Baseball Cheater: *clandestine selfie taken from under the table showing three staff members behind her*
Cooper: Say you got an urgent call from a friend going through a rough patch in his relationship with his soulmate, then sneak to the bathroom.
Baseball Cheater: You are a terrible influence.
Cooper: Which is exactly why you’re texting with me and not any of your other friends.
Baseball Cheater: You can never meet Aspen.
Cooper: Mental note: Meet Aspen.
Baseball Cheater: GAH. Okay. OKAY.
Cooper: Ah, hell. Tripp’s asking if we can talk. And when the owner wants to talk…
Baseball Cheater: Tell him you can’t talk. That you have a friend going through a rough patch in his relationship with his soulmate.
Baseball Cheater: You totally didn’t tell him, did you?
Baseball Cheater: You really are a terrible influence. I’m sitting in the bathroom after I made that excuse, and now you’re not answering me.
Baseball Cheater: Although, I’m all caught up with Love on Fire now, and I also got to stream an episode of Who’s Your Family, so this wasn’t all bad.
Baseball Cheater: I have to go or I’m going to be late to an appointment to read books to preschoolers. Text me later. And let me know if you’re actually in trouble with management. I might know a guy who can help. *winking emoji*
Baseball Cheater: But before I go – on the off-chance all those rumors are true about you hitting a rough patch with your game because you’re afraid of success, then I wouldn’t be a good friend if I didn’t tell you that success is the last thing you should be afraid of. When you hit the top of one mountain, it makes it easier to see the peaks of the mountains you never knew existed before. You know what you want. What you’ve always wanted. You want to win it all for the team you’ve loved above all else forever. So do it. Win. Bask in the glory. Enjoy every fucking second. And yes, I said fucking. Worry about what’s next when you get to what’s next. Trust me, it’ll be clearer when you get there. It always is. Don’t miss the sign to get off the mountain to travel to the next continent’s mountains. I think that’s the mistake I made.
Baseball Cheater: And also, thanks for being so cool about the other night. I’ll talk to you later. Xoxo
14
Cooper
“You shaved.”
Diego’s statement startles me, and I almost fall off the bench in the locker room when I open my eyes and find him squatting three inches from my face. I’m meditating with noise-canceling headphones, looking for my focus and trying to tap the warrior inside.
Something’s gotta work.
So far, extra workouts aren’t doing it.
Fewer workouts aren’t doing it.
I’ve tried both.
Trading nights at the bars with going to bed early so I can make extra trips to pet shelters and children’s hospitals and nursing homes and playgrounds and Little Sluggers clinics and camps isn’t doing it. And I’m doing all of that without press coverage, for the record.
Self-improvement comes from within, not from external gossip validation. If they catch me there, so be it. But it’s not for the cameras.
Yet none of this is working to pull me out of my slump.
And if this isn’t working, I can’t talk or work my way out of what my problem is.
Celibacy isnotgood for my game.
Neither is the pressure of being first in our division as we get closer and closer to the All-Star break.
This is when every other team in the league will be after us.
