Ma hugged Halo again. “We’ll talk more later. I want to hear everything about you.”
“I’d like that,” Halo said, and I knew she meant it.
As my family walked away, Halo looked up at me. “Your family is so cute. All that melanin is top tier.”
“I hope that wasn’t too much,” I said, pulling her toward the dance floor. “Come on. I didn’t get you all dressed up just to stand around.”
I put one hand on her waist, took her hand with the other, and we fell into an easy step. The dress moved with her, and I had to keep reminding myself we were in public.
“You can dance,” she said, surprised.
“You sound shocked.”
“You’re six-five and built like a tank. I wasn’t expecting… this.”
“This?”
“Grace.” She smiled up at me. “You got grace, DaVinci.”
“I took ballroom dancing a few years back. Turns out it also helps when I need to impress a beautiful woman at a gala.”
“Smart move.”
I spun her out and brought her back, and she was grinning. “What?”
“Nothing. I’m just… having a good time.”
“Good. That’s the whole point, baby.”
We danced through two more songs, and I couldn't look away. She moved like the music lived in her. Her laugh cut through the noise. When she looked at me, the room disappeared.
“So tell me something else I don’t know,” I said.
“Like?”
“Anything. I’m greedy, remember.”
She thought about it, biting her lip. “Okay. I’m afraid of the dark.”
“The dark?”
“Specifically, the dark in unfamiliar places. I sleep with a nightlight.”
“A firefighter who’s afraid of the dark?” I tried not to smile.
“I know. It’s ironic. But fires? I can see that. I know what I’m dealing with. The dark is just… unknown.”
“That’s real.” My arms tightened around her. “I’m afraid of failure.”
“Failure? I’d never put you and failure in the same word.”
“Thanks for that, but yeah, the human in me is. On the court, I can control most of what happens. I put in the work, and the results follow. Off the court? Relationships? Life?” I looked at her. “That’s different. You can’t drill your way through all of that. You just gotta live it, and sometimes you fuck up.”
“You’re doing pretty damn good so far.”
She leaned into me for a moment, her head resting against me, and something inside me finally settled as if it had found its place.
The song ended, and I heard a familiar voice.
