Epilogue
Leah
“You’re going to miss tip-off!” I shouted across the apartment, raising my voice over the music and the chatter of the people around me.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Soph rounded the corner with a freshly topped off drink in her hand. We knocked our glasses together. “We really killed it on the decorations.”
I smirked. “We definitely did.”
Life since graduation was a whirlwind. Soph received a job offer in Los Angeles, and I followed—entirely by my own choice for the first time in my life—and got my own job offer at a different company not long after.
I wasn’t getting paid well, and the only fun part about working for a corporate marketing firm was getting dressed up and gabbing with my coworkers.
The job perks, like access to events across the city, didn’t hurt either, even with the ridiculous hours and shitty managers.
But I felt so incredibly lucky all the same.
Soph and I had been fortunate to find a cute apartment in West LA that was sun drenched and cozy.
And between her and me, there was never a dull moment—there was always a coworker to meet up with, a birthday party for a neighbor, a girl we met in the bar bathroom to dance with.
I loved being a tiny dot in a massive city with seemingly endless people to meet and endless possibilities.
There were some challenges that came with it, though—GJ had been drafted to a team in Louisiana, which was perfect for her and put her in much closer proximity to her family, but also put her far away from me.
Fortunately, she wasn’t so far that a quick trip was completely out of the question—or at least, it was possible with the help of ridiculous red-eye flights and melatonin gummies.
I’d already taken a few trips out, and she’d done the same.
And while it was too soon to plan properly, she’d casually mentioned a few times she was looking at getting a place closer to me to live in during the offseason.
I missed seeing her all the time—the transition was especially hard because she went from walking distance from me to a flight away in the blink of an eye.
Basketball moved quickly, and getting drafted meant missing the last little bit of college.
She wasn’t able to be there for any of the graduation parties, finals week drinks, or the seniors’ last party at The 151.
But it was worth it knowing she was getting to do what she loved.
On the TV, the camera panned to different players on the court as they prepared for tip-off.
GJ’s teammates were quickly becoming familiar names and faces.
I was also obsessed with the wives and girlfriends and the group chat we shared, so I was already looking forward to going out in New Orleans with them.
When the camera found GJ, everyone in the room—a mix of people from so many different areas of my new life, so many new people who loved me exactly as I was—cheered. GJ looked so beautiful, so handsome, so mine. She couldn’t come home quickly enough.
Even though this wasn’t GJ’s first game—I’d been courtside for that; GJ’s management had been all over social media trying to make us one of the hot new couples of the WNBA, and her team was playing off of the buzz—and we were deep into the season, the feeling of watching her play professionally hadn’t gotten old. I had a feeling it never would.
As soon as the ball went into play, the Mitchell extended family group chat—the one with her sisters and their boyfriends and husbands and now me—immediately started firing off, my phone buzzing with a million messages all at once.
My heart was so full it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.
Reese texted, too, sending a sweet message just like she always did during a game.
Reese
Fingers crossed for GJ!!
Leah
We should be watching this game together but I’ll forgive you
Reese
I’ll come see you soon, I promise
Reese decided to stay in Colorado to be close to her family and figure out the next steps for work.
I missed her and missed her dance classes, but I’d stuck with it and was trying out a new studio in the area.
The classes were on an entirely different level out here, but I left every single one feeling amazing.
It was like the last piece that had needed to come together for me.
I put my phone down and looped my arm nervously through Soph’s.
“How do you think it’s going to go?” I asked.
“I think Theo and GJ are going to kiss,” Soph said, making me laugh so hard tears formed in the corners of my eyes.
“It’s kind of crazy seeing them play against each other. I can’t believe they’re wearing different jersey colors right now. It feels wrong.”
The main reason Soph and I went all out for this game day party was that it was the first professional game Theo and GJ were playing against each other.
Based on team records, this wasn’t technically one of the biggest or most important games of the season.
Both GJ and Theo had been drafted in the early rounds of their years, meaning they were drafted onto teams with some of the worst records in the league.
But even so, it still felt important. Anyone who watched college women’s basketball knew Theo and GJ were a duo, but this was their opportunity to show off against each other.
It’d caused a major ripple in the Lakeside Green fandom, and who was going to come out on top was hotly debated.
The one biggest thing on Theo’s side was experience—playing professionally was different from playing at a college level, and GJ had an uneven start to her professional career.
It was common for a lot of rookies, but I just worried it would be difficult for her to work through, considering how her senior year had gone.
But she’d navigated it without issue and with the help of her new team’s therapist, getting into the flow of things after just a few games.
Her belief in her playing ability never came into question; if anything, she was the same GJ she’d been before her slump: cocky, certain, self-assured. It was sexy to see her like that.
Needless to say, it hadn’t been a question for me; I knew exactly who I was rooting for.
GJ’s games always flew by in the blink of an eye, but this one felt particularly fast. In a way, both GJ and Theo were assets to their teams during this one because they knew exactly how the other person played on the court.
It made it extra exciting to watch—two people who were able to see what the other person was going to do before they’d even done it.
Balls were turned over, and shots were blocked on both ends.
“My heart is beating so fast you’d think they just told me I was playing the second half,” Soph joked.
The game had been so good that we’d barely spoken to each other the entire time.
It was funny to see some of our other friends who were just here to be supportive, having absolutely zero interest in what was going on on screen.
It made it extra meaningful that they’d come as non-fans, braving the traffic just to come and be a good friend. It was the best kind of love.
“Do not ask me about the state of my armpits right now,” I responded, and Soph laughed.
The game closed out with the Blizzards just barely winning. It’d been down to only a few baskets the entire last quarter of the game; the fans who were there live looked like they were about to pass out from stress.
At the end of the game, just barely outside of the frame of the on-court reporter, GJ and Theo ran over to each other to hug. Exactly as I’d expect, there was no bad blood or bitterness between them. They’d always be best friends first, if not basically siblings.
I wished there was a way I could take a screenshot on my TV; fortunately, I had a feeling about a million different angles of that exact moment would be shared all over social media in just a few minutes.
Soph took a deep breath. “I need a drink. Anyone want to play beer pong?”
As she walked away, I glanced at my phone to check the time, knowing exactly how long it would be until my phone rang.
In the meantime, I started picking up stray cups and trash and fluffed up some of the pillows on the couch.
A few of my friends headed out, ready to go to their next big thing, and a few more stuck around.
Chances were high we’d all end up at a bar in approximately two hours.
When my phone rang—right on cue—I hurried off to my bedroom.
“Hi,” I answered breathlessly.
“Hey, baby. I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” I said. “When are you coming home?”
“Not soon enough.” Her voice was so gentle over the phone, so caring. Just hearing her voice made me safe and heard and appreciated and loved.
She sounded exactly like how home was meant to feel.