“If he’s as cool as you think he is, he’ll see through it. And if not, it doesn’t matter because you’re not interested in him.” She paused for a second. “Or are you?”
“It’s giving friend vibes. But you are missing the point! These two walked up and called meJummy. After all these years! It took everything in me not to flip.”
“What is Jummy?”
“It’s their clever play onjumbo. This boy Olivia liked in eighth grade chose me to be his partner in science class, and she decided to make my life miserable from that point forward by calling me Jumbo Jazmyn. She shortened it to Jummy so the adults wouldn’t know what she meant.”
“I’m so sorry, Jazz.”
“It’s fine now. But just hearing that bullshit name sent me to a place where I was seeing red. If they had said it one more time, I might’ve hit them. So I just walked away.”
“You did the right thing,” Aaliyah encouraged. “So, what’s your plan now?”
“I’m going to take his attention back.” I walked out the door and made my way to the bar.
“Good! Don’t let them mess up your night.”
“Exactly,” I told her as I took my seat next to Lamar. “There’s five minutes left in the game, so I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay, but listen… this is a meet-cute—”
“Good night, Aaliyah,” I interrupted, snickering as I ended the call.
3
I slipped my phone into my bag and then made a show of looking around. “Your friends are gone?”
He let out a short, dry chuckle. “My friends?” He twisted his face as if he were offended. “Don’t put them on me.”
I smirked. “My apologies. The way they were in your personal space, I thought you knew them. I thought they were your type of people.”
“Nah, I’m selective about who I let in my personal space and who I consider my type of people. And they weren’t it.” He lifted his glass to his lips as he stared at me. “You’re my type of people though.”
Grinning, I turned my attention back to the game.
“You’re my kind of people, too.” I bumped his shoulder with mine. “Now, what did I miss?”
“The only thing you missed was a drive that resulted in nothing, a three and out for the Monarchs, and it’s about to be a three and out for the Wasps,” he told me.
I pointed at the TV. “Watch Channing’s feet and tell me he isn’t losing a step.”
“This was from back in October though.”
“Yeah, but it was the same all season with no improvement. I’m telling you—something is up.”
I felt him staring at me before the game went on commercial break. When I turned to face him, his piercing stare grabbed me. I felt him assessing me, trying to read my thoughts.
He tilted his head to the side. “You know your stuff…”
“I do.”
“Confident. I like that.”
I rolled my eyes before turning back to the game.
A minute or so passed before a time-out was called. The camera zoomed in on two young kids screaming with excitement.
“Do you remember the first professional game you went to?” I asked.
