She’s beautiful and alive, her creations on the wall.Leaving pieces of her soul on the canvas the way I leave mine on the court.
“This never would have happened without you.”
“Yeah, it would’ve.”
“No, I mean it.”Her brows pull together.“You pushed me, made me believe I could be the kind of artist to have an exhibition.”
“You always saw people better than I did.”
“I see other people.You saw me.”
As a pro athlete, I’m used to my body hurting.Around her, parts of me that usually hurt feel better, and the ones I never noticed stretch and break.
I turn over what she said earlier.“So, your ex”—I can’t bring myself to say his name—“you have much to talk about?”
Nova snorts.“He showed me the things I wanted in my life.”
What the fuck?She’s not seriously forgiving him.
My gut twists, hard enough I think I’ll be sick on the sidewalk.
Maybe she’s moved on, wants different things than I thought.
“Did you eat?”she asks.
I shake my head.“Feel like Italian?”
We finish the exhibition, and the gallery owner starts to close up.Nova thanks the owner and discusses business for a bit, then she and I head over to my favorite restaurant in the city a few blocks away.
With help from the owner, we slip into a back corner table to order drinks and dinner.
“What happened to eating healthy during the season?”she teases after I put in my request for fettucine alfredo.
“Gotta live a little.”
We eat, but I’m barely tasting the food.I’m too focused on her.
The curve of her cheek.
The humor in her eyes.
The knowledge I could lean over and brush my mouth over hers.
That I’d give millions to do exactly that right this moment.
“You said the ex showed you what you wanted?”I pretend it’s a casual question.It meanseverything.
The past few weeks, I’ve been realizing how important Nova is.She’s the one who holds things together for me, who keeps me from being unhealthily obsessed with basketball.Not by pulling me away from it, but by reminding me how beautiful the rest of the world is.
“A home.A family.A place where I can do my art and explore the world.”
“You want those things with him?”
She blinks.“No.He showed me what I want by giving me what I didn’t.”
Relief slams into me, but it’s short lived.
“I didn’t give you that either,” I admit.“I should have been there for you.When things got hard, I shut down and shut you out.I stopped being there for you when everything you did was for me.I’m sorry.I’m still working on it, but my therapist helped me figure out some of it.I’ve made appointments every couple of weeks for the future.”I huff out a breath.“I was in a bad spiral.Like I was living in the middle of a storm I couldn’t get out of.And no matter how much was good, I couldn’t see my way through.”
