“Easier said than done.” I hold the bat up again, readying myself for the next pitch.
“Stick your butt out a tiny bit,” he says.
“Like this?” I arch my back.
“A little more,” he suggests, and I do. “Now, shake it just a little.”
I start to and then stop. I stand up straight to face him. “Hey!”
He shrugs with a shit-eating grin. “Sorry, I had to. Okay, ready?” He holds up the ball.
I nod, and he throws it. I swing, and my hands sting when I hit the ball, sending it flying right back at him. He jumps and catches the ball just in time, so it doesn’t hit him across the face.
“Whoa.” He breathes out in disbelief. “Thank God I caught that. What would I have said to my new coach if I got injured?” he jokes. “Sorry, Coach, but I couldn’t catch the ball my girlfriend hit from the second pitch she’d ever had thrown at her, but, yeah, put me in on your infield, and I’ll do just fine against the biggest guys.”
He chuckles under his breath as I stand up, realizing what he said so very nonchalantly.
I tilt my head and grin when I ask, “Girlfriend?”
He smiles wide as he throws the ball up in the air only a few inches above himself before catching it again. “Yeah, girlfriend.”
He winks, and I blow a kiss his way, wishing I could kiss him for real.
12
Day 12
April 7
My phone rings, and the normal excitement I feel is nothing compared to the mindfuck I’m watching on television right now.
“Oh. My. God. Please tell me you can turn on Netflix,” I say to Drew, wasting no time.
“You too?” he says, exasperated knowing what’s to come by the talk of the show that seems to be everywhere.
“Yes, and I’m taking you down with me. ThisTiger Kingshow is unreal. Just when I think it can’t get any weirder, I start the next episode, and I was totally wrong! My mind is blown right now.”
“That’s what everyone is saying. I’m not really into watching some crazy guy with a mullet dance around with tigers.”
I slap my hand on the couch. “I thought the same thing! Their marketing for this show is nothing compared to what it is.” I press pause on my screen and sit up straighter, ready to fill him in.
I talk for twenty minutes, telling him all about Carole, who has this cat sanctuary. She’s literally doing the same thing these other two guys are, but she wants the other ones closed down and even has PETA on her side. But then I go on about how one zoo owner, Joe Exotic, has two husbands, and the other zoo owner, Doc, is basically running a harem of wives out of his zoo.
“Wait, what?” he asks, confused and as shocked as I am.
“Right?” I yell into the phone. “But then this Carole chick has a crazy past. Her husband, who was worth millions, suddenly disappeared twenty years ago, and they’ve never found his body. They think she killed him and fed him to the tigers!”
He laughs in disbelief into the phone. “This can’t be real.”
“That’s the crazy part. It totally is! And now, this Joe Exotic guy is in jail because they say he hired someone to kill Carole.”
“Did he?”
“I don’t know! I’m only on episode three. You have to turn it on!”
“Hold on. Let me grab my computer,” he says begrudgingly.
“Well, shoot. I know I filled you in, but you need to start from the top. Are you ready? Do you have water, snacks, everything you need? I promise you’ll be sucked in.”
