I’m definitely notfine. “Yeah.”
“First place your brain went just now?”
“Yeah.”
“We’re okay. We’re barely a floor up. Super close to the ground.”
I make myself suck in a breath. Ignore the fireflies dancing in my vision. Concentrate on Addie’s voice.
“Management is usually very quick to respond,” she’s saying. “They’re ridiculous. They pitched in and got me a champagne basket the first time the Fireballs went all the way. Gift certificates for restaurants around the neighborhood too, though I’m pretty sure the restaurants donated those. They act like I’m some kind of celebrity.”
The sound of her voice is pulling me back from the edge. “Say more.”
“We’re playing Minnesota this week. First series on our road trip. That’s always hard. They were my team when I was growing up, and now my job is to crush them. Well, to encourage the guys to crush them. My first season, I got completely tongue-tied when I realized I was standing on the same field as guys in Minnesota uniforms. Luca Rossi caught me taking a selfie with the other team in the background and offered to introduce me to some of the guys. He played for Minnesota for a year. I declined. I didn’t want any of the guys to know I was freaking out on the inside. Embarrassing, eh?”
My breathing is evening out. My eyes are still closed. Easier to not think about where I am this way. “Thisis embarrassing.”
“Human intelligence has advanced world technologies much faster in the past two hundred years than the evolution of our brains can keep up with. Normal fight-or-flight response to an unnatural situation. Rooms aren’t supposed to go up and down.”
This isn’t fight or flight. It’sfreeze. “I hate MRIs too.”
She tucks her arm through mine.
Her good arm. I’m on her right.
It’s warm.
She’s warm.
I shiver, then huddle closer to her.
“Same,” she says quietly. “And I’d be lying if I said it’s because MRIs mean I’m hurt. They’re…just as bad as being stuck in a dress.”
“You know what’s dumb?”
“The price of ice cream these days?”
I huff out a surprised half laugh. Maybe a quarter laugh. But more of a laugh than I expected to have in me right now. “Airplanes don’t bother me. Not even when we hit turbulence.”
“That’s because you have a solid understanding of aerodynamics.”
More shivers ripple through me. We’re both soaked. She has to be cold too, despite the warmth radiating off of her.
And now I’m remembering giving her a presentation on how airplanes work when we were hooking up a few years ago.
In another place, in a different situation, the reminder would make me laugh again.
I geeked out hard.
“Should’ve taken the stairs,” I mutter.
“Next time.”
“Every time.”
“I took the stairs when we got back to the hotel after a game in the middle of a long road trip a few years ago. The team was all lined up around the elevators, and I didn’t want to wait. Or be stuck in a small space with them when their body washes don’t always work well together. It was a hike. Something like fourteen stories. Halfway up, I started smelling something weird. Like, worse than their body washes combined. Skunky, but not normal skunky.”
I don’t remember any stories about any of the Fireballs being suspended for weed, but that’s where my brain goes atskunky. “What was it?”
