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Honestly, what’s more irritating right now? The fact that your ex-husband is sitting not even twenty feet from you with his floozy new girlfriend. Or the fact that the baseball season is halfway over, and your son has been sitting on the bench more times than you’ve seen him play any games. You were sitting on the bleachers watching as Coach Harrington walked over to the dugout to talk to his team. You saw him talking to your kid before walking away shaking his head as he readjusted his cap.
“I swear if my kid does not at least touch a bat this game…” You mumbled to yourself as you continued to watch the game. Every so often your gaze would linger a bit longer on Harrington than you realized. Your gaze snapped away when you finally saw your son head up to the plate. You noticed that he really didn’t look like he wanted to be there. You frowned a bit wondering what happened to cause him to look upset. Granted your kid wasn’t the smallest compared to the rest of the kids, but he tried. He didn’t let that stop him from having fun.
“Strike three. You’re out.” You heard the umpire say as he sighed in defeat, walking back to the bench he was sitting at.
“Good try, bud. You’ll get it next time.” You heard the coach say to him as the game continued into the final inning.
The game soon ended, The Tigers losing by just 2 points. You went to meet your son by the entrance but you were beat by your ex, who was already talking to him.
“Where is this coach of yours? You sat on that bench more than you played today.” He said to him with slight irritation in his voice.
“Please just leave it alone…” He said to his father, seeming embarrassed by the confrontation. He was eager to leave as glanced over to you for help. You started to make your way over to him as you watched his father go towards the dugout to ‘talk’ to Coach Harrington.
“Hey, sweetie, why don’t you head back to the car. I’ll be right there.” You said to him, walking past just in time to hear your ex.
“Look, I’m not sure what exactly is happening but I didn’t pay for my kid to just sit on a bench twiddling his thumbs while all of these other kids get to play a game.”
“I think you have the situation all wrong.” Coach Harrington started. “Look, I asked him earlier in the game if he wanted to go up to bat. He said he didn’t feel too good, and just wanted to sit it out.”
“And I’m sure it has nothing to do with his size, right? He’s not as small as the rest of the kids so it would be embarrassing for him to be on a team.”
“I treat every kid here equally. If he doesn’t want to play, I’m not going to make him.” He said to him, pointing at your ex.
“Just drop it.” You finally intervened. “He just said he didn’t feel good. You are making assumptions over something so stupid.” Of course, you were a little upset that he hasn’t been playing as often as you had hoped either.
“You are just as bad as he is condoning this behavior. You coddle that boy too much,” He said to you as he turned to walk away.
“And you are never around when you should be. Just go home. And you better not forget it’s your weekend with him.” You huffed in irritation and he walked towards the parking lot. You composed yourself, turning to face your son’s baseball coach. “I’m sorry for how he just talked to you.”
“It’s cool.” He waved it off.
“It really isn’t. He has always been like this. It’s one of the reasons we aren’t married anymore.”
“Like I said, he just wasn’t feeling the greatest. I would rather him sit it out than puke all over the field, ya know?” He said to you reassuringly.
You smiled slightly at him, “Thank you, Coach Harrington.”
“You can just call me Steve. That’s what the kids call me.” He smiled back at you.
“Okay, Steve. Just try to get my boy out off the bench a bit more, okay?”
“I will try my best.” He nodded to you before you turned to walk away, meeting your son at your car.
You watched him from the distance before getting into the car. He was wiping his nose with his arm, so clearly he had been crying the moment you sent him away. You felt your heart drop. You frowned to yourself as you got into the driver’s side of the car.
“You had a good game.” You said to him, trying to get him to smile.
“I struck out.” He said simply. “I suck at baseball.” He sniffled as he avoided eye contact with you.
“Hey, that’s not true. You just didn’t have a very good game today. Coach Harrington said you weren’t feeling good earlier?” You asked in concern.
“My stomach was just in knots. I felt like I wanted to throw up.”
“Why didn’t you say something. I wouldn’t have brought you in.” You asked as you started the car.
“Dad was gonna be there. He doesn’t come to every game like you do.” He sighed to himself. “And I just let him down. Like I always do.”
“You don’t need to let your father put you down. It’s not worth it. I promise you that.” You said as you pulled into the driveway.
The words your son had said to you hit you like a ton of bricks. You knew that your ex was not the greatest person in the world. It’s bad enough when he would talk down to you while you were together, but like hell you would let him talk to your child that way. The child that you both are supposed to be co-parenting, but he’d rather flaunt around, like a peacock during mating season, with his new little fling.
You’ve lost count of the amount of women that you’ve seen him with since you split. Your divorce still was not finalized, but it still bothered you how quickly he moved on. Every women she had seen him with just made you feel worse about yourself. Were you not skinny enough? Or pretty? Was it because you weren’t a bottle blonde? You shake the thoughts from your head as you make it to the front door with your son.
“How about I order us a pizza tonight? Hm?”
His eyes lit up as you both entered the house, “Can we get one with extra pepperoni? Please?”
“Anything for you.” You smiled slightly at him as he hugged you before going upstairs to his room. “Just make sure you take a shower before dinner.” You called up as you went into the living room. Just as you were about to pick up the phone to order the pizza, you saw that you had a couple new voicemails. The first one was just a collect call for some company that you had never heard of trying to get you to sign up for something you didn’t care about. You sat down on the couch as you hit play on the next one.
“Uhm, hi, Mrs. Y/L/N. This is Coach Harrington. Uhm Coach Steve. I found your son’s baseball cap at the dugout when I was cleaning up after the game. If you don’t mind, I can stop by on my way home and drop it off for you. I know it’ll be hard to even call me back since I won’t be at the office. Yeah, I’ll just drop by super quick. Goodbye.”
You blinked in response to hearing the voicemail. That seemed odd. You vaguely remembered your son wearing his cap when he went back to the car. You were almost certain. Why would he go out of his way to drop something off that no one knew was missing? And how was he so certain it belonged to your kid? The thoughts lingered in the back of your mind as you picked up the phone to call the pizza joint in town for delivery.
Around twenty minutes passed by before you heard your doorbell. Your son came down from his room and went into the kitchen to grab a couple plates for the two of you, setting them on the table. You got up from the couch and grabbed your wallet; heading to the door.
“How much do I owe-” You stopped mid-sentence seeing your son’s baseball coach in your doorway.
“I take it I’m not who you were expecting.” He said with a slight smile. Damn why did that make your knees feel weak.
“Well, I was expecting a pizza.” You placed your wallet on the table by the door.
“Sorry.” Steve said sheepishly. “I left you a voicemail.”
“Yeah, I listened to it. I’m pretty sure that’s not my kid’s hat.” You told him simply.
“Are you certain? I swear it was setting on the bench right where he was sitting.”
“Mom, what’s taking so long?” Your son popped his head out of the doorway, raising an eyebrow when he saw his coach. “Coach Steve. What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Champ. I thought you left your cap at the field. But your mom said it wasn’t yours.”
“Uhm yeah. Mine is up in my room.” Just as you were about to tell him I told you so. The pizza delivery driver had gotten there, heading up the walkway to your house.
“I apologize. I probably should had just waited until I saw the kids next to see who was missing theirs.” Steve said to you. “I am just gonna get going. This is a bit embarrassing. And I would hate to interrupt your dinner.”
“You drove all this way. Why don’t you just stay.” You said to him, retrieving your wallet and paying for the pizza.
“I couldn’t do that.”
“Do you have anything planned tonight?”
“I was just going to eat whatever was in my fridge from the other night.” He shrugged.
“You don’t sound very confident with that.” You said to him as you turned from the doorway and towards the dining room.
“Is Coach Steve staying for dinner?” Your son had asked you.
“If he wants to.”
“Sure. Why not.” He smiled at your son, ruffling his hair a bit before taking a seat at the table.
The three of you practically ate most of the pizza; leaving a couple slices that you could take to work the next day. Your son and Steve talked the entire time. It was the first time in a long time you could tell your son was having a good time. He looked happy. You tossed the empty pizza box in the trash after storing the leftover pieces in a Ziploc bag before putting it in the fridge. You followed your son up to his room, tucking him after he said goodbye to Steve.
“You seemed like you were having a good time.” You said to him, tucking him into bed.
“Coach Steve is awesome. He’s super nice to all of us.” He sighed, “Sometimes I wish he was my dad…”
“Baby, I know some of things your father says are hurtful but it doesn’t change the fact that he is your dad.”
“Yeah, I know.” He laid his head back on his pillow. “I’ll try to play more next game, okay?”
“That sounds like a deal. Get some sleep.” You kissed the top of his head, turning off his light before closing his door and heading back downstairs.
Steve was already grabbing his jacket as he got ready to leave, “I am sorry about the whole cap thing.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. You don’t have to leave so soon.”
“You just put him to bed. Which means it’s getting late.”
“Can we just talk for a few minutes?” You asked him, not waiting for an answer as you walked into the living room; taking a seat on the couch.
“Uhm sure. What about?” He asked you as he took a seat beside you.
“You knew that wasn’t his hat.”
“I clearly didn’t.”
You gave him this look that you could just see through his bullshit. “I can tell when a guy is lying to me. So, tell me the real reason you showed up to my house tonight.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, “I kinda just wanted to see you. To talk.”
“You could’ve just called me to meet you at your office or something.”
“About earlier when your husband got in my face.”
“Ex husband. Well, not officially, but I still call him my ex.”
“Sorry. Ex Husband. What I told him about your son wasn’t entirely true, but it wasn’t entirely a lie either.”
You raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean? Are you actually benching my kid?”
“No. He wants to be benched.”
“Why would he want to be benched?”
“Because he hates baseball.” Steve said to you.
“Why would he ask to join if he hated baseball so much?” You asked him.
“Your ex apparently. Listen he told me that his dad told him he had to get into sports because he was wasting time playing pointless games with his friends.”
“Wasting time? He’s a freaking kid. God, I can’t stand that man.” Your hands balled into fists.
“You should really talk to him about this. I’m just telling you what he told me. He asked me to lie about his stomach earlier. But when he actually saw his dad, he wanted to at least go up to bat.”
“I was getting annoyed as well because you had him benched. I never knew you were doing it because he asked you to.”
“Look, growing up I didn’t have the greatest parental figures. My parents were never home. I ended up helping take care of these really great kids. One even looks up to me like a brother. It made me wanna keep working with kids, ya know.” He smiled. “It also has some pretty nice perks when the mom of one of my players is good looking.”
You looked away from him, your face feeling warm in embarrassment. “I know you aren’t talking about me.”
“You know, that field is not very big. I can see everyone, and I can tell when someone is staring at me.”
Your face brightened, “You are just full of yourself now. I wasn’t staring at you.”
“If that’s true, then why can’t you look at me right now?”
You gave him a sideways glance, “You don’t mean that when you say I’m good looking.”
“Why would I lie about that?” He laughed a bit to himself.
“Because I’m not. My ex made that pretty clear when he brings women around that are way better than me.”
He shook his head, “That guy just seems like a raging douche. Pardon my language, but I think he is trying way too hard.”
“How so?” You turned your head fully to look at him.
“If he has to try that hard to make sure you see him with these women, then he’s clearly just insecure about himself. All of those women just seem fake. You on the other hand, when you stood up to him earlier, that was real. He only cares about his appearance, and is not worried about how he shows himself around others.” He looked at you. “If I were you, I’d not let him bother you.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience with this.”
“I was kinda like that in high school. I grew up and realized that there was more to life than appearances. Like I said the kids I helped, they helped me as well.”
“Well, I will tell you that this was the first time in a long time I’ve seen him so happy. He really likes you. He thinks you’re awesome.” You told Steve.
“I’m glad. I can’t believe you saw through my ruse about the hat.”
“It’s not that hard to see through.” You laughed slightly.
“So, would you mind if just…”
Steve inched closer to you, closing the distance between the two of you until your lips touched. You kissed him back pressing your lips against his as you felt his hand lightly touch your face while his arm wrapped around your waist to bring you a bit closer. You placed your hands on his arms to keep yourself steady as the kiss deepened for a moment. The two of you broke away after a few moments. You could feel your face feeling hot again. You hadn’t been on a date, let alone kissed anyone for months.
“That…was nice…” You managed to say as you glanced up at him.
“So, if I hadn’t shown up tonight, would you have ever let me do that?”
“I probably would’ve just kept watching you at the baseball games.”
“I knew it. You were totally checking me out.”
“Yes, sure, I was totally checking Steve Harrington out.” You teased.
He laughed, “I should probably go home for real this time.”
“You could always stay. The couch is open.” You offered.
“Mm yeah, that’s probably for the best. It is getting a little late.”
“I’ll grab you a blanket and a pillow.” You stood from the couch, going to the hall closet to grab an extra blanket and pillow for Steve. “Here you go.”
“So, am I entitled to ask you out on a date?” He asked as he got situated on the couch.
“You are, but let’s talk about that some other day. Deal?”
“Deal.”