Chapter 4
four
. . .
Cassidy
Our cars approached the gated entrance and pulled up to the villa within seconds of each other.
Hendrix took one look at me when he stepped out, and I was set on fire—not in a good way.
I’d never been around someone whose presence intrigued and repelled me all at once.
My equilibrium was thrown off when I was around him, and I figured the faster I got inside, the faster I could get away from him.
I tried to keep my focus on the beautiful palm trees, clear, blue skies, lush gardening, and shimmering blue pool ahead of me as I sped up my pace.
Without bothering to say excuse me, I bumped past him and lost my balance.
“Oh shit!” I squeaked before stumbling and crashing into the pool.
I made the biggest, loudest, most utterly embarrassing splash as my entire body submerged underwater. Seconds later, I popped back up only to see Hendrix’s arm outstretched to me at the edge of the pool.
“Oh shit, I’m glad your rude ass can swim. I thought I was gonna have to jump in there and save you,” he said, before flashing me his stupid ass, breathtaking smirk.
I wanted to smack that shit right off his face, but instead, I slapped his hand away and pulled myself out of the water.
I was sopping wet from head to toe, looking about as attractive as a dog caught in the middle of a tsunami.
I bent down to swipe up my phone that I’d dropped before hitting the water.
“You could’ve ruined my phone!” I yelled, swatting wet braids out of my face, “and what if I couldn’t swim, huh?”
“But you clearly can, and this pool don’t go deeper than six feet anyway. I think you would’ve been aight.”
I huffed and narrowed my eyes. “Whatever, just stay your ass away from me, or I swear to God!” I said, balling up my fists.
He must’ve felt the heat radiating off my body because he took a few steps back and let me enter the villa first. I stormed down the hall in a blitz of anger, zooming past the long, U-shaped beige couch and large, floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room that overlooked the Caribbean Sea and let the sun in from all angles.
All I wanted to do was find the master suite and settle my fucking nerves.
A subtle smile crept across my face when I stepped into the room and saw those same floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of the turquoise waves rolling up against the smooth shore.
Hearing the waves crashing against one another was like music to my ears.
All I wanted to do was marry my body to the plush California king bed, but I kept trekking my wet ass across the marble floors into the bathroom.
Hundreds of droplets of warm water sprang out of the large rainfall showerhead. After I made sure I’d gotten clean, I popped the bottle of champagne I’d found inside the welcome basket on top of my bed and drew myself a warm bath to soak and further settle my nerves.
“Cheers to a week of self-love,” I mumbled to myself before clanking the champagne flute against the bottle and submerging my body beneath the warm suds.
It was just my damn luck to spend the entire week trapped with someone on my shit list. As a matter of fact, he was at the tip top.
There was no way I was taking my ass back to San Jose or staying at another resort, so I only had one choice—share a villa with the nigga and minimize my interactions with his fine ass as much as possible.
I’d soaked long enough for both my fingers and toes to prune and the water to go lukewarm, and yet I still wasn’t ready to get out. Instead, I reached over to edge of the tub to swipe up my phone and call Lauryn.
“Um, I thought I told you to call me when you got to the resort!” she barked as soon as she picked up the phone.
“Girl! I would have, but shit has been crazy all day long! It’s literally been the day from hell!”
“Ah hell, what happened?”
I sighed. “I don’t know if you’ll believe me when I tell you.”
“Try me.”
“Well first of all, I almost missed my damn flight rushing to the airport. Then, I make it to LAX, I get on my connecting flight in first class and guess who, of all people, the Lord himself picked to sit beside me?”
“Oh shit, who, Cass?”
“Fucking Hendrix!”
“Wait, Hendrix? Like, Hendrix, Hendrix?”
“Yes, that nigga, Hendrix!”
Lauryn burst out into a roar of laughter. “Ooooh shiiiiiiiittttttt, Cass! Boy, would I love to have been a fly on the wall watching you two interact after all these years.”
“That’s not even the worst part! Not only do I have to sit next to this nigga the whole way here, but when I get here and try to check in, guess who I see?”
“Get the fuck out of here.”
“Hold your comments until the end, bitch. It gets worse!”
“What? He stayin’ in the villa next to yours or something?”
“Try the same villa.”
“Hold up, what? What do you mean the same villa?”
“I got here and I go to check in, and then they tell me there’s been a mix-up in the system, and they have both of us double booked for the same fuckin’ villa.
Of course he couldn’t be a fuckin’ gentleman and just take something else!
So since neither wanted to give up the villa, boom, here we are. ”
Lauryn gasped. “Stop lying!”
“See! I told you that your ass wouldn’t fuckin’ believe me.”
“Are you for real?”
I shook my head. “As real as a fuckin’ heart attack, bitch.”
“So, you’re telling me that he’s in the same villa with you…right…now?”
“I guess that nigga around here somewhere. I scared his ass off after that pool incident. Fuckin’ with me, he better watch his ass over the next few days.” I scoffed.
“Hold up, what pool incident?”
“He tried to drown me!”
“He what?”
I huffed. “Okay, not literally, but he knocked me in the pool. Well, I bumped into him and kinda fell, really. I was drenched from head to toe. My phone almost got ruined!”
I knew I technically couldn’t blame him for me falling in the pool, but I could blame him for being in my space.
“So, did he push you or did your clumsy ass fall?” she asked for clarity.
“I fell, but it’s not like he tried to save me or anything!”
“Would you have wanted him to?” she quizzed.
“Hell no!” I barked.
It was safer to hate him, to hate all men. Anything with a dick and balls, really. I didn’t discriminate.
“Exactly, so what you complaining for?”
“Because I don’t want to share my space with that nigga for the rest of the week!” I whined.
“I get it, girl, but don’t be too hard on him.”
“Why not? He was always a dick to me, and you know it!”
Lauryn let out a soft chuckle. “Your ass wasn’t nothin’ nice either, bitch. Don’t front.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“But nah, Cass, I’m serious. Go easy on him. He’s been through a lot lately.”
“Girl, bye. Like what? What could be so wrong in his perfect little world?”
“Well, for one—you know he’s coming off that injury that took him out of the finals, and two, I know you heard about that nigga gettin’ traded.”
My lips downturned. “I knew about his knee, but I didn’t hear the bit about the trade. But, I mean—it’s not like he got fired, right? He’s a ball player. Those niggas get traded like Pokémon cards all time.”
She snickered. “Yeah, but the way he found out about the trade was embarrassing as hell. TMZ caught him coming out of physical therapy and started bombarding him with questions about how he felt about being traded to one of the worst teams in the league before the Mambas even got a chance to call and tell him personally.”
“Oh shit,” I mumbled, sinking further into the cool bath water.
“Yeah, Mark said they talked not too long after it happened and he was pretty fucked-up about it.”
“Damn, really?”
“Um, ball is that nigga’s life, Cass. You know that.”
I kissed my teeth and mumbled, “Fuck.”
Lauryn’s words made me quickly realize what I’d said to him earlier was condescending.
The emotional salvage yard that was once my heart had me talking savage as fuck and acting completely out of my character.
I never had a problem putting him in his place, but I would’ve never kicked him if I’d known he was already down.
“What?” Lauryn asked.
“Ugh,” I groaned, “I might’ve said something about how it didn’t require a lot of brainpower to play basketball to him during an argument when we were checking in.”
“Cass!”
“I know! I’m sorry, I didn’t know, and I was just so damn mad at the time, I just said whatever was on my mind.”
“You need to go and apologize to that man!”
“I’d honestly rather just come to your villa and chill for a bit,” I said, trying to change subjects.
“Girl, listen, we are still so tired. We got off the plane and got here and took showers and a nap, and we are still in this comfortable ass bed.”
“Damn, I knew it! I knew that shit was comfortable the moment I saw it!”
“Yeah, girl. It’s got a hold on both of us, I’m sorry. But maybe dinner tomorrow?”
“Fine. This week is about my healing anyway, so I’ll get a jumpstart on it by finding out what this California king talkin’ bout.”
“Yasss! You better go enjoy those snuggles, girl! I’ll see you soon. Love you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Bye,” I mumbled before ending the call.
Once I climbed out of the tub and dried off, I crawled in the bed and found the video TMZ posted of when they bombarded Hendrix the day of his trade announcement.
Lauryn was right; just from watching the video I was embarrassed for him.
I couldn’t imagine how he felt being the subject of endless gossip and opinion about his future of his career.
It became clear to me that we were both in a dark place and if we were both going to make it out alive at the end of the week, then I was going to have to keep my words and my hands to myself.
I didn’t like confrontation for real, but the shit coming my way had me unraveled and ready to swing at life like Cuba Gooding Jr’s ass in Boyz in the Hood.
I toyed with the idea of apologizing or just letting bygones be just that.
In the end, I decided to sleep on it and if we were both still breathing the next morning, then I’d apologize, maybe.