Stealing Home

"Alright, Scarlett," Mr. Theraux organizes the papers on his desk and hands me a lanyard, "Here is your lanyard.  This will give you access to pretty much every place in the stadium and on the road as well. So, make sure you don't lose that. Of course, we can order you a new one but they will take the cost out of your paycheck, so it's better to hold onto the one you have. When this one wears down or gets too old, it will be replaced for free, but not if you lose it."   "Okay, that's fine." I put the lanyard over my head so I don't lose it.   Mr. Theraux pushes away from his desk and stands up. I stood up as well and followed him out into the hallway.   "I would bring you down to the team myself but I am actually running late for a meeting so I will have my assistant bring you down. Matthew?" Mr. Theraux turns to the man sitting at the desk outside his office, "Will you bring Scarlett down to meet the team?"   "Sure, boss," Matthew jumps up and he looks excited. I can't tell if he is excited about helping me or excited about going down to see the team. The way he is looking at me makes me believe the former is true. There don't seem to be many women working for this organization.   "Well, I'm sure you will be a great addition to the team, Scarlett," Mr. Thereaux turns back to me and sticks out his hand. I slide my hand in his and he pumps my hand firmly a few times before releasing it. "If you have any questions or need anything, don't hesitate to reach out."   I want to say something in return or thank him, but he looks down at his watch and then heads out the door without saying anything else.   "Hey, I'm Matthew," he sticks his hand out and I offer a smile while I shake his hand as well. "Okay, let's head down. I'll show you where you can put your things so you don't have to carry everything around with you."   "Oh, awesome, thank you. That would be great," I hoist my bag up on my shoulder as we walk, starting to feel the weight of it. "So, have you met the team? Are the guys all nice or what can I expect?" I ask, trying to gain a little insight.   "I've only met a handful of the guys, but for the most part, they're all pretty cool. Watch out for Nolan though. I'm not sure what it is about him but I just get a bad vibe from him, you know? There are a lot of rumors about him and I'm not sure which ones are real and which ones are just gossip, but they can't all be fake." Matthew keeps talking about the gossip and rumors but I tune him out and look around at everything we pass. I look into the offices as we pass by and then have to stifle a little gasp when we walk further into the stadium towards the locker rooms and training areas before the field. This stadium is so cool, and I love getting to see behind the scenes.   Matthew takes a turn before we reach the tunnel to go out onto the field. I want to run out there right away but I need to stow some of my gear first.   "Your office will be in the locker room with the guys," Matthew says, and leads me through the locker room. I look around and the pictures I've seen from all the news interviews, they just don't do it justice. I already have some great ideas on how to showcase how historic and amazing this place is.   "Oh, I have an office? Awesome," I say and Matthew chuckles and leads me to a small room that probably was a closet at one point. "Ah, 'office'. Well, this will work. I probably won't spend much time in here anyway." Matthew turns on the light in the room and I see the small space contains a decent-sized desk, with a desktop screen and all the materials to go with it, and there are two tall bookshelves at the back of the office.   "Okay," Matthew claps his hands, startling me. "You ready to go meet the team?"   "Oh! Yeah, this is so exciting," I add my camera around my neck and it joins my lanyard, then I follow Matthew back into the locker room and then down the tunnel to the field.   “Mark!” Matthew shouts as we walk out of the tunnel and the sunlight hits us.    I blink a couple of times to adjust and when everything comes into focus, I am in awe. I’ve been on this field before but never with this much activity and this many players.    “Hey, Matthew, what brings you down to the field?” Matthew and Mark do some type of handshake and then Matthew gestures to me.   “This is Scarlett, she is the new Social Media Manager for the team,” Matthew introduces me and I shake yet another hand.   “Nice to meet you,” I say and Mark smiles at me.   “Nice to meet you too, Scarlett,” Mark's smile comes off as a smirk and I draw my hand back when he holds onto it too long.    “Do you mind introducing her to the team? I’ve got to get back upstairs,” Matthew says, and Mark nods. Matthew says a quick goodbye and good luck to me, then he heads back to the tunnel and disappears out of sight.    “So, this your first baseball team?” Mark asks as we walk across the field.   “No, actually. Well, it is my first major league team. I worked with a couple different Triple-A teams. Bounced around to different cities whenever one traveled and then joined the other team for another couple cities. It was fun traveling but this job was such a great opportunity, I couldn’t pass it up,” I say, trying not to let on that this is my dream job. I cried when I got the offer. I did love traveling but getting to work with my favorite team in the Major League, was such an amazing opportunity.    “Ah, so you have some practice with the craziness of on-the-road life and everything else that comes with baseball,” Mark comments and I chuckle.   “Of course, I’ve got a pretty good handle on it,” I say as we approach a gathering of the members.    “Alright, let me introduce you to a few of the guys,” the guys all greet Mark then turn their charming smiles on me. “Guys, this is Scarlett. Scarlett, meet Lou, Harrison, Adam, Tommy, Juan, Miles, and Ozzie.”   “Hi, everyone,” I reach out and shake everyones hands. “Nice to meet you all. You can call me Scar,” I say and some of them chuckle. I know the abbreviation of my name is silly but I’ve grown to love it.    “Hi, Scar,” A couple of them say as I shake their hands. They all welcome me to the team in their own way and so far everyone seems very nice. Some of them I am familiar with and know which position they play but each player tells me what they do and invite me to join them when they go out after practice and we can celebrate my new job.    “Come on, it’ll be fun,” Miles says and winks at me. It’s a friendly wink but doesn’t seem to be anything more than that. Most of these guys have wives or girlfriends and there aren’t much rumors swirling around about extramarital activities so that gives me hope for a good working environment.   “Sure! Why not!” I say and grin at all of them, the group cheers and makes noises of approval.    “Okay, back to work everybody,” the Manager, Mike, comes over and waves at everybody to get back to their practice then he turns to face me and stretches out his hand. “I’m Mike, the manager. Nice to meet you.”   “Nice to meet you too, Mike. I’m Scar. Don’t worry, I will stay out of y’all’s way,” I promise and Mike chuckles.   “As long as you get my good side, you’ll be fine,” Mike seems quite polite and I am very grateful for that as well.    “Oh, I can do that,” I smile and assure him.   “Good to see you, Mike. Boys are looking great this year,” Mark smacks Mike’s arm and Mike nods then another staff members comes over to get him to look over some stats so he excuses himself. Mark motions for me to follow him. “You’ll meet more of the guys later and obviously the longer you are here, you’ll get to know the staff and managerial team and everybody else.”   “Yeah, there are a lot of people here, might take a while to get to know everybody but I plan to explore every part of the organization and highlight different departments,” I explain a little of my plan but Mark doesn’t seem too interested so I don’t elaborate further.    “Sounds like a cool idea,” Mark says off hand as we approach two of the companies most well known players. The pitcher and the first baseman, who are both standing near the dugout. One, the older one, is watching me as I walk across the field. He says something to the other man and he looks up. When he sees me, his face brightens into a wide smile. It’s infectious and I feel a grin starting on my face. I bite my lip to tamper the smile. “Boys, this is Scarlett, or Scar, sorry.”   “Yes, Scar, hi,” I say and hold my hand out to shake their hands as well.    “Carter,” Carter introduces himself. Of course, I know who both of them are, but it’s good to introduce ourselves and officially meet them. He holds onto my hand and smiles at me. This is a bit more friendly than all the other smiles I’ve received today. This man is stunning. I would find it hard to remain composed if I hadn’t practiced being professional in front of all of them before I came in today. “It is very nice to meet you, Scar,” Carters says and his voice is smooth as butter. My stomach does little flips and I pull my hand away before it starts sweating.   “It’s nice to meet you too, Carter,” I give him a softer smile and have to keep myself from breaking eye contact.    “And this,” Mark interjects, and I look over at him then at the man standing next to Carter. “this, of course, is Nolan.”