She just tilted her head toward her car. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride home. You shouldn’t be walking around alone at night anyway.”
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
THE NEXT MORNING, I woke up way too early. I’d had a nightmare that a nude photo of me had started circulating with all of my Instagram ones. I opened Twitter and double-checked to make sure I hadn’t been tagged in anything like that, though I wouldn’t have put it past someone to get creative with Photoshop.
I now had thirty thousand followers, while Eric had gone up to fifty thousand. Jessica had followed me, but I wouldn’t follow her back. I had nothing to say to her. She retweeted my Dirty Dancing video. I’d take the clicks, but I wouldn’t take the hand of friendship she kept trying to thrust in my face. Sickness and urgency flooded me again as I compulsively scanned the hashtag.
@HollyYale: did you all see the #todayshow? #baseballbabe even said on here he didn’t have sex with #flyballgirl. let it go and leave them alone.
@JimmyEatsYourMom Replying to @HollyYale: sit on my face
@trudylennoxx Replying to @HollyYale: I think #baseballbabe is really in love with #flyballgirl and is afraid he won’t be able to bring her home to meet the family if everyone thinks she did him in a public bathroom.
“Trudy, please. You’re embarrassing yourself with your bad takes,” I mumbled to myself.
@suzy_qrs: I hope #baseballbabe is in the next video #flyballgirl uploads. The movie ones are boring, but I’m obsessed with these two. Please let them have babies.
@helpsmerhonda: sitting here with my popcorn, waiting for #flyballgirl to tweet again. #baseballbabe #lovestory
@pettybettyhatesyou: I’m fucking sick of #baseballbabe, someone send me pictures of cute animals please.
@baseballbabe2020: Guess who I’m talking to tonight? #flyballgirl #excited #beautifulgirl #baseballbabe
We had no plans to talk. It was all part of the game.
@MacyAtTheMovies: Looks like *someone* is as #excited as me for tonight #FlyBallGirl #BaseballBabe
Ugh. I needed to stop. I had to get out of the house or I’d spend my entire morning scrolling through Twitter until my eyes bled. None of it felt good, not even the nice comments. I felt like a runway model wearing six-inch heels. Sure, the shoes were great, but everyone was really just waiting for me to fall on my ass.
Since I didn’t work until the afternoon shift, I had time to wander around town. At this point I would’ve been willing to scrape roadkill off the highway if it meant staying away from Twitter for a few hours. The Bees had finally decided on the Defining Moments in Recent History theme, and no one had lost a limb over it, so they no longer needed a watchdog while they got down to the business of embroidering.
I put on a sundress Gram had made me out of leftover fabric from last year’s quilt, and the patchwork of different floral fabrics was my absolute favorite. I’d never post a picture of it online. After the comments about my seashell shirt, I’d likely never take selfies in anything fun or interesting again. Just plain vanilla tops from now on.
My flip-flops smacked against the floor as I entered the dining room. “I’m going out for a little while, but I have my phone on me and I won’t talk to strangers.”
“Where are you off to at this hour?” Gram asked through a cloud of smoke.
“I don’t know.” And I truly didn’t. Our house felt too small with all the Bees crammed into it, and if I stuck around, Gram would just roll out a list of meaningless tasks for me to do. “I might go down to the lake. It’s going to be hot today.”
“I bet that boy from the Internet would drive up here to join you,” Peg said.
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe if you spent a little more time on your quilting and a lot less time bugging me about my love life, you’d actually finish in time for the fair.”
Donna let out a barking laugh. “She’s got you there.”
Peg flipped her off, and the two of them adjusted their shoulders, ready to set off another round of their perpetual war. Gigi leaned forward between the two of them. “We have our theme, and we’re short on time. Save it for after the quilt’s done.”
Gram sighed and stood. “This is why you can’t ever leave us, Gigi.”
She went into the kitchen, and glasses rattled around as she put together a tray of sun tea to get them started on the long day of embroidering. They still had patterns spread around, but today they’d fold up the dining room table and bring up the open sewing table for handwork. Even with their various squabbles, the Bees worked as a hive, their strengths blending into perfect cuts of cloth and thread.
“If you’re bored, Paxton could probably use a hand before his double shift today,” Gigi said. “He’s been so busy getting Matilda ready for the fair, he hasn’t had time to properly groom the others.”
Matilda was his prized lop-eared rabbit. She had the softest fur, thanks to regular grooming, and the sweetest temperament. Paxton practiced posing with her so often, she’d gotten accustomed to doing what he needed to win a ribbon. Part of me wondered if she understood it all, and if those ribbons meant just as much to her as they did her owner. Things had been off with us last night, but if I stopped by today, maybe we could sort out that weird tension before we had another shift together.
“I guess I could go over there,” I said casually. Too casually.
Peg and Donna stopped shooting each other death glares long enough to look at me, and a slow smile spread over Peg’s thin lips. I knew that look. It made all the muscles in my shoulders bunch up and tighten.
“No wonder you have no interest in the baseball boy,” Peg said.
I glanced at Gigi, silently begging her to rescue me, but she did no such thing. She just sat back with her arms crossed, wearing a satisfied grin. Traitor.
“You got a thing for Paxton?” Donna asked.
My face burned so bad, I thought it might catch on fire. “No.”
“Liar.” Peg’s jowls flapped like a turkey’s neck as she cackled. “That boy is as sweet as apple pie on a crisp fall day. Can’t say I blame you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I willed the floor to open up and swallow me whole. I didn’t want to have this conversation ever, and I definitely didn’t want to have it with Gigi in the room. “We’re coworkers. Friends. That’s it.”
Gram pulled her head out of the refrigerator, where she’d been pushing jars around and clicking bottles together trying to get to the sun tea in back. She came out of the kitchen, totally unaware, and stared at me. “What did you all say to make Macy so uncomfortable?”
“Macy has a crush on Paxton.” Donna’s eyes sparkled.
“I do not,” I said, refusing to meet Gram’s steely glare.
“Your momma is going to have a heart attack if she finds out,” Gram said. “You know how she feels about dating coworkers. I don’t mind it myself. You could do a lot worse than Paxton. He’s a good-looking boy and a soft one too.”
Thank God that Mom had already left for work. If she’d been here, I had no doubt she would’ve assumed I’d be impregnated by week’s end. I stiffened my spine. “I’m not going to date him. Jesus. I didn’t even say I liked him. I just said I might stop by to help him with the bunnies, and these old gossips ran wild with it.”