Page 12 of Totally Played (Love In Play #5)

Chapter twelve

Ashley

ASHLEY: You were right about the farm. She couldn’t arrange a tour fast enough, and she tripled her investment and signed a guarantee for the next two years.

CALVIN: That’s amazing, congratulations. Does this mean you’re coming home?

I’ve been in Belgium for the past two weeks, sealing this deal for RED Tech, but I made sure I streamed Calvin’s game the first weekend.

After seeing him do so well, I just had to text him a congratulations.

After that, we sort of kept texting, and now it’s been another week, and I don’t think I’ve gone a single day without messaging him.

It’s totally normal for guy friends to text each other all the time, right?

ASHLEY: Unfortunately, not. We got the data from the horse ranch, and it’s just as good as the cattle, so we shipped out a kit to test on a horse ranch out here. I’ve got to oversee the setup.

CALVIN: Is that part of your job?

ASHLEY: Not officially, but I’ve been along for the ride since its inception, so I know everything about the tech and the program it runs off. I should be back for your next home game, though.

CALVIN: I’ll leave your ticket at the gate again. You can sit with the family.

ASHLEY: It’s a date.

Oh shit, wait. While I hoped my time away would stop my silly infatuation with my new straight best friend.

It hasn’t helped at all. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

Last night, I dreamed that he flew over here to surprise me, and I blew him against the big windows of my hotel room.

Fuck, that dream was hot. But my crush aside, he is straight, and I need to try to keep things halfway normal between us if I want to at least still be his friend.

Because no one wants a friend who secretly wants to blow you. I mean, I wouldn’t mind.

I quickly type another message and click send.

ASHLEY: Will we be going to Riverside Barbeque again on this bro-date?

CALVIN: Mom already reserved a table for seven.

I add them up in my head. Calvin, Rachel, his mom and dad, me, and then Tony.

I guess we’ll have to have that rain check date when I’m back, too.

Would it be shit of me to cancel? I mean, I probably can’t before the dinner with his folks, can I?

That would probably be poor form. Wait. That’s only six.

ASHLEY: Who’s the seventh?

CALVIN: Fort. He and Rachel have been seeing each other ever since game night.

Aww, that’s nice.

CALVIN: I’ll tell Tony you’ll be coming. We play each other on the first night. It will be nice to throw him off.

I’m not sure how I feel about that statement.

He doesn’t bring up Tony much in our texts, and I guess I had hoped, at least a little, that Tony might be matched with someone else on the app and had forgotten all about me.

It’s not like I can tell him, sorry, I can’t go on a date with you because I’m into your straight twin brother.

Nope. Not doing that. I thought for a while there that maybe Tony would be a good match for me.

I clicked with Calvin right away. We had this instant connection like we’ve been friends in a past life or something.

It sounds hokey, and I’m not even into all that past life stuff, at least I didn’t think I was, but since meeting Calvin, I have no idea how else to explain it.

But while I look at Calvin and feel this pull, like gravity itself wants to bring us together, I look at Tony and feel nothing. Am I doing this to myself? Lusting over a guy I know I can’t have to keep me from maybe falling for a guy I can?

Fuck. Why does love have to be so goddamn complicated?

It’s about time I see if there is something there with Tony.

But I don’t want to test out our possible connection with his family and Calvin right there.

So I pull out my phone, open the dating app, and send off a date invitation for the Thursday night before their game.

I chose the same sports bar I met Calvin, half because I’m tired and it’s at the top of the list of options, and half because I kind of want to see how they compare.

Is that fair? If it’s not, I can’t let myself care.

I need to get past this crush on a straight guy, and maybe his twin brother is my way to do that.

***

My flight was cancelled, and the one they rebooked me on a day later was delayed by seven hours, so now, not only am I severely jetlagged, I barely have enough time to shower before I have to get to the bar. Urgh, why did I think doing this was a good idea?

I’m on time when I prefer to be early, but when I scan the space, he’s not here yet anyway, so I pull up a seat at the bar down the opposite end near the candy bar claw machine and wave down Wally for a beer.

“Just the one for now, please,” I say, dropping a twenty on the counter.

Golf and soccer are on the televisions nearest, and I turn on the stool to look for hockey when he walks in.

I know instantly it’s Tony and not Calvin.

His hair is styled similarly to how Calvin’s was the first night, but he’s wearing tight black jeans and a netted green shirt under his leather jacket.

He smiles widely when he spots me, and I stand to greet him properly.

“Nice to officially meet you, Tony,” I say, holding out my hand.

“Yeah, you, too,” he replies, his gaze sweeping up and down my body. I should be flattered but it stirs a different feeling in my gut.

“Drink?”

“Sure, I’ll have a bourbon on the rocks,” he says, sliding onto the stool beside mine.

“Wally, can I please get a bourbon on the rocks and another beer?”

“Sure thing,” Wally says, and I sit.

“So, umm, how have you been?”

“Yeah, good. It was just the flu or something.”

I sip my beer, hoping it will help with getting this conversation flowing.

“You just got back from traveling, right?” he asks, finishing his drink and tapping the bar with his fingers as if that is enough to signal Wally to get him another.

“I was in Belgium. Have you ever been?”

“No. We went on a real world-tour for the league last year, but that wasn’t one of the places we played. Do they have baseball there?”

“I couldn’t tell you; I spent most of my time on farms.”

“I thought you worked for a big tech company,” he asks, frowning.

“I do. RED Tech created sensors for monitoring livestock.”

“And you sell it?”

“Not exactly. I connect investors with the company and secure investment contracts to further the research and development of the tech.”

Wally places another glass of bourbon in front of him, and he gives him a nod as if that is a good enough thanks. Wally doesn’t seem fazed by it, so I guess I shouldn’t be either.

“Are you hungry? I booked a table next door.”

“Yeah, let’s do it,” he says, and we head that way. I pause at the claw machine.

“Want to have a go at this first? I am the king of these things. I could win you dessert.”

“Those things are all rigged. You end up paying like double what you would if you just went to the mini-mart and bought one. Let’s just have dinner.”

I mean, he isn’t wrong. With how his brother plays, he’d probably pay five times more than it’s worth, but it’s still fun.

I follow him into the restaurant, all the while telling myself to stop comparing them.

Tony was never going to be exactly like Calvin.

They are two different people. I have to just give this a fair go.

I try to tell myself when I look up from following his feet across the dark blue patterned carpet to find him holding out my seat for me.

“Why, thank you, kind sir,” I say as I sit, and he scoots me in.

“No problem.”

I guess I should give him a point for that.

Not that there are points. But maybe there should be.

Maybe I should think of this more like a game.

But games have prizes. Okay, if Tony gets five points, he gets a second date.

Ten points by the end of the date, and I kiss him goodnight.

Suddenly, with stakes like these, I’m more than interested in seeing how tonight goes.

I place my order and thank the waitress, and when he does the same, he gets his second point. He scores a third when he finishes chewing and swallowing his food before answering my question about why he chose Banana Ball.

“I’ve always been great at sports, all of us Parks boys are. I mean, Calvin, probably already told you, our brother plays hockey for Boston U.”

“Yeah, he mentioned it.”

“Did he tell you how annoying he is about it? I swear, you would think he plays the greatest sport in the world with how he carries on. Even yells at the television when the game is on, like the refs can somehow hear him through the airwaves.” He shakes his head, and I consider deducting a point for that comment, but don’t.

He offers me the dessert menu first, another point, and asks if he can get me another drink when he spots that this one is almost empty. Another point. How many is that? Fuck, five. Okay, so he scores a second date. Can tomorrow’s group dinner count as a second date?

“Are you going to watch the game tomorrow?” he asks, spooning ice cream into his mouth and slowly removing the spoon. It’s probably supposed to be sultry, but it’s doing nothing for me.

“Yeah, didn’t Calvin tell you? He left me a ticket at the gate to sit with your family again.”

“Oh, he didn’t say. I was going to offer that, too. I guess we are more alike than I thought.”

“I’d say you’re pretty different.”

“Really?” he asks, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. “Calvin said you picked that he wasn’t me from the start. It was the hair, wasn’t it, or the outfit? I wanted him to wear this.”

“Umm, no, I’m not sure what it is, actually.”

“Well, I had to give him props for stepping up for me. Not many straight guys would go on a date with a man just to help their brother out.”

“That’s true. But he did sort of tell me right at the start, so it wasn’t a date so much as it was a bro-date.”

“Calvin came up with that, didn’t he?”

I laugh. “Yeah, he did. He even had Tim and the others calling it that by the end of the night.”

“You saw Tim?”

“Yeah, after drinks, it was too late for our dinner reservation, so he dragged me through the streets to Tim’s place. I didn’t know he owned Roaring Barbeque. His burgers are amazing, but the new sauces we tried, mmm, just thinking about that plum one has my mouth watering.”

“Gross to the plum, but hey, it sounds like you had fun.”

“I did. We did. Oh, and you should have seen this cat. Calvin totally thinks it’s obsessed with me because it would walk back and forth, following me everywhere I went. Oh, and Calvin opened the cage thing and let out cats, so we were all crawling on our hands and knees trying to catch them.”

“He’s usually more normal, I promise. When he’s on his own, he can be a bit…”

“He was great,” I say, heat flooding my face, and I dip my spoon into his ice cream, popping it into my mouth.

“Mmmm,” I moan as the cold creamy caramel coats my tongue.

“Good, isn’t it?” he says with a smile, but it’s thin and forced.

“So good,” I say and hold out my plate. “Want to try the sticky date pudding? It’s gluten free.”

“No, thanks, tastes too much like plums, bleh.”

I shrug and finish off my dessert, and when the bill comes, he grabs it before I can even offer.

“You can get the next one,” he says with a wink.

“I can do that,” I reply, strolling toward the door.

“Did you drive?” he asks, and I shake my head.

“I don’t live far, and it’s nice out. You?”

“I walked, too. Can I walk you home?”

“Sure,” I say, and I turn and make a start toward home.

We’re quiet for a long time, and it’s not that easy silence, the kind that you can just sit in with a person. The air is thin and cold, and I wrap my arms around myself, fighting the bitter chill.

“Here,” he says, stripping off his jacket and stretching up to wrap it over my back. The warmth of his body still in the soft leather it wraps me like a blanket, and I pull it around me tightly.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Calvin and I bought it in high school, and we’ve shared it ever since. It’s still just as soft now as the day we got it. Besides, being in our baseball uniforms most nights, we get used to the cold. Those pants we wear are surprisingly thin.”

This is Calvin’s jacket. I’m instantly ten degrees warmer, and I lower my head to nuzzle the collar. Suddenly, all I can smell is him, and I wrap it tighter around me.

“Did you grow up here?” he asks, shoving his hands into his pockets, and I refocus.

“No. My boss chose Savannah for his office, and seeing as I work for him, I moved here, too.”

“You don’t sound too happy about it.”

“It’s not that I don’t like Savannah. I do. It’s an awesome city. I just don’t understand how a grown man can move halfway across the country because of a sport he doesn’t even play.”

“Is he a Banana Ball fan?”

“Through and through. He’s been bugging me for years to come to a game.”

“But you always said no.”

I nod.

“Then Calvin invited you and you said yes?”

“I don’t know how. We were watching the replay of your game, the one you left early because you were sick, and then suddenly he had set it all up for me to have a ticket waiting, and I was sitting with your sister and parents.

It was a lot of fun, though. Oh, this is me,” I say, stopping out the front of my apartment building.

It’s like most of the others in this part of town, five stories, brown bricks, and a double entry for security.

Crime isn’t big in Savannah, but I like the added safety.

Tony steps closer.

“I had a really good time,” he says, looking up at me, his blue-gray eyes so similar to Calvin’s, but something is missing behind them, and he doesn’t have that cute little heart freckle like him either.

“Yeah, I had a good time, too. Oh, you should take this,” I say, about to shrug out of the jacket, but he closes the gap between us and lifts it back up onto my shoulders.

“Wear it to the game tomorrow,” he says, pushing onto his toes and kissing me on the cheek. “I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah. Umm, see you then,” I reply, turn, and unlock the first of the doors. I’m through the second set before he waves and turns on his heel to leave.

I know I said if he got ten points, I’d kiss him good night, but wearing Calvin’s jacket, all I can smell is him, and if I kissed Tony, I would have been picturing Calvin, and I just couldn’t do it.

Tony was great. He really was. I should be into him.

There is no reason not to be, except I’m not. Fuck. What am I going to do now?