FWB Friends With Baseball

So You're the Sugar Baby.

Jailyn~

"DeMarini," Jared says, looking to me.

"Yeah," I nod, chuckling a little, "Great company." The guys all laugh, Christian probably more so knowing exactly how much I made.

"Congratulations on that. Is it true that your line is the most successful launch of theirs to date?"

Letting out a breath, I nod again as I reply, "Yeah, which is pretty incredible. When I went into the deal, they threw out an estimate of about one hundred thousand units being sold, so we were all pretty amazed when it came back that we'd sold five times that. It's been incredible, and I'm very lucky to have been able to work with them."

"How was that deal broken down?" Dallas asks, "Was it a percentage thing or just upfront?"

"A percentage," I confirm, "For this line, I got fifteen percent of the net profit. I'm not sure that I can confirm or deny anything else for the time being, though."

"Fifteen percent," Jared confirms, "That had to have gotten you a pretty nice paycheck."

Scoffing, I nod, "You could say that. The National Team doesn't exactly pay well; someone's got to." The guys laugh again at the light banter, "Between them and Adidas, that lack of a real paycheck is more than made up for."

"You can just say that Christian is the sugar baby," Jared teases, making me laugh harder than before. He's not technically wrong when you factor in the Adidas deal.

"Easy there," Christian replies, chuckling himself. "Even if it's true, she's more than earned every dime she's made. No one can touch her numbers."

"We can all agree there," Dallas confirms, "What's drug testing like for you?"

Groaning, I roll my eyes, "Obnoxious. It's supposed to be random, but I feel like it was nearly every series this past season that I was getting 'randomly' chosen."

"To be fair, you would be in the top five list for most homers in the MLB in almost one hundred less games," Dallas points out, "Your strikeout rate was one in every thirty-eight at-bats as opposed to your home run rate of one in every four. That's superhuman."

"That's seeing the ball well," I counter. "I also wasn't even given the opportunity to strike out forty-three times, probably more if you factor in some of the walks that weren't just them throwing the ball at me."

"It's insane that you got targeted so much, honestly, as a pitcher, it's unacceptable," Dallas says, "One in seven at-bats was the breakdown on that, by the way."

"Yeah," I agree, not really sure what else to say, "What am I gonna do about it, though? There's been a few conversations with the ASA and the big wigs about it, but," I shrug, pursing my lips to the side, "I already got ejected over it in Australia."

"That was hilarious," Dallas replies, "Your reaction was completely valid, but it's not something you see often, if at all in female professional sports."

"Well, we're held to a little higher of a standard than those baseball boys," I joke, nudging into Christain. "I think everyone's consensus was that I was right to pop off."

"You were hit nine times that series, right?" Christian asks, confirming the number. When I nod, he agrees, "Yeah, you should've said something after the third."

"Again, higher standard," I tease.

"How are you gearing up for your season? You're heading to Oklahoma in about two weeks now, right?" Jared asks.

"Yeah, just trying to tie up any loose ends. I've got a couple of meetings to cover before I'm busy with my schedule," I reply, trying to act like I'm not stressing about everything. "I'm honestly just excited to start playing again. As much as I like the rest of my job, that's what I'd really like to be doing."