Third Base

by Author Stella

  “Wait. You mean to tell me that you and Coby never dated?”

  I shook my head without facing her.

  “And you’ve never dated anyone else?”

  “Nope.”

  She hesitated before saying anything else. “Me either.”

  I jerked my head up in surprise.

  “I was a total dork in high school. I had this hideous nose. Couple that with my height and big hair, and my nickname for four years was Big Bird. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for male callers. My parents paid for rhinoplasty as a graduation present, and I tried to reinvent who I was before arriving on campus. It’s been a failure of epic proportion.” She sighed and her shoulders slumped.

  “Why would you want to be someone different?” I could’ve answered that question myself. I’d wished the same thing…sort of.

  “I don’t care to be a wallflower my entire life, but I have no idea how to be anything else, and it comes off as fake and awkward.”

  We spent the afternoon getting to know each other, the real versions no one else here saw. For the first time since I’d stepped foot on this campus as a student, I’d spent the day interacting with people other than my professors, and I didn’t miss home or Coby quite as much. If only I’d realized that not everyone tried to use me to get to Coby—and rather had used Coby to reach me—the first half of the semester might have gone far differently.

  The next couple of days flew by with midterms. Ryan had started texting me regularly, and Melinda and I hung out between classes. I tried to avoid spending time in Ryan’s presence but found him waiting outside my lecture halls or lingering around my dorm more often than not. I should never have pieced together my schedule for him. Being friends with Ryan was like being granted a backstage pass to the biggest show on campus. Students acted like he was famous, his personality was as large as Melinda’s hair, and he garnered attention everywhere he went. And somehow, in just a few short days, he’d pulled me into that niche and didn’t show any signs of letting go.

  I’d gone back to our room to get my things and had just pulled the door closed behind me when Ryan poked me in the side, nearly causing my heart to stop. The campus was rather quiet, considering most everyone had left for the Thanksgiving holiday. I hadn’t expected to run into anyone.

  “Jesus, Ryan. You scared the snot out of me. What are you still doing here? I thought you were leaving before lunch.”

  “I got held up and then realized you were probably still here.”

  “Are you stalking me again? You never did tell me how you knew I didn’t like pork.” I pushed the strap of my bag up farther onto my shoulder and started to walk toward the stairs.

  “You don’t like pork, so what difference does it make? And no, I wasn’t stalking you. I saw you across campus.”

  “And you thought you’d run all the way over here in hopes of catching me before I left?”

  He pushed the heavy, metal door open and held it for me to pass through. “Can’t a guy just wish his friend a happy Thanksgiving without getting the third degree?”

  Ryan had something up his sleeve, but he hadn’t spilled the details of what. With my luck, he’d try to use me to pull off some historic prank no one would suspect me of. And when we reached my car, he had that devious look in his eyes. I opened the trunk and tossed in my bag, but before I could further question his motivation, my phone rang.

  I held up a finger to Ryan while I answered the ringtone I never ignored. “Hey, Coby.”

  Ryan stood inches from my face and twirled strands of my long hair while I tried to have a conversation. I batted his hand away, only for him to pull on my sweater and then kick at my shoe. He was acting like a two-year-old who sought his mother’s attention. I couldn’t help but laugh at his immaturity.

  My distraction irritated Coby. “I’m listening. I’m getting in my car now. I’ll be there in like twenty minutes, tops.”

  I hung up the phone with my best friend agitated by my tardiness on one end, and Ryan acting like a jilted toddler on the other.

  “You spending the holiday with Coby?”

  I smirked at the hint of jealousy behind his question. “I spend every holiday with Coby…and his dad…and my parents. I’ve told you, they’re an extension of my family. But this isn’t about Thanksgiving. I promised him I’d go house hunting with him this afternoon before we go home.”

  “You and Coby are looking at houses together?”

  I swatted playfully at his chest. “Not like that, silly. Coby just prefers to have a second opinion before he buys anything. He’s actually narrowed it down to four or five places and asked me to weigh in before he makes an offer.”

  “You’re the final decision maker in his home purchase? Are you moving in with him?”

  The shrug I offered apparently wasn’t the response he’d hoped for, and the words I uttered next seemed to hit him harder than they should a friend. “I wouldn’t say final, but my guess is he’ll buy the one I like best out of those he’s chosen. And no, I don’t plan to move in with him until this summer…if I do.”

  “But you two aren’t dating?”

  “Uh-uh. Why?”

  Ryan leaned in to kiss my cheek, and my face flushed with heat. “No reason. Just curious. You two have fun. Text me when you get home, okay?” He took my hand and squeezed it quickly before dropping it and backing away with a smile. “I’ll see you next week, but I better hear from you while you’re gone, Teller.”

  I returned his grin and placated his requests. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll talk to you later, Ryan.”

  Thankfully, I’d exaggerated how long it would take me to meet Coby. I hadn’t planned on Ryan’s question-and-answer session, but I had allowed myself a few minutes’ cushion. By the time I arrived at the address Coby had given me, he and the real estate agent were already inside.

  I tried to keep an open mind. Coby and I hadn’t had a chance to talk about what he wanted in a home, but I couldn’t imagine it would be this. From the outside, it was enormous, and once inside, I got lost in the vastness of it all.

  “Coby?” My voice ricocheted in the empty space. I’d never seen a house this big in real life, much less been inside one. I instantly hated it.

  “Hey, E.T. This is Marissa. She’s the team’s real estate agent.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. Feel free to look around. I’ll step away so the two of you can talk.” And as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.

  “So what do you think?” His question didn’t reveal a clue as to what he thought.

  “It’s…overwhelming. Do you really need this much space?”

  He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God you agree with me. I fought tooth and nail against these huge houses. I hate them. Can you imagine living here alone? Hell, even with another person, I could go days and never see them.”

  “Have you told your agent that?”

  “Yeah, but I guess most players end up spending a sizeable chunk of their signing bonus on their first house. And she makes a commission based on the price, so it’s in her best interest to sell me on larger and more expensive homes.” He continued talking as we walked through one empty room after another.

  I couldn’t even imagine what all would occupy this space if Coby had decided to buy it. “If the rest of the houses we’re going to look at are a repeat of this one, then I think we’re wasting our time. Do you need me to tell her?”

  Coby tended to let people railroad him to keep from hurting their feelings. When he didn’t object, I took that as a green light to speak up. I wasn’t typically assertive, but I didn’t have a problem telling someone the truth.

  “Hey, Marissa?” I called out into the air, waiting to hear her response or the click of her heels on the hard floors around us.

  We finally found her in the kitchen. “So, Ellie, what do you think of the house?”

  “Honestly, I think it’s ostentatious.”

  “Your friend’s lifestyle has changed completely since he left DeArm
anville.”

  “Yeah, but his personality hasn’t. So before we waste any more of our time or yours, why don’t we have a heart-to-heart about what Coby wants and see what you can find what fits his needs?”

  She plastered on a fake smile and gritted her teeth when she nodded. “What did you have in mind, Coby?”

  He raked his hand through his hair the way I’d seen him do a thousand times. Coby didn’t know how to narrow this down—at eighteen, houses weren’t on his radar. She intentionally hadn’t asked specific questions, and that irritated me.

  “How many bedrooms do you want?” I rolled my eyes away from her to address him and ask the thing his real estate agent should have before dragging him out to neighborhoods.

  “I think four or five would give me room to grow if I ever got married or had kids.”

  I’d never heard Coby mention either, but now wasn’t the time to address that. “What about a pool?”

  “It would be nice, but it’s not a deal breaker. I wouldn’t have time to deal with one, but if you would like to have one, then I can pay someone to come out to take care of it.” The conversation drifted away from Marissa and into one the two of us were comfortable with.

  “One story or two?” I asked.

  “One. Definitely one.”

  “In your opinion, what’s the most important thing the house has to have for you to consider purchasing it?”

  He thought for a minute before finally answering. “Quality construction. Not a fixer-upper. I’m going to be gone too much and won’t be around to do anything.” He turned toward Marissa. “Ellie doesn’t need to deal with things breaking when I’m on the road. I’d rather have high-end construction than square footage.”

  To my surprise, Marissa had decided to take notes on her client’s preferences instead of what she wanted to sell him. “So you’re looking for a one-story with four or five bedrooms, a pool, and quality construction? That’s all you have on your wish list?”

  “Yeah. Anything else that comes up, I can have someone install them.”

  “You two hang tight for a minute and let me run out to my car and see what I can find that we might be able to see this afternoon.” And with that, she pivoted on her heel and disappeared.

  Three hours later, Coby made an offer on his first house. I couldn’t have been happier with his selection, but I’d tried to keep my feelings under wraps until he’d made his decision. And it was perfectly Coby.

  After he had filled out the paperwork, I followed him back to drop off his car at the apartment he shared with another rookie. And the two of us made our way to Podunk, USA, for Thanksgiving.

  Four days with my parents, Mr. Kyler, and Coby weren’t enough. I knew when we pulled out of the driveway to go back to Tuscaloosa, things would go back to the way they’d been since August. Mine and Coby’s schedules never lined up, and we’d be dependent on FaceTime, phone calls, and text messages. But even the FaceTime had become scarce the closer he got to his teammates. I wanted all that for him, just like I wanted the friendships I’d started to build with Ryan and Melinda. It was just an adjustment building them separately.

  The drive had been relatively silent, but I couldn’t tell if he was thinking or daydreaming. My phone dinged in the cup holder, drawing Coby out of his trance.

  “Who is it?” I asked Coby while handing him the phone. Texting while driving was a dangerous sport I didn’t play.

  “Ryan.” There was confusion in his voice while he studied the screen. “He’s asking why he hasn’t heard from you and if you’re okay.”

  “Crap. I haven’t returned any of his calls. Will you respond and tell him I’m sorry, I’m on my way back, and to come by tonight?”

  He typed at my request and questioned me simultaneously. “Who’s Ryan? And why does he think he’s your father?”

  “Maybe because you asked him to act like it.”

  “Aww. That’s sweet. Ry-Guy followed through on his commitment?”

  “Ry-Guy?”

  He shrugged, but the smirk on his lips told me he was rather proud of his ability to put down the guy who he’d asked to fill in for him.

  “You should be nicer, Coby. He could end up being your best-friend-in-law.”

  “Why, do you hear wedding bells?”

  “Hardly. The gold diggers are chasing you. But he figured out I don’t like pork.”

  “What the hell does that have to do with you marrying him?”

  “How many years did it take for you to figure it out?”

  “That’s hardly fair. Your mom cooked every meal we ate, and she obviously never cooked what you didn’t like. So it would be difficult for me to be aware you didn’t like it when it was never served. And I didn’t find out about the whole pig incident until months after it had happened.”

  “He never saw it served to me either, but he knew.”

  “So, is he vying for the role of chef in your life, or boyfriend?”

  “Neither that I’m aware of. But I’d consider his sausage.”

  “You’re so full of shit, E.T. You’d never eat sausage.”

  I died laughing when he realized what he’d said. But he didn’t see the humor in my joking about another man’s penis. “Oh, lighten up. I’ve never even seen another guy’s sausage, much less tasted it.”

  My phone dinged again.

  “Your boytoy is asking what time he should come by, and if you’d like to go out to dinner.”

  Coby didn’t wait for my response before hacking out a text to Ryan. Before I knew it, the two of them were chatting back and forth, and Ryan had no idea he wasn’t talking to me. When I tried to grab the cell, Coby continued the virtual conversation while holding the phone slightly out of my reach. My only option was to let it go and face the consequences later…

  Or pull over and beat the hell out of him.

  “Coby, what are you saying to him?” I shrieked across the car.

  “Just finding out if his intentions are honorable.”

  There was no point in fighting it. This had been years in the making. Coby was having fun at my expense, and I could only hope I’d take it this well if he ever showed interest in a female I didn’t know.

  “While you’re at it, can you ask how he figured out I didn’t like pork?”

  “Enough with the sausage talk already. I’m not sexting the guy.”

  “I wasn’t referring to sex, you pervert.”

  “Ellie, lift up your shirt and let me send him a pic.”

  I swatted his chest, and he feigned pain.

  “I’m wounded. When did you become so violent? Did they teach you that in college?” Coby tossed the phone back into the cup holder.

  “What did you say to him?”

  “He’ll pick you up at seven. And he’s aware there better not be any sausage on the menu.”

  “Please tell me he doesn’t think this is a date, Coby. We’re just friends.”

  He smirked. “Don’t worry. He’s clear on that point.”

  When we pulled into the complex and up to his building an hour or so later, there was a crowd of guys standing on the sidewalk. I didn’t recognize them, but Coby clearly did. He rolled down the window and hollered at them in some odd battle cry that sounded like the swoosh of a ball, which they all returned in unison.

  I wasn’t sure if I should be mortified or laugh at the idiocy of it all. “What was that?” A chuckle filled my words.

  “The Titan trill.” He stated this as though it was obvious and I should’ve figured it out. “Come on. You can meet some of the other players.”

  No part of me wanted to get out of the car, but this was where our friendship became more important than my comfort level. This was Coby’s life now, and I had to embrace it the way he was trying to do with Ryan. I unbuckled my seatbelt after parking the car and followed Coby into a life I knew little about.

  “Hey, guys. This is Ellie.”

  “E.T.,” a younger guy in the group echoed my nickname. He was cute and clearl
y a playboy. Where it would normally bother me that anyone other than Coby had used the term of endearment, those two letters made my heart swell. If he’d heard my nickname, then Coby had talked about me.

  “Ellie, this is Mark, Henry, Cason, and Brian.” Coby pointed at each guy as he spoke their name. “Catcher, first base, outfielder…and we aren’t sure what the hell Brian’s position is.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Kyler. You’re just jealous I can actually see the ball.”

  I’d never heard anyone make fun of Coby’s vision issues, and I sucked in a breath to wait for the fallout, my eyes scanning the group in front of me.

  “Is that what you call all the catches you missed that got you benched? Seeing the ball…?” Mark came to Coby’s defense in a backhanded way, but I realized none of their teasing was malicious.

  Cason tipped his head in Coby’s direction as the chatter continued, none of which I followed. “Dude, she’s cute as hell. Why haven’t you brought her around?”

  All emotion—and I assume color—drained from my face. I had no clue what to do with this attention or how to flirt back. Where most girls would eat this up, I was lost in a sea of social immaturity.

  “He’s smarter than you dumbasses give him credit for. Would any of you bring a girl like that around the likes of any of us?” Henry winked in my direction, but Coby stepped in front of me protectively.

  “Down, Fido. They’re just playing.” I prayed to God they were before some savage beast tore through Coby’s chest and ate them all for lunch. “It was really nice to meet you all.” I turned my best friend back to face me. “I’ve got to get to school, Coby. Thanks to you, I have dinner plans and don’t want to be late.”

  He stuck his finger out, and before I realized it, I’d met his with my own. I wasn’t sure when I’d get to see him again, and it sucked not to be able to hug his neck before I left, but there was always the guarantee of Christmas. And it was only a few weeks away.

  Chapter 4

  Ellie

  Finals came and went. Christmas blew by with Coby moving into his new house and then the two of us going home. We still talked every chance we got, but the conversations were often short and frequently took place in front of large groups of eavesdroppers. I never ignored one of his calls, regardless of where I was—whether that was at a frat party or the library. There had even been a handful of lectures I’d excused myself from to take his call in the hall, since it would only last a couple of minutes. It was harder for me to reach out to him. His schedule constantly changed, I couldn’t keep up with his workouts or practices, and considering I never knew who he was with, I didn’t want to interrupt whatever he might be doing.