“Can’t wait.” Gia said shyly, I couldn’t tell if we were overwhelming her or if she was enjoying the attention from the vets.
“And then we’ll go up to Charlotte for some good barbecue.” Bee still hovered over my shoulder, and I fought the urge to turn and kiss her temple.
“Gia, if Bee starts talking too much, feel free to just chuck a ball at her head.” Farrah laughed before Brittney could whip a rogue sock at her best friend’s head.
“Woah, anyone see the video the Waves social just posted?” Courtney interrupted. “They filmed Lee and Young like an episode of The Office.”
Everyone scrambled over to look at their phones while I felt Bee retreat from my back. I glanced in her direction to read her face. But she wasn’t looking at me, instead eyeing every face to process their reaction to the video Nina and Marcello worked on. I didn’t even remember what I said in my filmed confessionals, but from the way Bee looked, she was waiting on the validation or the criticism, like she had a stake in the general perception of her.
Or of us.
Gia was the first to snicker before covering her mouth. “Nola, you’re pretty funny.”
“I am?” I was shocked.
“Dude, Lee’s face lookspissed. You guys really killed this.” Courtney cackled.
“Hey, if basketball doesn’t work out, you both should try acting.” Farrah quipped.
Brittney turned to me, mouth agape, surprise on her face. It was like everyone had forgotten the thick animosity Brittney and I used to play through. But I guessed that’d also been dependent on everyone here knowing who we were as opponents. Besides Farrah, no one had seen for themselves the animosity that used to live between Bee and I.
The only narrative they knew of us was what came from the media. Separately, I was just the cocky superstar and Bee was the crash out queen. But here in Miami, we finally had the chance to rewrite our own story.
And that alone had me smiling at Brittney with no care for who could see.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Bee
“So on a level of one to ten, how nervous should I be?” My girlfriend asked me while she stood at the stove making us breakfast. I wanted to drag her back to bed, ignore this silly rule of no more sex until our first game. It was stupid and immature, and I could argue extremely self-destructive. But we’d both been too exhausted from practice to do anything more than fall into bed together and drift into deep sleep. Just to do it again the next day.
Everyday for the past month, we’d been getting better on the court. We were able to anticipate each other’s moves while also sticking to our sweet spots. Last week we surprised the coaching staff as Nola and I flipped seamlessly between guard and forward positions, resulting in the practice squad fumbling through defense as we caused misplaced matchups.
The play could only work due to my speed, and when Gia and Courtney were on the court at the same time. But we hadinspired the assistant coaches to actually make plays with the new dynamic.
So fine, maybe the no sex thing was working for us on the court.
But not for our home life.
“Stop making that face.” Nola’s voice snapped me back to the present. Her back was still facing me.
“You don’t even know what face I’m making.”
“Like you want to eat me alive.”
“And is that a bad thing?” I flirted, slipping off the stool and coming to wrap my arms around Nola’s waist.
“It is when our home opener is in two days. We’re doing so well, we’re so close.”
“Right and I’m so close to snapping.” I hugged tighter around her waist to whisper in her ear, “I’ve had too many ideas to keep them to myself.”
I started to drift my hands up toward her chest but Nola turned away from the stove to focus on me. It was almost like I knew what she was about to say before she said it, her eyes got darker and her voice got low.
“Two more days and I’ll let you fuck me however you want.”
I was dry.
I was wet.
