Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Adriana

I can’t believe I haven’t gotten to tell Heather about our date from last week. I lock up my apartment and head downstairs to meet Heather at my car.

“Good Morning boss bestie!” I say to her.

“Morning! Ready for today?” she asks.

“Yes ma’am! Today should be a good day.” I reply.

We get into the car and make our way to the stadium.

“Finally, you can tell me about your date in the city! I haven’t been able to get details from you.”

I laugh at her. Every time she’s gone to ask me, we’ve either gotten interrupted by work, her husband or my boyfriend.

“It was perfect. As you know already, he took me to see The Cursed Child. First, he took me to breakfast, then the show. We walked around the city for the rest of the afternoon. We were on our way home when we stopped at this restaurant that was on the water. When we get to the stadium, I’ll show you the picture we took.”

“I’m so happy you had fun! Cole planned that on his own, too. He asked Ty for help in the way of how he went about planning our trip to see Beetlejuice without dealing with the paps, but he wouldn’t give Ty anything else. He told him he was worried he would blab to me. How rude!.” she tells me.

I laugh at her because she would absolutely have pulled that info from Ty and told me. The surprise made it ten times more special.

“He’s right, you know.” I confirm.

“I know. Doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.” She says with a frown.

“You are ridiculous.” I tell her.

“Am not! Maybe just a little. There is something I want to throw out there, though.” Heather says.

“What’s up, boss lady?” I ask her.

“I doubt Cole told you, but his birthday is coming up. It’s the weekend after the gala.” Heather informs me.

“He did not tell me. That jerk.”

“He isn’t big on celebrating since his parents passed. But I think he could get behind it again if you were a part of it.” She says.

“So not a jerk. Got it. Let’s throw him a surprise party!” I suggest.

“That’s a good idea. We can do it at my place.” She offers.

“That’d be great! Okay, let’s get to planning after today.” I say, pulling into the parking lot of the stadium.

Score! Parking space right by the entrance. We get out of the car and head inside to prep for the major sponsors and donors of the Gala.

Forty-five minutes later, we are all ready to greet everyone.

People walk into the large conference room where we are meeting everyone before taking them down to meet the players and see the field.

Heather and I go around greeting everyone together. The last few groups of stragglers are walking in by the time we have said hello to everyone.

I stop in my tracks as I see the last two people who walk in. Heather was following me and bumps into me since I stopped in my tracks.

“I’m sorr..” She goes to say, but stops.

I know at that moment she sees who caused me to stop walking. Small-dick-Toby is standing there. He seems to be in just as much shock as I’m.

“You okay? If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be,” Heather tries to comfort me.

“I’m okay. Didn’t expect it, but it’s fine.” I let her know.

With that, I continue walking to where he is with his colleagues.

“Toby, how are you?” I ask him.

“Adriana, it’s nice to see you again. These are my co-workers Trey and Trent.” Toby replies.

“Nice to meet you both. This is Heather. She is in charge of the foundation.” I inform them.

“Nice to meet you all.” Heather replies, shaking their hands.

“Okay, let’s get things moving,” Heather says to me.

We walk back up to the front of the conference room.

“Thank you all for coming today. We are so excited to have you here today and attending our first annual gala. We are so excited to share the name of the foundation with you then. Today we hope you enjoy taking in the field, meeting some players and enjoying a good old fashion baseball game.” Heather tells everyone.

Everyone claps for her little speech.

“Now, if you will follow us, let’s get you onto the field.” Heather lets them know.

We walk out of the conference room, and the group follows us. We take them onto the field where the team is warming up.

The guys finish up and come over to mingle.

“Adriana, can you do me a favor?” Heather asks.

“Whatever you need, boss.” I tell her.

“Can you run to the maintenance closet over by the bullpen and grab the extra gloves so if people want to play catch, they can?” Heather inquiries.

“Of course, I’ll be right back.”

I head to go grab the gloves. It takes me a few minutes to get to the closet. Luckily, we had asked for the door to be unlocked already.

I grab as many as I can, but since I can always come back for more, there isn’t a point in trying to get them all. I’m turning to walk out of the closet when I hear footsteps. No one should be here in this area. I hope Toby didn’t follow me to talk.

I get three steps out of the closet before Dylan Crawford is in my line of sight.

“Hey Adriana. Need some help?” He asks me.

“Hi Dylan, um sure. That’d be great. There are still a bunch of gloves in the closet, can you grab them?”

“Sure thing,” he says and goes into the closet.

I have my phone in my back pocket if need be.

“Got them all.” He comes out with the rest of the pile I left.

“Awesome. What brings you this way?” I ask.

“Honestly, I saw you come over this way. I wanted to ask you something, but didn’t want an audience.” He replies.

“What’s up?” I ask so we can get back to the field before Heather or the guys come looking for me.

“Well, I wanted to ask if you would like to be my date to the gala? I thought with us being new, maybe it would be nice to go together.” He gets out.

“Dylan, thank you for thinking of me, but I do have a date already.” I let him know.

“Oh, okay. Is it serious?”

“It’s newish. I’m sorry if I gave you any sign I was available.” I say.

“I understand. Hope it works out for you.” He replies.

“Thanks. Let’s get these gloves back to the field.” I state.

Dylan just nods and we head back to where everyone is.

The rest of the afternoon goes off without a hitch. Everyone got to play catch on the field and then went to their seats or boxes to watch the game.

The Grizzlies win, which will only make the gala that much better now. We head back to the large conference room to meet with everyone from earlier to hand out swag bags before they leave.

We told the guys we would meet them at home since we didn’t know how quick or slow it would go at the end.

We finish up and head out of the stadium to the parking lot.

“What is on the windshield of your car, A?” Heather asks as we get closer.

“That’s weird.” I say.

We get to my car and there is a bouquet of red roses and forget-me-not’s wrapped up. I pick them up and a see a note included and pull it out and read it:

See you soon, beautiful.

That’s it. It doesn’t say anything else. No signature, no nothing.

“What does it say?” Heather asks.

I show Heather the note. Words escape me at this moment. I don’t think it’s Cole because he would just have given them to me or signed his name.

“What the fuck?! Do you think it’s Toby?” She questions.

“It could be since he was here.” I reply just above a whisper.

Heather grabs her phone from her purse. I assume she is calling either Cole or Ty.

The only thing I want to do it to go home and shower. I feel icky and dirty.

“The guys are coming.” Heather informs me.

I nod my head to let her know I heard her.

I hear footsteps coming towards us quickly before hands touch my shoulders and turn me around.

“What happened, baby?” Cole asks with worry in his tone.

“Here.” I say, pushing the bouquet into his hands.

“What are these?” He questions.

“Roses and forget-me-not’s. This is the note that came with it.” Heather tells him while giving him the note.

He and Ty look over it.

“Do we have any thoughts of who it could be from?” Ty asks.

“Toby is here. He came today with one of the companies who is a top contributor or sponsor.” Heather informs them.

“I didn’t see him on the field.” Cole states.

“I saw him, but then he disappeared.” Ty tells us.

“Okay, let’s call the police.” Cole suggests.

“No. I don’t want to deal with that. He’s harmless.” I tell them.

“Are you sure? We can get the footage from the parking lot to check.” Heather says.

“Can we just go home?” I ask.

“Baby, are you sure? It might be better to just have a report.” Cole tells me.

“I’m sure. I just want to go home.” I repeat.

“Okay, let’s get you home. Can I drive your car?” Cole asks.

“Yeah.” I reply and walk to the passenger side.

Cole talks to Heather and Ty for a moment before getting into the driver's side.

“Let’s get you home, sugar.”

I zone out on the drive home. We get back to the house first and then Ty and Heather pull in right after.

“Let’s go upstairs.” Cole suggests.

“Okay.”

We all get out of our vehicles and Heather and Ty follow us up to my place. Once inside, we all go straight to the living room. I know I have to talk to them before I can do anything else. I love them, but right now I just want to shower.

Cole sits next to me and puts his arm around me, trying to provide some comfort. I snuggle into his side because in his arms is safety.

“Tell me exactly what happened with Toby today.” Cole says.

I take a deep breath and recount seeing Toby walk into the conference room and how we didn’t speak again after that.

“I don’t remember him coming to grab the swag pack after the game now that I think about it.” Heather says.

“Me either. Maybe that’s when he left the flowers.” She suggests.

“Yeah maybe.” I confirm.

“Let’s make a plan, since we know he will be at the gala. Cole, I’m going to give you access to the cameras here for your phone. More eyes are better.” Ty tells us.

“Agreed.” Comes from Cole.

“Babe, you want to come stay with me until we know he isn’t here anymore? That way, you aren’t alone? And if you want, you can share your location from your phone with me.” Cole asks.

I think about it for a second. Cole isn’t always home.

“You can come to be with Heather when I’m not home, but you won’t be alone at night. If he’s still here when we go on the road, maybe you two can come with or stay together.” Cole says like he can read my mind.

“Okay, that would make me feel better.” I tell him.

“Does that work for you two?” Cole asks Heather and Ty.

“That works. We can ask him questions at the gala.” Ty responds.

“We will get out of your hair. Call me if you need anything, anytime.” Heather tells me as she comes and gives me a hug.

“I will, thank you.” I tell her, returning the hug.

“Come here, sis. We got you,” Ty tells me with a hug as well.

“Thanks Ty.” I say.

The two of them leave and then it’s Cole and I.

“Why don’t you pack a bag with what you need to bring to my place? Bring as much as you want, okay?” Cole tells me.

I nod my head, kiss his cheek and get up to go pack.