I had not played a serious game of basketball in well over seven years when my college career ended unceremoniously after I tore a ligament. I’d played a little here and there for fun but hadn’t done anything too strenuous.
Something told me that Ezekiel Angelo, for all of the crazy things he’d done, was never not serious about basketball. He was already shrugging off his suit coat and handing it to a friend. Cole loosened his tie, but he looked rather green around the gills. I used to play with him and my brother when we were kids. A brilliant tactician, Cole could whip you at a game of HORSE. Start throwing elbows in a game of one-on-one, though, and he wanted to start calling fouls as if it were a real game. He was not, I assure you, ready for this.
“Hey, Zeke,” I said, digging deep for a bravado I didn’t really feel. “How about you and me play this game, one-on-one?”
He took in my dress and laughed. “You serious?”
“Deadly so.”
“All right, all right.”
“What are you doing?” Cole somehow managed to whisper between his teeth.
“Saving you from embarrassment,” I said as I sat down on a nearby bench and leaned over to unbuckle my strappy heels.
“But what if you lose?”
I shot him a look. “Of course I’m going to lose! I’m an amateur who’s over two feet shorter than he is. But nothing’s on the line for me except my pride. All I have to do is keep up.”
“But Aubrey, what if you get hurt?”
I laughed as I reached for the other buckle. “I’m not going to get hurt. I can throw elbows with the best of them. Here. Hold my shoes and purse.”
“This is nuts,” he muttered under his breath.
I looked over my shoulder to Ezekiel. “Hey, big man. Why don’t you take your shoes off, too?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I’m serious. I don’t want you stepping on my feet with those expensive loafers.”
He grinned and sat down to take off a pair of shoes that probably cost more than my car.
To be fair, his loafers were Italian lizard skin; my car was 2001 Corolla on its last gasp.
I stood, and Cole grabbed my arm. “Aubrey. You don’t have to do this.”
“Sure don’t, but I want to. It’s going to be fun.”
And terrifying.
But one advantage of having screwed up as many things as I had was that the expectations were low. No one expected this to go well for me. No one expected much of anything to go well for me.
Eventually, I was going to surprise everyone. Tonight might even be the night.
I exhaled and rolled my head around on my shoulders then started stretching as I would have before a game.
It’s all muscle memory, Aubrey. All muscle memory.
I wanted to practice with a few layups, but Angelo was already dribbling between his legs and grinning at me.
“How about ladies first?” Cole said.
“Of course.” Ezekiel bounced the ball to me, hard.
I caught it, and that old adrenalin started thrumming through me. I dribbled a bit then stopped, just getting a feel for things before I advanced on only one of the best guards to ever play the game.
He easily batted the ball away from me and sunk a basket in a fade shot.
