Just a Little Faith (5 page)

He leaned in.
“Be careful going home.” He whispered
in her ear,
and then
p
ush
ed
the door shut
.
Seb
waved before
g
etting
in
to
his car
and
w
ait
ing,
to make
sure her car started
. When it did,
he shifted
his car in
gear
, s
miling
as bits and pieces of their conversation
replayed
over in his mind.

 

Pax
had just
stepped from her car
when
Tori
pounced on
her
in the parking lot outside the office.

“So… how did
last night
go? Did he
ask you out again? Did he kiss you good night?”

“Hold off a minute girl
,
and let me at least put my stuff down at my desk.”

Tori followed Pax
into the office and
down the hall
,
pattering her with questions.

“Did he laugh a lot? Did he hold your hand? Did he say he was madly in love with you and get down on one knee with a ring in his hand?”

“
Tori
!”

“Well, you know…
I'm
just sayin' it could happen.”

“In a fairy tale maybe. You've got to get your head out of the clouds and back in the real world
,
my friend.”

Tori fell back in the chair in front of Pax's desk
, tapping her foot
.
“Well, are you going to tell me anything?”

“Yes. Just gimme a minute.”

Pax could see
the
anticipation about
to
shoot Tori right out of her chair
.
S
he
toyed with not telling her anything
. D
ecid
ing
Tori might spontaneously combust right there on the spot
, Pax sat down in
the
chair rest
ing
her arms on the top of her desk
.
She paused
.

Tori
spread
her hands
out
in front of her
in disgust
, eyes wide
. “Well…”

“It was a nice evening. We walked around the corner to Perks for coffee and a light dinner. We
chatted
about all sorts of things
and then
walked back to
our
cars afterwards
. H
e told me he enjoyed it and he'd give me a call.”

“That's it? No kiss
?
No declaration of love and affection?”

“Tori. You and I have known each other how long now? I would never even allow a kiss on the cheek
at this point
.”

Tori c
rumpl
ed
in her seat
.
“I guess not. Perhaps I bl
ew
things up a little bit in my mind. I imagined all night how things were going.”

Pax splayed her hands across the desk, rising out of her seat
. Her
chair rolled out from under her
.
“You did
what
?”

I
gnor
ing
her
reaction
,
Tori
jumped
to her
next question
.
“So, do you think he'll call?”

“I don't know. He said he would
,
but I'm sure he was just being polite.
” Reaching for the chair, she sat back down
.
“
I think our lives are
to
o
different from each other. I mean he's a professional baseball player for goodness sake. He drives a... I don't know what it is
,
but it's a super fancy car
,
and I drive a beat up
sedan
. He makes as much money in one swing of a bat as I make in a year. Why would he call?
How could he not find
my life a bit on the boring side
?
”

Tori leaned over toward the desk.
“Maybe he finds your life a bit on the nice side
.
Maybe
,
in a way
,
he wishes he could have your life. I think a lot of people who are famous secretly wish they weren't so famous
,
just as regular people secretly wish they were famous. It's the natural order of things.”

Pax snorted in reply.
“You think so, huh? I think the natural order of things is for people to not daydream about other people's dates all night
.
And i
nstead
,
concern themselves more with their own lives.”

W
rinkl
ing
her nose
at Pax
, Tori
hopped up and
walk
ed back to her desk
,
but not before tossing
one last comment over her shoulder.
“When I get a date with a famous baseball player, and an
extremely
hot one at that, I'll stop daydreaming about your dates and start living my own. So there.”

****

Two days later,
Seb
stood in the stark white kitchen of his Chesterfield home and
made
his morning cup of coffee
.
H
e
'd
waited long enough to call Pax
.
Carrying the mug with him, he strode into his home office. S
pott
ing
the
folder
she'd given them
at their initial meeting
stuffed
under a stack of commercial contract proposals
,
Seb
snagged her business card from the inside slot and
sat down
.
Gr
abb
ing
the phone
, he
dialed the ten digit number and leaned back
, p
ropping his fee
t on his desk
.

H
e
glanced
out the window
.
He'd been on the road so much lately he hadn't noticed the b
arren
trees
populat
ing
his property
,
t
he multitude of colors
scattered all over his meticulously cut
grass.
S
ee
ing
the trees
robbed of their leaves left Seb with a cold feeling in his gut
,
and a sense of uneasiness tugged at him.

He diverted his gaze back to his desk as he listened to the LLS phone ring
. No one answered. Glancing at his computer screen,
he realized
it was fifteen till nine
.
T
he office didn't open officially until
9:00
a.m.

Hanging up the phone
,
he stared into space wondering what he could do to pass the time. Picking up the handset one more time, he d
ecided to give Jim a call
to
see if he had looked over the contract for the LLS deal.
For all
Seb
knew
,
it wasn't the business side of him talking. Maybe Jim
had
discovered
something he didn't like
. If that was the case,
Seb
need
ed
to
find
out now rather than later
.
E
specially
before he
cal
led
Pax to set up another date.

He punched the speed dial digit
.

“Jim! Hey… Seb here.”

“Seb! Wow. What time is it? Are you in jail and needing some bail money?”
Laughter carried from the earpiece
.

“Very funny
,
Jim. No,
I'm
not in jail. I just happened to be up early this morning
,
and thought I would check in on the
LLS
deal. Have you been able to go over it anymore? I know we promised to get back with them tomorrow.”

Seb doodled on the
calendar tablet in front of him,
the sound of
papers rustling in his ear.
“Um, yes I have.
I had your attorney check it out
,
too. We both think it looks pretty sound
.
It won't be a detriment to your career
. In
fact
I think it could only enhance it. The fans would find you even more appealing
,
and you could probably get some mileage out of it.”

“Great. That's good to hear. I felt comfortable with their proposal too. And I think Pax would be a good person to work with.”

Seb's doodles turned to writing the same letters over and over.

“
I'm
glad to hear this
,
Seb. I am a little surprised
you're
so interested in this
,
especially with your initial concerns
. Usually
,
you just want to sign the dotted line and be done.”

“I know. I, uh, just wanted to be a bit more involved in this one. It's a charity that
does a lot for cancer patients.
”

“
Sure. Sure.
Listen, I'll call Ms. Taylor tomorrow and give her the good news
.
W
e can iron out the details next week. I know we need to get it done before you pack up for California.”

“Um, yeah
,
okay. That sounds good. I still haven't nailed down for sure when I'll be going out to the coast
,
but the sooner the details are figured out, the better. Thanks for everything
,
Jim. I'll look forward to hearing from you tomorrow.”

“Sure thing
,
Seb. I'll holler at you then.”

Seb
gla
nced at the clock. N
ine a.m.
Closing his eyes, he
listened to the dial tone before
punching in the number for
LLS
. L
ook
ing
down at his calendar
he noticed letters were
written
all over the paper.

P A X.

 

“Oh
,
Pa
-ax
x….” Pax laugh
ed
,
h
ear
ing
Tori's
sing-song
voice over the phone.

“Yes Tooooori? What can I do you for so bright and early and
first
thing this morning?”

“I have a call for you on line two. He said to tell you
‘
Bash
'
is
calling
.
Who is this Bash? Have you been hiding another guy from me? Don't hold out on me
,
Pax. When I check and see
you're
off the phone, I'm coming back there and don't think you can stop me!”

Pax chuckled again. “Tori
,
j
ust put him through.”

Pax reached up and smoothed her hair. She couldn't believe he remembered the nickname mentioned at dinner. It was kinda…
sweet
.

Taking several deep breaths, s
he tried to calm her nerves
.
“This is Pax.”

“Hey there. I hope I didn't call at a bad time?”

The tenor of his voice set her heart in
to
motion.
“Not at all… Bash. You threw Tori for a loop with the name. She is convinced
I'm
keeping a stash of secret guys from her.”

He laughed.
“Oh really?”

“
No
,
I'm serious.
She
's
going to interrogate me after this phone call! You have made my day a trial and a tribulation!”

“I apologize for the perils I have put on you with your co-worker today. I'll try and refrain the next time.”

Next time.
T
he t
wo words caused her stomach to turn upside down.

“I
'm
call
ing
to see if maybe you had some free time this evening? I thought I might follow up on the promise of the stadium tour. I need to get a few things from my locker before they close it up for the winter.”

Her excitement
quickly
turned to disappointment. “Oh, I can't tonight
, Seb
. I wish I could
,
but I have a standing appointment every Thursday. I always leave work around three o'clock and go over to Children's Hospital for the afternoon.”
Dejected, it surprised her at how upset she was at telling him no.

“Hey…you know what? Perhaps you would like to come with me? The kids would just love it
,
and I think you would enjoy it
,
too. I always come out of there more encouraged than anything else.”
Before she knew what she was saying,
the
words spilled from her lips even though her mind was racing to stop them.

What
am I
doing? How forward
can
a girl get?

“Three o'clock you say? I think I could swing it. It sounds like fun. Thanks for asking.”

Pax gulped.
He was going to come?
I must be in another dimension
.
Why else would she blurt out an invitation to an all-star athlete to visit a hospital of all things?

She took a couple of deep breaths
.
“Great! Why don't you just come by the office
,
and we can head over from here.”

“Okay. And maybe we'll have time afterwards to hit the stadium and then grab a bite for dinner.”

“Sounds like a plan. See you then.”

Pax
placed the phone back in the cradle, but didn't release it.
They were going to the hospital, the stadium
,
and maybe to dinner. Wow. What a pleasant turn of events for her regular uneventful Thursday.

A
sudden urge to throw up
came over her
.

True to her word,
Tori
appeared at
her door before she could look up from her desk.

“So. Who's this Bash? Details
,
girl. I need details.”

Tori's face
was priceless
.
H
er eyebrows
almost
meld
ed
into her hairline.

“Tori, Tori, Tori. I'm not hiding any guy from you, I promise. He's a friend. And actually
,
you have met him before. It's Sebastian Quinn.”

Tori's mouth formed a perfect
“o” and her eyes looked like they would pop out of her head.
“Sebastian Quinn? He called back?
I'm
usually so good a
t
recognizing people's voices but this one
got me all out of sorts
. I must be losing my touch.
” She perched on the corner of the desk waving her hand in the air.
“
But forget that…
what's
this
'
Bash
'
reference?”

“It's nothing.
A
t dinner the other night we
d
iscus
sed
all the different nicknames athletes obtain during the
ir
career. I mentioned I thought
‘
Bash
'
would have been his since he bashed ba
lls out of the park
.”

Tori clapped her hands together in rapid succession.
“And he remembered it? Oh girl. I like how this is progressing.
” Leaping from the desk
,
she paced the length of the room. “
What did he want? Another date, right? What are you doing? Dinner at a five-star restaurant like Lombardo's… Yes. You'll go to Lombardo's, and then you'll take a moonlit stroll along the riverbank right near the Arch. You'll be chilly; he'll give you his coat. He'll help you put it on and then stare in your eyes. He won't be able to help himself. He'll take your hand and place one on your cheek…”

Tori's
emerald
eyes glazed over
,
and she mimicked
her description
with her hand going as far as to place
it o
n her
own
cheek.

Pax rapped her desk with her knuckles break
ing
Tori out of her reverie.
“Tori… What did I say earlier about daydreaming about other people's dates? It's nothing as formal as that. We're going over to Children's Hospital to visit the kids and maybe
,
if we have time
,
he's going to take me by the stadium and perhaps dinner.”

Tori's glee would not be denied
.
She pranced out of the office chanting “Pax and Seb sitting in a tree…
.
”

Placing
her head in her hands
Pax
mutter
ed
to herself.
“I told him
he'd
cause me trials and tribulations today.”