The Baseball Player Next Door

Inning 25 ★ The Game is Called

"Should I rescue him or suffer?"

"It's a dilemma," she admitted. Then she tugged at my arm. "For now, let's just casually say hi."

There was nothing casual by the way she bounced on her feet in front of them and all but yelled, "Hi!"

Jessica got distracted and tore her eyes away from him to us. She paused longer on me. Or my dress, I should say.

"That looks different on you than it does on Gigi."

Did they know each other's wardrobe to a T, or what? "Thanks?" I asked, unsure if that was a good thing. She didn't agree or deny, leaving me further confused.

"Anyway, we talked about this," Santi continued, as if Ellen and I weren't standing there and as if I weren't wearing the most revealing dress I'd ever worn. He looked at Jessica instead of at me. "It was fun but I'm not interested in fooling around anymore."

Her eyes flicked to me for a second. "Oh, so you got what you wanted and now we're done? What about my side of the bargain?"

Ellen gasped, connecting the dots with the same speed as I did. Going by what little he'd said, Jessica got with Santi to get back at McCann for cheating on her over the summer. Judging by the latter's venomous expression, it was working. She seemed to imply that he'd also got with her to get under someone's skin.

"And officially this party got too exciting," I announced. "I'm out."

I made a turn at the same time as Ellen told me to wait and grabbed my arm. But when I looked back it was Santi who was holding me back. His face was the picture of annoyance, and I wondered how he had the gall to be annoyed at me in this whole situation.

"Ooh," Ellen cooed in a sing a song way. "I wish I had popcorn."

I glared at her. "Oh, shush, you."

Santi ignored all that and just looked at me. "You, wait. Let me finish this, please."

Jessica sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, at least let me be the one to break up with you, okay? So I can look like I have some dignity."

That was a fair point. Her whole plan really would go to shit if he broke up with her in front of her ex. And she did help me pick the swimsuit that finally made Santi come around.

I painted on a smile for the audience, so they figured we were having a totally friendly and normal conversation here. The last thing I wanted was for anybody to guess that I'd been the hidden jealous girlfriend in this picture. "Okay, here's what we're going to do." I motioned at all of them to huddle around me. "Ellen and I are going to go find Chris and leave you guys some time for Act II of this scene."

Santi's eyebrow went up, but it was Jessica who asked, "And that is?"

"First, you're going to laugh like you mean it." She looked at me blankly. "Right now."

She did and I tagged along. Ellen joined with an uncertain tone.

Then I continued. "After we leave, you two are going to continue your deep discussion. Santi, you'll pretend to act like a jerk. You can be quite convincing at times."

"Really?" he deadpanned.

I looked back at the queen bee. "And then you break up with him, loud and clear in front of everybody. Stalk off with fake tears for effect. If McDouche cares he'll come after you."

The girls' eyes widened and I could tell they were feeling brand new admiration for me. Santi just folded his arms.

"I hate it when you have better ideas than me," he said, echoing himself from the training camp. I suppressed a grin.