Our first game against the Violets hung like a threat in the air, and it also didn’t help that it was an away game for us. As much as the Waves had settled into my daily life, our undefeated home streak something I was proud of, our teammates becoming our friends who came over and chilled at our townhouse on off days, every now and again I watched the sadness creep into Nola’s eyes before she brushed it away.
We didn’t speak of the inevitable, that we’d be in her home draft state and would not only be playing against her friends, but also her mom. It didn’t matter how many jokes I tried to crack to get her to smile, how many times I smothered her with my body or how long we could watch tv on the couch before we passed out, exhausted from practice and games. Nola was moving through life as a person in mourning, and I didn’t think I’d get my girlfriend back until we were in Chicago.
On our way to the arena that would then bus us to the airport, Nola finally spoke in a language that wasn’t basketball for the first time in five days.
“My mom wants to get dinner after the game.” We had started driving to the arena together for away games because to everyone else it looked like a standard carpool between two roommates.
But we were definitely making out in the building’s garage before anyone else arrived.
“Oh!” I turned to look at her from the driver’s seat. “Like family dinner or one-on-one?”
Nola shook her head. “Family. Either way the game goes, Iwill notsubject myself to my mom’s analysis.”
“Okay, that’s a start.” I didn’t know what Nola wanted, but I was going to try my best to be the listening ear she needed. I wasn’t used to people bundling up their emotions and never speaking about them. I only operated on saying how I felt when I felt it and going from there.
But Nola wasn’t brash nor a complainer. When you studied the greats of the league, Olivia Young was in the top five and from replay videos alone she always took everything on the chin. Even in times she was blatantly disrespected or harmed.
And totally unlike me, Nola had that same approach. But if there was one thing I hoped she’d taken from me, it was that bottling up your feelings didn’t do anything but hurt yourself.
“You should take them to one of your favorite spots,” I offered. “If the conversation is a total dud, at least you got one of your favorite meals out of it.” I grabbed her hand resting in the center console and rubbed the back of her hand.
She nodded in silence before looking at me, “I think you should come.”
“I—”
“But only if you want.”
“Doyou want me there?”
“Of course. I always want you around, honeybee. The woman I loveneedsto be at my family dinner.” She smiled softly.
“Won’t your mom have a lot to say about my presence?”
“For sure.”
“And what if people see us?”
“People already have, what’s your point?”
“Meeting the parents is one thing, and then gettingphotographedmeeting the parents is another.”
“If you’re not ready, I get that-”
“It’s not that I’m not ready, that’s definitely not the case. I just…it was a lot when we told my siblings and Aaliyah blew up. What will happen if your mom does the same? My sister can say anything and it’ll roll off my back. Your mom is your idol, you think you don’t show how much her opinion means ,but you suck at hiding it.”
Nola turned to face me in the passenger seat, her eyes devoid of any of the anxiety I had seen this past week. Energetically, this was the girl I knew, but I loved that she let me see her soft underbelly, exposing herself just for me.
“It will go exactly like this. Olive loves you, therefore Clay will love you. Nolan won’t believe it at first, then he’ll be obsessed, the man is a lover boy at the end of the day. And Olivia will wait silently until she can have the last word, and it’ll be somethingcutting and rude, but mostly honest. And then Olive will get her to show a little emotional vulnerability.”
“Kind of crazy that neither of us have totally normal families,” I mused.
“It’s like we were meant to be or something.” Nola smiled at me, and it was like watching the dust fall from an object trapped frozen in time. I raised my hand to stroke her cheek, Nola’s head fell into my touch.
“And this is how it’s gonna go down tomorrow. You’re going to kiss your friends, we’ll beat your mom, and then we’ll go out for family dinner. I’ll be so cool and chill and your mom will have no choice but to begrudgingly accept me so much she’ll be calling me her third daughter. And that’s how this weekend in Chicago is going to go, okay?”
“I love you. Like, a lot.” She kissed me quickly, our alone time quickly dwindling down.
“Thank God, I was getting nervous there for a second.” I joked.
