Swing Batter Swing

by Zaida Polanco

  Except, the tone of the message was more formal, so he looked closer and saw it was from an Alex. And Alex apparently wanted Marty to know that he was very excited for their date tonight. A fact that he punctuated by sending a picture of himself wearing a tuxedo shirt.

  Despite the fact that he hated himself for it, Jay scrutinized the picture. This Alex dude was... fine, he guessed. He certainly wasn’t giving Idris Elba a run for his money, but he wasn’t bad to look at. Jay could admit that to himself.

  However, Alex, or fuckface, as he would henceforth be known in Jay’s head, was entirely wrong for Marty.

  For starters, fuckface wasn’t Jay, which was the quite obvious strike one. Strike two was the fact that fuckface seemed like he wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like Marty in his bed. Jay just had a sense that this kid was a little green and wouldn’t even make sure Marty came a sufficient number of times before he put his limp dick in her.

  And strike three... well, what was strike three? Oh, right. Strike three was the fact that fuckface was not Jay. A fact that was so important, it needed to be repeated.

  Jay waited for a beat to see if Marty’s response would pop up, but then he came to his senses and quickly shut her laptop. He had already crossed the line, and he refused to delve even further into her private life, despite his desire to pore over all of her messages with fuckface.

  Besides, there was definitely a part of him that felt a little queasy at the idea of seeing written evidence of her flirting with another guy who wasn’t him. God, this day was the worst.

  Chapter 12: Marty

  So much for Marty’s amazing day. Her feeling of being on top of the world quickly soured as she faced the reality of the day ahead of her. Jay was clearly in a mood, though she had no idea what she could have done to make him so grumpy. Maybe he was actually pissed about her unprofessional advances last night.

  He’d already told her in no uncertain terms that she would probably need to stay late tonight, which meant she for sure was going to miss her date. Not that he knew she had a date. She tried to remember that he wasn’t doing this to purposely ruin her night, because it’s not even like she told him she had plans. Assistants didn’t get to make concrete plans and she knew that.

  Though she didn’t care admit it, her excitement about the date had less to do with the fact that she really liked the guy and more to do with the fact that she hadn’t had sex in a while and needed it desperately. Based off of their flirty messages back and forth, her date wanted it just as badly.

  After Jay grumpily piled more work on her plate (seriously, what was up with him today?), Marty sent a quick message.

  Marty:

  So sorry to do this, but my boss says there’s a chance we might have to work late tonight. I might not make it but I’ll need to play it by ear. Totally understand if you want to just cancel now so you’re not waiting around for me.

  Alex:

  No worries, I know how the assistant life is. Just keep me posted.

  Marty waited a beat. That was it? He wasn’t pissed? He still wanted to see her? As if reading her mind, Alex messaged her again.

  Alex:

  I’ve been thinking about you all day. It’ll take a lot more than canceled dinner plans to keep me away. Depending on what time you get out, we can do a late drink or a movie or we can drive up to some secluded park like teenagers, so I can finally get my hands all over you.

  Marty blushed at how forward he was, though she secretly loved it. Their messages had been increasingly flirtatious and sexual, as it was clear that they were both looking to hook up. If he was as good in person as he was via text, Marty was in for a phenomenal night.

  Alex:

  Shit, did I scare you? I just realized my last message sounded a little ominous. I’m not a murderer, okay? I want to get my hands on you in a sexual and consensual way.

  Alex:

  None of this is coming out properly and now I just sound deranged. I won’t blame you if you bail on tonight entirely.

  Marty:

  Not a chance. I look really cute today so if you do murder me, at least the crime scene photos will be hot. See you later.

  Alex:

  Good lord, you’re perfect. Can’t wait.

  Marty set her phone down, unable to wipe the smile off her face as she allowed her excitement to creep back in. Maybe today wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

  Several hours later, after two trips to Tender Greens because Jay’s side of salmon had been too small for his liking, Marty felt foolish for thinking this terrible day would get better. She didn’t know what the hell had put her boss in such an uncharacteristically bad mood, but she was determined to not let him see her rattled.

  Jay called her into his office so they could finally discuss the spring training schedule, but she had been sitting in front of him for the past five minutes while he wrapped up some task he was too engrossed in to interrupt. Marty stood up, trying to not let her frustration show.

  “I can just come back...when you’re ready...,” she trailed off because Jay finally looked up, fixing her with an angry gaze. He must have seen something in her face that caused him to reconsider his demeanor, because he suddenly softened and leaned back in his chair.

  “Marty, please sit. I’m sorry I made you wait.”

  Marty sunk back into the chair, surprised by his sudden mood shift. Jay stared at her for a beat, an inscrutable look on his face as he watched her settle back into her seat. Marty felt naked under his intense gaze. She looked down at her MacBook in her lap, unwilling to meet his eyes.

  “Okay so...,” she began, unsure where to begin.

  “Yes, so indeed.” Jay chuckled. He was teasing her. She finally looked up from her computer, trying to discern what the hell was going through this beautiful man’s brain.

  Jay sighed and looked away. “I’m sorry about today, McFly,” he said. “I have a lot on my mind and that’s not really an excuse but I am sorry. I’ve been—”

  “A dick?” she offered, gasping and clamping her hands over her mouth when she realized she said that out loud. “Holy shit, I’m sorry. Fuck.”

  Jay’s booming laugh broke all the tension in the office.

  “You’re absolutely right. I have been a dick. And I don’t want you to be scared to call me on it, because the last thing I want is for you to feel like you have to take this shit from me. That’s not the kind of boss I want to be. Okay?”

  Marty was entirely unsure how to respond to this. She had talked to countless other assistants and the general consensus was that they were supposed to accept any treatment that was lobbed at them, without complaint, with a smile on their faces.

  But Jay was now telling her that he didn’t want her to feel that way. After just one day where he seemed slightly off his game, where he had been just a little short with her, where he’d asked her to get his lunch. These are things that other assistants had to deal with all the time. Jay’s “bad day” was another agent’s “good day.”

  In that moment, Marty felt incredibly lucky to be working for him. She also felt incredibly stupid for making him feel like a bad boss for even one second.

  “You really don’t have to apologize. It’s not a big deal.” She tried to reassure him but he waved his hand as if swatting away her words.

  “I’m not interested in downplaying my actions here, Marty. Whether or not other agents treat their assistants a certain way is not my concern right now. My concern is you, you’re my assistant. And my assistants don’t have to put up with my personal shit. So, tell me you understand and let’s get this spring training schedule locked down.”

  Marty hesitated. It would be so easy to tell him what he wanted to hear so they could move on. But she had a niggling fear growing in the back of her mind and she needed to know before it consumed her.

  “I just have a question first, sorry,” she said, a little sheepish. “You just said that you have a lot of shit right now, some personal shit, a lot of things to ju
ggle, whatever.”

  Jay nodded, calmly waiting for her to get to the question.

  “Well, anyway. I just... are you dealing with personal shit because of me?” Off his confused look, Marty quickly added, “I’m not talking about the incident from last night that shall not be named. I just mean, am I dropping the ball as your assistant? Because, if I’m doing a shit job, I want to know that so I can correct it. Or, if you prefer, you could get someone else from the mailroom to come work your desk.”

  She sighed heavily at the thought of going back to the mailroom, but it would be the right thing to do. “I don’t want to be the reason for you feeling overwhelmed or whatever. If I’m not doing my job to your satisfaction, it isn’t going to do either one of us any favors in the long run if you keep me around, you know?”

  Marty sat up straight, maintaining eye contact with Jay. “So,” she continued, “is that why you’ve been stressed? Is it me?”

  Chapter 13: Jay

  Goddammit, why did she have to ask that. Of course it was her. But not in the way she thought it was.

  Marty stared at Jay with such an unbridled desire to hear the truth that he was unable to hold her gaze for more than a second. He knew if he looked at her for too long, she would get to the root cause of his grumpy mood.

  It was her. He wanted her. He couldn’t have her. There was no way she would understand. At best, she would... what? What was the most realistic best case scenario here? He tells her he wants her and she hikes up her dress and fucks him on his desk?

  That wasn’t what Jay wanted. He wanted all of her, all the time, in a way he couldn’t remember ever wanting anything or anyone else. He wanted this girl to be all his and nobody else’s. But he couldn’t say that, now could he?

  For possibly the hundredth time since they started working together, Jay realized that Marty was waiting for him to answer a question she’d asked. He scrunched his brows together as if deep in thought. Marty’s gaze wavered a bit, as if she was actually worried he would fire her just because she told him to do so.

  “Marty, trust me when I say this — your work is excellent. Is this you trying to fish for compliments from me? Because I must say, I thought you were better than that.” Jay arched an eyebrow in what he hoped was a playful gesture to show that he wasn’t being serious.

  Marty’s lips quirked up at that, and he felt her relax for the first time all day, until her face broke out into a huge smile.

  Christ, the dimples.

  His heart.

  He almost thought it was better to be a jerk to her so she wouldn’t smile that smile of hers, with the dimples, the one that nearly knocked him out. At the same time, he wanted nothing more than to be the person who made her smile like that every day.

  He felt himself growing hard underneath his dress pants. He cleared his throat to get her attention, despite the fact that she was the only other person in the room.

  “Alright, so, spring training then. Usually how it works is I fly down for some initial meetings with the coaches and team managers, stuff I don’t need you around for. You stay here and manage some last-minute office stuff. And then once the players get there, that’s when you join me and we are essentially on the road for about 4 weeks. You’ll still get weekends off, and you can choose to fly back to LA during that time, of course. You might be expected to work some weekends but you’ll be paid for those, of course. And all of the travel and lodging is covered for you as well.”

  Marty stared at Jay with absolute shock and confusion all over her face. Jay didn’t understand where she got lost. “What happened? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “I... I’m sorry but... I didn’t know... nobody told me... that I’d be expected to travel with you for spring training?” Marty looked meeker than Jay had ever seen her. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do more — convince her that this was a normal part of her job or protect her from whatever anxiety she was feeling by telling her he wouldn’t make her travel if she didn’t want to.

  He frowned, considering his next words carefully. “I’m sorry that wasn’t communicated to you before you took this gig. It’s pretty common for the assistants to come to spring training. There’s just a lot to manage, and I’ve always traveled with my assistant, whoever was working my desk at the time.”

  This was true, though Jay had never quite felt the same level of excitement about traveling with his previous assistants as he did just now when he thought of spending all of that time with Marty on the road. Seeing her in casual clothes, maybe some shorts if he was lucky.

  Fuck, now that he thought about it, this actually was a terrible idea. He should convince her that it was okay if she didn’t come along on the trip. He could relieve her of the responsibility and at the same time, relieve himself of some of the desire he knew was sure to build when he was on the road with her.

  “Of course, if you’re not comfortable with it or just don’t want to, we can always—”

  “No, it’s fine!” Marty squeaked, regaining some composure. “I’m sorry I freaked out, it just took me by surprise is all. I would love to go! My dad and brothers are gonna flip out.”

  Jay perked up upon hearing this. “Big baseball family?”

  Marty smirked, adopting an exaggeratedly incredulous look as she cocked her head to the side. “Um, we’re Dominican. ‘Big baseball family’ is an understatement.”

  Jay laughed at that. Many of his clients were Dominican and he knew the characterization well. Despite how much time he’d spent around Dominicans, he was somehow surprised to learn that Marty was as well. “How did I not know you were Dominican?”

  She shrugged. “You never asked? Which I’m grateful for, by the way. Nothing worse than getting asked ‘what are you?’ from a white person and then having to deal with their frustration when you respond with ‘human’ or ‘American.’ Plus, it’s not like we all go around carrying platanos and shouting ‘Que lo que?’ at everyone. I mean, most of us don’t... usually.”

  He smiled, secretly thrilled that she wasn’t running away from traveling with him. “So the hotels you booked, you’ll have to go through and add another room to the reservations okay?”

  Marty nodded, already working on some task on her computer, her fingers clacking away at the keys as she donned a look of complete focus. Jay allowed himself to watch her for a moment, before she sensed his gaze and looked up, a little embarrassed.

  “Oh god, I’m so sorry. I just got in work mode and I forgot—”

  Jay held up his hand to quiet her. “It’s alright, I think we are good for the day.”

  Marty looked adorably confused and Jay had to fight the urge to — do something, he wasn’t sure what.

  “I’ll work on some of it tonight and then we can sort out the rest tomorrow.”

  Marty eyed him skeptically. “Why don’t I just stay and finish this so you don’t need to do it yourself. I’m your assistant, remember? Let me assist you.”

  Jay shook his head as he began to clean up his desk, occasionally tossing an item into his work messenger bag so he could take it home.

  He looked up and she was watching him, a heated expression in her eyes, an expression Jay had not seen on her before. He knew it was wishful thinking, but she seemed almost... aroused? No, Jay knew that wasn’t it. In fact, he was angry with himself for even entertaining the idea that it might be.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, breaking her out of her reverie. She met his gaze, her eyes clouding over again with something, some emotion Jay couldn’t place. He couldn’t possibly consider it to be arousal. Perhaps it was anger? Frustration? But why?

  Marty drew her heated gaze away from his, just as quickly as it had arrived. “Sorry I just... I got distracted for a second,” she said, standing up from her chair and smoothing her dress down as she tucked her laptop under her arm.

  Jay felt the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. “I understand, I’m incredibly attractive and distracting,” he said, adopt
ing a cheeky grin and winking at her in what he hoped was a flirty and not conceited way.

  Marty met his eyes again, the same heated look flashing over them. She seemed to grapple with something before finally deciding to speak. “Yes,” she said, “you are very attractive. But it’s rude to brag.”

  Jay blinked in surprise. Wait a minute. Did she... just admit... to finding him attractive? Was she... blushing? This was a shock to him.

  Jay certainly knew he couldn’t act on this information, at least not while she was working for him, and possibly not ever, considering their age difference. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious to know whether she was actually interested in him or if he was misreading her. Perhaps he just wanted to know in order to stroke his ego a little bit.

  Jay moved around his desk, wanting to see Marty a little closer. She averted her eyes.

  “Are you blushing?” he asked, hoping he wasn’t pushing his luck. Marty didn’t meet his eyes as she headed toward the door. “Am I making you blush, kiddo?”

  At that term of endearment, Marty whipped her head around, anger flashing over her normally calm eyes. “Don’t... don’t call me that.”

  She sighed heavily as she tried to compose herself, shooting Jay a brief but forced smile. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She exhaled heavily and leaned against the door, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. “Fuck, I need to get laid, ” she mumbled under her breath.

  Jay choked on air and let out a violent cough. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

  Marty looked at him in complete and utter terror, which would have been a little funny to Jay if he wasn’t so turned on. “I... nothing,” Marty replied, her face blushing an even deeper red.

  Jay shook his head. “That wasn’t nothing, Marty.”

  She put her face in her hands.

  “Fuck, I’m sorry. I sometimes think I’m saying things only in my head and then I say them out loud. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.” She considered her words. “Well, okay that’s a lie. Yes, I did mean that. But I didn’t mean to say it to you. I just meant that... I am in a bit of a ‘dry spell’ and that means I’m aware of some things I shouldn’t even be thinking of.”