FIVE #3
“Nah.” His eyes stayed on her. “Not for real.”
Nina ignored his comment and sat in the chair beside the bed.
“How do you feel?”
He shrugged. “Angry…”
“What is the doctor saying?” she questioned.
“Torn ACL probably.”
Her face fell instantly.
“Oh no…”
“Yep, the season is over for me. I’m praying my career not too.”
The pain in his voice made her chest ache.
Not because she loved him or anything crazy like that, but she understood ambition. Football was his dream. His passion and his purpose. She could only imagine what it felt like to watch everything you worked so hard to have just pause suddenly.
“I’m sorry.”
Kobie stared at the floor before looking into her eyes. “Can I tell you something?”
“Yes, you can,” she held back tears.
“I’m angry at God. Why did this happen to me?” He longed for the answer from somebody who was cool with the Big Homie upstairs and he knew that Nina was.
“We can’t question God… as bad as I know you want to─”
“Why don’t you want me?” He asked yet another question that she also didn’t have an answer for.
“Where did that come from?”
“I’m serious. You act like I’m cool enough to hang with but not enough to actually want.”
She sighed. “Kobie…”
“Tell me.”
She leaned back in the chair and studied him carefully.
It damn sure wasn’t because of his looks because the man was fine.
He was successful. He was funny. He made her smile and he was romantic.
Sure enough, in the very beginning everything he did irritated her, but not anymore.
She was trying to stop with the pros and cons and comparing him to Jio.
Lately, she hadn’t been able to control it.
In the middle of the night, Nina would be up drawing charts and breaking down the dynamics of each man.
When she looked at Kobie, she felt peace.
When she was with Jio…it was risky…damn near treacherous.
But she was dangerously in love and downright obsessed with the simple thought of him.
She didn’t have that edgy feeling in the pit of her stomach when she was with Kobie.
Jio lit up her insides. He possessed a chemistry so strong that it could take a life with one call…
like Kobie’s. Unfortunately. Jio was the one her heart kept choosing for reasons unknown.
So instead of telling the truth, she joked.
“Maybe because my mom got a crush on you.”
Kobie couldn’t laugh anymore, his body was in too much pain.
“Your mom loves me.”
“She absolutely does,” Nina agreed with a nod.
“Your mom knows what’s best for you.”
Nina ignored him on that one, and instead, she changed the subject. “If you’re up for it, I would love to pray with you.” It was on her spirit to do so and she was working on being more obedient to the Father.
“Wow… I don’t know what to say.” He seemed taken aback that she’d even considered doing so.
Nina was smitten. “I’m not a Pastor or anything but I do believe that when two or three come together, mountains move.”
“I need my knee to move back into place so get to praying,” he kidded.
Nina stood and grabbed his hands in hers and bowed her head.
“God, we thank you for Kobie’s body. We thank you for the many gifts that you so kindly bestowed upon him.
Lord, we are asking for a speedy recovery.
We pray for a complete turnaround in his health.
We are refuting what the doctors are saying because you are the Master Physician…
” Nina prayed. She went to touch his knee as gracefully as she could.
“God heal his knee. Make it brand new. I pray that his knee is better than before. Lord take the pain away. Fill Kobie up with all of you and less of his flesh. Take away the fear, the anxiety, the rejection, and any depression that’s trying to sink in.
Keep his head lifted high and his heart drawn to you. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.”
When she opened her eyes, she caught Kobie wiping away faint tears from his face.
“I needed that… thank you,” he said from the bottom of his heart.
Nina told him, “It was my honor.”
He motioned for her to come closer and she tried to play coy until he grabbed her shirt and placed her lips onto his.
A kiss. It was a sweet one that caused her to moan just a tad.
“Amen,” he murmured.
Nina returned to her seat in an attempt to regain her composure. She could see a tent forming under the sheets and she smiled. “Oh yeah?” she raised an eyebrow.
Kobie chuckled. “Yo, chill……”
They shared a laugh, and before she knew it, she’d woken up to her cousins calling yet again with hot tea.
“So you and Kobie are official?” Sarai shouted into the phone.
“Huh?” Damn, they were starting to get on her nerves with their bird behavior. They were too old to be so caught up in the livelihood of others.
“We saw you at the hospital girl! You better be up there taking care of your man.”
Nina went to the window and spotted cameras flashing down below.
Kobie was fast asleep.
She frowned. “How did they even know I was here?”
“Because you’re that BITCH and you dating the highest paid player on the damn team. Duh!” Shalon snickered.
She rolled her eyes and her stomach tightened.
She knew Jio’s nosey ass was definitely aware.
It was almost as if he had an alert on his phone to receive notifications on all things Nina Marcelle.
“I gotta call y’all back. Kobie is asleep, and I don’t want y’all to wake him up from screaming in my ear. ”
“You really ain’t left his side, huh?” Sarai wanted to know.
Nina hung up without another word.
By the time Nina made it to the bookstore to meet up with Ephrem, her nerves were shot.
The blogs had already posted blurry photos of her leaving the hospital.
Jio was going to be insufferable. Speaking of the made man that had her heart in his pocket, when she walked into the bookstore, the first thing that Ephrem blurted out was, “I texted you.”
“Okay, I was already on the way, so I didn’t open it.”
Little did she know that was his subtle way of warning her that he wasn’t alone.
In the same corner where they’d first played chess sat Jiorgio Gotti in designer sweats because he was a nigga that loved clothes more than the average woman and his watch gleamed.
Surprisingly, today he didn’t have on his Marcelle.
Nina wondered if he took it off whenever he was mad at her.
He played chess solo, humming under his breath.
He didn’t even bother to look at her when she entered.
“Hey,” she said cautiously, but he said nothing.
“We can eat tomorrow…or another day…” Ephrem suggested.
“You’re being dramatic. We can still go tonight.”
Finally, Jio looked up and the expression on his face made her pause. It wasn’t an angry look but it did scream, “You not going no damn where.”
“E, I can lock up tonight and we can get Thai tomorrow,” she changed the course of her plans.