17. Let’s Ball #2
“Me? You brought me… flowers?” I manage to get out, stunned.
“Well, yeah. It is a date, Isabella. A guy should always bring a girl flowers. Especially on a first date.”
I gape at him, my mouth opening and closing while I try to decide what to say.
“Why thank you so much, Ryan. What a thoughtful gift!” Jordan butts in with her best impression of me since it’s clear my brain is short-circuiting, and I can’t respond for myself.
She takes the flowers from where he still holds them outstretched before turning to me.
“I’ll put these in water for you.” She sets the bundle on the kitchen counter before stepping up behind me and pushing me toward the door and Ryan.
“Have fun you two! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! ”
I follow Ryan out the door and turn back, giving her an exasperated look. “I feel like there’s not much you wouldn’t do.”
“Exactly,” she says with a wink as she slams the door in my face.
“Well, seems like we’re off to a great start,” I say with a laugh. “Sorry about her. She’s… incredibly hyped up over this whole situation even though I keep reminding her it’s not real.”
“Excuse you. Who said it’s not real?” Ryan asks with mock offense as he shuffles me toward the elevator. “I brought you flowers. Seems pretty real to me.”
When the doors open, we both step inside. “Thank you for the flowers, by the way. I should’ve said that inside, but I was surprised is all.”
“You’re so welcome, firecracker.” He presses the button for the garage level where the visitor parking is before he reaches down to grab my hand. That same spark of energy I felt when he first shook my hand is back, and I have the urge to yank away.
“Um, what are you doing?” I ask, eyes wide.
“What does it look like?” he replies with a raised brow. “Holding your hand, obviously.”
“Yes, I get that. But why?” The doors open and he pulls me out behind him into the garage and over to his parked car.
“It’s a date, Isa. Why wouldn’t I hold your hand?”
“Yes, but we’re only on this date because I lost the bet. It’s not a real date…” I trail off. Right? It’s not real. There’s no way it’s real. It’s what I keep telling myself to keep the nerves at bay.
He leads me to the passenger side, opening the door and holding it open for me as I climb in. He waits while I buckle myself in before he plants his arms on the top of the doorframe and leans in, bringing his face close to mine.
“Of course, this date is real. I know your presence here is only to satisfy the terms of our bet, but you better believe I’m going to treat it like a real one. Pulling out all the stops to impress you and show you how you deserve to be treated.”
With a final smirk, he gently shuts the door on my shell-shocked face.
“So…” I draw out the word. “Going to tell me what the plan is for the evening?”
“Nope, that would defeat the whole purpose of it being a surprise, wouldn’t it?”
I roll my eyes, because yes it would, but also, how dare he. I’m dying to know over here. I slump down into my seat and cross my arms over my chest. “Fine, keep your secrets.”
He chuckles in response as he merges onto the 134 West toward Glendale. Are we heading to his place? He looks over at where I’m still sitting like a child throwing a tantrum and offers me a small smile. “I think you’ll have a good time, don’t worry.”
I’m sure he’s right. We’ve gotten closer over the last month or so of our friendship, and even in those last weeks leading up to me caving.
The back and forth with the questions, the phone calls, the texts.
We speak every day without fail for fuck’s sake.
It’s all given me an insight into him, but also given him that same understanding with me as well.
I have full faith he’s probably planned something I’ll enjoy.
“Wait, we’re going to the stadium?” I ask, confused as he takes the exit for the Suns stadium. “What part of this sounds like fun for someone who spends their working hours here? We both spend too much time here as it is.”
“Patience, Isa.” His voice carries the amusement that’s written all over his face with the broad smile and glimmer of excitement in his eyes.
He pulls his car into the players’ lot, which is empty since there’s no game and practice was this morning. He parks in the spot closest to the doors into the clubhouse.
“Wait there,” he says as I begin reaching to unbuckle my seatbelt. I pause and wait, unsure what his plan is here.
He gets out of the car, stopping quickly at the trunk to throw his bat bag over his shoulder and grab another smaller bag.
None of which helps clear up any confusion.
Closing the trunk, he rounds to my side, throwing the door open.
Reaching across me, he unbuckles my seatbelt for me, flooding my senses with his woodsy cologne.
“I could’ve done that myself,” I point out.
“I know,” he says simply as if that’s all the answer I need.
Once I pull the seatbelt off, he stretches his free hand out toward me. I look at it for a moment, hesitating before I tentatively place my hand in his, letting him pull me up from the car. I try to reclaim my hand, but his grip tightens enough to keep me firmly in place.
Well, okay then.
He pulls me behind him into the clubhouse and through to the locker room, which is a space I’ve not actually seen yet.
He drops both bags off into his cubby, digging through his bat bag until he pulls out several bats of different sizes and colors and two batting helmets.
He hands the lavender one to me. I didn’t even realize they made batting helmets in this color.
The other is his black game helmet which he pops right onto his head.
“You can leave your bag here, but do you happen to have a hair tie in that thing?” he asks with a laugh and a head tilt toward my own purse.
“Lucky for you, I do.” I dig around my purse until I find the hair tie and pull it onto my wrist, before dropping it into his cubby with the rest of our things.
He reaches out to grab my hand again, and with the bats propped up on one of his shoulders, he pulls me behind him out of the locker room and through the hallways of the clubhouse.
He pushes a door open into a large room with several netted spaces. The floor is Astroturf and there are little spaces that mimic the burnt orange of the dirt from the baseball diamond. There’s a home plate in each section and directly across from them is a tall fence of more netting.
“What is this place?” I ask.
“It’s our batting cage. We do some batting practice in here.
” Releasing my hand, he leans the bats up against the wall and walks over to a storage closet where he pulls out a large white bucket that looks like the kind of thing you get from the hardware store.
He drops it down next to the netted fence, popping the lid and revealing it’s full of baseballs.
“You don’t expect me to hit balls, right?”
He laughs. “The number of innuendos in that sentence. I’m not expecting anything from your performance. But I will put you up at the plate and see if you can swing it.”
“I’m going to suck at this! You’re a professional! This isn’t fair,” I whine.
He laughs, coming up to wrap me in his arms. I immediately tense up. We’re never this close and my instinct is to push him away. But… I don’t. I fight that instinct and allow myself to enjoy this moment. I love the way his arms feel around me, so I let him stay where he is.
“I’m not going to bat.” He leans his face in close to mine, and I stare wide-eyed thinking he might be about to kiss me.
I don’t know if I want that or not. I can’t make up my mind about so many things where he’s concerned.
Luckily, he makes the decision for me and shifts his head, so his mouth is near my ear.
“Wouldn’t want to show you up and make you feel bad.
” He leans back and winks. “Like I said, I’m not expecting you to be able to hit anything.
It’s your first time in a batting cage. I wanted us to have some fun, enjoy ourselves.
At least that’s how I’m hoping this will go. ”
“What made you think of this?”
“If I’m being honest, I’ve been planning this for a while. Since that one question during our game.”
“What quest—” I break off as I recall what he’s talking about.
“What’s your perfect date?”
And my answer was of course an active date that gives us the opportunity to have a good time but also still ask each other questions. Getting to know each other better.
So, he picked a batting cage.
It’s honestly a little genius.
“Is this a good enough activity for you?” he asks with a hopeful smile.
“To be determined.” I smirk. “But why the batting cage?”
“Well, I know about your whole no fraternization thing, and figured here we would have the privacy to enjoy ourselves and not have to worry about any peeping fans sneaking a photo of us together that could cause you problems with your job.” He rubs a hand across the back of his neck.
“Oh…” It’s all I can say. I didn’t expect there would be this much thought behind a date that I was convinced wasn’t even real. But clearly, he has. And it feels real. He’s told me he’s treating this as real.