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“WellKellyncalled herself your friend, so…”
With a chuckle, Stewart argued, “So now I can’t be friends with the people I do business with?”
“Sounds pretty normal to me,” I chimed in, earning myself a mean side-eye from Shakira.
Her pops, on the other hand, was thrilled to have my support, pointing my way as he said, “You see that right there? That’s a good man you got, Kiki.”
“Oh whatever,” Shakira grumbled as she stabbed at her salad, which only made her father laugh again as he shook his head and muttered,“Just like your damn mama.”And even though she still had a little attitude, Shakira couldn’t help but grin at the comparison; especially once her father started telling old stories about their time as a family.
It all felt very…wholesome; not exactly what I was expecting out of dinner with the man Hunter and Gerald had made sound like a menace. But just as quickly as I had that thought, I was reminded of why I’d had my guard up in the first place when,over dessert, Stewart asked, “So, Snoop. You think y’all gonna go all the way this year?”
With anybody else, it would’ve been considered a normal question. In fact, when it came to my work, that was almostalwaysthe question. But with Shakira’s father, I knew I had to be extra careful with what information I shared,giving him the bare minimum when I responded, “I don’t know, man. Anything can happen.”
“But what do youthinkis gonna happen?”
Before I could provide another general answer that was no different than the shit I’d said in every public interview,meaning it couldn’t be held against me, Shakira decided to voice her own opinion on the matter.
“Ithink they’re gonna go all the way,” she asserted, looking over at me to add, “With you at the helm, the Skyhawks are practically unstoppable.” And while I more than appreciated her vote of confidence, it was what her father responded that stood out to me just a little bit more, every word of it feeling like fuel when he said, “That six and four record y’all got right now says otherwise, but we gon’ see.”
“Yeah, we gon’ see, alright,”I thought, nodding as I added his slick comment to the long list of shit people had said about me over the years that kept me motivated.
It was the same stuff that had me skipping important high school events just so that I could attend all the different quarterback camps around the country and sharpen my skills.
The same stuff that almost had me failing classes my senior year of college because I was spending so much time preparing for the NFL combine.
And it was the same stuff that got me out of bed early most mornings to this day to get in an extra workout before I headed into practice, the doubt of others forever putting a battery in my back and giving me the boost I needed to not just prove them wrong, but more importantly, prove myself right.
Not just myself, though, cause there were others who believed in me too; my family, my friends, my teammates and coaches throughout the years. And then there were people like Shakira who may not have known what was going on during the game half the time but still saw it for me anyway, her unwavering support damn near just as energizing as all of that other shit combined and making me feel exactly how she’d described my team with me leading the charge.
Practically unstoppable.
I wasn’t sure if she knew just how much that meant to me. How much it meant to know that regardless of what people said and the outcome of each game, she would always have my back. But I definitely wasn’t taking that for granted, doing whatever I could to make sure she knew she was appreciated. And in tonight’s case, that meant offering to load the dishwasher after dinner while Shakira sat on the kitchen counter keeping me company, her lips pulled into a smirk when she asked, “So… was that as bad as you thought it was gonna be?”
“Worse,” I answered, Shakira’s face immediately twisting into a scowl that had me amused when I told her, “Nah, I’m playin’. It wasn’t so bad. And I mean, the fact that one of my favorite meals was involved ain’t exactly hurt either.”
“Yeah, the way you killed that lasagna was very much giving Garfield,” Shakira joked, making me laugh as I admitted, “Man, I was starving.”
“Are you still?” she asked, batting her eyelashes at me as she licked her lips and offered, “Cause I got somethin’ else you can eat.”
“Not with your pops under the same roof,” I groaned, Shakira responding with a disappointed eye roll that had me shaking my head with a grin as I told her, “There is something I wanted to ask you, though.”
Instead of waiting for my actual question, Shakira took the opportunity to tell on herself, releasing a sigh as she said, “Yes, I still have your credit card. No, I didn’t make any purchases…that were major.”
“I was wondering what happened to that shit,” I chuckled. “But nah, that’s not what I was talking about,” I told her, turning off the faucet so that I could give Shakira my full attention when I proposed, “I actually wanted to see if you’d be interested in coming to Nashville with me during the bye week.”
“Isn’t that around the same time as Thanksgiving?”
“Yeah, but my peoples don’t really do it big like that,” I told her, giving a little more context when I added, “Immediate family only.”
But of course, that was just the thing to draw a red flag for Shakira who wasted no time pointing out, “Immediate family still includes Kimberly.”
“This is true,” I agreed with a nod. “But you know I got you, right?”
When Shakira averted her eyes like she wasn’t so sure, I was quick to double down, grabbing her hand as I told her, “I’m serious, Shake.”
“Yeah, we’ll see,” she grumbled, the frown I responded with only making her shrug before she asked, “What would all be on the itinerary?”
“Well, every year since I’ve been in the league, I’ve done a turkey giveaway for the community, so that would be first. Then I was thinking we’d hit a Trojans game, maybe do a lil’ sightseeing, and then,of course, spend the holiday with my folks before we head back to the city.”
