“I’m going to run over to Pearce’s now. He’s probably starving. I usually do his grocery shopping on Sunday.” She picked up her keys.
“You do Pearce’s grocery shopping?”
She winked. “I do anything he wants.”
Ugh. I could only take one asshole a day. “Ok. See you later.”
14
I had to get ready for date eight with Beau without Nina’s help. After an entire week, she still wasn’t talking to me. Dealing with a broken heart was enough for her to handle without me adding to her pile of problems. Our friendship could withstand this; we had been through too much over the past four years. I could wait until she was ready to open up even though all I wanted to do was sit on her bed and talk.
It was finally April. That meant campus was budding with flowers, birds were chirping, the daylight hours were growing longer, and the days until graduation were growing shorter. Spring also meant baseball, at least that’s what Beau’s text said.
Victoria had five remaining bachelors on the show. During this week’s episode, she had gone to a major league ballpark where she and one of the bachelors had private batting practice with the team’s best homerun hitter. After practice, they watched the game from a plush box, and then had a picnic in centerfield.
Beau had taken charge of our fake dates and he didn’t mention anything to me other than going to the baseball game, but tonight was my first move to change that. I picked up the picnic basket I had packed with grapes, cheese, brownies, and champagne.
Date Eight: Diamonds Are Forever
Beau stood outside the gate of Boshamer Stadium, the ballpark where our date was planned. I was used to seeing him in T-shirts, but I missed his arms. Catching a glimpse of those muscles flexing made me miss them even more.
“Hey.” He was smiling.
“Hey.” Not running directly into his arms was taking restraint.
“Do you have your ID?” He pulled his out of his wallet and proceeded to the gate. This was one event that we didn’t need tickets for admission.
Luckily, Candace had given me a quick baseball synopsis when I found out what the date was going to be. She knew all things baseball after dating last year’s star pitcher. This was my first trip to “The Bosh.”
“Yep. It’s right here.” I waved my student ID and followed him past the ticket takers.
The sun was setting and the ballpark was slowly filling with fans. Beau pointed me in the direction of a block of student seats near first base. Candace told me to clap only when one of the Tar Heels made it to base. She thought that would keep me from making an embarrassing cheering mistake.
We filed into an empty row and Beau stretched out, resting his feet on the chair in front of him.
“Dude. What’s up?” Another T-shirt-wearing guy slapped Beau on the back and sat down behind us.
“Just here for the game, man. What’s going on this weekend?” Beau turned toward his friend, isolating me from the conversation.
“You going to Jamie’s party later? It’s going to be tight.” The friend was grinning from ear to ear.
“Probably. See you later, man.”
He walked away, leaving me to wonder if my two-part plan was getting ready to fall apart. More importantly, was Jamie a boy or a girl?
“Who was that?”
“A friend of mine from class.” Beau’s eyes were focused straight ahead at first base. I think this was the part where Candace said they warmed up.
“Ahh. Right. Friend from class guy. Cool name.”
Beau chuckled. “His name is Drew.”
“Are you going to the party after the game?” I was hesitant to ask.
“Hey, look. They are throwing out the first pitch.” He switched topics..
There appeared to be some kind of ceremony taking place on the pitcher’s mound. I watched as a young girl hurled the ball toward home plate. The crowd cheered. We stood for the national anthem, and then the first batter took his place, swinging the game into action.