“Babe, I love you, but I can handle Coach.” He always tries to call him Coach when we are speaking of my father in terms of baseball. It keeps the line drawn clearly for him. “What I want is to know how you are. How did it go?”
“I’m officially free.”
“Hell yeah, you are!” Preston whoops at the same time Miller yells, “Way to go, Ives.” I smile so wide it hurts. “I’m so proud of you, Hollywood. That took a lot of guts to go toe to toe with the execs and come out on the winning end.”
“I don’t know about all that. He did try to threaten my career.”
“He did what?” Preston’s stern voice makes me laugh.
“Hetried. My attorney corrected him pretty quickly.”
“It’s about time people on your team stood up for you.” Preston has not been quiet about his irritation with my team for parading me around at my own expense.
Without him, I don’t know that I would have been brave enough to stand up for myself. I’ve cleaned house since returning from Belize and had some pretty serious talks with Tay about the direction of my career. Now that I have officially terminated my commitments with the studio, I can truly start over.
“That was the last step. Now the real work begins.”
“Speaking of, are you going to give me a hint?” Preston walksinside his house and sets the phone down on the counter to get some water. “Miller went home so it’s just us.”
“I’m going to shop around the project I wrote while we were in Belize.”
“You, Ivory Crenshaw, amaze me.” Preston leans his elbows onto the countertop bringing his face closer to the camera. He may be almost three-thousand miles away but when he is focused on me like this, it feels like he is leaning across the counter in front of me. I go to deflect but Preston jumps in before I can. “I mean it. You went to Belize on the heels of a grueling film schedule and your dream of directing being crushed. You went there to reset. While you were there, you decided that the project you thought was your dream really wasn’t. That takes a lot of strength and courage to admit. Then you were inspired to start something new and you worked your ass off to bring that to life. All the while sitting on charity boards, organizing relief efforts, inspiring my charitable contributions, and galavanting around a foreign country with your newfound adventurous streak. You’re one of a kind.” He shakes his head as if he can’t believe it himself.
“I miss you,” I blurt out. A small smile breaks out on Preston’s face.
“I miss you, too. I wish I were there with you so we could celebrate.”
“We can still celebrate if you want.”
“Of course I want. What did you have in mind?”
“We could cook together?”
“You’re on, Hollywood.” Preston rubs his palms together with a playful smirk on his face.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Preston
June 30
Whistling at the front of the locker room startles me as I sit at my locker talking to Miller and a few others from the team in a small circle. We were finally allowed back into the facility after a deep cleaning but instructed in no uncertain terms that we were to adhere to all pandemic protocols.
This includes testing every week, wearing a mask, and social distancing as much as possible. Hence the small circle instead of us being huddled together. The staff even reallocated lockers so only every other locker is occupied. It’s a bit crazy but as long as we are able to get back on the field and play sometime in the near future, I will do whatever they tell me to do.
The loud chatter around the locker room quiets as Coach takes his place in the center of the room. “Welcome back. I expect you all to put in the work and prove that you deserve your spot.” Coach stares daggers at me. “There are some changes in place so listen up.” He lifts his clipboard to read off his notes. “Players are expected to be tested every other day from here on out. It doesn’t matter if you have symptoms or not. If you test positive, you will be placed on the special injured list until youare cleared to play. Camp will be at home, beginning today. If all goes well, the season will start July 23.”
“Any questions?” No one says anything. “Players are able to opt out of play this season if you aren’t comfortable with the precautions. Talk to your agents about the agreement with the association on salary and benefits if you decide to opt out. I need to know ASAP what you decide to do.”
Fuck, so not only are we going into the season losing the mojo we had back in February but now there’s a chance that we go back into the season without some of our players. I don’t blame those who opt out but this doesn’t bode well for the team cohesiveness.
“What does that do to the roster if players opt out?” an outfielder asks from across the room.
“That brings me to my next point. The roster will look different this year. For the first two weeks of the season, the roster will be set at thirty. It then goes down to twenty-eight for the following two weeks, and then finally back to twenty-six like normal for the rest of the season. Unlike normal seasons though, we are able to have up to sixty players available instead of forty. They are calling it a taxi squad due to all the unknowns.”
“With the travel restrictions, what is the schedule like?” a pitcher asks.
“The league passed the sixty game season. We play our four divisional opponents ten times and then the other twenty games against interleague opponents in our geographic region. AL East plays NL East teams and so on.”
