On the Fence

“I’m thirsty,” Amber said the minute we sat down. “Charlie and I are going to go get some drinks before the game starts.” She pulled me up by my arm.

“Okay. Guess we’re going to get some drinks. Do you want anything?” I asked Evan.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a twenty. “Yes, will you get me a Dr Pepper?”

“Sure.”

Amber looked at Braden.

“No, I’m good.” And then, as if he remembered he was supposed to be her date, he quickly retrieved some money from his wallet and handed it to her.

She smiled her brightest smile. “Thanks.” The thing that bothered me was that the only reason I took Evan’s money was because he ordered a soda. I fully intended to pay for my own. So now I felt bad because I shamed Braden into giving Amber money.

As we walked up the steps to the concession stands, Amber said, “Geez, Charlie, when you were going on and on about how nice and funny and sweet Braden was, I thought he must be dog-ugly because you were focusing so much on his personality. All you had to say was he was hot and I would’ve been sold.”

I nodded, trying my hardest not to be bothered. There was so much more to Braden than his looks. “Yeah, I’ve known him my whole life, so I know him really well.”

“Do you think he likes me?”

He better not. “He just met you.”

“But don’t you believe in Fate? I mean, here I was supposed to go out with Dustin and suddenly he gets sick and who should happen to take his place but the man of my dreams? It must be fate.”

“Must be.”

“I’m going to buy him a drink anyway,” she said as we reached the front of the line. “What’s his favorite?”

Don’t you mean he is going to buy himself a drink? I wanted to say, but I decided I was being unfair to her just because she was Braden’s date. I was the one who invited him to begin with. Did I honestly think Amber wouldn’t find him attractive and vice versa? “He’s not really into soda, actually. Get him water or Gatorade and he’ll be happy.”

When she ordered a cherry Gatorade, I kept my mouth shut at first, knowing that was his least favorite. Cherry-flavored anything reminded him of cough medicine. But finally, I felt guilty enough to say “Lemon is his favorite.”

“Thanks.” She smiled at me with her perfectly straight, even teeth and changed the order. The way I was acting was not okay. I needed to snap out of it. We were friends. This was what we had both decided. Nothing more. And since when did I begrudge Braden a gorgeous, fun girl? I thought back. It had been a while since I’d seen him with a girl at all. Sure, he had his random dates here and there, but he hadn’t had a girlfriend for over a year now. I hadn’t been upset back then. I wouldn’t be upset now. Because we were friends.

Chapter 24

Amber spent the entirety of the game asking Braden questions about the rules and regulations of baseball, playing the perfect example of making a guy feel useful. I spent the entirety of the game pretending to be interested in Evan giving me the play-by-play while trying to actually watch the game. Toward the end of the game, Amber asked how long one of the pitchers had been on the team. “He looks so young,” she said.

Braden leaned forward and said, “You know, I’m not sure about that, but Charlie was just telling me about him the other day. How long has he been on the team again?”

I didn’t know all the players’ entry dates, but I happened to know his and yes, he was young. They all looked at me. The announcer’s voice rang out over the loudspeaker: “At the plate is Dunning and on deck is Lopez.”

“Um, yeah. He’s twenty-four. This is his second year.”

“She probably knows his stats, too,” Braden said. “She’s like a baseball encyclopedia.” He leaned back as if his job were done. And his job was done—I was mad.

“You should’ve said something,” Evan said. “I’ve probably been boring you to death.”

“No, not at all.” I gave him a weak smile. Just being here at the game was more than I could’ve hoped for. And despite the grade-school lesson on baseball, I was enjoying myself. Or was, until Braden made me feel like a jerk. I knew he did it on purpose, too. I saw the smug look in his eye as he leaned back.

“It’s pretty impressive that a girl that looks like you knows so much about baseball.”

I heard Braden laugh a little and wanted to punch him. Just because he didn’t find me attractive didn’t mean he had to make me feel stupid that someone else did. “You want to walk around before the last inning?” I asked.

“Sure,” Evan said, standing up and holding out his hand. I took it and tried to convince myself it wasn’t just to make Braden mad. Although I had no idea why it would. Except for the fact that maybe he didn’t think Evan measured up to the impossible standards he and my brothers set for my dates—he was wearing loafers, after all.

Evan made it past Braden’s legs just fine as we walked down the aisle to exit the row, but I knocked into one knee, nearly tripping, and couldn’t maneuver around his other. Evan looked back, still holding my hand. I shot Braden a look and he played innocent. I stepped hard on his foot. “Oh, sorry, was that your foot?”

He sucked in air and finally pulled his legs back.

It ended up being a good thing that Braden had outed me (not that I’d thank him anytime soon), because then we talked about things besides baseball. We talked about school and how he wanted to be a financial advisor when he grew up, like his dad. Now, finances were something I knew little to nothing about, so I had all sorts of questions for him. After a while, I said, “Yeah, you lost me when you got into that short-selling-a-stock thing. No idea what you’re talking about.”

He laughed, and I noticed how amazing it made his eyes look, all lit up like that.

“What’s your favorite sport?” I asked.

“To watch or play?”

“Both, I guess.”

“I don’t know if this counts as a sport to you, but I love to wakeboard.”

“Totally counts. That’s awesome. So you have a boat?”

“My dad does. He lets us take it out sometimes. Do you ski or wakeboard?”

“I’ve been a few times, but I’m not very good.”

“We should go. I’ll give you some pointers.”

“That would be really fun. Maybe we could take my brothers. I think you’d like them.” And they’d be super impressed if he was good at wakeboarding.