Risky Negotiations (6 page)

They all filed onto the half-court and found their positions. Laci moved to the center, put her whistle in her mouth, looked around to make sure everyone was ready, then threw the ball up into the air between Tanya and Michelle, blowing her whistle at the same time.

Laci quickly moved out of the way, carefully watching the girls as they moved around the court. But her eyes were drawn to the other team too often. They were a good team, she thought as she caught their passing game. But they couldn’t shoot as well as her girls. Her eyes strayed too often to their coach. Laci didn’t chide herself too much for that action since Sal was so tall as he stood among the pre-teen boys. Laci wasn’t much taller than her girls who were about the same height as the boys.

All the girls were working on their passing game, going through the drills Laci had set them to. But working on a half court was difficult for both teams. After several balls wound up on the opposite side of the court, Laci had an idea.

She tucked a ball under her arm and walked over to Sal, cocking her head to the side, “Think your guys could take on my girls?”

Sal looked at her, noting the challenging gleam in her eyes. “What did you have in mind?” he asked and walked closer. He was looking down at her and wondering how this would play out. Could he make it work to his advantage? He hoped so.

Laci watched the boy’s team as they played for another moment, then said, “Instead of dividing up the court which isn’t working for either team, how about playing against each other? We might get in a better practice that way,”

Laci could hear her girls behind her getting excited at the idea of teaming up against the boys.

Sal took the whistle out of his mouth and tossed it over his shoulder as he turned to face her. He
HeHeH H
looked at his team, trying to assess their abilities compared to the possible opposing team. The boys were elbowing each other, apparently confident that they could easily beat the girls. “Maybe. Want to make it interesting?”

Smiling, she took the bait. “Sure. What did you have in mind?”

He pretended to think for a moment, “You lose, you go out to dinner with me tonight,” he said.

Laci laughed, confident that her girls could beat the boys. “Ok, and if my girls win, you concede on the health benefits,” she thought quickly.

“
Deal,” he said without hesitation. Instantly, there was a loud cheer from both sides of the gym. Obviously they had all been listening to their conversation.

She blushed slightly but then called her team over to a huddle. “Ok girls, you heard him. Show those boys what we’re made of,” she said.

The girls let out a loud cheer and took their positions. The boys were still huddled but as soon as they noticed that the girls were ready, they broke up and jogged to their respective positions opposite the girls.

Sal tossed the ball and the game was in play. The girls passed and dribbled, running around the boys and set up to shoot but then one of the boys got in the way and stole the ball, running madly to the opposite end. The girls took chase and formed a great defense on each boy, forcing them to take too long to shoot. The girls got a throw in and passed down the court and set up again. Swoosh! The girls scored the first two points.

The astonished boys regrouped and formed a new plan. As the game progressed, they formed a better defense, constantly tying up the game. The boys didn’t pass as well as the girls but they were faster going on the court. The girls had to pick up speed to counter the boys’ offense but held the game tied. Each time one side scored, the other dug in and scored the next point.

After an hour of battling back and forth, the kids were worn out. Laci saw the fatigue at the same time Sal did and both called a halt to the game, declaring a draw.

Laci patted each player on the back, praising the strengths she saw in each boy and girl. They were all moving towards the bleachers when Tanya spoke up. “What about your bet, Ms. Laci? Who’s going to win?”

Sal turned to her, eyebrows raised.

Laci shook her head. “No way. It was a draw.”

Michelle, the shyest of all thirteen spoke up. “I think you two should play to see who wins the bet,” she said, smiling at Laci’s stricken expression.

Laci laughed at the girls suggestion. A five foot, six inch woman playing a six foot three inch man? “No way. I’m not playing basketball with a man almost a foot taller than I am,” Laci exclaimed.

“
Play horse,” a lanky boy named Joshua said, shrugging his shoulder as if that were the most obvious answer in the world.

Sal simply looked from one speaker to the other, then watched Laci’s expression to see if she would accept. “Well?” he asked, noting her hesitation.

Laci fought down her natural competitive instinct for a few minutes, then gave in. She was good at shooting hoops, the only real part of basketball she’d excelled in as a kid because of her height. “I’m game if you are,” she said, bouncing the ball against the floor a few times as a challenge.

Sal chuckled. “You actually think you can win, don’t you?” he said, backing up as he moved towards the backboard.

Laci followed him, dribbling the whole way. “Yeah, I think I can beat you at this. Probably not real basketball but this…”she said and took a shot from far outside the line, satisfied when the ball skimmed the net and went down below. “Yeah, I can beat you.”

Sal took the ball and moved to the free throw line, bounced it twice, then shot. The ball bounced once against the hoop then down through the net.

Over and over again, Laci and Sal tossed the ball from various points around the gym, each shot ending with a satisfying swish as the ball went through the net.

About ten balls later, Laci took aim, shot and moved to her next position, confident that the ball would easily go through the hoop.

As she moved off, instead of a swoosh, she heard a boing and she jerked back around. Laci’s face drained of color as she watched the ball bounce off to a corner of the gym instead of bouncing neatly below the net.

She couldn’t look at him. She was frozen to the spot. It didn’t just happen. She didn’t just MISS! Laci never missed!

Instead of looking at Sal, she looked towards the bleachers and thirteen girls had the same shocked expression on their faces. And thirteen boys were busy high fiving each other as they clapped, cheering on their heroic coach who had helped them vanquish the girls.

She felt him come up behind her but she still couldn’t look at him. “I’ll even let you pick the restaurant,” he said as he walked by her. “I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said as he grabbed his jacket and herded the boys out of the gymnasium.

Laci couldn’t move. She’d missed! She never missed. Thirteen girls were slowly crowding around her, eyeing her as if she’d grown a second head.

“
You missed, Ms. Laci,” Tanya said, her voice almost a whisper. “You weren’t supposed to miss,” she said.

Laci was too astonished to react.

The first giggle started a moment later. Then another. And another. Until finally, all thirteen girls were laughing uproariously around her, patting her back in sympathy.

“
I don’t understand. He’s hot, Ms. Laci! Why don’t you want to go out with him?” Michelle said, gaining confidence now that there were only girls in the gym. “Personally, I would have missed about ten balls ago just so I could stare across the table at his handsome face.”

Laci groaned, unable to explain the complexities of the adult dating world. Especially since she didn’t really understand them herself. “I just don’t think it would be a good idea,” she replied weakly, looking glumly at the scuffed, yellow floor of the gym.

“
Why?” Lizzy asked, genuinely curious. “He seems like a nice guy.”

“
Yes, but we’re in a hostile situation with some negotiations right now.”

“
So make it less hostile tonight,” Erica said simply, smiling as if she’d just solved a major world crisis. “Use you’re feminine wiles to get him to give in to your demands,” she said, batting her eyes and swaying her hips in a “sexy” manner.

Laci laughed but it sounded a little despondent even to her own ears. “I wish it were that simple, ladies.” Then she shook her head, pushing off the shock of her loss and remembering why she was here this morning. This was for the girls and she couldn’t wallow in self pity now. She regrouped quickly. “But don’t worry about it. I want you all to know that you did a great job today. We didn’t get the practice in that I had hoped but I think playing with the guys was a great tool. It showed off some of our strengths and some weaknesses. So next week, I’ll make sure we have the court to ourselves and we’re going to work on our defense!”

Laci tried to be enthusiastic but her mind was completely preoccupied with the night’s events. The girls shuffled outdoors, some walking home, some staying around the gym to chat with their friends. Laci got into her car and waived goodbye to the remaining girls, showing a chipper attitude.

She wished she felt chipper though. She was nervous and jumpy, refusing to acknowledge that she might be excited about the night ahead. On the long drive home, she kept looking at her watch and counted the hours until he was going to pick her up, trying to grasp the reality of her situation. As she was driving home she passed by the mall, then decided to cheer herself up by getting a new outfit.

It was noon when she pulled into the parking lot. It was one o’clock when she found a new blue cashmere sweater that was extra soft to the touch. She promised herself that the purchase was only to make herself feel better and possibly give her confidence for the evening ahead. It had nothing to do with the way the blue sweater showed off her eyes. And she refused to wonder if Sal would like touching her in the soft wool.

Unlocking her apartment door, she glanced at the clock on the mantle and noticed that it was already two o’clock. Only five more hours, she thought to herself. But she refused to attribute her clock watching to excitement. She was nervous. She didn’t want to be around Sal because he made her nervous, nothing else. She told herself that line several more times, forcing herself to believe it because anything else was just too terrifying.

She jumped when the phone rang. Laci picked it up as if it might explode. “Hello?” she inquired, knowing that it couldn’t be Sal. He didn’t have her home phone number.

“
Laci? How are you doing?” Victoria asked from the other end of the line.

“
Fine,” Laci said, denying that she was disappointed by the sound of the feminine voice.

“
What are you up to?”

“
I just got home from shopping.”

“
Don’t you coach your girls’ basketball team on Saturday mornings?”

“
Yes,” Laci replied, not wanting to go into more details about it today.

“
How did the practice go?”

“
It was fine,” she said then tried to change the subject. “How are the kids? Everyone still healthy? No icky colds yet?” she asked.

“
Oh, they’re doing great,” she explained. “Josh is sitting on top of Max, trying to get a toy out of his hand,” she said, referring to her twin boys that had just turned one a few weeks ago. “I heard something interesting a while ago,” she said.

“
What is that?” Laci inquired, her mind already focusing on how she might do her hair differently tonight.

“
Well, Thomas said you were going out with Sal tonight. I laughed and said there was no way. That he wasn’t your type.” Victoria laughed again. “He’s too formal and stuffy. So tell me the rumor isn’t true,” her sister asked, still chuckling at the thought. “I’d really love to go back to Thomas and laugh at his ridiculous information.”

Laci bristled. “He isn’t formal or stuffy,” she defended hotly. “He’s sophisticated and intelligent. And besides, what’s my type anyway?”

After a pregnant pause, Victoria continued, shock in her voice, “So you are going out with him tonight?”

Laci realized her mistake as soon as the question was asked. “Well, not if I can figure out a way to get out of it. I lost a bet.”

There was an even longer pause before, “You and Sal were betting?” The confusion was evident from her tone of voice.

“
Well…yeah. Kind of.”

“
Kind of?” she asked, her tone demanding more details to the juicy story.

Laci picked up the phone and fell onto the sofa, staring up at the ceiling in an attempt to concentrate and explain the situation to her sister. “He coaches a boys’ basketball team and they sort of took over the court during my girls’ practice time. So instead of working against each other, we matched up the girls against the boys. It was a great game!” Laci finished.