“Shut up,” I said while shaking my head at my idiot of a friend.
“Oh, touchy are we? Okay, I’ll drop it. Just one last thing?”
I narrowed my eyes at him before cautiously nodding. “I’m glad to see you back with her, you’ve never been as happy as when you’re with her.”
“Whatever. I’ve got to head off, I’m picking Mel up in half an hour.”
“Catch you later.”
I threw my towel in the basket on my way out and hurried my ass out to my car. Tonight’s date was very time-specific which meant I couldn’t be late in picking Mel up. I drove to the club and sent her a quick text once I’d parked out the back.
Melody tapped on the passenger side window of the car a few minutes later. I’d been fiddling with the radio, trying to find some halfway decent music. I reached over and unlatched the door, when she climbed in her bottom lip was quivering.
“Cold?” I didn’t wait for a response, I turned the heating from low to high in the hopes of making her more comfortable.
“Just a little. I forgot my coat at home.” She had on tights, a dress, and a thin cardigan. I had no doubt she would’ve been cold.
“We can swing by yours if you want?”
“No. I’ll be fine.”
I’d started to notice a theme of Mel not wanting me to know where she lived, but I didn’t understand why. She was a mystery. I didn’t question it, but only because I had a spare sweatshirt in my bag that I wanted to see her in.
“So, where are we going tonight?”
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
“Well, of course I will. But fine, since you’re all about surprises, I was going to tell you what color my underwear is but now I don’t think I will.” She lifted her chin in indifference while I burst out laughing.
“Okay.” I reluctantly sighed as if I couldn’t find out at any moment.Later.
“How was training today?”
“In one word, gruesome. I’m starting to feel old.”
“You’re only thirty-five, that’s not old.” I looked over at her to see her face pinched as if saying that I was being ridiculous.
“On a team of twenty-somethings, it feels old.” It was true, I was surrounded by a lot of young hotshot players. The older I got the more I saw the gradual decline in my statistics. It was just one of those things, inevitable.
“What age do baseball players retire?”
“There’s no real answer to that question. Some players keep going until they’re in their forties, whereas others have retired younger than I am now. It usually has to do with how long they’ve been around. I could retire now if I wanted to.”
“Really?” Her voice was so shocked. I knew a lot would have been surprised that the career of a baseball player averaged at ten years.
“Yeah, I’ve even started thinking about it,” I confessed. It had definitely been something that had been on my mind more and more.
“I couldn’t imagine you not playing anymore, you used to love it so intensely. Sitting up for hours trying to explain the game to me.”
I reached out to take hold of her hand, her words brought back fond memories of Melody and Callum the early years. I only wished we hadn’t missed out on such a big chunk of time. We’d been apart far longer than we had been together.
“We’re going to the cinema?” She asked skeptically, checking out the building in front of us as I pulled the car into the parking lot.
“Yes, we are.” I smiled, confident in my decision to bring her to the cinema on our second, second date. Her eyes watched me as I climbed out of the car and round the hood to pull open her door. I extended my hand forward to help her up.
I didn’t let go of her hand as we crossed the street to the cinema, she didn’t say anything on the matter and I was glad. I liked being able to hold her hand, it solidified the fact that she was real.
“Well, what movie are we going to see?” She asked but I didn’t answer. Once inside the building, we headed straight for the snack line.
