Virgin Flyer

“Yeah,” he said. “Sure.”

“I should quit my job?”

He turned to her. “Wait, what?”

She rolled her eyes and leaned over him to get to me. “What do you think, Teo? Is it worth dealing with all the city bullshit? I mean, I’d either have to get a roommate or live like… south of the city in some… cheap-as-shit apartment.”

“I live south of the city in some cheap-as-shit apartment,” I told her with a smile. “And I’ve loved every damned minute of it. I wouldn’t say I’d like to live in an apartment forever. I actually enjoy mowing my parents’ lawn and planting veggies and kitchen herbs in the summer with my mom. I’d love to have my own house with a yard one day. But for now, while I’ve been in my twenties and not tied down? It’s been amazing. The few train stops it takes me to get to the heart of the city are nothing compared to the long ride in from Carpentersville where we grew up.”

“I grew up in Barrington,” Chris mumbled, correcting me the way he always did. God forbid anyone think he came from the wrong side of the tracks.

“Fine, Barrington. Regardless, we both went to Barrington High. Chris and I met when we were like six. We were on the same Little League team.”

“Awww, that’s so sweet! So you two, like, love baseball together, and that’s why we’re here. Aww.” She clapped her hands together and then lifted up her beer can in a mock toast. I glanced at Chris, who was pretending to be incredibly consumed by Jon Lester’s lazy stroll to the mound.

“So, Chelsea… where did you and Chris meet?” I asked in an attempt to be friendly.

“Oh, so this is a great story,” she began, sitting forward again so we could talk over Chris. “My work husband, not my real husband because gross, but anyway, my work husband is married to a doctor who, like, has him on all this soy milk and stuff, which means he can only get a decent coffee at the shop around the corner from work since we don’t have any soy milk in our office. Which… now that I think about it… he could just buy some, I guess. But anyway…”

She continued telling me about a stranger’s need for soy milk until even I was incredibly consumed by Jon Lester’s lazy stroll to the mound.

“And that’s where I met Christy,” she finally said.

I looked at her after shooting a quick glance at Chris. He was 100 percent checked out. “Did you say Christy?” I asked. “With an eee?”

“Yeah. The girl who lives next door to Chris.” She said it like it was obvious.

I stared at her until she shrugged. “So that’s how we met,” she finished. “I saw him in the hallway of his building.”

I heard a low chuckle from behind me and turned to meet Jack’s twinkling eyes. I shot him a WTF look, and he winked back at me.

Because I was an evil person and couldn’t help myself, I turned back to her. “And when was this?”

18

Jack

“Yesterday,” she said.

I reached out and squeezed Teo’s shoulder to keep from laughing. He clasped my hand with his own and squeezed it until there was no blood circulation left.

“And we’re so happy you’ve joined us,” Teo said in his typical friendly voice. “Would you like another beer? I’m going to get some more food.”

Chelsea nodded gratefully while Chris sank noticeably lower in his seat. What a jackass. But I was happy to see him affected by Teo’s bringing me since that’s what Teo had wanted out of all of this.

And if I was a little sick to my stomach… well, it was probably the relish. I excused myself from the conversation with Logan and his sister and stood up to meet Teo back by the counter where the food was set up inside the suite.

He walked right up to me and leaned his forehead on my shoulder. “Help,” he whispered. “I think my ears are broken.”

I put my arms around him and kissed the top of his hair, inhaling the lemony aftershave I remembered from the first time we got together. Everything about him lit up my senses.

“Hey, Tee,” Chris called. “Will you grab me another beer too?”

We pulled apart so Teo could grab them some beers from the fridge. I poked through the rest of the food offerings, grabbing a few carrots and dip. I liked Teo’s friends. With the exception of Chris himself, they all seemed friendly and fun. Jay flirted with me but didn’t seem to mean anything by it. Logan was fascinated by my job and asked a ton of questions, and their friend Sam had made sure to offer me something to drink every time they got up to get anything.

As I stood there glancing out at the game and munching on carrot sticks, I suddenly realized that this was the exact point Millie had been trying to make to me for so long. Here I was, enjoying a baseball game on a gorgeous spring day with a welcoming group of interesting, friendly people. It was like having an actual social life outside of a hookup app or a quick dinner with a coworker on an overnight trip.