As soon as she walked away, Emilio pulled out his cell phone and said, “Hey, give me your number again, man.” He peeked at Audrey and said, “I’ll definitely make it out to your next one.”

“What position do you play?” Audrey asked him.

Emilio looked at her and was surprised that she was talking now.

“Shortstop.”

“And are you happy with it?” she asked him.

Happy with what? Ivan thought. He looked over at Chris for Audrey’s meaning. Chris did her usual smiling thing. But did she know, or did she not know?

Emilio answered, “Yeah, I’ve played shortstop all of my life,” as if Audrey were talking strictly about baseball. But Ivan wasn’t so sure about that.

“And you never wanted to play any other position?” she asked him.

Chris smiled so hard that she had to turn away. Ivan caught that as well.

Emilio answered, “Well, you know, I thought about it.”

Audrey looked him in his face and said, “Okay, I just wanted to ask.”

Emilio looked at her and seemed stuck there for a minute.

Audrey shrugged him off and looked back at Ivan. “Okay, well, I’m ready to do some more window-shopping now,” she hinted with sarcasm.

Ivan grinned it off and said, “Let’s go. I’m following you.” He reached out to shake Emilio’s hand. “She’ll probably be at our next event, man, if you can make it out,” he told him in reference to Audrey.

Audrey and Chris caught on to that. Ivan was making his own moves now.

Emilio still seemed dazed by the girl. “Oh, okay, well, I’ll call you up, man. And you got my numbers, too, right?”

Ivan nodded. “Yeah, I got everybody’s numbers. That’s what I do. But sometimes I can lose them if nothing’s going on with them. If you slow you blow, you know.”

Chris and Audrey looked at each other again. It was a game-recognition thing. Ivan had it good. His cadence was natural and realistic. He was fully believable. And he was extracalm at it, too.

Emilio smiled. He said, “I hear you, man. So, like, you know, I’ll call you up, now.” The rookie baseball player struggled to pull all of his words together.

Ivan told him, “You do that,” and walked away behind the girls.

When they were alone again inside the Gucci store, Audrey was too curious. She stopped looking at clothing and smiled back at Ivan.

“So, you think he likes me?”

Ivan grinned and answered, “Definitely. You look better than that girl. He knows that. He plays baseball and they all have good eyes. Now he just has to learn how to catch better.”

Chris and Audrey started laughing. Ivan was starting to loosen up for them and talk shit while he was at it.