by K. Aten
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
I scuffed my shoe against the sidewalk and glanced down. “I, um, I’m pretty serious about you.”
Jen grabbed my hand and I looked up in time for her to plant a long, probing kiss on me, not caring a bit if someone were watching that time. I managed a quiet moan before she pulled away. That cute smile and her kisses got me every time. “Good, because I’m pretty gone on you too.” After we started walking again she said, “How about I make dinner before we go out? I think I have the stuff to make spaghetti.”
My stomach growled thinking about it and I had already eaten breakfast. If there is one thing I learned for sure since we became friends, it was that Jen was a great cook. I licked my lips and gave her a lecherous look. “I can’t wait to taste your sauce!”
She laughed and gave me a little shove. “Stop it! Come up about seven and dinner will be on the table. Sound good?”
I gave her a wink as we approached the entryway into the medical complex. “Sounds perfect, Darlin, it’s a date.”
Dinner that night was fantastic and later, at the bar, I was ready to dance it off. One of my favorite songs was playing when we got there so I gave Jen a pleading look. She smiled and took my hand, leading us onto the dance floor. One of the things I loved about her was that not only did she know how to dance, Jen loved to do it as much as I did. My thoughts screeched to a halt. I thought the word ‘love’, which is a word I never said and rarely thought. I mentally shrugged it off and kept dancing.
I could see a few girls trying to make eye contact with me, but there was only one person who held my attention. Jen was sexier than ten women put together and it was all I could do not to drag her out of the bar every time we finished a dance together. I was sure my attention to Jen had a few tongues wagging but I didn’t care at all. Let them talk. It saved me the trouble of spreading it around myself.
Later that night, lying in Jen’s bed, I think I saw fireworks. I don’t know what it was but each time we made love, I felt that much closer to her. Sometimes I wanted to cry because it was so overwhelming. The scary thing was that I was pretty sure she felt the same way.
THE FOLLOWING WEEKS of summer passed much the same way. We continued dating exclusively, going out to dinner, dancing, movies, and even the occasional games of Frisbee golf. I finally introduced Jen to David and Brodie. Yes, he was still dating Brodie, which was a new record for him. We went to dinner at this little Mexican place on the south side of town. They all got along great and later David pulled me aside and told me how happy he was. It was a good feeling.
We were coming up to our last week of softball and as predicted, Milligan’s Pub was slotted to play Sudsations for first place. I was nervous, my girls had been doing well all season but so had the other team. Jen and I rode together to the ball game and hugged and kissed for good luck near her car. Having our arms wrapped around each other earned a strange look from Robin when we came walking up together. I hadn’t spoken with Robin since I left the bar over a month ago. When she gave me a questioning look, I just smiled shyly and shrugged my shoulders. She nodded and gave me a big grin. Jen was oblivious to the entire exchange, luckily.
She walked me into my dugout, and in the privacy of the wood shelter gave me another kiss that left me weak in the knees. With one last peck to the lips she said “Good luck!” then walked out across the infield to her own dugout. I was busy watching her tight black pants saunter away when the girls started in on me.
The heated blush worked its way up my neck and across my cheeks amidst cat calls and whistles. I took a deep breath and turned around, unable to hide the silly grin on my face. I laughed. “Oh knock it off! You’ve already met my girlfriend, Jen.” Of course after they got over the shock of my statement, they just hooted louder. I grabbed my glove and trotted onto the field to warm up my arm. I called over my shoulder as I went, “I hope you ladies plan on warming up because I sure don’t want to wind up in second place because we were throwing the ball around!” That got them moving. Every single one of them paired up to throw balls back and forth.
Of course Vicki came out to throw with me. After the first few lobs back and forth she called, “Girlfriend?”
I felt a little shiver at the word and had to purposely keep myself from glancing over to see her beautiful face. I grinned at our pitcher and joked, “Yeah, what’s it to yah?”
She smiled back at me as she picked up a wicked grounder I tossed her way. “Nothing, Little Bird, I’m just happy for you, that’s all.”
“Thanks Vic, I’m happy too. Now the only thing that would make me happier is first place!”
We both laughed at that as I trotted over to the dugout and she got our catcher to grab a few balls while she warmed up her pitching arm. After submitting our roster to the umps I gathered my girls together in a huddle. “Alright listen up, ladies! They’ve got home team advantage, which means we have to play this game smart. We know they are tough, and they will capitalize on our mistakes! So we’re going to keep the stupid ones down to a minimum, right?”
“Right!” The resounding chorus of voices nearly left me deaf.
“Alright, the roster is hanging above the bats. Let’s get this game started and hit them hard. Don’t let up and don’t let off! Let’s go ladies, fire it up!”
We started off with Sally from first base, Bobbie from right center, Julie from left, and Vicky. Their pitcher walked the first two batters, Julie had a base hit to knock them around and then Vicky nailed it to deep center to bring Sally and Bobbi home. Crystal, our second baseman, had a dribble hit and was thrown out at first, and Kara from right field nailed a tall infield fly and was called out by the ump. I had a solid base hit up center field, bringing in Julie in but leaving Vicky and I sitting on third and second base. Angie got a solid base hit to advance me and bring in Vicky. We had two outs but were sitting tidy on four runs. Unfortunately June, who is one of our power hitters, nailed it right to the left center for the third out.
We held them to two runs in the bottom of the first inning, mainly due to some good pitching and in-fielding. The next four innings, we took turns going back and forth for the lead. It was a close game, and more than a few people were getting testy. I had to give the umps credit, they had some really close calls and they were doing a great job being fair and impartial. Or at the very least, calling the same crap for both sides.
We were up by one run in the bottom of the sixth inning when it happened. Sudsations had two outs and the bases loaded when Jen came up to bat. I had a feeling, call it intuition I guess, but I didn’t bother worrying about a short ball this time. I yelled “Big Stick!” and even Julie backed up. In the end, it didn’t do us a bit of good. I watched in awe as the ball sailed over my head, and over the eight foot fence behind me. I mumbled “Fuck me!” and threw my glove to the ground as all four of their players jogged home. I had to smile a little as they all lined up to slap Jen’s hand when she came around. After she touched home plate and the rest of her team went back into the dugout she turned and looked out toward me. She did that on purpose! I gave her an exaggerated shrug so she could see it, and blew her a kiss. She was still my girl.
We managed to get the next player out to end the inning but that still left us down by three runs. Now, more than any other time this season, we needed our bats. Not only did we have to make up a deficit, but we also had to try to give ourselves a little buffer and hope they didn’t score too many runs at the bottom of the seventh inning.
We found ourselves with two outs but we had managed to score five runs. That was the point that I found myself on second base, with Angie right behind me on first. June finally came through for us and nailed a ball deep into left center. I put on speed as I rounded third base and headed for home. Through the noise I could hear someone yelling down and I knew the ball was coming home. I went down just as Jen’s rocket ball hit the catcher’s mitt. You would think that woman would have learned by now but she didn’t ta
g me.
My girls went crazy when the ump yelled, “No tag, runner’s safe!”
The catcher tried to protest saying she caught the ball and had her foot on the plate before I came home. I just shook my head as I walked away. I came all the way from second and since it wasn’t a force, she had to tag me. I could only imagine what her team was going to say to that. I grabbed the bat that had been thrown off to the side and slapped Lynne’s hand as she walked by to the batter’s box. “Good luck Lynne, nail it!” Unfortunately, Lynne’s ball got sucked into “The Vacuum’s” mitt and we had to be content with only a three run lead. Our whole team was as nervous as cats in a room full of rocking chairs.
Robin started the cheer on the way out to the field. “Come on Milligan’s! Three up, three down!”
I got the first batter out when she hit some easy corn. The next two batters got on base then they had another big hitter up. Sure enough, she nailed the ball deep to left field and Julie was camped out under it calling me off. She caught it just fine but not before the runner’s tagged up and advanced to third and second. The next bat was a base hit that brought one of the runners home and advanced the rest. Their second out came with a line drive straight back at Vicky. It was the fast reflexes that not only saved her face, but got the out.
We were still up by two runs and the other team had two outs. I was practically crossing my fingers in my mitt. The end of the game, when it came, was kind of anticlimactic. The final batter hit a fast dribbler right to first base. Unfortunately, the ball made it to the bag before the runner did. I think Sally was more shocked than the other woman. All of us in the outfield came running in, whooping and cheering. The win was great and so was the knowledge that a first place finish earned our team a one hundred dollar bar tab from our sponsor. Oh yeah, the girls were drinking and eating on the house tonight!
The other team lined up and we all slapped hands. We had all been playing with and against each other for years so there weren’t really any hard feelings involved. We’d finished in second place to them before, so we knew how it felt. At the end of our lines, Jen and I met in the middle of the field. I stared at her for a second, letting all my emotions show with a single glance. Then, not caring a bit who was watching, I pulled her to me and kissed her. When we finally came up for air, I gave her a Cheddar grin and said, “I love you, and I’ll see you tonight!” I gave her a second to make sure she heard, and then I winked at her and ran off the field to join my teammates in celebration. But I’d never forget the look on her face when she heard those three special words come out of my mouth. Even through the tears that immediately spilled from her eyes, she looked radiant and not an inch less beautiful.