Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Titan
I had a meeting with Kinetiq today, and by the time I walked into their headquarters, Sasha was already waiting outside the conference room. She glanced up from her phone when she saw me approaching and shook her head.
“Finally,” she huffed as I approached her.
“Watch out, Sash. You’re always acting like I’m late, when I’m in fact on time.” I smirked as I pulled her into a hug.
She rolled her eyes, but I ignored her, as I always do. We walked into the conference room and a few familiar faces were already seated around the table, including Mr. Reynolds near the head. I exchanged handshakes as I made my way around the room before taking a seat beside Sasha.
Every few months we’d sit down, review campaigns, discuss upcoming projects, go over community initiatives, and make sure everything stayed on track, so I didn’t expect this meeting to be any different.
“Nice to see you today, Titan… Sasha.” He nodded. “How’s the shoulder?” He quizzed.
“It’s straight… better than it was in the beginning,” I responded with a nod.
Mr. Reynolds nodded. “We’ve been keeping up with your progress. Glad to hear everything is moving in the right direction.”
I nodded.
The conversation shifted to business after that, and for next fifteen minutes nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We reviewed upcoming appearances, discussed a few projects scheduled for the offseason, and talked through several marketing campaigns that were already in development.
“We’ve covered everything related to our current agreement,” Mr. Reynolds said. “Now we’d like to discuss the future.” He slid a folder across the table toward me. “Specifically, we’d like to discuss extending our partnership.”
I opened the folder and immediately almost choked on my own breath.
“When we first approached you, we were investing in what we believed this relationship could become,” he continued. “Today, we’re investing based on what we’ve already seen. That’s a very different conversation.”
Instead of the original offer of five years and eight million dollars. They wanted to extend the offer for eight years and fifty million dollars along with equity, stating that I would be the official Global Ambassador. Shit like this didn’t happen every day.
“We’re not expecting an answer today. We want you and your team to take your time, review everything, and come back with any questions you may have.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I uttered.
“Say you and your team will think about it,” he countered with a smile.
I stood and shook his hand along with a few of his colleagues before Sasha and I headed out. When we made it to the elevator, I looked down at her.
“What the fuck, Sash?” I questioned. This shit still seemed too good to be true.
“It’s the beginning of a legacy, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.” She smirked. I knew she was talking about the baby, and I had to agree that she was right.
Once we made it downstairs, we said our goodbyes and parted ways. The first thing I did when I got in my car was call Tink. This news was too big to keep until I made it back home.
“Hello…” her fine ass cooed through the phone.
“Wassup, baby? What you in there doing?”
“Fixing this baby a chicken club sandwich,” she countered.
I shook my head because Tink never shied away from food before the baby, now that shit was amplified, but I wasn’t even mad about that shit.
“I hope you made one for me too,” I added.
“I plan on it, but I can’t promise it’ll be here by the time you get back,” she giggled.
“That’s fucked up, Tink… but check it. I’m just leaving the meeting and guess what the fuck happened?” I started.
“What?”
“They offered your boy an extension to my existing contract with them,” I stated.
“What does that mean?” She asked anxiously.
“It means we come up fifty million dollars, is what it means.” I beamed.
My contract with the Cannons was sweet, but I was never in a position to turn down some money, especially with a growing family.
“Tink…” I called out because she hadn’t said anything.
“Ye-yeah, I’m still here. This is good. I’m happy for you,” she complimented.
“Us,” I corrected. “This is good for us, Tink. Me, you and the baby. Our kids won’t have to worry about shit as long as I’m breathing and even after.”
She could think I was bullshitting if she wanted to, but I was deadass serious.
“Look, we’ll talk about this when I get home. I just pulled up to CPC.”
“Okay.”
“Aight, I love you,” I affirmed.
“I love you, too.”
I hung up and headed inside. This would be my first real practice since the accident, and I was somewhat nervous because I knew they were expecting me to be one way and I didn’t want to fuck this up.
***
Practice ended better than I expected. I wasn’t moving like myself all the way yet, but I wasn’t out there looking lost either.
My shoulder still had a little tightness in it, and I could feel the difference when I came out of certain breaks, but nothing about it felt like I couldn’t get back on the field.
If anything, being back on the field made me realize how much I had missed this shit.
The field had started clearing out by the time I headed toward the locker room. Tatum and Kobe fell into step beside me somewhere along the way. Neither one of them said much at first, but I could tell they were looking at me the same way Coach had.
Kobe broke the silence first.
“Bro, you looked good out there today.”
“That shit felt good,” I countered.
For weeks, every workout, every rehab session, and every practice had come with a question mark attached to it.
Could I do this? Could I reach for that?
Was my shoulder going to respond the way it was supposed to?
Today was the first day I stopped asking myself those questions and got the shit done.
Somewhere between the locker room and the parking lot, the conversation shifted away from football.
“How’s Cadence?” Tatum asked as we made it to our cars.
“She’s straight… mean as fuck, but straight,” I chuckled.
“Shit, then it sounds like she’s the same to me,” Kobe co-signed, causing me to cut my eyes at him.
“Watch that shit, nigga.” I mugged him.
It wasn’t a secret that Tink was mean, but they couldn’t speak on that shit.
“You ready for this shit?” Tatum asked and I looked at him for clarity.
“For what?”
“Fatherhood… that’s what.”
I thought about it for a minute and realized that I was ready. I spent most of my years fucking on different women and not giving a fuck about them or their feelings. Now, I had a girl and was about to be a father… hell yeah, I was ready for this shit.
“Believe it or not… I am. Tink makes this shit worth wanting,” I answered honestly.
For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t thinking about what could go wrong. Or what people had to say about me. I was thinking about getting home to my woman and laying up under her fine ass all night.