“One moment, please.”
She picked up the phone, pressed a few buttons, and turned away from me. Her voice was low, and I couldn’t hear her, but I assumed she’d called Nyomi to tell her I was here to see her. When she turned around, she hung up the phone with a smile.
“Follow me. I’ll take you to her office.”
She stepped from behind the desk, and I followed her to an office in the corner.
“Thank you,” I told her before she walked away.
I peeked my head inside and found Nyomi sitting behind her desk. She looked to have a lot on her mind, and I was certain it had everything to do with why I’d shown up in her office unannounced.
“Come in, close the door, and have a seat,” she said in a low voice as she stared into space.
I did as she asked, and once I was seated, neither of us spoke for at least a minute. I didn’t know where to begin, and something told me she had some things to get off her chest.
“I should’ve known he was on some bullshit when he wanted to keep our relationship a secret. He befriended me at the beginning of my freshman year, and ultimately, I fell crazy in love with him, but I was just something for him to do. When I told him I was pregnant, he snapped, said the baby couldn’t be his, and if it was, to get rid of it. That was the last time we spoke. I may have thought I was in love with him, but I loved myself more and would never stoop low enough to beg a nigga to be with me.”
“I didn’t know.”
She finally gave me her eyes, and I could tell she’d been crying, and I wanted to put my fist into the face of the person who caused her tears.
“I know. Only my family and best friend know the identity of Nyeem’s father.”
“I’m sure Nyeem spoke with you about quitting the team before he made the decision.”
She nodded. “I just got off the phone with him. Today was his first time ever seeing his father in the flesh. He’s hurt, Kilo. I believe he’s more hurt than he is angry. It’s killing me because I can’t fix this for him.”
“If I’d known a week ago, I wouldn’t have hired him.”
She smiled. “You would rather have Nyeem on your team than have Ambrose as your coach?”
“Knowing what I know now, yes. I suspected something was up when his energy was off the first time I mentioned you and Nyeem.”
“What do you mean?”
I shared with her some of the conversation Knox, Ambrose, and I had when we met up atLovers & Friends.
“I peeped how quickly he tried to dismiss Nyeem’s talents and down talk you while claiming not to know either of you. The shit was strange at the time, but it makes a lot of sense now.”
“Nyeem was looking forward to playing for you. He’s always training, but he started training more intentionally with my brother this week. He told me he was excited about doing both sports.”
“Maybe we can still figure out a way for this to work.”
“I don’t think so, Kilo, especially with Ambrose being his direct coach, and I’m not interested in trying to convince my son to work with him.”
We sat quietly in our own thoughts for a moment.
“Well, let’s look at the bright side of all this.”
She gave me a weak smile. “There’s a bright side?”
“Always. Let’s go out to dinner and start planning our future.”
This time her smile was wide as she questioned, “What?”
“As much as it pains me, I’m no longer Nyeem’s coach, so you can’t use that as an excuse to break my heart. We may as well make the best of this situation.”
I stood, went behind her desk, and offered her my hand. She hesitated briefly before taking it and allowing me to pull her to her feet. I grabbed her waist and quickly turned us around, switching our positions.
