Chapter 6 Brion #2
“Fuck it must be nice to be rich. I mean, I do well for myself, but this is next level, and I like it.” Josie looked around the yard.
“Hell yeah,” I agreed. “Thank you.” Josie had fixed me a mixed drink of tequila and pineapple juice while I was in the pool house.
“I pray the day comes when I can be successful enough to live how I want to live and give the girls a good life. I don’t even have to be rich. Just very very comfortable.”
“This must be the life.”
“Say you lived in this house with a super fine NFL player.” I paused to sip my drink. “He spoils you. You don’t have to work and have full access to the bank account, but he cheats. All the time. Like so many times you’ve lost count. You stay?”
Josie frowned. “Hell yes, I stay. A judge will give me the house more than likely especially if we have kids. I stay. He leaves and continues to pay the mortgage. Sounds like a sweet plan to me.”
Laughing, I brought the cup to my lips and took another sip. “Maybe that’s where I messed up at. I had kids by a broke nigga. Well, I take that back. He’s not broke, but I’m not getting houses and millions to walk away from him.”
“You loved that raggedy ass man and even though you weren’t married, you had kids because you loved him and expected to be with him. You didn’t do anything wrong. He’s just a jerk like ninety-nine percent of men.”
My eyes darted over the yard in search of the girls.
There were adults everywhere, but I still needed to be able to see all three of them at all times.
I spotted them in the bouncy house, and I stood with a smile to go over and take pictures.
By the time we left, I needed to be sober, so I downed my drink and prepared to go fix the last one.
Which I did after taking a good thirty photos of the girls.
“Triplets, huh? That’s dope.”
I turned my head in the direction of the sexy rumble and almost poured too much tequila in my cup.
The sexy guy with the cornrows was standing so close to me that I could see the tiny mole in the corner of his bottom lip.
My God in heaven he was fine as fuck. For a second I lost my train of thought.
He wasn’t wearing cologne but whatever kind of lotion, oil, beard cream, or whatever it was on his body or in his hair smelled amazing.
I couldn’t even describe the aroma, but it was masculine with a hint of spice.
“Yeah, that’s what everyone says, and I guess it is dope. Except for the part where you have to carry all of them at once. And when they’re newborns not sleeping through the night and your boobs become a smilking station. And then they start walking at the same time, so that’s that.”
“Yeahhhh never mind,” he chuckled making me laugh.
“But they are extremely adorable.”
“That they are. My name is Hymn. And you are?”
I sipped my drink in an effort to calm my nerves. I’d heard London say his name that day in the kitchen, but he didn’t have to know that I remembered. “Hymn?”
“Yes, like a song.”
“Ohhh got it. That’s a dope name. My name is Brion”
“My mother had a thing with names. My sister is Divine, and then there’s my brother, Huncho. Yes, Huncho is on his birth certificate.”
“I bet he doesn’t run into too many people with the same name as him though.”
“Thank God.”
Hymn’s comment made me laugh, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was talking to him.
He was intimidatingly handsome, but our conversation flowed with little to no effort.
“You play football too?” I inquired. When he smirked, I knew the answer was yes.
“I don’t watch sports,” I put my hands up in surrender.
“It’s cool. I’m not one of those guys that feels like everyone should know who I am. Yes, I play ball. Isaac and I are teammates. Would you like to come to a game?”
“A game?” I stammered. All coolness had gone out the window.
For one, I’d never been to a pro football game. I had damn sure never been invited to one by a professional athlete. Was this his way of flirting? With me??!
“Yeah, a game. One of the home games. Well, I guess I should ask if you’re single before I invite you to come watch me play.”
My entire body grew warm, and my cheeks felt flushed. More than likely, the rise in my body temperature had nothing to do with the tequila that I was consuming. “Yes, I’m single. Very newly single. I was with the same man for seven years, and I’m not sure I’m ready to date.”
“You’ll be in the stands, and I’ll be on the field, so that’s not really a date.”
Every ounce of sense I possessed told me that it was too soon to even entertain the idea of another man.
And an athlete? Isaac may have been a good guy, but I truly believed he was a unicorn.
However, the man wasn’t asking me to marry him and, in a way, his invitation stroked my ego real bad.
There were other women present that had everything I didn’t.
Faces full of makeup, perfect bodies, the desire to be on the arm of an athlete. I was feeling myself just a tiny bit.
“Okay. When is your next Sunday game?”
“Tomorrow. But we have another the week after next. We have one next week too, but it’s in California.”
“Thank you. I’d love to come.”
We exchanged numbers, and I walked back over to Josie stunned. The closer I got to her, I saw the look of awe on her face, and she appeared to be just as shocked as me.
“Sister!” she hissed in a low tone. “Who was that fine ass man that had you blushing and smiling?”
“That’s Hymn. Isaac’s teammate.”
Josie’s eyes widened. “That’s the guy that every time he scores a touchdown, they say take ‘em to church. Sister!” she squealed lowly and drummed her feet against the ground.
“We’re not getting married, silly,” I giggled.
I had to downplay the situation or the what if’s would make me lose my mind.
I would overthink and scare myself into not going to the game and pretending that he didn’t exist. That was the safest thing to do.
It had to be the tequila that had me even considering that it could be anything else.
“You don’t have to get married. You know how epic getting your lick back with a football player is?”
“I guess it would be epic if I was trying to get my lick back. If Corey didn’t want me while we were together, then what am I supposed to do? Give my body to another man just to make him jealous.”
“First of all, that dumb sack of shit wanted you, and he still does. Like most idiotic men, he just wanted a new toy to play with. He took you for granted and figured when he stopped playing around, you’ll still be there as always holding him, the house, and the girls down.
You get your lick back by either finding someone that appreciates what he didn’t, or you do like I have.
You create the life you want to live, and you live that shit like you’re going to die tomorrow. ”
On the inside, my heart was heavy. I had no idea how long I would be heartbroken, but I wanted it to be over soon.
It felt like someone died. My life changed in the blink of an eye, and there wasn’t anything I could do but accept it.
On the outside, I smiled because my sister had given me some really good advice.
Finishing off my drink, I swept the yard with my gaze, so I could make sure the girls were still within eyeshot.
When I saw them in the pool wearing life jackets and playing with the swimming instructor, I smiled wider.
Those girls were going to keep me going even when it hurt too bad for me to fathom how I would do it. They deserved that much.
Inadvertently, my eyes danced around the vicinity until I located Hymn.
Some big boob chick was in his face talking a mile a minute, but he was watching me over her shoulder.
When I caught him, he smirked and brought his cup to his lips to take a sip.
Biting back a smile, I looked away. Maybe getting my lick back wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.