Dugout Girl

Chapter Sixteen

I barged into Ryan's apartment without knocking. I know rude eh?

I sat down on his sofa and started taking deep breaths. In through my nose, out through my mouth. In the nose, out the mouth. I kept doing this until I was calm.

Then Ryan came out of the bathroom and seen me sitting on the couch.

"Luce? Are you okay?" He asked. I decided I wouldn't tell him about my encounter in the hallway.

"I-I ran all the way here," I said mocking out of breathness.

Ryan seemed to buy it. "In those shoes? You're crazy," he said smiling.

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

He grabbed his wallet and shoved it in his back pocket and his phone.

Ryan looked extremely cute in his black button down and dark blue jeans.

"Did I ever tell you how cute you look?" I ask.

"You just did," he said grinning.

He grabbed my hand and lead me down to his car. My curls bouncing with every step. I loved that feeling. It made me feel important.

He pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant the guys took me to on my birthday.

I smiled as Ryan came and opened my door for me. He was such a gentleman.

We went in and we were taken over to a table for two under the glass ceiling. It was gorgeous seeing all of the city.

Then a very nice waiter came over and gave us our menus and a glass of water.

I read over the menu before deciding on spaghetti and bread sticks. Ryan got a bacon cheese burger. Typical Ryan.

We also got a bottle of wine to share.

This night was a perfect distraction from the whole Josh situation and also a good break from baseball.

It was the heat of the season and everyone was waiting for the all-star break, so they could have a break.

While we were waiting for our food, we talked. Just small talk. I don't know why. I hate small talk. But I don't want to ruin Ryan's night after what I had just done.

Then our food came and it was silent. A kind of awkward one too. But I didn't want to talk about baseball. I didn't want our whole relationship to be based off of baseball.

After we finished our meal, we finished the bottle of wine on the table.

"How buzzed are you?" I asked him.

"I'm not, why?"

"Because you have to drive us home," I said. I was not down for drunk driving.

"I'm not gonna get hammered after a couple of glasses of wine," he told me.

I nodded my head and downed the rest of the wine in my glass. This was so awkward.

Why were things awkward? Conversation always flowed between us, and this was weird. I mean I know what I did, but he forgave me when he shouldn't have.

Then the cheque came and Ryan paid and we left. But my mind couldn't stop racing.

What if he didn't really forgive me? What if this was my last chance to prove myself to him? What if-

"What's bugging you Luce?" Ryan asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

"Hm? Oh nothing," I lied.

"It's obviously something. Do you wanna talk about it?"