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“Thank God. I wasn’t going to get an academic one. I’m not all that bright, you know?”
“Could have fooled me,” Shay said.
“What do you mean? You see me studying all the time. That’s because I have to.”
“You know what I saw in that game film earlier?”
“No.” Layne shook her head.
“I saw it the other night, too, when I was on the bench and actually got to really watch you play without being out there myself. You see the court better than anyone.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yeah, you do, Layne. Better than me, even. If you had played like this since the beginning, you could’ve joined me in the draft. I mean that. I think I’m better with the ball, but you had four steals the other night and more in the previous game. You see where the ball is going to be, and you’re there. You’re fast, too; almost as fast as me. You might actually be faster with the ball than I am, and you had four rebounds the other night, too. I had one. Your passes were exactly where they needed to be. You anticipated and didn’t lead too far or hold a runner back with a wrongly timed pass. I mean it. I wish you would’ve played like that for all four years, but there’s nothing we can do about that now. Just… There are different kinds of intelligence, you know? Maybe you need to study multi-variable calculus a lot, but your basketball IQ is off the charts.”
“I am not taking multi-variable calculus.” Layne laughed.
“No one should take multi-variable calculus.”
“Agreed.”
“Hey, do you think we should maybe…” Layne looked toward the window.
“What?” Shay asked.
“Talk about last night? Or, technically, this morning.”
Shay swallowed and said, “Oh, that.”
“So, you do remember?”
“I told you that I was tipsy, not drunk. I remember just fine.”
“Well, shouldn’t we talk about it?”
Shay’s phone dinged. Then, Layne’s did.
“Coach?” Shay wondered out loud, pulling her phone out of the front pocket of her Dunbar sweatshirt. “Yeah, it’s her.” She read the message.
“Shit,” Layne said.
“Jessop might have it,” Shay added and looked up at Layne. “She could just have a cold. We don’t know it’s actually this.”
“She’s down the hall,” Layne said. “I didn’t see her at film, but I didn’t think about it. Honestly, I was kind of preoccupied.”
“With Martin calling you out on running too wide?” Shay asked, half-teasing.
“No,” Layne stated seriously. “Shay…”
“I know. I should go, though.”
“That’s what I was going to say.”
“Oh. I thought you were going to say we should talk about the kiss.”
“We can. But you shouldn’t be in here when we do.”
“Right,” Shay said and stood up. “I feel like we should maybe just not talk about it at all.”
