Change Up

by Lacy Hart

  I spent some extra time in the mirror after my shower this morning, doing my hair and makeup, things that I didn’t often pay close attention to before I went to the library. I needed to feel good in every way today, and this was as good a place as any to start. I even dressed in prettier clothes than usual, putting on a linen floral dress that I had hanging in the closet, unworn since I moved here. Since the weather was predicted to be nice today, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to wear it.

  I left the apartment and made my usual walk to the library, walking past Harding’s Diner and the men’s morning meeting in the window. I didn’t quite know what to expect in regards to a reaction from people in town. Small towns are notorious for gossip and news spreading fast, and I am sure the word about my whirlwind dating with Wes Martin was already making its way around town… and perhaps even our falling out was news to some people as well. I walked down the street, going by the front window, and saw Clyde Stuart and his crew smile at me and wave as I went by. Wyatt Martin was there as well and lifted his cup of coffee to me and smiled as I went by. I gave a small wave and smile back and tried to move on as quickly as I could.

  I reached the library door and Karen, as usual, was waiting for me.

  “Well don’t you look nice this morning,” Karen commented, gazing up and down at the dress I was wearing.

  “I just felt like something pretty today,” I told her as I unlocked the door. “The nice spring weather must have brought it out in me.”

  “Okay,” Karen said, following me in, probably wondering why I was going to great lengths to defend my selection of clothes.

  We both went about our morning routine of getting things set up for the library. When Karen was done with her tasks, she brought two cups of coffee into my office and sat down across from me.

  “I know you probably don’t want to talk about this,” Karen started, “but did you see the news this morning about Wes Martin? They confirmed he got picked up by the Reds.”

  I sat back from my computer and looked at Karen and sighed.

  “I know,” I told her. “Wes came by my apartment last night before he left.”

  “He did? What did he say? Why didn’t you call me?” Karen said as she sat closer to me.

  “He was only there for a few minutes,” I told Karen. “Wes showed up right after I dropped you at home. He told me he was leaving for Cincinnati and he asked me to go with him.”

  “Wow,” Karen replied with a look of shock. “I guess since you’re here this morning you told him no.”

  “Karen, I couldn’t go with him. Besides everything that was going on between the two of us and with his daughter, I wasn’t going to run off to Cincinnati and just leave town like that. That’s not me.”

  “Don’t get me wrong Kris,” Karen stated. “I’m glad you stayed; I like having you here. You’re one of the few things in this town that make living here worth it. And I know you don’t really know him that well, but from what you told me, the last few days with him were intense for both of you. It would be tough to not go and at least see what happens.”

  “Karen, I’ve only been here for a couple of months,” I replied. “I’m just getting my feet under myself here in Chandler and with my job. I like my life here right now, and I don’t want to just give that up in the hopes that something might work out with Wes. What if I went and then two months from now he decided he wanted someone else? Where does that leave me? It’s too much risk. I need some stability in my life right now.”

  “I respect your choice,” Karen said, raising her cup of coffee to me, “it couldn’t have been an easy thing to do.”

  “It wasn’t,” I said honestly. “I know it was only a few days, but… I have very strong feelings for Wes. To see that fall apart like it did hurts. His offer was tempting, for a second, but then I realized it was best for both of us if went separate ways. He has other things he needs to focus on, and I have my life that I need to focus on. I have to start thinking about life beyond Wes Martin.”

  We could hear some people moving about in the library, so Karen got up to see what was going on and if anyone needed help. I went back to my computer, checking and answering my emails, and then reading the news. I could see that one of the top stories was Wes going to Cincinnati, with a picture of him and a brief story questioning whether or not he was the answer for the team. I quickly moved down the page to get the rest of the news, instead of getting caught up in the story about Wes.

  The rest of the morning went along normally, with the usual events going on at the library – helping patrons find books, ordering books from other libraries, coordinating events, and the like. I went out for lunch at around one, choosing to avoid the diner and instead going to the Chinese food place down the street to pick up some wonton soup and an egg roll for lunch. It was nice enough to sit outside today, so I sat at one of the tables placed on the lawn area outside the library and enjoyed the spring sun and breeze.

  After I finished eating, I went inside to get back to work. Karen was there at the front counter listening to something, and when I walked in, she turned the volume down.

  I walked up to the desk smiling. “Were you listening to one of those romance books on audio again? I told you to be careful; you never know who might walk in.”

  “No, I wasn’t,” Karen said with a smirk. “I… I was listening to the ballgame. Pirates and Reds.”

  I looked at Karen and quickly composed myself. “You don’t have to hide it, Karen,” I told her. “There’s nothing wrong with listening to the game.”

  “Okay,” she said, turning the volume up slightly. “Just so you know, Wes hit a home run his first time up.”

  “Good for him,” I commented, trying not to show any interest. I walked back to my office and went back to work, going through messages on the phone and email, and tried not to pay attention to the ballgame.

  A little while later, Karen peeked her head into my office. “He just hit another one,” she said quietly. I just nodded, not even looking up from the paperwork I was doing. A little while later I heard Karen exclaim “Holy crap!” I ran out from behind my desk to see what was wrong.

  “What is it?” I said, panicking over what I might find.

  “Sorry, Kris,” Karen said to me as I came out looking frantic. “It was just the ballgame. Wes… well, Wes hit another home run. That’s three in one game. It’s pretty amazing.”

  I sighed and looked at her. “Great,” I said to her and walked back to my office. I knew it was good that Wes was doing so well, but part of me didn’t want to know he was doing great in Cincinnati, moving on with his career and making a big splash. A little part of me was jealous that he could move on so easily.

  By the time five came around, and it was time to close, the game was over. The Reds had won, and Wes was a hero in Cincinnati, at least from what Karen told me. She could tell I really didn’t want to hear any more about it as we were cleaning up and locking up for the day. When we walked out and locked the door, Karen turned to me and looked me right in the eye.

  “I’m sorry this is so rough on you Kris,” she said sincerely.

  “It’s okay,” I said to her. “I think it’s just going to take some time. It doesn’t make it easier that we live in a town where Wes is a hero and I will hear his name or see his picture all the time.”

  Karen decided to walk with me back to my apartment. We strolled along Main Street, watching as some of the shops started closing for the day. The diner was just up ahead of us on the street.

  “You want to grab something to eat?” Karen suggested as we got closer to the diner.

  I thought about it as a possibility. It would be better than going home and sulking and wallowing in pity in my apartment right now. Before I could answer, I looked up as we got close to the door. Coming out the front door was Isabelle dressed in the school track uniform of a tank top and green shorts, holding hands with a young boy with a white apron wrapped around his waist. We stopped and stared at each
other for a moment.

  “Hi, Isabelle,” I said politely, trying to smile at her and put on a good face.

  She looked down at the ground and quickly let go of the boy’s hand. She gave me a brief glance and said: “Hello, Ms. Arthur.” Isabelle turned to the boy and said, “I’ll talk to you later Bradley,” and then ran past us up the sidewalk and down the street.

  Bradley stood there holding the door open for us, waiting for us to enter. I decided to keep walking and went by the diner and towards my apartment. Karen hustled to catch up with me.

  “You okay?” she said, worried about me.

  “I’m fine,” I replied. “I just don’t feel like eating out tonight.”

  We walked on quietly for a few paces before Karen tried to resume the conversation.

  “That went better than I thought it would,” Karen remarked. “It’s not like she jumped over and tried to punch you or anything.”

  I gave her a sideways glance and could see she was smiling at me.

  “Who’s the boy?” Karen asked me.

  “I have no idea,” I said curtly, wondering if Wes had any idea that Isabelle had a boy in her life. I kept walking on silently until we reached my apartment building.

  “Well, thanks for the stimulating talk,” Karen told me. I looked over at her before I went up the stairs to my apartment.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t such great company today,” I said to her. “I do appreciate you trying to cheer me up, really. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.”

  “If you need anything or want to talk, just give me a call,” Karen stated. “I’m only a few blocks away. You can even come over if you want. I don’t have much to offer – maybe some leftover pizza – but you’d have some company at least.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” I walked up the steps to my apartment door and went in. I put my purse down and went to the fridge to see what was there. I had some leftover spaghetti and meatballs that I tossed in the microwave to have for dinner. When the microwave dinged, I pulled out the steaming bowl and slowly walked around the apartment. Finally, I settled on sitting on my bed to watch some TV while I ate.

  If my parents could see me eating spaghetti in bed, I thought to myself and gave a little smile.

  Nothing interesting was on the TV, and as I was passing the sports channel, I saw highlights of Wes hitting his home runs. There was a brief clip of an interview he gave after the game. He was talking about how it was a new start for him, and it was great to get off to a good one. I quickly grabbed the remote and turned to watch something else, anything else, and settled on some reality show that I paid little attention to. I heard a faint beep come from my phone, which made me realize I had turned my phone on. I got off the bed and walked over to my purse and grabbed the device. I saw there was a recent message from Wes, along with a bunch that I hadn’t read from previous days. The one from today was just from a few minutes ago, stating how he had a good day and wished I was there with him and that he was thinking of me.

  I held the phone in my hand for a minute, started to type two or three times, and then deleted each message I came up with before I sent anything. Wes was not making it easy to forget him, near or far.

  I carried my phone back into the bedroom with me and put it on my nightstand. I concentrated on the reality show, watching the antics of people trying to renovate their house, hoping to get lost in what they were doing, to get lost in anything that wasn’t Wes Martin.

  26

  Wes

  Some people might see waking up in hotels as a glamorous, decadent thing. When you do it all the time, it starts to lose its luster, even if you are staying at a nice hotel. There are constant reminders that you are just a visitor here, and nothing about it makes it feel like its home for you. That was how I felt this morning when I woke up to the sound of my alarm at 8 AM.

  I had set my alarm early because I needed to get myself back into the routine I kept during the season. Sleeping right, getting in workouts, eating right – it was all part of what kept me in good shape, kept me strong, and allowed me to play for as long as I had. Even though today was an off day on the schedule, I still wanted to dive back into my routine.

  I got dressed in just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, packed a small bag with some of my exercise clothes, and decided to head over to the stadium to work out. Today was a good day to walk over there, and to walk like I meant it, not take a casual stroll that one might take when enjoying a day off in the city. The streets were a bit busy as people got themselves into their offices for the day, but I was still able to make it over the stadium relatively quickly.

  I got in my usual workout, exercising for about two hours. I stretched, did some cardio and a little bit of work with weights until I had worked up a good sweat. I then went over to the indoor batting cages and hit against the machine for a while, just trying to keep my eyes and pitch recognition sharp. Once I was done, I went and showered, got back to my locker and changed back into my street clothes. A few guys were hanging around the locker room, reading mail or getting ready for workouts. I picked up my things and left the clubhouse, starting the walk down the corridor to go outside the stadium when I heard a voice calling to me from behind me.

  “Wes!” the voice yelled. “I turned around to see Bill Thomas standing there. He had just come out of the Pirates locker room and began walking towards me. I stood there and waited for him to come up to me. He wasn’t the guy I really wanted to spend time talking to right now.

  “Hey, Wes,” he said, extending his hand to me. I shook it, reluctantly and politely. He had a strong grip, and maybe he tightened it a bit just to show me how strong he was.

  “How are you, Bill?” I said to him, as I started to move towards the door again.

  “Good, good,” he said as he walked next to me. “You had some game yesterday.”

  “It’s one to remember,” I told him as I pushed the door open, hoping once we were outside he would go his own way. Instead, he kept walking next to me.

  “I wish I had gotten off to a better start,” he said to me. Bill was without a hit in the first two games, striking out five times, leaving guys on base, and making an error along the way.

  “You’ll get it. Everyone has ups and downs.”

  “It’s a little tougher than I thought it would be,” he said honestly. “It was always so easy in the minors. I’m sure it will happen.”

  We walked along the street for a few minutes and for some reason he was still with me.

  “What are you doing today?” he asked me.

  “Just going back to the hotel to relax I guess,” I told him, hoping he would take the hint.

  “Oh, where you are staying? I’m at the Renaissance,” he told me.

  “I thought the team always stayed at the Westin,” I asked him quizzically. I can’t imagine that they would spring for all those rooms at the Renaissance.

  “They are,” Bill said with a smile. “I felt like living it up a little, you know. Spend some of that extra cash.”

  A typical rookie who makes too much money and doesn’t know how to take care of it, I thought to myself. I’ve seen it so many times, where I guy comes up, makes money he never saw before, blows through it and then is out of baseball in a year or two with nothing to do or fall back on.

  “Is Tim okay with that?” I asked him, knowing there was no way Tim would okay that as manager of the team.

  “I didn’t tell him,” Bill said. “They think I’m there with the team. I mean, what’s the big deal, right? Who cares where I stay?”

  “Whatever you say, Bill,” I said as we reached the front of the hotel.

  “Hey, come with me and grab lunch,” Bill said. “It’s the least I could do to pay you back for the help you gave me.”

  “I don’t know, Bill,” I said, not really wanting to get involved with him. It was bad enough he took my job with the team; now he was trying to be friends.

  “Come on,” he said, dragging me along. “There’s this
great place down the street. They have good burgers, great beer, it will be fun.”

  As much as I didn’t want to go along with him, I found myself caught up with it and followed him. We walked into the restaurant, which had a pretty good crowd in it for lunch already. Bill pushed his way up to the hostess counter, bragging that we were two ballplayers - loud enough for anyone to hear what he was saying - so that he could get the booth that he wanted. The hostess relented while Bill ogled her up and down, and I followed along two paces behind, wondering why I was doing this.

  A young lady came over to our table right away and introduced herself as Lisa, our server. She looked young, not more than her early twenties, with blonde, curly hair, a big smile and an outfit that seemed just a little too tight and short. It became obvious that this was a typical sports bar place, where the waitresses dressed to impress the guys in the hopes of getting them to buy more beer and food.