Collide Into You: A Romantic Gender Swap Love Story by Kelly Washington Page B

some stupid reason, I’m miffed that they haven’t talked about me or to me. Isn’t that what they are supposed to do? The rational part of my brain knows that this thought is a fallacy. I suppose I didn’t expect the two of them to hit it off so quickly. Or at all. I thought there’d be claws and terse words exchanged.  
    But neither woman was threatened by the other. I’ve never experienced this before. I’ve never experienced a situation where the one woman I am dating is becoming friends with the one woman who doesn’t want to date me. Could there be two such women on the planet as there are right now? And both within arm’s reach?
    Improbable.
    After a couple innings, Stacey announces she’s starving. “I could eat about five cheeseburgers.” She leaves to go to the snack bar. I look over at Keira. She’s watching the game so fiercely that she doesn’t blink. Obviously she’s trying to avoid a conversation with me.
    “Enjoying the game, Keira?” I ask, leaning over Stacey’s empty seat.
    “I was ,” she says, inching further away from me. “Stacey’s very nice. I like her. I take back everything I said about her before I got to know her better.”
    This isn’t going the way I pictured it. I didn’t want to talk about Stacey. I wanted to talk about us .
    “Have you found an apartment yet?”
    Her mouth sets. So that must be a no , then.
    “I’m still looking—GREAT CATCH, TANNER!—did you see that, Dillan? Nats are up by two going into the eighth.”
    I missed the play, but I catch it on the Jumbotron. The Orioles’ batter hit a straight shot right at the short stop and without blinking, Tanner caught what must have been a fast-flying, hard-as-hell ball. As the team runs off the field, Tanner takes off his glove and shakes out his hand at his hip. I knew how important the majors were to Tanner. Injuries are taken seriously. Hopefully, it isn’t bad. The last thing he’d want was to be sent back down to the minors team.
    At the top of the ninth, Stacey returns. It’s a good thing neither Keira or I wanted anything from her trip because she was empty handed and late. “Can you believe that the guy behind me in line knew my brother?”
    “Huh?” I ask.
    “I know,” she agrees with whatever she thinks my ‘huh’ means. “What are the odds that he would say that I resembled someone he previously worked with?”
    “I’d say pretty high considering that it’s a regular pick-up line for guys,” I say.
    Her angrily arched eyebrows practically wrestle me to the ground. I notice Keira’s amused expression. She’s enjoying the show. So now they’re both interested in paying attention to me? Great. I can’t win.
    “You don’t think I know that?” Stacey asks.
    Right , I think, coming to my senses. The blonde Amazon knows how to handle guys. She must have to beat us away with sticks.  
    “He knew Berg and everything. His papers, his current research. Oh, look.” She points. “The game’s over. Nats won. Dillan?”
    “Hmm?” I rub tired eyes.
    “Didn’t you say we needed to stay put after the game? Something about Tanner meeting us?”
    Keira answers before I do. “We’re meeting him right outside the locker room. Then, if he feels up to it, we’ll head out for drinks.”
    Then I remember what Tanner said in his e-mail. I’d ask you to give Keira a hug for me, but I’m fairly certain she’d punch you in the face —an accurate prediction, my friend— so I’ll have to wait to do it myself. Don’t say anything, but I have a big surprise waiting for Keira. If it goes well, it will benefit you, too.
    What could be both a surprise to Keira and a benefit to me? Maybe he plans to let her stay at his rarely used house in Maryland. Did he think I eagerly wanted her out of my apartment?
    We line up with everyone else as they leave, but instead of exiting the stadium, we make our way to the locker rooms. While we wait, Stacey peppers Keira with a hundred questions about the