“You look cute,” Emily says.
I toss her a baseball cap. “Courtesy of Mr. Rubenstein.”
“Ahem,” Gloria says. “What do I get?”
I dig in the bag. “Want a sweatshirt?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “It’s one hundred degrees.”
I shrug. “But it’s a dry heat. And it’s free.”
She takes the hoodie.
“So, guess who Seth’s here with,” I say.
“Who?” Gloria asks.
“Marian Hart! She got tickets because she’sdatingJavier Ruiz.”
Emily looks at me blankly, but Gloria leans in closer.
“The guy from the Cubs?” she asks.
“Uh-huh!”
“Are you making this up?” Emily asks.
“I don’t lie, Emily. Lying is boring.”
“If Marian is here, why didn’t she text me?” Gloria asks. “Why doesn’tanyonetext me?”
“I text you, my love,” Emily says, kissing her cheek.
“Marian didn’t text me either,” I point out.
They both give me long-suffering looks.
“Maybe because she can tell that you don’t like her?” Emily suggests.
“Why does everyone keep saying that?”
“Because you are very bad at hiding your feelings.”
Like, for instance, when I blurt outI like you!Point taken.
“Well, I told Seth we would walk down and say hi.”
Gloria stands up immediately. “Oh, we certainly will. Javier Ruiz? I have to hear about this.”
Emily insists we wait for the inning to end—excruciatingly, no one scores—before we make the trek down to Seth and Marian’s glamorous seats in the Loge. Marian is wearing a sparkly red jacket withRUIZappliquéd on the back. She and Seth are surrounded by other women in matching jackets bearing different players’ names, all of them so preposterously glossy and well-groomed that I want to excuse myself to call a dermatologist, a colorist, a facialist, and a liposuctionist for emergency appointments.
“Marian Hart!” Gloria yells over the din.
Marian turns around, and her face lights up. “Glor! Get over here!”
Gloria prances down the vertiginous stairs in her platform mules, making me fear for her life, and throws herself into Marian’s arms.
Marian, as always, is radiant. She smiles and waves over Gloria’s shoulder. I wave back, doing my goddamn best to evince warmth and enthusiasm.
