The Sphinx in Left Field

Maya's first real date with Tyler was not supposed to involve the Great Sphinx of Egypt, but here she was, standing in left field during the seventh inning stretch of their high school baseball game, trying to extract a stubborn piece of spinach from her front teeth with her tongue.

"You good, Maya?" Tyler asked, leaning against the dugout fence in his varsity jacket. The way the stadium lights caught his dark curls made her stomach do that annoying fluttery thing.

"Totally," she lied, flashing what she hoped was a casual smile. "Just thinking about how our mascot is literally a sphinx."

Tyler laughed, and it was this warm, genuine sound that made her forget for a second about the spinach emergency currently happening in her mouth. "The West High Sphinx. Riddle master of the conference."

Maya's best friend Priya had warned her about eating that spinach artichoke dip before the game. "Maya, that stuff is basically a dental disaster waiting to happen," she'd said while adjusting Maya's hair before she left. "You're going to be sitting next to Tyler for three hours, and you're gonna have green bits in your teeth like some kind of vegetable gremlin."

Priya was never wrong.

"Hey," Tyler said suddenly, pushing himself off the fence. "You've got..." He gestured to his own smile, then hesitated. "Actually, never mind, it's probably nothing."

Maya's face burned. This was it. This was the moment her social life died.

"No, tell me," she said, but her voice cracked slightly. Because of course it did.

Tyler studied her for a second, this really soft look crossing his face. Then he pulled a piece of gum from his pocket—Mint, because apparently Tyler was the kind of person who just carried gum around like some sort of preparedness deity—and held it out.

"Spinach," he said, grinning. "From the concession stand? That dip is deadly."

Maya could have kissed him right there. She settled for taking the gum. "You saw it the whole time?"

"Since the third inning," he admitted. "But I didn't want to make it weird." He paused. "Although this is probably weird now."

"A little," Maya said, but she was smiling as she popped the gum in her mouth. "But you know what? At least the sphinx doesn't have to deal with this stuff."

"True," Tyler said. "But then again, the sphinx never gets to sit next to someone during extra innings."

The baseball game stretched into ten innings. Maya's spinach-free smile lasted through all of them. So did Tyler's attention, which was maybe worth the temporary humiliation.

Almost.