Chapter 15
Days like this make me regret my life choices.
It’s a shit day and it’s not even eleven.
A last-minute meeting was put on my calendar first thing this morning without a heads up because Mark couldn’t be bothered to do his freaking job.
And because he was notably absent in general, everyone came to me for everything.
I was over it. I’d been working nonstop for days to coordinate all the moving parts of the MLB’s investigation into Chase’s arrest. It took some finesse, but I was able to convince the disciplinary board to expedite a review of his case with the signed plea arrangement.
The two game-free days due to the All-Star break helped too, and they were able to reach a determination.
Chase was issued a three-game suspension to be served immediately, subject to final review after the completion of his mandated community service and satisfactory rehabilitation of his image.
Because of the suspension, Chase couldn’t travel with the team to their away series but that didn’t stop him from showing up at the stadium every day running sprints and conditioning drills.
Not only did he show up, but he did it by himself.
No staff helping and no one observing unless that observer was me from the window of my office that gave me the perfect view of the entire diamond.
I’m honestly surprised by how he reacted, but it appears to have been a staunch wakeup call. Part of me wondered if he worked out on the field so I would know he was there. The other part called myself a stupid girl for making it all about me.
As if he knows I’m thinking of him, my phone lights up on my desk with a text from him.
CHASE
Can I ask how your day is? Friends do that right?
We haven’t spoken directly since the official suspension determination was made a couple days ago, so this text is completely out of left field. And because I’m already irritated, I respond harshly.
ME
Don’t you have something better to be doing?
CHASE
Not at the moment. How’s your day?
ME
Busy. Did you need something?
CHASE
Just checking in.
ME
We don’t need daily check-ins.
CHASE
What if I just wanted to talk to you?
ME
Why?
CHASE
You said you wanted to be friends. Friends talk occasionally.
Between his defense of me in the meeting to his dedication on the field, he’s breaking through the wall I’ve erected to keep my distance. The “what ifs” and “what could bes” are getting louder in my head. Which only serves to piss me off more today.
ME
Okay, well I’m up to my eyeballs in shit to do and I’m starving because I haven’t eaten so can we talk later?
CHASE
Not having a good day?
ME
What does it sound like?
CHASE
Anything I can do?
ME
Yes, stop texting me. Can I go now?
CHASE
For now, Princess.
Have a better day. I’ll be thinking of you.
Princess. That damn nickname causes butterflies to take flight in my stomach. I don’t want to want him but when he sends me texts like that or I catch him watching me, it has me questioning all the reasons I say we can’t repeat that night on the island.
A notification on my computer alerts of another meeting in ten minutes, so I shake off all thoughts of Chase, my resistance, and the impending doom this day holds and dive back into work, counting down the hours until I can go home.
Now that Chase’s suspension is officially over and the team is back in town, I was hoping for an easy day, but no, the universe had other plans.
First, I spilled my coffee this morning, which meant I had to clean the kitchen and change my clothes before I left for work.
Of course, everything else spiraled too.
There was an accident on my normal route, so I had to detour on some back roads, causing me to be late.
I’ve just gotten out of a meeting when I check my phone and notice a missed text from Chase.
CHASE
Met a girl yesterday.
What the fuck?
ME
Why are you telling me this?
CHASE
She was cute.
ME
Excuse me?
CHASE
Yeah, she was great.
ME
Nope. Not having this conversation.
CHASE
Is that jealousy I sense, Princess?
ME
Absolutely not. Just don’t need to know you met a girl.
Shouldn’t you be focusing on literally anything else.
CHASE
She was at the community center. Think she was 12.
Damn him. I fell right into his trap. Letting out a laugh, I slow my breathing and try to turn this conversation around.
ME
So you met a child. Great!
CHASE
Said she wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up.
Told her she can do anything she sets her mind to.
Perfect, now he’s being nice to little girls and making me smile without even being in the room. Annoying.
ME
That was sweet
CHASE
And that I knew a pretty badass lawyer who works in sports.
Told her all about you.
ME
Chase…
CHASE
Have a great day, Princess.
I choose not to respond, unsure what I’d even say.
Somehow Chase sees me for who I am beneath all my complicated layers, and I let him in by sharing my complications at work.
I don’t willingly share my feelings with people.
Not even my closest friends. Ivory and Taylor are still in the dark about my health scare last year.
It’s a personality flaw. Letting Chase see beyond the surface was an olive branch that epically backfired.
It’s the only explanation for how utterly disappointed I was when he got arrested.
It was more than having to do my job to keep him out of trouble.
He let me down. Proved he was no better than before.
I was also mad at myself for entertaining any ideas about us, even after telling him we needed to stick to being friends. The back and forth was giving me a headache.
Pick a lane, Gabrielle. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t tell him to move on and keep things professional then be mad when he does it.
Still, he could’ve chosen literally any other method than getting wasted and arrested.
“Knock, knock.” Taylor walks into my office and plops down in the chair by the window overlooking the field.
“Oh, look you’re back again and didn’t tell your friends you were coming. How original.”
“Thought we could go over some notes for the press conference,” she says. We decided to wait to hold the press conference about Chase’s restitution until the team was back in town to coincide with his first game back in the lineup.
“You do know you don’t actually work here, right?”
“And some community service options.” She ignores me like always when I question why she’s in the office so much.
“He was at the community center yesterday.”
“Good, a head start will only help his image.” She jots down some notes in her ever-present notebook.
“Did you put him in contact with them? Or someone on Mary’s team?”
“Not that I’m aware. Maybe his team arranged it.”
“Doubt it. They were throwing a fit in the conference room about him having to do community service in the first place.”
“How did you know he was there if you didn’t arrange it and no one told you?”
“He texted me.”
“What did he say?”
“That he met a girl.”
“What?” She laughs incredulously.
“He made me think he was texting me to tell me he met another woman, and it was a twelve-year-old girl who wants to be a lawyer when she grows up.”
“Did it work?”
“Did what work?”
“Clearly that was a tactic to get a rise out of you and make you jealous. So did it?”
“It’s a moot point.” When I told him we could be friends, I was hoping we could, but the idea of him meeting someone else has a pit opening in the bottom of my stomach.
“Why’s that?”
“Because we can’t be together, so I have no business being jealous.
” I stupidly went and let feelings get involved when they shouldn’t have, but something about our conversation over breakfast had me wishing things were different between us.
That despite the age gap, we could work together as more than friends.
“But…”
“UGH, but a small part of me wants him all to myself. The thought of him with someone else and then having to see it? Makes me nauseous.” She opens her mouth to respond but I keep going.
“Which I’m fully aware is contradictory to everything I told him about us remaining professional and trying to be friends.
It’s completely irrational, not to mention illogical. ”
“I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s clearly something there. The island doesn’t have to be a one-off situation.”
“Come on, Tay. He’s not the relationship type. Our one-night stand is exhibit A that he’s a playboy with a capital P. Not to mention all I can think about is whether he was looking to take another woman home the night he got arrested.”
“Or maybe you aren’t giving him enough credit.” I look out the window, and sure enough, there he is. We have a three-game home series starting tonight and then they’re on the road again.
“Should I get Mark to go over the press conference details?”
“I would rather stab my eye out than interact with that man.”
“Well, he is my boss, so unfortunately I don’t have a choice.”
“For now.” Before I can ask what she means by that, she launches into a series of topics the team wants Chase and Coach Crenshaw to address with the media.