“Well it’s either her or your massive rock!”
Perry shot her hand up to show her emerald absorbing the blue and pink lights that light the bar. “It is huge, right?” Shebeamed. “But don’t change the subject, Danny was talking about on the court.”
I turned to Nola, “I told you their double engagement story right?”
“You’re doing it again!” Perry squealed as she fell into Danny’s side. I knew them well enough to guess the PDA will start in three, two, one…
Perry raised Danny’s hand to kiss her own engagement ring, a gold band with diamonds throughout.
“Get a room, you two.” I threw a balled up napkin at Danny.
“Oh, you’d do the same if you could.” Danny threw the napkin back. “But speaking of, when do you think you’ll come out?” She snickered at her own joke.
I was surprised that Nola beat me to the answer first, “We need to let the regular season shake out first before doing anything definitive in public.”
It’s the same sentence I told myself day after day, no matter how much I wanted to tell everyone how much I loved waking up in Nola’s bed or how I prayed that we were paired up to share rooms during away games.
“But I will say, it’s nice just having us time when we’re back home. But of course it’d be even better if other people could see it too.”
“Honestly, you two are doing better than I thought. It’s been four games and tonight was your first loss.”
“And the last.” I said with all seriousness. We’re in town for two more days to play another game.
I didn’t have to look at Nola to know she felt the same way because my face heated under her gaze. My shoulder on fire from the one area she kept drawing circles. I’d rather take these small moments than not have her at all. Playing and loving Nola was the first time I wasn’t just relying on myself with blind faith.I had a partner. Another person to lean on who understood everything exactly.
And I’d do whatever it took to hold onto this forever.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Bee
As with anything concerning my emotions, my mouth was moving faster than my brain could keep up.
We were down in Kansas City playing against the Buffalos during a three day away game streak and we had already secured two wins against the Midwest team. After a Buffalo player airballed a three at the top of the paint, Farrah in-bounded the ball to Nola who was getting pressed by Sarah Alcott, before she even made it to half court.
I knew from our college days that Sarah would do anything it took to prove she should be taken seriously on the court. She always had a chip on her shoulder and while Winnie Chen had the ability to soften her not-girlfriend, Sarah had been playing aggressive since game one. So aggressive that in tonight’s game she was already one foul away from getting ejected, and it was only the third quarter.
I was watching Sarah make Nola work for it, trying any way she could to tip the ball out of her hands. But if there was onething I knew, Nola was stronger than Sarah and the defensive arm she was holding up was enough to bounce Sarah back a few feet before she came back in Nola’s face. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I could see they were going back and forth. I had run defense enough times on both of them to understand that Sarah was talking dirty and Nola was talking cocky.
While that was happening I ran around in the paint, keeping Winnie on her feet and too focused on where I was going while Gia started to set a screen under the net for Winnie to get trapped around. But before I could make it to the other side of the net, I watched Sarah make another attempt to tip the ball out of Nola’s hands while simultaneously giving her an elbow to the jugular.
Nola went sprawling and somewhere around me a ref blew a whistle. I was already running over when I saw Sarah stand over Nola while she was getting back up.
I saw red.
“Have you lost your mind?!” I screamed at Sarah’s back while her and Nola got in each other’s faces.
“Oh fuck off, Bee, this isn’t about you.” Sarah tried to blow me off. “Young needs to be humbled.” She poked my girlfriend’s chest and the red shifted to a full black out.
“Don’t tell her to fuck off.” Nola bit back at the same time I screamed in my college friend’s face, “Don’t fucking touch her!”
Somewhere in the building whistles blew and people were yelling. I think I might have told someone to go choke while I was swatting a hand out of my face. A ref stepped in-between the three of us and someone was tugging on my jersey while I swatted their hand away. Winnie held Sarah back with the rest of the Buffalos behind her, and then suddenly my six foot frame was off the ground and I was being carried away.
“Who the fuck is picking me up like a child?” Slowly my senses returned to me as I was dropped back on my feet.
“Me!” Nola spun me around to face her.
“She could’ve crushed your windpipe! What the fuck was she thinking!” My eyes were wild and roaming, as I focused on everything around me. The crowd was going wild, the referees were at the table reviewing the cameras. Farrah checked on the both of us before going to check on Winnie and Sarah.
