Here for You (5 page)

I find the conference room where Golden Brew is meeting with our team. When I stick my head in, I don’t see Quinn in the room. Rachel, the PM, sees me and smiles. “Good afternoon, Ashley. Would you like to join us?”

“I would love to, but I have another meeting coming up shortly.” It’s a lie for which I hate myself, but I just don’t want to sit in the meeting right now. “Has Quinn been in yet?”

“No. I believe she’s with our legal team.”

“Thank you. I want to find them to be sure everything is good. Please let me know if you need anything. I’m confident you’ll create excellent campaigns for Golden this afternoon.”

“Yes, of course. Thank you.”

I smile and head out to find Quinn. I almost never leave the office early. I work more than I should, but for some reason today I just feel like finishing up so I can be out by five.

I head a few more doors down where I know our legal team usually meets. When I open this door, I see Quinn sitting with three of my employees. I’m always proud of her. She comes in alone, and I know that she’s just as capable as the three members of my team combined. Not because I’ve hired anyone that is less than capable but because Quinn is that good. I would hire her for my company if I didn’t think it might impact our friendship. Plus, I know she wants to take over her dad’s firm some day.

“Good afternoon.” I shake hands with everyone on my team and then make my way over to Quinn. She has on her reading glasses, which I’m not convinced she needs. She’s only thirty-two, same as me, and I think she wears them to appear older than she is.

Everyone on my legal team knows we’re friends, so I lean over to hug her. She’s too good of a friend to just shake hands even in front of my employees. “How is everything going here?”

Quinn looks at my team and then back to me. I hope she’s not about to tell me that they really screwed something up because I’m not in the mood for fixing a disaster this afternoon. “Actually perfect. We just finalized the last change to the contract, and both parties should be good to sign off.”

“Great.” I try not to let my relief be too obvious. “Are you going to be staying for a while or are you heading back to your office?”

Quinn grabs a stack of papers off the table and puts them in her briefcase. She shakes hands with all three guys and thanks them for meeting. “Let’s head to your office. I have something I need to ask you.” I furrow my brow at her. “I know you hate surprises, but I promise this is not regarding business.”

At least this makes me feel marginally better. Again, I’m usually all about business, but today I don’t have the energy to put out any more fires. Of course I will if I have to, but I’m begging I get out of here with no more issues today.

She hooks her arm in mine as we walk back down the hallway to my office. I smile when I see Lizzy is already missing from her desk.

“Where’s Lizzy?”

“I sent her home early.”

Quinn whips her head around to face me, and I laugh at the surprise look on her face. “Are you feeling okay? Do I need to take you to the ER?” She unhooks her arm from mine and holds her hand on my forehead.

“Stop it. I’m not that bad of a person, am I? You’re starting to make me feel like I treat Lizzy badly.”

Quinn laughs. “No. You’re not that bad. You don’t deserve your industry-wide nickname, but you may overwork your employees at times. You don’t treat them poorly and you certainly are good to them, but you
do
have high expectations.”

“I know. Lizzy has worked a lot of hours for me over the last month, and I just thought she deserved the afternoon off.”

Quinn steps forward and swings open my office door. She motions for me to walk in ahead of her and I raise an eyebrow.

“That is going to make this conversation a whole lot easier. Looks like I picked the perfect day.” When I look closer at Quinn, the happiness is unmistakable on her face. Her green eyes are sparkling and the extra pep in her voice is now obvious.

“What’s up with you today?”

“I’m taking you with me this afternoon.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and I are going to do something we rarely do. We’re going to enjoy an afternoon off on a workday.”

I shake my head. “No way. I have a ton to get done and I just want to get out of here at five today.” When I see Quinn shake her head I almost roll my eyes.

“This isn’t a choice, Ash. You’re coming with me. First, you need to get out of this building. You’ve been having a terrible time with Charlie and you know he’s going to come down here at exactly five to try and talk you into dinner or just one drink. You will fight him on it as usual, and then you’ll be miserable all weekend. Plus, my new boy toy gave me tickets to his game this afternoon.”

“Seriously? You want me to go to a baseball game dressed like this?”

“Yep. I’m going like this, so you’re perfect.”

“Q, I’m wearing four-inch heels.”

She waves her hand. “We have club-level seats, so I’m sure there’ll be other business executives straight from work. Come on. We need to take advantage because who knows how long the relationship will last.”

Now I actually roll my eyes at her. “Knowing you, probably about one more week.”

She lightly hits my arm. “Hey, I really like this one. And he is a-dor-able.”

“
Adorable
? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you describe one of your toys as adorable. It’s usually hot, effing hot, really effing hot, smokin’ or any other heat-related word.”

“Stop it. I’m serious about this one.”

I can’t believe I’m going to let her get away with this. First of all, she’s never described a guy as “adorable,” but I’m going to let it slide. I think she honestly blushed when she said it, and I’ve never seen this reaction. Second, heading out to a baseball game straight from work in my business attire is probably about third from the bottom on the list of things I want to do right now. But what Quinn has in her favor is that seeing Charlie is at the very bottom.

Quinn is absolutely correct that I don’t want to wait until five for Charlie to come find me and try to guilt me into giving him another chance. That would make about try number three hundred, and I just don’t have the energy right now. Against my better judgment I give in.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

She squeals and jumps up and down pulling me into a giant bear hug. “You’re the best!”

I roll my eyes again. This is not my usual best friend and I’m starting to miss the old one.

“Q, do we seriously have to stay until the end? What am I going to do for the next three hours?”

She laughs. “Let’s just hope it’s three and not longer.”

“Longer! You mean we could be here more than three hours?”

“Just depends. Let’s hope there are no extra innings.”

Now I’m starting to regret this decision. Although I guess it’s a beautiful afternoon, and we do have someone taking our food and drink orders, so it could be worse. But I just can’t imagine how I will possible stay entertained for that long. At least I have my phone and I can get a few work emails done. When Quinn isn’t looking of course or at least when she’s not paying attention to me.

We sit down just as the third inning is starting. We’re a little late, but if Quinn is serious about more than three hours, I’m glad to have missed two innings. I have just learned from the very talkative old man next to me that this is the top of the inning. Why they would refer to the innings as top and bottom is beyond me, but I have almost zero sports knowledge. My new friend, Stan, seems eager to talk and share all of his baseball knowledge, and the man must be at least seventy, so he’s harmless. At least I’ll get a good baseball education while I sit next to him.

I turn to Quinn. “So which one is yours?” I motion out toward the field.

She smiles. “Right there, baby.” She points to the catcher squatting down behind home plate apparently flashing some sort of hand signals to the pitcher. Again, I just learned this one minute ago from my new friend. Personally, I would think the pitcher would know what type of pitch he was going to throw. It seems silly to me to have another grown man telling you how to do your job. But when I asked Stan how hard could it possibly be to pick your own pitch, he just shook his head and laughed.

“No wonder why he gave you these seats. He wants you to watch his ass all day.”

“Yeah, and it’s a fine one at that. I’m telling you, the guy is built like a—”

I put both hands over my ears. “I don’t want to hear it.” I laugh because at least my best friend is back to her normal self. I sit back to enjoy the beautiful afternoon.

We make it through five more innings. Despite my plan to hate the day, I’m enjoying myself. Watching men run around in tight pants is entertaining, and while my neighbor is seriously talkative, I have learned enough to completely follow the game now. I have also learned that Stan is a retired police officer and his lovely wife allows him to attend as many games as he can afford in a season. I find myself oddly interested in his life and truly enjoying his company.

When the first batter walks up in the ninth inning, Stan turns to me. “It’s too bad you weren’t here for JC Williams pitching.”

“Yeah, why is that?”

“Best in the league.”

I cock my head to the side and raise an eyebrow at him. “Oh, really? Says who?”

“Everyone, sweetheart.” He points his finger at me animatedly. “He has five shut-outs this season and one was a no-hitter. Do you have any idea how good that is?”

“Stan, I would love to tell you that I do, but you know you’re going to have to teach me what both of those things are.”

“A shut-out means he pitches the entire game and no runs are scored.” He waves his finger back and forth in the air. “Not a one. And a no-hitter means
no
hits. Not even one!” He leans his head forward and puts his hands out to the side like, “See? I told you so.”

I laugh because I just can’t help it. He is so passionate about baseball. “Okay, I will give you the no-hitter being a tough one, but shouldn’t pitchers be able to pitch the entire game with no runs? I mean isn’t that their job?”

Stan laughs like I’ve said the funniest thing in the world. Thirty seconds later he’s still laughing and actually doubles over in his seat. He’s gasping for air and while I may be a little naïve about the game, I didn’t think I said anything that funny.

“Tell you what.” He wipes a few tears from the corner of his eye. “You ever meet a pitcher face to face, you ask them why it’s so hard to pitch an entire game, let alone have a shut-out.”

“Well, my friend here is dating the catcher, so I may have a chance to do just that.”

Stan shakes his head at me. “Oh, I hope you get to meet JC. I would love to be there for that conversation. If you offend the guy, though, I’m not responsible.” He holds his hands up like I will really be able to hunt him down and scold him if I get yelled at by this JC guy.

“I’m a big girl. I’ll take my chances, and if I piss someone off, let me tell you, it will not be the first time in my life.”

He’s still laughing and shaking his head. “I wish I could watch every game with you. This has been so much more fun than sitting next to some stuffy businessman.”

“Tell you what. Give me your number, and the next time I find myself at the game, I’ll send you a text and find out if you’re around. If my friend here keeps dating this guy, I have a feeling she’ll drag me to another game. Now,” I lean closer to Stan, so Quinn doesn’t hear me, “she doesn’t stay with each one very long, so this may be my last chance. But there’s a shot that I’ll be here for at least one more. I mean, she did call him adorable. That’s got to say something, right?”

Stan is laughing again, and I have to say he certainly gives my confidence a boost. I feel like I’m entertaining today although that could be the drinks that I’ve consumed. I’ve actually only had a few but enough that I feel relaxed. Stan gives me his number and I type it into my phone.

Quinn looks at me when I put it back in my purse. “Are you picking up old men now?”

I hit her arm. “No. I’m just going to text Stan if I’m back here with you at another game. I want him to sit by us next time. The guy is fantastic.”

Quinn leans forward to look around me and smiles at him. “Hey, Stan. Thanks for entertaining Ash. She wasn’t looking forward to the game, but she enjoyed it thanks to you. We’ll definitely text you next time we’re here.”

“Oh, if my wife sees me on television, I am going to be in trouble tonight. Two beautiful women talking to me and asking for my number.”

We both laugh. Even though I’ve enjoyed my time with Stan, I’m happy the game is over. The Flyers won, which is a good thing. You never know how guys are going to react, and since Quinn has only been dating this guy for a couple weeks, I didn’t want him to come out fuming.

I give Stan a hug as he leaves and then turn back to Quinn. “I’m going to use the restroom. Do you need me to wait with you? I can just take a cab home.”

“No! Please stay. At least wait until he comes out. He mentioned that we would probably have a late dinner with a group. Can you come with me, please?
Please?
”

“Hey, since when are you shy about hanging around a guy?”

“I’m not. It’s just that I have no idea what the other girlfriends and wives are like. What if they’re bitchy?”

“I’m sure some are, but you always make friends, Q.”

“
Please
.”

I sigh and roll my eyes at her but of course I give in, as she knew I would.