The Greatest Catch

Chapter 3

Before Alana knew it a week had gone by since her and J.T. had last talked and not a day has gone by that this mysterious man doesn't pop into her brain. She finds herself subconsciously thinking about him, from the way that the skin next to his eyes crinkle every time he smiles giving away that he isn't really as young as he looks or to the way that he smelled so crisp and clean but still manly.

Alanas eyes traveled upward towards the coat rack that hangs on the office wall. The dark Nike hoodie that J.T. had let her borrow is still hanging there waiting to be returned. She mentally scolded herself when the idea to grab and sniff the hoodie to experience the intoxicating scent again hits her thoughts.

Ay dios mio, Alana! Stop acting like such a creep!

A loud and obnoxious yawn escaped from her lips as she eyed at the time on her laptop; 3:21 am. The time just seemed to be dragging on but Alana wasn't sure if it was because of how tired she was or if it was because she was expelling so much energy thinking about a man she met and barely knew. There was only one thing that she looked forward to in the early mornings, and that was being abled to clock out and go wish her baby a good day at school. After putting Elijah on the bus Alana would get to take 3 hour nap before she had to attend her first class at Moore.

Now that it's nearly May this only leaves her with four months worth of college left and then she will be the first person in her family with a college degree. That alone makes the struggles balancing motherhood and financial stability between school all worth it.

Her tired, heavy eyes looked at the computer screen again that was too bright for Alana's liking to check the time; 3:38 am.

Ugh.

Around five AM is usually when she was scheduled to make final rounds around the ground to make sure the team has done a sufficient job but from three to five it was so incredibly boring. There was never much to do other than keep an eye on your emails to make sure you didn't get a last minute revise in instructions from the crews.

Alana needed a distraction otherwise she was going to literally fall asleep in her own office. That would look really, really bad had a higher up came and walked in. Suddenly, it's like her mind had control of her hand as she let the cursor hover over Google Chrome before giving it a quick tap.

Without even thinking first a few of her fingers began to type on the keyboard and the only thing typed into the search bar was a simple "J.T.". She didn't even know this mans last name but apparently was curious to find out.

In seconds the brightly lit screen was filled with related pages and images of the man that she can't seem to shake from her tired mind.

The hum of the laptops internal fan is the only sound that could be heard as she clicked on the first page it gave her for the search. This link took Alana to Wikipedia and one of the first things she read is "Jacob Tyler Realmuto" and "American Baseball Player".

Trying to soak in everything Alana could about this man she delved further into his Wiki page and was surprised to see that he was only Twenty Nine years of age and was born in Del City, Oklahoma. On his page it also mentions that he was once a part of the Miami Marlins team before they traded him to the Phillies back in February of 2019.

This man had a list of awards and achievements from two time All-Star to a two time Silver Slugger Award winner.

Alana slurped down more of her bitter coffee before clicking on the words "Personal Life"

Somewhere inside of her I she felt a big sense of shame for the fact that she was searching this man up and trying to learn more about him. For some reason even though this information was out to anyone in the world- it felt wrong. Like it was an invasion of his privacy.

No matter how many times Alana told herself she should stop and delete the entire page from her search history, she couldn't.

Her heart seemed to beat a mile a minute in her chest as she continued reading. There really wasn't much in his personal life category other than it saying he married his wife; Samantha back in early 2016. Alana's heart skipped a beat as she thought about this and again it felt like a smack to the gut as shame and gilt washed over her as she so badly wished that he wasn't married...

The next few paragraphs seemed to be about his parents and how his mom had been a two time breast cancer survivor. Both his parents were blue-collar workers and how his dad played college baseball at Southwest Missouri State University.

There was a few other paragraphs about some of his other family members and then on the last paragraph is what left Alana breathless. The page mentions that in January of 2019 his wife of three years passed away suddenly due to a car accident leaving J.T. a twenty eight year old widower.

Suddenly, it was like all the oxygen from the air had been sucked away and Alana was fighting to take a breath. This news weighted on her so heavy and she felt sick. The other night J.T. had mentioned that around a year ago he was going through a rough time after his trade... Could that be what he was referring to? Her heart ached for him so badly now that she knew this news about him.

A loud DING had sounded on Alana's laptop that made her jump out of her skin, She realized it was a new email that just came through. Quickly, she exited out of the Wikipedia page wishing that she never would have pried and refreshed her emails to see the new one that had popped in. It's amazing Alana hadn't suffered a heart attack yet because to her surprise the message header wrote "J.T.s Headshot Photoshoot"

Instantly her heart rate has spiked as she clicked open the email and began to read.

Good morning Miss. Sanchez,

It was brought to my attention that you are an amazing photographer and would like to build onto your college portfolio. I would be delighted to let you photograph one of my talented players; Mr. Realmuto. You will be paid extra for your time however any photo you take will become Phillies property once they are completed. You will have to sign a waiver agreeing to these terms but in summary, it gives the Phillies Organization the rights to your images to use in things such as but not limited to; social media posts, store graphics, advertisements, Phillies merchandise, etc.

If you would like to participate in this photoshoot please reply back with your answer and signed copy of the Consent Form that I have attached to this email in a PDF format.

Once your signed form has been notarized then I will leave it up to you and Mr. Realmuto to pick a time.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Michael T. Hood

Creative Services and Branding Director

Alana's hands started to shake as she began to click on the PDF file. In a few seconds a twenty five page PDF file appeared...

Holy. Crap.

Not only has one of the best catchers in baseball asked her to photograph him but he told one of the head honchos in the organization about her and her work!?

Santa. Mierda.

Alana printed the extremely long document and checked the time on her cell phone. It was now close to five AM and she would soon have to go do morning rounds. The Consent Form would have to wait until she got home. It appears like there won't be sleep on the horizon for her today and it's not for the fact that Alana had to read a twenty five page document...

Alana stepped out of her office and locked the door behind her, the smile on her face never faltering.