Chapter Forty-Eight
Bee
The end of May came and went so quickly it turned into the second week of June and my siblings were plotting another Miami trip to celebrate Pride.
I told them they were two months late since the city celebrated in April but my text got quickly buried over Amir’s confession he’d been seeing someone he met here.
I didn’t have much time to process though because Nola had been wound like a tight coil all week, the first I had seen of her where self-doubt and anxiety seeped into her otherwise calm demeanor.
Our first game against the Violets hung like a threat in the air, and it also didn’t help that it was an away game for us.
As much as the Waves had settled into my daily life, our undefeated home streak something I was proud of, our teammates becoming our friends who came over and chilled at our townhouse on off days, every now and again I watched the sadness creep into Nola’s eyes before she brushed it away.
We didn’t speak of the inevitable, that we’d be in her home draft state and would not only be playing against her friends, but also her mom.
It didn’t matter how many jokes I tried to crack to get her to smile, how many times I smothered her with my body or how long we could watch tv on the couch before we passed out, exhausted from practice and games.
Nola was moving through life as a person in mourning, and I didn’t think I’d get my girlfriend back until we were in Chicago.
On our way to the arena that would then bus us to the airport, Nola finally spoke in a language that wasn’t basketball for the first time in five days.
“My mom wants to get dinner after the game.” We had started driving to the arena together for away games because to everyone else it looked like a standard carpool between two roommates.
But we were definitely making out in the building’s garage before anyone else arrived.
“Oh!” I turned to look at her from the driver’s seat. “Like family dinner or one-on-one?”
Nola shook her head. “Family. Either way the game goes, I will not subject myself to my mom’s analysis.”
“Okay, that’s a start.” I didn’t know what Nola wanted, but I was going to try my best to be the listening ear she needed. I wasn’t used to people bundling up their emotions and never speaking about them. I only operated on saying how I felt when I felt it and going from there.
But Nola wasn’t brash nor a complainer. When you studied the greats of the league, Olivia Young was in the top five and from replay videos alone she always took everything on the chin. Even in times she was blatantly disrespected or harmed.
And totally unlike me, Nola had that same approach. But if there was one thing I hoped she’d taken from me, it was that bottling up your feelings didn’t do anything but hurt yourself.
“You should take them to one of your favorite spots,” I offered. “If the conversation is a total dud, at least you got one of your favorite meals out of it.” I grabbed her hand resting in the center console and rubbed the back of her hand.
She nodded in silence before looking at me, “I think you should come.”
“I—”
“But only if you want.”
“Do you want me there?”
“Of course. I always want you around, honeybee. The woman I love needs to be at my family dinner.” She smiled softly.
“Won’t your mom have a lot to say about my presence?”
“For sure.”
“And what if people see us?”
“People already have, what’s your point?”
“Meeting the parents is one thing, and then getting photographed meeting the parents is another.”
“If you’re not ready, I get that-”
“It’s not that I’m not ready, that’s definitely not the case.
I just…it was a lot when we told my siblings and Aaliyah blew up.
What will happen if your mom does the same?
My sister can say anything and it’ll roll off my back.
Your mom is your idol, you think you don’t show how much her opinion means ,but you suck at hiding it. ”
Nola turned to face me in the passenger seat, her eyes devoid of any of the anxiety I had seen this past week. Energetically, this was the girl I knew, but I loved that she let me see her soft underbelly, exposing herself just for me.
“It will go exactly like this. Olive loves you, therefore Clay will love you. Nolan won’t believe it at first, then he’ll be obsessed, the man is a lover boy at the end of the day.
And Olivia will wait silently until she can have the last word, and it’ll be something cutting and rude, but mostly honest. And then Olive will get her to show a little emotional vulnerability. ”
“Kind of crazy that neither of us have totally normal families,” I mused.
“It’s like we were meant to be or something.” Nola smiled at me, and it was like watching the dust fall from an object trapped frozen in time. I raised my hand to stroke her cheek, Nola’s head fell into my touch.
“And this is how it’s gonna go down tomorrow.
You’re going to kiss your friends, we’ll beat your mom, and then we’ll go out for family dinner.
I’ll be so cool and chill and your mom will have no choice but to begrudgingly accept me so much she’ll be calling me her third daughter.
And that’s how this weekend in Chicago is going to go, okay? ”
“I love you. Like, a lot.” She kissed me quickly, our alone time quickly dwindling down.
“Thank God, I was getting nervous there for a second.” I joked.
Energy returned to Nola’s body like she had been waiting to hear those exact words. Like I was her personal battery pack, and honestly it was a good job to have.
Dare I say, I had never played harder in my life. I didn’t know if it was from watching Nola cry before tip-off at her homecoming video or eyeing her mom in the royal purple power suit that set her off, but she was on fire and I was doing my best to keep up.
The score had been tied in every quarter. Where we had star power with the skill to match, Olivia’s coaching and plays were top tier. She had a plan for every Waves player. How to isolate us, how to pressure, and how to get into our weaker points so her average-skilled players could shine.
We went into the fourth quarter only down by two, and with Nola only sitting out for a total of five minutes in this thirty minute game. We weren’t depleted enough where we needed a miracle. We just need to be one step ahead of Olivia.
With three minutes left in the fourth quarter and still down by two, I figured it was time to tap into Olivia Young’s mind.
I had been on the bench but was about to go back out soon.
Tashi called a time out and I motioned for her to let me speak, she nodded her head in determination.
Or maybe there was a scary look in my eyes that made her relent. Who could tell?
Farrah, Poppy, and Gia took their spots on the bench while Nola stood.
“Sit down,” I commanded and she listened. I ignored everyone’s confused looks and continued on, “Nola, what is your mom thinking right this second?”
“She’s matching us up by strength because she doesn’t have the speed.”
“Right, but anyone can see that.” At least maybe a select few of us could, considering I was getting surprised looks. “But what is she actively avoiding?”
“She’s leaving under the net open because she wants to pressure our offense at the top. We’ve been sinking threes all night when we set the screens right.”
Our eyes met the second she finished, we knew what we have to do. I asked Tashi for the clipboard and use o’s and x’s to show how we’d execute the last minutes of the game and win.
We broke from the timeout then it was me, Nola, Poppy, Farrah, and Courtney on the court.
In order for the play to work, everyone had to guard properly in order for me to make it under the basket and shoot.
If I wasn’t able to make the shot, hopefully Courtney’s position as center would have her ready to rebound.
Farrah inbounded the ball to me and I watched everyone set up how we played this whole game.
I watched the shot clock drop to ten seconds and instead of taking the pressure and shooting at the arch, I barreled down into the paint, faster than my defender and sinking in a lay-up.
My defender over reached and smacked my arm, giving me an easy and one.
Two minutes left, and we were up by one. We were on defense until I was able to tip the ball out where Poppy was close to half court. She caught my steal and sank in another lay-up.
Ninety seconds left and the Violets’ point guard missed a three.
Sixty seconds left, and we ran the same play again, but this time Courtney got the rebound after the ball circled the rim and popped out.
Thirty seconds left, and the Violets got a three after they hit a lay-up and a foul shot from Poppy.
Five seconds remained when Nola threw up a shot from half court and it went in at the buzzer.
And it took no time for anyone to speculate something was definitely going on between us when I bounded across the court to jump into her arms.