He laughs nervously. “Which part?”
“All of it. Your struggles. Your place falling through. Donating the money …”
He sighs. “I didn’t do it for the recognition. When they asked me to do the interview this morning, I originally said no, but the guys from More Than Baseball said it would have more of an impact for the organization.”
“It so did. You did great.” He’s silent, and I can tell he’s uncomfortable with the attention it brought, so I change the subject. “Then, tell me about your place.”
“I was purchasing an apartment in the city. When the shelter in place started happening, the people I was buying it from lost their jobs and pulled out of the deal. It was technically too late to do so, but I couldn’t take their home from them, so we canceled it on both ends with no big deal.”
“Will you find another place?”
“Who knows? Maybe I wasn’t supposed to live in the city. I mean, you’re here, so …”
“Drew …” I say, tears filling my eyes again, but I try to hide them.
“Is that weird? Did I just scare the shit out of you? I mean, fuck, I guess it has only been a few days. Maybe I’m just jumping to conclusions. There are always places I can find there.”
“Hell no, you won’t.” I laugh. “Like you said, I’m here, and, yes, we definitely need to see where this goes before you go off and buy a place too far away from me.”
He laughs, and I can hear the relief in his voice. “You know, dating a baseball player isn’t easy. I’ll be on the road a lot.”
“And I don’t work over the summer. So, who knows? You might open your hotel room to find a naked girl sprawled on your bed, waiting to thank her favorite player for giving her such a great show on the field.”
“Sprawled on the bed, huh? Are you trying to kill me right now?”
“Nah, just trying to give you visuals for your spank bank when you go to bed tonight.”
His voice comes out as a growl. “You are. You’re trying to kill me. I knew it.”
“It will all be worth it. I promise,” I say with the cheesiest grin on my face, glad he can’t see me.
“Believe me, I have no doubt.”
15
Day 15
April 10
A knock on my door shocks the hell out of me. I reach for my phone and check my Ring app. As it comes on, I see a delivery vehicle parked in my driveway and a guy taking a picture of whatever he left on my porch before walking away.
Since I didn’t order anything, I approach the door with caution, as you can never be too careful these days.
Wait, who am I kidding? I can see on my app that no one is there anymore.
I open the door and see a very large box. I lean down to pick it up, figuring it’s going to be heavy, and I almost topple over when I give it way too much effort and find out it’s only a pound or two.
Questioning it even more now, I take it inside—after I’ve wiped it down, of course, with the Clorox wipe I grabbed from my entryway.
After I open the box, I’m even more confused when I see a pillow inside. I close the lid again and check to see if it was delivered to the wrong house. When I verify that it is indeed my address and name printed on the label, I open it again and pull the pillow out.
To my surprise, the thing keeps coming and coming, and I have to stand up straight to get it all the way out of the box. I hold it up to see it’s a body pillow.
I definitely did not order this.
The order form is in the bottom of the box, and when I flip it over, I see it’s from Drew.
As I walk back to my couch, I think about what to say to him.
