Carlos
the team and I had won against Seattle 3-0 and were back in the locker room wrapping up the constant post-game interview questions.
I played the way I usually did and answered the same questions I always had, but I was not in the mood to celebrate our first win at all.
"why do you look upset?" I looked over to my right. "you played well, what's wrong?"
Carlos Beltran was on my right and took a seat next to me. he was a new addition to the team, even though he had played for the Astros years prior. he was a veteran player and Puerto Rican; like I was.
"everything about the game was alright," I answered.
"so is there something personal going on?" he asked.
I sighed. "yeah, but it's...fine," I took a seat.
he nodded. "you're too young to be stressing,"
I looked up to him. "I was stress-free about five hours ago," I chuckled.
Beltran looked at me oddly and pulled a chair in front of me. "is this a relationship problem or a family thing?"
"this girl - Jezabelle. we've been dating for about eight months now, but..." it was gonna be too hard to explain.
"go on. I've heard everything these past twenty years from players; marriages, divorces, everything," he encouraged.
well, I wasn't going to tell everything.
"okay, I really, really like this girl. and everything started off great - she was finishing up in college when we started dating and I thought that it was going to be her and I together,"
"but then...?"
"things happened," I sighed. "she wanted to go to work and I wanted her to just stay -"
Beltran interrupted me. "okay, that's where everything went wrong,"
"how?"
"why don't you want her to work?"
"she just graduated," I shrugged. "I didn't want her to be pressured into finding a job. I didn't want money to be a problem,"
"why does the money she make mean anything?"
"well, I guess because I'm making a lot of money and she didn't really have a job when we first met," I was feeling kind of controlling. "I felt the need to take care of her because I grew to like her instantly,"
he kept nodding. "did you tell her all of this? what did she say?"
"that's how this all began," I murmured. "she didn't want me to take care of her. she wanted to go to work, wouldn't even listen to what I had to say about all of it,"
"you probably were scaring her," he suggested. "just because you make a lot of money doesn't mean she can't work for herself,"
"I know, believe me. I know,"
"first off, how old is this girl?" he wondered.
"twenty-one,"
"when is her birthday?"
"next month,"
"okay, she is allowed to have a job, Carlos. she's basically twenty-two like you," he said. "you scared her when you told her you didn't want her to get a job. I'm sure she already feels less than you,"
"I don't want her to feel that way," I interjected. "but if she wants to work, that'll be okay with me. I just don't know if things will be alright anymore between us after what I told her before the game,"
