Chapter 17 #2
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait … don’t you have a place in Baltimore?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“What if, God forbid, you get sent to a new team? What happens to your apartment?”
“I have a townhouse. I know guys who live out of a hotel because that’s more cost-effective for them.” He shook his head. “But I couldn’t do it. I need a home base. So, financially, it might not make sense to some people, but—”
“No, I get it,” I agreed quickly. “Having a place to call home makes complete sense to me. And fortunately, it’s been working out.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it has. You should come check it out.”
“Your place? Or Baltimore.”
“My place. But I’ll show you around Baltimore, too.”
My lips twitched, trying not to grin up at him. “Is that an invitation?”
“Yes.” He smirked, running his hand over his beard. “An open one.”
“With the season starting next week, I figured you’d be busy.”
“Yeah. I am.” He shrugged. “But I’d still want to see you.”
I’d want to, I repeated silently as we walked.
I didn’t want to read too much into it. But I’d want to was hopeful.
It wasn’t definitive. Our connection was electric, and our feelings were real, but from the beginning, I’d known what it was.
Even if I’d let the way he handled my body skew the reality of our relationship for a moment, the fact remained that he was too busy for more with me, and I was too scared to admit I wanted more with him.
I cleared my throat lightly. “I’d want to see you, too.”
“Good.” He draped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into him. “We’ll have to figure something out.”
Nodding, I put my arm around his torso as we walked through downtown Richland. “Are you off tomorrow?”
“No. They don’t give a damn about a holiday since the regular season starts this week. It’s a half day though.”
“And school starts Tuesday, so I guess we should get back to my place and enjoy the rest of this Sunday.”
He kissed me and caused butterflies to ripple through my belly. When he pulled away, he whispered, “I like the sound of that.”
We got to his SUV, and he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Excuse me for a minute,” he told me, before answering the call. “What’s up, Ma?”
He opened the door for me and then climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Yeah, I know. I’m going to miss it. But depending on what they have us doing on Tuesday, I might drive down and bring her gift because I won’t be back down for the rest of the season.
” He started the engine and turned the air-conditioning on.
“Yeah, I’ll let you know tomorrow after the morning session if I’m driving down. Yeah, okay. Love you, too. Bye.”
He disconnected the call and looked over at me. “My bad.”
I shook my head. “You’re fine.”
He pulled off from the curb and made his way to my place. “My niece’s tenth birthday party is this weekend, and they’re having a party at my mom’s.”
I noticed the disappointment in his voice. We’d talked about our families before, and I knew he was a big family man. “You’re going to miss it?”
“I’m going to try not to. I usually miss it and it’s fine. I send a gift. But my nephew’s birthday is in May, so I was at his party. And apparently today my niece said something to my mom about me never coming to hers.”
I reached over and intertwined my fingers with his. “I want to say that she’ll understand, but she’s ten.” I squeezed his hand. “But because she’s ten, and I know you’ll make it up to her, she’ll be okay. Everything you’ve ever told me lets me know that she knows you love her.”
“Yeah. I might drive down there on her actual birthday. I don’t know. I’m gonna figure something out.”
“Yeah, you will. You have a way of making everything better, so your niece is going to be fine. Everything is going to work out.”
He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “I appreciate you saying that.”
We got back to my place, and even though the plan had been to dress up and go to dinner, we holed up in bed for the rest of the day. We got up only to eat Thai delivery, and then he packed up to leave my place around seven o’clock.
“Thank you for spending the weekend with me,” I said as I walked Lamar to the door, slightly limping and fully drained. I tightened the belt of my robe before looking up into his eyes. “It was fun.”
He dropped his bags at his feet. “Thank you for inviting me to spend it with you,” he replied, pulling me flush against him. “I had a real good time.”
“Me, too.” I reached up to clasp my hands behind his neck. “I almost didn’t ask. But I’m glad I did.”
“You weren’t going to ask me?” he scoffed, grabbing my ass through the robe and giving me a light spank. “Why not?”
“When it occurred to me that I needed a date, we hadn’t seen each other for almost two months.
We didn’t really talk in July and talked when we could in August. It was last-minute.
I didn’t think you’d have the time to come.
I didn’t think you’d want to come.” I lifted my shoulders.
“I guess I just felt like I was asking for too much.”
He stared into my eyes, and I felt like he was piercing my soul.
He brought his face close, allowing his mouth to hover over mine. “You can get anything you want from me.”
I swallowed hard. “Well, what if what I want is something you can’t give me?”
“Tell me what you want, and let me determine what I can and can’t give you.”
More time.
An upcoming date.
One more orgasm for the road.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“You know what I noticed?” he asked, rubbing the tip of his nose to mine. “You open up more when we’re touching,” he said, just before his lips covered mine.
As our tongues touched and the kiss deepened, I realized he wasn’t wrong. My feelings for him always felt like they were about to spill out of me when we were together.
We said goodbye, and after closing the door behind him, I immediately showered and went to bed.
I hadn’t had regular sex in years, so to have been so thoroughly taken care of had taken a lot out of me.
I wanted to sleep in on Monday, but because I’d been gone all summer, I had to wake up early to set up my classroom first thing in the morning.
I was only able to get in for three hours because the principal had cookout plans that afternoon.
So I did a lot of work in a limited amount of time.
Between that and my time with Lamar, I was exhausted.
I was halfway to sleep before eight o’clock and still sore Tuesday.
“‘Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today,’” I quoted Malcolm X to my students as I did at the beginning of every school year. “Raise your hand if you’re ready to prepare.”
They quietly looked around the room. But then slowly, everyone lifted an arm in the air.
And that was the last moment of silence I had for the rest of the day.
Lamar Anderson: How was the first day of school?
Jazmyn Payne: It’s seven-thirty and I’m already in the bed.
Lamar Anderson: Damn! That bad?
Jazmyn Payne: It was loud. Half the kids didn’t do the summer reading. And it was a lot of yelling for no reason.
Lamar Anderson: Why were you yelling?!
Pulling the covers over my shoulder, I snickered into my pillow.
Jazmyn Payne: Not me! The students! How are you feeling about tomorrow? It’s the first game practice, right?
Lamar Anderson: Yes. Wednesdays and Thursdays are the longest days so I’m sure I’ll feel like you do now.
Jazmyn Payne: You’ve been killing it all summer. The fact that the season is starting, I know practices are about to get more intense. But you got this! Even if it’s late and I go to sleep early, let me know how it goes please.
Lamar Anderson: Thank you, I will. I know you’re tired. Get your rest and I’ll hit you up tomorrow.
I started to put my phone on the charger when I realized I had an email.
“Oh shit!” I exclaimed in a whisper, sitting straight up in bed.
The property manager emailed me a confirmation. It wasn’t a misprint or a wrong address; the credit on my account was real. My rent was paid for the next four months.