Chapter 14: Peace Conference

I got a very late call that night from Maria. She kept crying and apologizing for getting me into this mess, and I kept reassuring her that it takes two to make a mess this big, and that I was the one who was older and ought to have had more sense.

Maria stoutly denied that anything we had done was wrong, or that anything we had done suggested that we didn't have good sense.

"Did Paul say anything to you?" I asked.

"He said he was very disappointed in me," she said. That brought on more tears. Maria clearly didn't like to disappoint Paul Warren. She might think his attitude was wrongheaded on this one, but, even so...

"What do you think will happen?" she asked me.

"I don't know. The player roster has just been expanded for September. We've got several new guys up from the minors, including a couple of lefthanders. Maybe he'll freeze me out -- just not use me."

"Wouldn't that hurt the club?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "I certainly think it would."

"Hard to believe Paul would do anything that would hurt the club." she said.

"I could be put on waivers. They might be able to get value for me, from a non-contender, in a waiver-based trade."

"The Yankees -- or somebody else in contention -- would block it." she said. "Why can't he just let it go, and use you the same as always?"

"He could," I said. "And he might. Problem is, if this gets out among the players and coaches, any way Paul uses me will be -- y'know -- kind of suspect."

"I don't understand," she said.

"If he doesn't use me, it'll be seen as Paul taking petty vengeance against me for banging his precious daughter. But if he does use me, and I screw up, even once, Paul could be accused of playing me as a favorite, because I'm his daughter's little boy-toy."

"It's hard to believe it could become that much of a sore point!" she said.

"It's a worst-case scenario," I agreed, "and probably, it wouldn't get anywhere near that raw. But if the word gets out in the clubhouse, you can bet it'll be bad enough."

"Then the word just shouldn't get out," Maria said. "Alex, pick me up at my apartment at 8 tomorrow morning. --We're going to Bowie to have breakfast with my parents!"

I didn't have any brilliant ideas of my own, so I agreed. It looked like me 'n Paul were going to be facing each other head-to-head.

On the way to Bowie the next morning, Maria seemed calm. I don't know how I seemed, but I was anything but calm. Still, this meeting had to happen. My earlier confrontation with Paul had been absolutely awful. He had been holding all the cards: We had been in his office, and I'd been blind-sided by his belatedly finding out about Maria and me.

Awful!

This time, at least he could shout at me without the whole team overhearing. And maybe the presence of Orlie -- and Maria -- would temper his anger to some degree.

"Maria?" I said.

She was driving this time. "Yes?"

"If we get through this -- if we can reach some kind of truce with your Dad," I said.

"Yes?"

"I wondered if. Well, I've been thinking about, y'know, maybe asking you if you might -- umm"

"Jesus, Alex! Spit it out!"

"I've been thinkingabout-maybeaskingyou-to-maybemarryme?" I blurted.

"Marry you?"

"Yeah."

"So -- are you asking?"

"Yeah."

"Now?"

"Yeah. I mean -- not marrying me now, but asking you now, yes!"

"OK."

"OK -- what?" I said. "OK, you understand, or OK, you..."

"OK, I'd like to marry you, yes!" Maria said.

"Is this going to make it easier, or harder, to talk to Paul?" I asked her. After all, he was her Dad.

"I -- think we should just talk about the immediate problem, first. Try to get that squared away. Then, if we do get it squared away, we can maybe bring up the other."

"OK," I said.

We were getting close to the Warren's home. "What's our strategy?" I asked Maria.

"Same as Mom's strategy has been, up to now. She thought what Paul didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Now, what I think is, what Paul -- and only Paul -- knows, won't hurt him, and won't hurt the Orioles, either!"

"You're going to ask him to just -- keep it to himself, you mean?"

"Yep. I'll ask him to let it be our secret -- just the four of us."

Orlie wasn't quite her usual warm self when we arrived. Out of loyalty to her spouse, she was trying to stay neutral in this little altercation. But she'd spent some time that morning putting together a fantastic breakfast. When we came in, she directed us to the kitchen table and told us to take a seat.

Paul wasn't there. I guess he'd make an entrance, after the rest of us were seated in his kitchen.

Orlie was placing the breakfast serving bowls on the table when Paul walked in. He was casually dressed and he leaned over to kiss Maria on the cheek before he sat down.