11. Akari
Man, it had been a while since I went to Skyeville Mall, but here I was in there with Avani. She kept saying I was always buying her something, and she never got me anything.
"I might not have all the money in the world like you do, but I can buy you something," she insisted.
I had to shake my head to let go of the thought. It had pissed me off then, and it was pissing me off now. I was trying not to let it get to me. I knew I always got Avani things, but as her man, I felt like I needed to do that. She hadn't understood that, but in time, she would.
She squeezed my hand, causing me to look down at her. Avani looked good as hell in a yellow and white sundress with a matching purse. Her hair was styled in a loose ponytail on top of her head, causing her dark skin to glow.
"Wassup?"
"I want to go into the jewelry store first," she stated.
I arched a brow, knowing damn well she wasn't about to buy me jewelry. I pressed my lips together, not saying anything. "Okay. What's in there?"
She smiled happily. "You'll see."
When we left the jewelry store, I was still in awe.
Avani had gotten me a custom-made watch with my initials, number, and a saying engraved: the Star that dwells within .
When that lady brought it out to her and took it out of the box to examine it, I was in awe at what I was looking at. The watch was gold, too.
"Damn, I wasn't at all expecting that. Thank you."
Avani dramatically sighed. "Finally, I got a thank you. And you're welcome. Now, can you stop being mad?"
I glanced down at her, seeing the scowl on her face.
Before I could lean down and kiss her lips, a woman walked up to me with a smile.
She greeted me and walked away. It didn't stop there.
We couldn't even finish shopping before many women came up to greet me, and I ignored them.
Some even asked for my autograph and wanted me to sign different parts of their bodies.
I couldn't or wouldn't do that, especially not when I was in a relationship.
"Wow! You have a lot of groupies," Avani bitterly commented. We were back in the car, about to head out of the parking lot. I had the watch on my wrist. I loved it already.
I glanced down at her. "I wouldn't call them groupies but fans." I was trying to downplay it when they were, indeed, groupies.
She snorted. "Yeah, right. Fans. Is it always like that?"
I lifted an eyebrow, wondering what she meant by that. "Like what?"
"Like that? Them coming up to you, touching on you, plus wanting you to sign their body parts. They were acting like I wasn't even there." Avani sounded hurt, and I felt bad about it.
"It is always like that, but you can trust me. I'll never do anything to hurt you. You have to trust me enough to know that I'll always be faithful to you and you only. I am big on trust, and we won't make it in this relationship if you don't trust me."
There was silence, but I had to get that off my chest. My parents were examples of not having trust in their relationship. I refused to go through what my father went through with my mother. My woman had to trust me, or we wouldn't work.
"I do trust you. It's the women I don't trust. They saw you were with me and didn't care that I was there," she muttered.
"I knew you were there, though. That mattered most as long as I knew. Right?"
She nodded.
"Okay, then. Don't worry about them. Only focus on me."
We didn't say anything on the ride back to my house. I had a game tonight and needed to get to the stadium early. I was tired as hell and needed a whole day of sleep. It had been a while since I was able to sleep the whole day. If I didn't do it soon, I was going to crash.