’ on the front of it with a softball and bat logo under it.
“I can’t believe you have team sweaters,” India replied, looking down.
“It’s part of the prize if you win the end-of-season tournament,” she explained. “We won the spring tournament this year, so they made us sweaters with our team name on them.”
“What else did you get?”
“Well, there are hats with the league name on them, and you get bragging rights.”
“Oh, bragging rights?” India laughed. “How much did you have to pay for those bragging rights?”
“It’s sixty dollars a person per season, and you pay to get into the park.”
“You have to pay to get in, too?”
“Yeah, but it’s five bucks a game, so no big deal.”
“Hold on. I chose the wrong profession.” India looked around. “You each pay sixty dollars, and there are about ten of you?”
“Twelve,” she said.
“That’s seven hundred and twenty dollars a season. And how many teams?”
“In my league, there are ten, and there are seven leagues. We each get a night of the week to play.”
“That’s over fifty thousand dollars a season. How many seasons?”
“We play three, but there are at least six. They offset.”
Maisie watched and smiled at India as she calculated in her head.
“More than three hundred thousand dollars. And then, there’s the guaranteed five per game per person. How many games?”
“Twelve plus the end-of-season tournament, but you pay for the day for that, and it’s three days. Can you really do all that math in your head? That’s pretty sexy.”
“Well, you’re throwing me a little with the pay-per-day thing, but if we assume that all the leagues have the same number of games and team members and add in the fact that people show up to watch these games, too, they’re easily bringing in well over a million a year just on softball.
And I saw on the sign that they have soccer, baseball, volleyball, and some other stuff, too, right? ”
“They do, yes. And don’t forget the overpriced food at the concession stand. Players do not get discounts.”
“I just figured out what I’m going to do while you play this game I barely understand,” India told her, looking proud. “Do you know if they lease or own the land here?”
Maisie laughed and pulled India in.
“I could ask, or… I could kiss you hello, which I still haven’t done yet.”
“We’re doing that now, aren’t we?” India asked, looking happy in that moment. “Now that we’ve kissed goodnight, we get to kiss hello.”
“I was kind of hoping so, yes,” she said.
India wrapped her arms around Maisie’s neck and connected their lips. Their kiss couldn’t lead anywhere right now. Maisie had a game to play, and she was excited to be back on a field after so long without having the time to enjoy her favorite sport with her friends.
“Okay. Okay. Do I need to get the hose?” Lainey’s voice came from behind her, and Maisie pulled out of the kiss.
“Sorry,” she said quietly to India.
“For what? That was a great kiss,” India replied.
“For her,” Maisie said, pointing behind her.
“Get a room,” Paige added.
“And her, too,” Maisie said.
India laughed and asked, “Should I get you some food? Do you eat before you play, or is it like a swimming thing?”
“Did you eat junk food before you danced?”
“Ballerinas don’t eat much junk food at all. Or, at least, I didn’t. It’s a lot of green juices and other food that doesn’t taste good.”
Maisie kissed her on the forehead quickly and said, “I’ve got to go, but we’re the home team, so those are our bleachers, and the game only lasts an hour.”
“Only an hour, huh?”
“We’re timed so that another league can play after us. We get six innings, but if we’re tied, we get sixty minutes, and whoever is up then, wins.”
“There’s another league that plays after? Did you forget to mention that in your league count from earlier?”
Maisie laughed and replied, “No, babe. They offset, remember?” She squeezed India’s hand and added, “Have fun with your math thing. Try to applaud if I do something good, though.”
“I wouldn’t know if you did,” India said.
“If everyone on this side of the field cheers, you cheer,” she replied as she walked back to the dugout.
“Got it,” India replied.
Maisie headed toward her friends, who were standing outside of the dugout, watching her and making it very obvious, which was annoying but also nice, in a way, because she had something for them to watch. She hadn’t had someone to be excited about like this in a long time, and it felt good.
“So, you two are making out at ballparks now?” Lainey asked.
“We kissed; we didn’t make out. That was last night.”
“You made out with her last night?” Paige asked, looking at Lainey. “Where was I?”
“Thankfully, not at India’s apartment,” Maisie replied.
Then, they walked into the dugout, where Maisie saw Dana sitting on the old wooden bench that hadn’t been replaced since the park had been built in the seventies.
Maisie should have told India that this place was essentially falling apart because they hardly spent any money on upkeep.
India probably would have wanted to know that for her profit and loss estimate.
That thought got her to shake her head as she smiled because she knew that India would’ve loved to factor things like depreciation into her calculations.
“What?” Dana said to her. “I showed up, as demanded. I’m here, and I’m a sub, so I don’t need to warm up.”
“Oh, not you,” Maisie said. “Just thinking about something.”
“Or someone,” Lainey noted.
“Someone? Who?” Dana asked, standing up and walking toward them.
“No one,” Maisie said.
“Maisie has a new girlfriend, and she let her borrow her team sweater,” Lainey replied.
“She’s not my girlfriend. And she was cold. I had it with me.”
“That’s so cute. When was the last time you let me borrow your team sweater?” Paige asked Lainey, looping her arm through Lainey’s.
“You have your own team sweater. You were the reason we won them in the first place. You pitched well in the championship, and you hit two triples that game.”
“You remember that?” Paige asked.
“Of course, I remember. My girl won us the tournament.” Lainey turned to Paige and pulled her into her arms. “I also remember after the game, when I took you home. I seem to remember giving you a few somethings, and they weren’t some stupid sweater.”
“Oh, I definitely remember that,” Paige said, wrapping her arms around Lainey’s shoulders.
“That’s my sister…” Dana stated, mostly to Maisie.
“And my ex-girlfriend,” Maisie added.
“So, not weird at all?” Dana joked.
“Not in the slightest, no.” Maisie shook her head.
“Dinah Shores?” the umpire spoke through the chain-link fence separating the dugout from the field. “You ready? Let’s play ball.”
They were playing the Low Expectations, which was an amazing team name, if Maisie had anything to say about it.
The team was comprised of several women in their forties and fifties who hadn’t ever played softball before this season.
Lainey had watched their game the previous week, as it had been before the Dinah Shores’ game, and she’d said that they had been pretty bad but seemed to have more fun than anyone on the field.
As the home team, the Dinah Shores took the field first, and Maisie hurried to her position at shortstop.
She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it.
Paige was their pitcher. Lainey played first base.
Both of them had played soccer at the college level, with Paige even playing two seasons in the NWSL before an injury had sidelined her and her contract hadn’t been renewed.
They had both played softball in high school, though, and probably could’ve played in college, too, had they not been so focused on soccer.
The other players on their team were good, but sometimes, they were not even needed.
Paige was their top hitter, with Maisie close behind her, and Lainey was in third, so with an opponent like Low Expectations, they probably didn’t even need the rest of the players on the field.
The first batter from Low Expectations actually put her cigarette out in the dugout and took a long gulp of beer before she walked up to the plate.
Maisie laughed and got into her ready position.
Three batters, no hits, and three outs later, they were up to bat.
Lainey started them off with a single, Maisie followed with a double, and then Paige hit them both home with another of her patented triples.
It went on like that until they earned ten runs by the third inning, and Low Expectations didn’t score at the top of the fourth.
It was the mercy rule now. If one team scored ten or more runs on the other team and the other team couldn’t get within ten by their fourth time at bat, the game was over.
The Dinah Shores had claimed victory, but no one would have known it by the way the Low Expectations were partying in their dugout.
“I aspire to be like them when I grow up,” Dana said as she watched them.
“Me too,” Maisie spoke through her laughter. “Are you coming to the bar with us?”
“Can’t. I have to be up at five in the morning to get breakfast over to the movie stars,” Dana replied. “Another time, though?”
“Yeah. Meet anyone cool lately?”
“Depends on your definition of meet,” Dana said as she gathered her stuff. “Lennox Owen is the writer on this one. She walked past me at the table the other day. And I served Kenzie Smyth her chicken. Does that count?”
“You met Lennox Owen and Kenzie Smyth?”
“Again, really depends on what you mean by met.” Dana chuckled. “They were three feet away from me. That was the extent of it. Kenzie isn’t in the movie. She’s just visiting her wife.” Dana sighed. “I want a wife to visit.”
“One that looks like Kenzie Smyth?”
“That certainly wouldn’t hurt,” Dana replied. “I’ll take a husband, too, but I’d want him to look like Chris Evans.”
Maisie laughed and said, “I can understand that.”
“Bar?” Paige asked.
“Can we maybe go to a different bar this time? I think India might like it.”
“Is it an expensive bar?” Lainey asked.
“No, it’s the one we went to the first time. I’m thinking it would be better than the rowdy place we usually go.”
“No problem for me,” Paige replied.
“Sure,” Lainey agreed.
Maisie then made her way out to the bleachers, where a whole ten people sat to support them, including India, who was staring down at her phone.
“Did you watch any of it?” she asked as she walked up the bleachers to sit down next to her.
India looked up and said, “What? I watched all of it. I was just looking at the pictures I took.” She angled her phone so that Maisie could see. “You look hot out there.”
Maisie glanced at the photo of herself – bent over, with a glove hanging between her legs – as she readied for a possible hit.
“I look focused.”
“Yeah, focused is hot,” India replied. “I took a bunch. Want me to send them to you?”
“Sure,” she said. “How did your math go?”
“Oh, this place is raking it in. You really should ask for at least concession stand discounts. I bet I can get them for you. Want me to try?”
“As much as I think I would find watching you negotiate sexy, I don’t think it’s really worth your time to get us ten percent off on candy.”
“Ten percent? Please. I could get you at least twenty-five,” India said, winking at her. “So, what’s next?”
“I was thinking we could go to that bar you like. Not the martini one, but the one we went to before we left and got the best fried catfish you’ve ever had.”
Maisie smiled at India.
“Candace’s bar?”
“Is that okay?”
“Yeah, that’s great.”
“You know what I think I might have figured out about you?” Maisie asked, resting her head on India’s shoulder.
“No, but I’m dying to hear it.” India laughed a little.
“You don’t do well with new places.”
“I don’t?”
“You talk about being comfortable a lot, and I think that has to do with knowing or not knowing what to expect. If it’s a new place for you, it’s hard for you to know, but an old one, a place you’ve been to before or an activity you’ve tried, makes it easier.
You already know where to park, what they serve, or how long it will take. ”
“Is that why you told me that the game would only be an hour earlier? You’ve figured this out about me?”
“One of the reasons, yes,” she said and lifted her head. “I get it. I’m that way sometimes, too.”
“I don’t get that vibe from you at all,” India noted. “You just offered to go to the ballet or opera with me, and you’ve never been.”
“I told you: that’s just about wanting to be with you. I don’t care where it is.”
“Then, why do I?” India asked, appearing to genuinely want Maisie to answer that question for her. “One of the reasons I lost my previous relationship and probably others is because of this.”
“Maybe you just hadn’t met the right person,” Maisie suggested. “Someone to push you out of that comfort zone, little by little.”
“Until I’m sitting at a softball game in sneakers and a borrowed crew neck sweater, taking pictures of the sexy stop short?”
Maisie laughed and replied, “Oh, babe… It’s shortstop. Shortstop.”
“But why?” India asked again.
Maisie shook her head and said, “Let’s go to Candace’s. I’ll explain it all to you there.”