Let's Play Ball by Lolah Lace Page A

Damn, practice makes
perfect. I lasted longer this time. Damn my Kari was on
fire.
    I spaced out while I stopped myself
from crying like a little girl. I was hot and sweaty and exhausted
although all I did was lay on my back.
    “ Mason, did you hear
something?” Kari’s voice woke me from my stupor.
    “ No babe, I can only hear my
heartbeat.”
    “ I thought I heard
something.”
    DING DONG! DING DONG! KNOCK! KNOCK!
KNOCK! Someone was at the front door. Who the hell rings the
doorbell and knocks on the door? Every single time I’ve been over
here Kari has never had a visitor. She has a strict policy of you
better call before you come to visit. That doesn’t apply to me of
course but everybody else.
    “ Do you want me to check?” I
asked even though I was going to do it anyway.
    Kari was already out the bed and headed
for the window. “There’s a man out there. I can see him from up
here. He has on a hat.”
    DING DONG! DING DONG! KNOCK! KNOCK!
KNOCK!
    “ I’m going to look out the
peephole downstairs.” Kari grabbed her Madonna t-shirt off the bed
post and slipped it over her head. She had a lot of concert
t-shirts. She pulled the shirt down as she exited the room. I sat
up and grabbed my shorts off the floor. I slipped into them and
ventured downstairs a few steps behind her.
    Kari looked into the front door
peephole. She turned to me with a mask of fear over her face. I
frowned and formed at least three wrinkle lines on my forehead.
What had her spooked? She was frozen in her place and watching me
closely.
    My first thought was it’s an
ex-boyfriend showing up out of the blue for a booty call. Kari
would never cheat on me. I knew that so I went to the door and
looked out the peephole.
    I was floored. My brother was standing
on the other side of the door. Fuck! What the fuck?
    “ Mason! I know you’re in
there. Open the door!” Mike’s voice bellowed out and penetrated the
door. “Mason! I followed you here?”
    I glanced over at Kari. She was in
shock. I took a few steps toward the couch.
    “ I can bang on the door and
alert the neighbors if you like. Open the door!”
    “ Kari go get dressed. I’ll
take care of this.”
    Kari hurried up the stairs faster than
I expected. I went to the front door and decided to let my brother
in.
    Mike walked in and I closed the door
behind him. I was shirtless and shoeless and standing in Kari’s
living room. I was caught red-handed in the home of my mistress. My
life had turned into a reality TV show.
    His first words, “Where is
she?”
    “ She?”
    “ Kari Fenderson, don’t do
this. I know. I saw you pull your car into her garage, into the
open space next to her car. I saw the confirmation email for the
airline tickets to Vegas.”
    “ You were snooping through
my stuff.”
    “ Our stuff, at the
job.”
    “ You mean the business that
I own. That I built myself.”
    Mike ignored the clarification. He was
my brother but he was also my employee.
    “ Where is she?” He asked
again.
    “ She’s upstairs.” I finally
answered his question.
    “ Kari! Kari!” He called out
to her. What was he trying to prove?
    “ Chill out Mike. She’s
getting dressed.” I know I should be in a panic but I felt like I
had just smoked some pot. I was Mello Yello or maybe I hadn’t yet
grasped the severity of this situation.
    “ You want me to chill.
That’s rich coming from you. Seems you’re the one that needs to
chill. What the fuck is going on with you? You have completely
abandoned your family for some home-wrecking whore.”
    “ Mike, dude, don’t do that.
Don’t call her names. Don’t blame her. It was all me.”
    “ I blame the both of you.
You have a family. She knows that. What the fuck are you
doing?”
    “ I see you’re upset but this
is not the time or place.”
    “ How long has this been
going on?”
    “ Does it matter?”
    “ Your wife is crying her
eyes out to my wife. I lied to her face when she asked me if you
were having an affair.”
    “