The coach storms over to me. I know he could rip my ass right now and I probably deserve it. But probably the only thing saving me is the fact that I never slouch off. I’m always the first to practice and the last to leave. I put one hundred percent into this team and Coach knows it. His face is red and I can tell he’s wanting to yell at me, but instead, he just shakes his head. “Hit the showers, Fox.”
Dustin, the right fielder, comes running up to me. “You all right, man?”
“I’m going to be,” I tell him with determination. He probably thinks I’m having shoulder pain, which I am. But today’s pain is about something else, and I’m determined to make it right.
I release a breath and nod at him before turning away and jogging to the locker room. One of the trainers follows me. “That shoulder’s tight. Let’s work it out.”
I roll my arm forward, knowing he’s right. I can feel the pain in my shoulder, even though it’s a dull pain and bearable. But for how much I throw, I know I need it worked on. I follow him into the room, pull my shirt off and lie on the table. He lays a warming mat against my shoulder and then starts to write something on his clipboard. Without looking up, he says, “You sucked it up in practice today. What’s up?”
I throw my other arm over my head and cover my eyes, blocking the glaring light overhead. “I’m distracted,” I admit.
He snorts. “No shit, Sherlock. Do you want to talk about it?”
“You a shrink now too?” I deadpan.
He adjusts the mat on my arm. “Yes, actually a shrink, a trainer, a therapist… should I go on?”
I just shake my head. “No, man, there’s a woman. I fucked up and now she won’t answer my calls. I’ve called her at least a dozen times in the last day.”
He then takes the mat off my shoulder and I hear him squirt some kind of lotion on his hands. He starts working the muscles and the joints of my shoulders. “Maybe you should text her. Women seem to respond better to texts than calls, especially if you’re in the doghouse. Tell her what you want to say by text.”
I ponder over his words and I have to admit I’m a little surprised I hadn’t thought of that. For the next hour, he works on my arm, massaging it, and whatever the hell else he does that makes it feel brand new until the next day. Man, my body’s getting too old for this. It’s not what it used to be. Between my shoulder and my hips from all the squatting, baseball is wreaking havoc on my body.
When he’s done, I make sure to thank him before I go and hit the showers. The whole time I’m thinking about what I’m going to text her. I feel like some teenage boy, but I don’t really care. The woman is under my skin and I can’t forget about her. Remembering her in her one-piece black bathing suit, I can feel my loins tighten. She may have thought it was a safe choice, but man, all it did was make me even hotter for her, wanting to peel it off her and see her in all her glory.
As soon as I feel my cock start to lengthen, I try to change the pattern of my thoughts, thankful that the rest of the team is still practicing. I shower off the rest of the day’s sweat and grime before getting dressed in the locker room. I grab my bag, go out to my car, and I’m no sooner seated before I pull my phone out. Clicking on her name, I start the text.
4
Naomi
I thought about calling Jackie during lunch but I knew she would be busy, so I sit down at the table in the teacher’s lunch area, ready to spill my guts. The math teacher, April, sits down across from me and she must be able to read it on my face. “What’s wrong?”
I look down at the bowl of salad I brought that I told myself I would eat for lunch when I packed it this morning. Looking at it now, it doesn’t look appetizing at all. Pushing the bowl away, I shrug my shoulders. I tell her the whole sordid story from the day before.
She points her fork at me. “So let me get this straight. You are not flattered that the guy wanted to be your date and jumped at the opportunity?”
Well, when she puts it like that, I get it. But that’s not what happened. He lied to me, and that’s what I tell her.
“Did he hurt you? Take advantage of you?” She doesn’t wait for my answer. “Nope, he seized his opportunity. It sounds to me like he was so hot for you he couldn’t resist. Oh poor you, you have some sexy mysterious sailor calling you wanting to get into your pants. Hell, answer the next call and give him my number. Sheez,” she says, shaking her head.