“Yeah,” Jackie confirmed. “I was a speaker for the conference. There were a lot of students there, and I wanted to encourage young Black women who were interested in sports agenting. I was heading backstage after giving my speech—which, naturally, brought the house down. As I stepped behind the curtain, I felt a hand on my elbow. When I looked up, it was Antonio. He smiled and said, ‘You were great.’ And I was like “Yeah, I know.’”
The ladies laughed.
“Anyway, I knew who he was, and I’d heard about AMW hiring him. It was a big deal. He was there as a speaker, too, talking about the career trajectory from athlete to agent. He asked me if I could give him some pointers before he took the stage, and I just said to be himself. I stayed in the wings and watched him work the crowd. He was amazing. Funny. Had anecdotes that the students could relate to. He knew how to captivate an audience. When he came back off stage, he was surprised to see me there. I told him he did great, and he was like, ‘You must be my good luck charm.’”
Jackie smiled, thinking fondly of that moment. She’d never forget the smile Antonio wore when he saw her still standing there after his speech. The memory did something to her insides, made them swirl around like a spinning top. When she looked up, her friends were staring.
“It must have been a damn good speech if she’s smiling like that,” Tanika said, evoking a chorus of “mmm-hmms” from the table.
“Whatever.” Quickly, Jackie restored her resting bitch face. Thinking about Antonio shouldn’t elicit a damn smile.
“What else happened?” asked Mya, chewing slowly on a spring roll.
“He asked me what I was doing later that night, and if I wanted to hang out. I said cool. We hung out, had drinks, and…” Jackie paused. “I mean, it’s Vegas, so you know. What happens there, stays there.”
“Ugh, no!” Bronwyn shook her head. “Must I remind you that there are no secrets at this table, Jackie! What happened?”
“Yeah, spill it, Jackie,” Tanika folded her arms.
Jackie pursed her lips, looking between her friends. “Fine, you wanna know what happened? Yes, we had sex.”
Toe-curling, spine-tingling sex.It was the best sex of my life. But Jackie wasn’t going to say all of that.
“Whoa.” Tanika looked shocked. “With Antonio Steele? Seriously, Jackie, we’re only hearing about this ten years later?”
“Back up,” Mya said. “How did we jump from hanging out to sex? You’ve gotta fill in the blanks, girl.”
Jackie shrugged. “We were winning big at the blackjack table, and the drinks were flowing. Antonio kept saying I was his lucky charm. I think he won like fifty grand. Anyway, we were so drunk that we made some terrible decisions. Including tattoos. He convinced me to get that four-leaf clover tramp stamp, and he got aJbehind his ear because he said I was always gonna be on his mind. Corny, right?”
Tanika’s eyes went wide behind her glasses. “I’d always wondered why you had that tattoo. You never would tell me the story behind it.”
“I thought it was a silly sorority thing,” mused Bronwyn. Jackie was in the same sorority as Bronwyn’s mother, but Bronwyn was not a sorority type of girl. “I think that’s kind of romantic.”
“Youwouldthink that,” Jackie chided. “Your back looks like a Banksy mural.” There wasn’t a place on her body that Bronwyn hadn’t pierced or tattooed. She was the prototype for alternative Black girls. “Well, now you all know. Why else would a woman in her thirties get a tramp stamp, other than being drunk in Vegas? It’s so ridiculously cliche.”
“Girl, don’t nobody care about that poorly drawn leaf on your butt! Get to the sex!” Mya yelled, earning looks from nearby diners and a swift kick under the table from Tanika.
Jackie took a big gulp of her drink before continuing. “So, there we were, freshly tattooed, laughing our asses off. And I just couldn’t stop looking into his eyes. There was just something about him. Something familiar. Even though I didn’t know him, he felt safe. We just connected. We talked about so much stuff I typically wouldn’t share with anyone, let alone a stranger.”
Jackie remembered being a horny, babbling mess on that Vegas trip. It was one year after that debacle with Katrice, and while her heart had healed, she needed to take her mind off the drama. She’d figured she’d probably never see Antonio again—at least in any way that mattered. Despite him being an agent and an ex-athlete, they didn’t run in the same circles. He was on the West Coast; she was in Atlanta. What was the harm in having a one-night stand? It was supposed to be casual, fun sex. But it didn’t end up like that at all.
“It was so…somuchthat I can’t even remember it all,” Jackie continued. “Plus, he looked so good. Smelled so good.”
“As big as that man is, I bet he tried to fuck you through the mattress! Was the sex good?” Mya blurted. All three of Jackie’s best friends leaned forward, waiting.
“Good is an understatement. It was…intuitive. It’s like he knew exactly what I wanted, when I wanted it. He was soft when I needed. Rough when I needed. It’s like he had the roadmap to my body in a matter of hours.”
Tanika’s voice was low. “Hours, girl?”
Jackie felt her cheeks heat from the memory. “Girl, hours! We were going at it all night. At one point, it felt like I had left my body and was looking down at myself mid-session. It was sexy, lustful, and magically sinful all at once. I think I might have blacked out mid-orgasm, too. I was sober by then, so this was purely from the pleasure. It was a once-in-a lifetime kind of night. I swear, I’ll never have sex like that again.”
Jackie instantly felt embarrassed for being so candid. That wasn’t really her style. But now that she was finally telling the story, she couldn’t lie. That one night with Antonio had been everything she needed and more. She knew after it was over she’d never experience something like that again. In the ten years since, she hadn’t.
“Ah.” Bronwyn smiled, pointing one of her ring-adorned fingers. “You made a soul bond with this man. Kenny and I had that the first time we had sex. I knew he was the one after the first orgasm. That’s powerful. What’s his sign? You’re an Aries, so he must be highly compatible. Maybe a Scorpio? Or maybe….”
Sagittarius. Antonio’s birthday was the week before Christmas. She remembered because they’d talked about how he hated not getting separate Christmas and birthday presents as a kid. But she wasn’t going to give Bronwyn any more ammunition.
“Oh my god, Bron! Why are you like this? Everything isn’t about a spiritual connection!” Jackie groaned. “Sometimes good sex is just sex.”
