Chapter 3
three
. . .
Hendrix
Cassidy Stokes was a raging bitch.
There, I said it.
She was the last person I expected to run into, and by the way she’d been rolling her neck at me since the plane ride, I could tell she felt the same.
First, she zoomed off the plane in a huff, then the second I pulled up to the resort, I saw her ass fussing.
I didn’t know who the hell put that big ass chip on her shoulder, but that shit was off-putting as hell.
I wasn’t going to feed into her bullshit when I had my own shit to deal with.
Not only was I recovering from a knee injury that took me out for the rest of the finals, but I’d also been dealing with the embarrassment and shame of being traded to one of the worst teams in the whole fuckin’ league.
I’d always had dreams of shooting hoops.
People started callin’ me The Tomb Raider my freshman year in high school.
I was the only freshman on the varsity team, and it didn’t take long for niggas to realize I was the reason the stands were packed every Friday night.
I got busy on that fuckin’ court, and everybody knew it.
How I’d gone from an NBA all-star making over 40,000,000 dollars a year to being thrown away like I was a piece of trash had my head all the way fucked-up.
To me, it was the equivalent to getting picked last for kickball teams on the playground.
I came to St. Martin to lick my wounds in peace and put the focus back on my career, not go blow-for-blow with a chick from high school.
Growing up, her cousin, Mark, was my best friend, so I would see her whenever I went over to his house.
I’d always thought she was bad, and out of all the girls that were on my dick back then, I could honestly say Cassidy wasn’t one of them.
From the moment I met Cassidy, she’d always had a wall up.
Even after me and my mom moved into her neighborhood, she never gave me anything but attitude, so I masked my feelings for her and was an asshole in return.
As a kid in the spotlight, I didn’t have the time nor the know how to break it down.
And from the looks of it, the shit had only gotten tougher over the years.
As soon as I handed the attendant my I.D., the attendant that had been helping Cassidy walked over. “I’m sorry, sir. But um, there’s been a mix-up in the system.”
“What kind of mix-up?” I asked for clarity as I looked down at my phone.
I’d been trying to get in contact with my agent for the last two days, yet it seemed like every time my phone vibrated, there was a different sports headline with my name in it.
Whether it was TMZ, ESPN, or some other annoyin’ ass paparazzi with a camera in my face or gossip blog with my name in their mouths, I could feel the heat on me.
Throughout life, I’d been used to being able to write my own ticket, whether it was because of who my father was or how good I was at ball. Without ball, I would be nothing.
“Well, it seems your villa has been double booked with another guest. Her, actually,” she said, pointing to Cassidy.
“Cassidy?” I asked, my neck shooting up as my forehead wrinkled in disbelief.
Her brows snapped together as soon as she heard me call her name. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Can’t you just put her somewhere else?” I asked.
She put her hands on her hips. “No, they can move you! I was here first!”
“Move me?”
“Yes, move you! You can go anywhere, Hendrix. Why do you have to stay here? All I am trying to do is have a nice fucking relaxing ass vacation alone, that’s it!”
“I’m trying to do the same shit, so why don’t we just split it? Your little ass don’t need all that space anyway.”
She smacked her juicy, watermelon pink lips. “And you do? Just because I’m not a fuckin’ celebrity like you don’t mean I don’t make my own money. I’m allowed to ball out and enjoy the fruits of my labor just like you are. You’re not the only one with bread, here.”
“Um, ma’am, if you agree to that, we will refund you both fifty-percent of what you paid for your stay,” one of the attendants chimed in.
Cassidy huffed before pulling her eyes up to mine. “Fine, but just because we’re practically being forced to share the same space for the next few days doesn’t mean I have to like it, when I could just easily pretend like you don’t exist.”
“Okay, we’ll um, go ahead and process the refunds for both of you and call your car around to have your driver take you to your villa. We are so sorry for the mix-up, and we hope you enjoy your stay.”
“Um, no. I want my own car. I’m not sharing with him,” she demanded.
I scoffed. If she couldn’t stand sitting next to me for a ten-minute ride, I didn’t know how we were going to make it through the week.
“Separate cars is not a problem, ma’am. I will make the arrangements now,” she replied with a smile.
I bobbed my head. “Thanks,” I told them.
“Yeah, thanks,” Cassidy said before stalking off.
“What is it that you do, anyway?” I asked as I stepped up beside her, waiting for our drivers to pull around.
She shot me a cold stare with her arms folded across her chest. “Are you serious right now? Don’t talk to me.”
“Yeah, I’m serious. I mean, your ass made such a big deal back there about how you can ball out if you feel like it, I figured I’d ask.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and flared her nostrils. “If you must know, I’m in computer security. Something that takes a little bit more brainpower than dribbling a ball.”
I chuckled. “Oh, word? That’s how you goin’?”
She gave a lazy shrug. “I said what I said.”
“I guess that computer shit is cool or whatever.”
“Well, not all of us have the height and a solid jump shot like you. I had to scrape to get enough money to put me through school while people like you got the red carpet rolled out for them.”
I rolled my eyes before stepping up and towering over her petite ass frame.
She needed to be put in her place, and since she kept slanging her attitude my way and letting slick shit fall off her tongue, I was going to be the one to do it.
“Yo, I’ve been tryna be cool with your self-pitying ass, but you gon’ watch your fuckin’ mouth when you address me, Cassidy.
I may be a mothafuckin’ ball player, but you know where the fuck I come from, and that street shit is gon’ always be in me, aight?
We already agreed we gon’ split this shit up, so you stay your lil’ ass on your side, and I’ll stay on mine. ” I gritted my teeth.
“You should be grateful I’m even agreeing to this shit in the first place!” she snapped, just like an Inglewood girl. On the low, I was still a sucker for that hood shit.
I scoffed. “You want my gratitude? Nah, you ain’t earned that yet,” I declared before leaving her ass standing there with her pretty ass mouth hanging wide open.
The moment I was on my way to the villa, I began to chuckle at the irony of the whole situation.
I’d left the fuckin’ country to clear my head and destress, yet I was going to have to share my space with the most stressful woman I’d ever met in my life.
From the moment I saw her on that plane, I knew it was going to be some shit between us and arguing back wouldn’t do anything but fan the flame.
We’d already started the day off with tension thick enough to slice with a knife, and I knew that spending the next six days with her could easily turn into the week from hell.
A part of me smiled at the idea of getting to play her close for a week.
As rowdy as she was, there wasn’t a flaw to her French-tipped toes.
Her long braids competed in length with her smooth legs that had been kissed by sun to be the perfect shade of honey brown.
She had perky breasts that were real and a nice bubble booty.
Any woman that got with me had to have a set of childbearing hips because my seed was gon’ be no less than ten pounds, and she had ‘em. If it wasn’t for her poor ass attitude, staying away from her would be hard, but I planned to keep my distance until I couldn’t anymore.