The waitress appears, and Ted orders two baked chicken plates with double steamed broccoli as the side, no rice, no butter, and two glasses of ice water with lemon. Great. He ordered an allergy-safe dinner for me too. Setting down mymenu, I hope the disappointment doesn’t show on my face. Bland, baked chicken is the last thing I would have chosen and there’s no way I’m eating vegetables without butter. She looks at me and I force a smile.
“I’ll have a glass of the sauvignon blanc, please.”
She walks away and Ted looks at me with concern. “Just wine? You really shouldn’t skip meals, Blair. You definitely don’t need to lose any weight. You’re perfect just the way you are.”
Aaand now I’m realizing that he didn’t order for both of us just now. He was ordering himselftwohelpings. But I don’t want to tell him that I assumed one of the dinners was for me, because he’s so freaking nice and it will just make him feel bad—and me look dumb—so I just nod and say, “Yeah. Thanks. You’re right. I just wasn’t all that hungry, but maybe I’ll get something small."
He flags down a waitress that wasn't ours and I order a Caesar salad with grilled chicken. Ted seems pleased with my choice. Then our original waitress arrives with my wine and the waters. Surprisingly, the sauv blanc is pretty good.
“Do you want to try it?” I ask Ted, sliding my glass toward him.
“No, I’m good. I don’t drink alcohol.”
“Ah. That’s…very healthy of you.”
“Thanks,” he says, holding up his ice water. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.” I take a healthy swallow of my wine and then settle against the back of the booth. “I’m glad we could spend some time together. We haven’t really had a chance to get to know each other.”
His face lights up. “No time like the present, right? I want to get to know you, too. What do you do in your downtime?”
“Downtime?” I laugh. “I haven’t had much of that over the last four years. Business school is no joke. It’s been nothing but studying and homework and keeping on top of the markets.”
“You must have hobbies,” he says. “What do you like to do with your friends?”
“I think my only hobby is scouting all year long for the draft, which I love to talk about with my best friend, but she can’t stand it. The only baseball topic she’s interested in is her ranking of which players’ asses look the best in their uniform pants. Not to objectify you guys or anything.”
He throws back his head and laughs. “Guess we’re just pieces of meat to the female fans.”
“Notonlythe female fans,” I point out.
“You’re right.” That gets him laughing all over again.
“So…how are you feeling about the MLB season so far? Obviously your team’s been faring well, although statistically speaking, last year was better all around. There’s still time to improve, though.”
He nods. “I’m feeling good, personally. My strikeouts are up this season. As for the team, you’re definitely not wrong. But we still have time to make up the gap. A few of our best players have been out with injuries, too, so that’s been skewing things a little off kilter.”
“For sure,” I say, warming to the subject. “If it makes you feel any better, the Rockets are off to a bumpy start, too. That’s why I was so excited about the draft.”
“Your club picked up some bangers,” he says.
“I know!” I say, trying to ignore the pang in my chest over the fact that I didn’t get to sit beside my father during the draft in an official capacity. “Two of them were in my top ten. Wyatt Ramirez and Derek Rajan. I was really gunning for Ty Jamieson, too, but so was everybody else.”
“The kid’s got some serious talent,” Ted says. “Great picks, by the way.”
“Thanks,” I say brightly. “It’s easy to keep tabs on the stats when you actually love the game.”
“I love it, too. Sometimes I still can’t believe I get paid to play baseball. How lucky am I?”
Just then, our meals arrive. Well, his meals and my salad. It’s not even full size, more like an appetizer portion. It looks great, though, and I dig right in.
"How about you?” I ask. “What do you enjoy doing in the off-season?"
"Working out, PlayStation. I like to cook. And go running with my dog, Arwen. She’s a rescue—a shepherd mix.”
“Hold up, hold up…did you name your dog after a Lord of the Rings character?”
He actually blushes. “Not justanycharacter. The half-elven daughter of Elrond. She’s the Evenstar of her people!”
