“When I left my apartment this morning I didn’t know when I’d hear from you. I planned to look at the stats while I had breakfast.” She set her laptop on the desk. “But breakfast with you was much better than studying stats.”
Nicole smiled and a little giggle escaped her throat when Ariana bumped her shoulder into hers.
“Was that a giggle?”
Nicole widened her eyes and quickly looked back at the monitors. She could feel Ariana’s eyes on her and glanced back at her. “Stop.”
Ariana chuckled. “It was cute. You’re cute.”
“Okay basketball buddy, let’s watch the game,” Nicole said, feeling warmth in her cheeks. How did Ariana keep doing this to her? She wasn’t one to blush so easily.
“Hey, that’s not my game,” Ariana said.
“I know. You go to Toronto on Tuesday and I wanted to show you something.”
“You know my schedule?” Ariana asked.
Nicole raised her shoulder while clicking the mouse. Yes, she’d looked up where Ariana was playing next and checked her notes for things that might help her. She’d do that for any friend, right?
“I don’t know your entire schedule, but here’s what I wanted to show you.” Nicole started the playback of the game. “Toronto is a new team but they’re better than people think. When I was calling their last preseason game they used this triangle defense. I think they’ll use it against you on Tuesday.”
Ariana clicked a document on her computer. “I don’t see it in the scouting report they gave us.”
“They haven’t used it much,” Nicole explained. “They’ll face guard your two outside shooters and use this triangle in the middle.” She pointed at the screen and her shoulder brushed Ariana’s. Their closeness didn’t seem awkward and Ariana didn’t move away. “If you pass to Nia in the middle and neither of these outside defenders come to help then I think she’ll be wide open for a layup. If they collapse the defense on her, she can pass back out to you.” Nicole looked over at Ariana and smiled. “You can take the shot.”
Ariana looked into Nicole’s eyes and smiled. Neither of them said anything for a moment.
“Thanks for showing me this,” Ariana said. “It’ll make a difference.”
“That’s what friends are for.” Nicole smiled and clicked out of the game and pulled up Ariana’s game from the previousnight. She could feel Ariana’s appreciation for the information and it made Nicole’s heart happy. All the hours of studying game films and spotting tendencies was preparation to be a better broadcaster, but sharing the info to help Ariana made it even more worthwhile.
“I have a few notes on Toronto I’ll share with you, but let’s look at your game first,” Nicole said.
The replay began and Ariana huffed. “There it is,” she said. “Maggie called the foul and then the next time they come down the court you can see how far back I’m playing. It’s so strange because in the moment I didn’t think I was that far off.”
“You correct it quickly though,” Nicole said. She bumped her shoulder to Ariana’s and grinned. “It worked great for me because I was able to dribble right past you and score on the roof.”
Ariana laughed. “That won’t happen again.”
“No worries. I have other tricks.”
Ariana whipped her head around and Nicole laughed.
“You are tricky, but I’ll figure you out.”
“We’ll see.” Nicole gave her sly grin as warmth flowed through her body.Ariana and those eyes.
“You go to Minnesota on Tuesday,” Ariana said.
“You knowmyschedule?”
A smirk crossed Ariana’s face. “I know that’s the national broadcast and you and Shealyn are the A-Team. I’m wondering when we can do this again.”
Nicole knit her brows and glanced over at Ariana. “You want to do this again?”
Ariana nodded. “Don’t you? We could play on the roof and talk basketball,buddy.”
Nicole laughed and leaned her head towards Ariana. “Okay,bud. I guess you could come over Thursday? Won’t you have practice?”
