“Bye,” I said and wiggled my fingers at the camera. I clicked it off and pulled out my earbuds. “Emma. What egregious error have I done to summon the head of communications?”
She pulled up an ottoman, sat properly, and placed a tablet on her lap. “No error, Romo. Just some curiosities.”
Two years ago she had been nothing but friendly. Leaning toward a good gal pal, actually. Then, at a party, she made her intentions known and I made my disinterest known. We’ve been cordial since then, but I always felt the proverbial elephant waddle into the room whenever the two of us had to interact.
“I haven’t been out to any bars lately. And I don’t think there would be any salacious shots of me at Sunday mass.” I tapped my finger against my chin. “I think I may have given a nasty lookat the Brawlers’ third baseman the other night. Do you need to spin that?”
She had been looking at me deadpan while I spoke. When I finished, she crossed her arms on her lap and leaned toward me. “Been seeing anyone lately?”
My face drained of its blood. Her brow rose at the obvious reaction. “Why do you ask?” I tried to play it cool but my palms had already begun to sweat.
“No reason.” She leaned back and woke her tablet, then, with spider-quick fingers, tapped through a series of selections until she came to a photo album. She flipped the tablet around for me to see. She hit the center and a video played. Me, up to bat, winking at the camera. Well,theywould assume I winked at the live feed, when in reality, it was directly at Alex.
She swiped to the next one. Another video. This time with terrible audio and from the same POV of me asking, “Got my good side, right?” to Alex.
Another video. This one of me gesturing toward the camera well and then pumping my fist in the air when I got the response I wanted from Alex.
She scrolled on the album reel until she came to a series of pictures. All of them were Alex’s and all of them were of me. They were not the typical action shots, although I knew he took plenty of them. They were mostly candids of me not playing the game, like interacting with fans, sitting in the dugout in concentration, or half cast in the evening shadow. (That one I loved. I had him upload it to our site.)
“What are you getting at?” I asked.
Emma shrugged. “I dunno. You tell me.”
Whatever color had drained from my face returned. My nice guy persona only went so far. “Emma. What are you getting at?” I asked again, this time enunciating my words.
Her shoulders lifted as she held up the tablet. “We’re gettingrumors, Romo. One of the camera guys has been blabbing his mouth about how you made eyes at one of the photographers. Someone at Hiroshi’s recent birthday party said you snuck away for an hour with—”
“That was a private event,” I interrupted. “Hiroshi doesn’t let anyone in who would squeal. Where are you hearing this information?”
Emma shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is how we handle this.” She held up her hand to prevent me from speaking. “Look, I don’t care if any of this is true or not. I don’t. What I care about is the perception of the team.That’swhat needs to be addressed. You’re not just Romolo Moretti, you’re a Rider and you represent the New England Riders brand. I can get your cousin Joe on the phone and have him walk through your morality clause of your contract, if you want.”
Acid burned down my esophagus and eroded the congeniality that permeated my system. “What does what we’re talking about have anything to do with my contract’smoralityclause?”
She held up her hands again but this time it seemed more for herself to calm down. “Rumors move fast, especially when they’re about the game’s most elusive and private player who hasn’t been seen out on a date in… well,ever. I’m here for the business, not for the game. And this? This is all business, Romo. This has nothing to do with the game.”
I saw Hiroshi walk into the room and do a double take when he saw the obvious lack of my affable demeanor. As he came over, Emma said, “Okay, look. Let me level with you. It’s okay that you’re gay. I think it just makes sense for you to come out before it’s leaked to the press and—”
“Emma, what the hell are you doing to my player?” Hiroshi asked. Her head snapped up to him. “Why does Rome look so agitated? What are you saying to him?”
“I’m doing my job, Hiroshi. Your boy here is obviously gay and we need to get ahead of it to…”
I stood and got out of that room as quickly as possible. Behind me, Hiroshi launched into a tirade that I’m sure would make me proud to call him my captain and my friend. Instead, I stumbled down the hall on numb feet until I came to the hot tub room. Brett had been climbing out of the cold plunge and grabbed a towel as I slipped into the room.
“Bro. What happened? You’re white as a ghost.”
My feet fell into a steady back-and-forth pace in the narrow room. The room reeked of chlorine. “Freakin’ Emma. She knows about me. There’s a freakin’ rumor going around and she confronted me about it. A freakin’rumor.”
Brett held up his hands. Like that would stop me. “Whoa, whoa, brother, slow down with the cussing. You’re gonna make some of us upset.”
I stopped pacing at that and had to laugh. “I’m just… I’m stupid. I shouldn’t have made it so obvious.”
“Made what obvious?”
“Alex. I freakin’flirtedwith him in front of television cameras.”
“Hey, man, you’re just doing what comes natural to us. Ain’t no shame in that.”
I shook my head. “I’m not ashamed. I’ve never been ashamed. I’m juststupid. I should have put my head first.”
