Chapter 1 #2
I discovered two seconds into the job that the best way to make a connection with a married or dating player was to make sure your actions always let the wife or girlfriend know that you were non-threatening.
As a liaison, I tended to work very closely with the players and their families.
They had to like me for the process to be successful.
Sometimes it took months to find the right house, the right school for the kids, the right nanny, .
. . the right barbershop or hair salon. I was around a lot.
If a wife or girlfriend thought I was after her man, there was no way she would want me around.
I wouldn’t be able to provide the service of making a relocation seamless. And that was always my goal.
Joining a new team and relocating were two of the most stressful situations in a player’s life.
My goal was to take as much stress and worry off the plate of the player as I could.
And because I was with them so much in the beginning of their career in Chicago, the players and their families often became lifelong acquaintances.
I got invitations to events that many people would envy, simply because of the work I did on the front end of a player’s transition to Chicago.
Anyway, I was always hearing things about players through the grapevine.
And I’d never heard anything about Travis, which led me to believe that he was faithful.
I kept everything I heard about players to myself, except the stuff that was too good to keep to myself.
That stuff I shared with my other best friend, Jaxxon McKissick, because I knew he would forget 90 percent of what I told him twenty minutes later.
And he would take the other 10 percent to his grave.
I met Jaxxon in elementary school, when his family moved in next door to mine, right after his father had become the pastor of a local mega-church.
Jaxxon and I were the same age, and we hit it off right away.
Everybody thought we had one of those Love this time, it was demure. “He loves you, Skyy. This is a good thing. Y’all have been . . . well, you have been playing with that man’s emotions since puberty.”
“I haven’t been playing with his emotions, Kels. He knows how I feel about him and why I’ve never let things go there. I love him too much.”
“Excuses. Excuses. Baby girl, you know I love you. You’re my bestie, north westie. But you can’t keep hiding behind your excuses.”
“I’m not.” I fought against letting my annoyance come through in my tone.
Kelcie didn’t live inside my body, she didn’t feel what I felt.
She didn’t know all my secrets . . . hell, nobody did.
I wasn’t about to tell her the whole story.
I did love Jaxxon too much. I loved him too much to put our relationship on the line.
He was more than just my friend. She was my friend, and I valued her. But I treasured Jaxxon.
There were levels to my loyalty and trust.
There was nobody outside of my mama that I trusted more than Jaxxon. And that was saying something, because gaining my trust was difficult as hell.
“What about Mario? You still seeing him?” She must’ve felt my resistance, because she jumped subjects again.
I fake gagged. “Clown nukka.” I left it at that.
Kelcie laughed. “What was his infraction, Skyy? Other than not being Jaxxon.”
“It’s not Jaxxon’s fault that dude was giving big shoes and a red nose.
” I sighed. Like, I really didn’t want to tell the story, but honestly, I didn’t care.
“So, I kept waiting for him to ask me for a proper date. Instead, he kept inviting me to the gym. Since I enjoy working out, I didn’t have a problem with meeting him at the gym.
We met up at the gym a few times to work out.
Cool. So, the first infraction happened when he invited me to his house after the workout one day.
I go, not having any plans of anything jumping off.
I’m trying to see if it’s worth my time to pursue something with this guy. ”
“Right. Right.” She co-signed my thought process.
“I get there, and girl . . .”
“What?” Her eyes were bright with intrigue.
“The house was a freaking pigsty!”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re lying. Mario was always so put together.”
Mario was somebody that she’d gone to grad school with, so she was the catalyst for the two of us meeting.
“First of all, the stanking stench hit you at the door.”
“What was the stench? Ass? Dookey? Roaches? Dirty clothes, or just an overall unpleasantness?”
“The damn dog. The smell of a wet, dirty dog, and the general uncleanliness of the place. Kels, that place needed a Big Mama is coming and she’s spending the night type cleaning. Every surface was . . . every surface needed attention. You know how I always have to pee?”
“Yeah.”
“It wasn’t happening there. I had to move an entire pile of clothes just to have a seat on his sofa.
Anyway, I was ready to get out of there.
I just asked him what I wanted to know, .
. . straight up. I’m like, what are your intentions with me?
Like, we can’t date without the . . . dates.
What are we doing here? This guy, your friend.
” I pointed at her. “Proceeds to tell me that he doesn’t believe in dates. ”
“What?”
“Yeah. And I’m like, dates aren’t the tooth fairy, bruh. What do you mean you don’t believe in them? They exist. Like real life people are going on them . . . right now.”
She giggled.
“He said that dates are for optics. He told me that he didn’t get the point of spending two hundred and fifty dollars to eat food and drink wine, when he had food and drinks at his place.
But then, in the next breath, he was telling me how he and his fraternity brothers went to Luminaire & Chao for their line anniversary—where he spent upwards of two hundred dollars on food and drinks.
Never let it be said that Skyy Diamond House doesn’t understand an assignment.
I bid him adieu and blocked his number.”