Heart of Man

Alex laughed against me, returning the kiss before pulling away. I couldn't help but smile at his expression. He looked up towards the rest of his team, checking to see what was going on, before turning back to me. “Hoist the cup with me.”

“Raise it and ruin my team’s chance? No thank you, Mr. Semin.” Shaking my head, I bit down a laugh. His smile was intoxicating before he pulled me into a hug. I knew he was excited; he was probably lucky he was still breathing. “You need to go. I’ll see you in Las Vegas, alright?”

He pulled away only to crash his lips onto mine again.

“Hey Twinkle Toes, get your mind out of the gutter and away from that Russian. We’ve got a game to play.” A hard piece of metal slapped my rear, enough to startle me out of my reminiscing. Leering at Nate Thompson, I wrapped my fingers around my own baseball pat and returned the favour. “Jeez, no need to get snippy.”

Letting out a laugh, we watched as Mike Smith took a swing, knocking the ball all the way into the seats. Stammer tackled him to the ground, along with a few other of the Rays players. They had invited those of us still around to come to a practice. They’d even given us our own uniform, name and number included. It was a sweet gesture, even though we hadn’t even made it to finals.

“Watch out, Nate. You’ll drive her away and she won’t come back next year.” Frowning at the blonde Canadian, I grabbed his baseball hat and put it on. “Hey, give it back!”

“Rude.” I stuck my tongue out at him before lining up to bat, giving them a moment to clear the cage. The ball came barreling at me, but the wind caught it and it sailed into Stammer’s stomach. He fell to the group in a heap, laughing his ass off. “See? The ball agrees with me.”

~

“You sure this is what you want to do, Anna?” Swirling the cup of orange juice in my hand, I kept my eyes focused on the Tampa skyline. My apartment had a view of the city that I quite couldn’t put my finger on it, but it would be a while before I saw it again. Oh, the effects of Summer.

“I’m sure, Dana. Just make sure to take care of the place, yeah?” His hand rested on my shoulder, pulling me into a small hug.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Shaking my head, I set the glass down on the table next to me, before turning to him. Dana was more than happy to wrap his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. Crying wouldn’t make things any easier, but I couldn’t help but cry into his shoulder. He whispered soft words into my ear, most of what I hardly understood, but the tone was comforting. Backing up to the couch, he never left go as he sat down, bringing me with him.

Sitting on him, I started to wonder if there was anything he wouldn’t do for me at this point. I had told him all that I could, and he still didn’t hate me.

Why was I even crying?

“Anna Banana, you know we love you, right?” I couldn’t help but sob harder into him, turning to his neck. He hugged me tighter, and while normally I would have been uncomfortable, it was the sweetest gesture that he could have possibly done. “No matter what happens.”

I guess it's better than being alone for this.