Page 48 of Catch Me (Becoming Us #4)

Travis

This season had been brutal so far. I’d been giving it everything I had. Everything . And it was paying off.

We made it through the divisional round. It was likely we were going to make it through the championship round too, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Hoping didn’t do any good. Playing was all I had to do.

If we made it to the World Series, I’d remember it for the rest of my life, even if we lost. Just getting there would be incredible. It would be exhausting and it would be worth it.

I’d been pitching more this season, which made me feel on top of the world. My throw was better than Anthony’s, and I wanted to gloat, but I was above that. Just seeing him glower at me constantly was satisfying enough.

“You’re coming to every game,” I said as I stretched out in bed with the phone on speaker. “I have a suite locked down in Atlanta, so if we make it, you’re gonna be there.”

Sen laughed. “Oh, yeah? You’ve done plenty for us already. ”

“Fuck off. The only people I care about watching me play are you guys and my dad. He really wants to meet you. If that’s okay, of course.”

“Yeah, I’d love to meet him.”

It was hard not to kick my feet like a little girl. I wasn’t supposed to feel hopeful, but I just couldn’t help it. It was hard as fuck to get a suite for the World Series, but I was really good at making things happen.

“How many more games in the series?” he asked.

“I’m too tired to remember. They tell me to go somewhere, I go. You can take the time off, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve got two weeks I put in, so the days will fall somewhere in there. I wasn’t about to miss it if the dates weren’t right.”

“Perfect. I can’t wait to see all of you.”

“We’re all excited. We definitely need a vacation.”

“Let me know how many tickets you’ll need, okay? Or I’ll just get enough to fill the suite and you decide who to bring. I don’t really care.”

“Slow down,” he laughed.

“Sorry. My brain is buzzing.”

“So, I have a question.”

The tone of his voice made the smile fall from my face. “What?”

“When you say we can bring anyone . . .”

“Just tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Roman.”

I scowled at the ceiling. “Yeah, sure. I don’t care if you bring him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Dude, it’s not a big deal. You’re all friends, and I’m not gonna tell you who to bring.”

“Okay. He’s been pretty busy and might not even come, but I’ll let you know.”

“Not needed, Sen. Stop being weird about it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get some sleep. You need rest so you can lead your team to victory.”

“You’re goddamn right. See you in less than a week, hopefully.”

After I hung up, I blew out a breath. So much had happened this year—most of it good. Sen and Kai were planning their wedding, for on e. Those fundraisers had set them up really nicely and they didn’t live in that shitty apartment anymore.

They’d also taken over a lot of the social media stuff for me. That was good and bad. My ability to do what I wanted was put on more of a hold, which pissed me off, but there was nothing I could do about it. I got online and talked to people occasionally, but overall, I was pretty hands off.

Without that, I didn’t have a lot of things to fill my time.

I loved my life with Tessa, but my social media account had been a major part of who I was for a long time, even before I got into the major leagues.

I’d built most of my adult life around that.

Now, I was just trying to discover who I was going to be moving forward.

I was just glad someone could keep the movement going. There was nothing holding them back, and they could say whatever they wanted on there.

I looked at the picture I’d received of Tessa today. She was on the farm since I was too busy during the postseason. I missed her, and once I got home, we’d take off to do something fun together.

*****

“No way!” I shouted. “Fuck!”

“We’re so close,” Mikey exclaimed, throwing his arm around my neck.

I laughed and almost lost my balance from the way he was hanging on me. “One more. We just need one win, man.”

“I swear, it’s because you’re pitching so much. Anthony is pissed about it.”

When I looked over at him, he was scowling. It made my petty little heart happy, but the most important thing was that we were almost there. We could play in the World Series during my fourth season. It was unreal.

“You ready to kick ass?” Mikey bellowed.

The entire team cheered. Random shit got thrown around in some makeshift celebration, and it made me smile. If these games weren’t so close together, I’d get us some bottles of champagne. We had to stay on top of our shit, though. Nothing was allowed to get in our way.

“Hey, you got a suite, right?” Vince asked.

“For my friends, yeah.”

“A big one? ”

“Why? You want to take some of the spots?”

“If they’re there.”

I leaned closer to Mikey and Vince. “Just for you guys. Tell me how many and I’ll set it up.”

“You’re the best, man.”

“This is our year. If I only get one World Series game in my career, I’ll fucking take it.”

Mikey punched me lightly in the stomach. “You’re gonna blow up. Everyone will be talking about your arm.”

“That just means I’ll have to talk to more people. More commercials.” I groaned. “I hate those.”

“That’s part of the game, man.”

I said a few more things to them before I headed off on my own. This shit took a toll, no matter how much I loved it. I wasn’t mentally tired, though, so I wasn’t sure if I could sleep. If my brain wouldn’t shut off, I’d stare at the ceiling for hours.

As I made my way down the block toward my hotel, I pulled out my phone. The text from Sen made me stop.

Sen: Don’t think Roman’s gonna come. He’s going through some things

I already told him that he didn’t need to let me know.

It didn’t matter who he brought. Roman and I slept together one time ten months ago, and we clearly hadn’t known enough about each other.

If I’d wanted to give it another shot, I would’ve texted him back, but by that point, whatever explanations he had didn’t matter to me.

I offered him safety, and in return, I got silence for the holidays.

Shit happened, life went on, and if he wanted to watch the game, he could watch the game.

After I got into my hotel room, I looked around.

Without Tessa, it was so quiet. I navigated to Instagram and considered going LIVE, but I wasn’t in the mood.

They always asked where I’d been and what was going on in my life.

The worst questions were about me being mostly absent, but I couldn’t tell them that the Braves silenced me, so I had no answers for them.

It was dumb, but I pulled up my blocked messages.

Androids were a bitch for letting you see them, and it kind of defeated the purpose.

I’d refrained from reading them, but there’d been a few times when I looked at them without opening the conversation.

Now, the whole thing was in my head, and as always, I was curious.

When I opened it, I rolled my lips. The last one was on March first, so at least he’d stopped trying. That was a good thing.

It meant he’d moved on. That was also good. Since he wasn’t sending me anything else, I unblocked him. It felt like freeing myself in a way, taking away some forbidden urge to navigate back to them.

It didn’t really matter since he wasn’t coming. I told Sen that I didn’t care either way, but now, I felt like I could breathe easier. If he had come, I’d be fine, but I didn’t want any awkwardness or negativity to bring things down.

Me, my team, my dad, and my friends. It was going to be amazing.