On The Rebound

by Alexandra Warren

  “Yeah, injuries can be rough,” I added, knowing more than I cared to about what being sidelined often did to an athlete’s psyche as Ms. Jeanine continued, “And he’s not really... responding much to me anymore. So I was wondering if you could go by and check on him for me? Please?”

  The request was so casual that I almost immediately said yes until I remembered, “Ms. Jeanine, I’m in New York right now.”

  “I meant tomorrow,” she clarified. “When you’re down here in Nashville for work.”

  For whatever reason, her knowledge of my schedule made me chuckle when I asked, “Ms. J, how’d you know I’d be in Nashville soon?”

  “Cause the Trojans will be playing on national television, and they always give you those games now,” she explained like it was nothing, her logic too on point for me not to respond with anything other than, “Good observation.”

  “So will you do it? Please?”

  Glancing to the side in thought, something told me that Ms. Jeanine wouldn’t have been reaching out to me of all people if she wasn’t really worried about Kage’s well-being. And even though I had my concerns about how things would play out in the instance that he wasn’t alone, the thought of being able to at least give Ms. Jeanine some peace of mind was enough for me to agree, “Uh… yeah. Sure. I guess that won’t be a problem.”

  “Oooh, he’s gonna be so happy to see you!” she squealed, that reaction making me giggle as I told her, “It’ll be good to see him too. Hopefully his girlfriend won’t mind.”

  “Oh, girl. Don’t you even worry about Little Miss. Kawasaki who is not his girlfriend, by the way,” she insisted, the hint of disgust in her tone letting me know she obviously wasn’t a fan of… wait.

  Did she just call her Kawasaki?

  Giggling to myself about it, I wasn’t all that surprised when Ms. Jeanine managed to keep me on the line for another fifteen minutes as she updated me on both the latest Golden Geras drama – apparently, some chick had tried to challenge her for her spot as captain - and her quickly budding relationship with Coach Joe. But honestly, I could’ve listened to her talk all day, our conversation only reenergizing my desire to do some sort of profile piece on her since I knew viewers would easily fall in love with her the same way I had.

  “One day,” I decided, putting it on my actual list of dream projects right after we got off the phone. And then it was back to preparing for tomorrow night’s broadcast as I studied all the recent Trojans news, studied all the news around their opponents out of Los Angeles, and then got an update on the latest All-Star fan vote rankings.

  Even after being sidelined, Kage was still pulling in a shit ton of votes. And while that didn’t necessarily mean he’d get a spot on one of the teams since it was already pretty well-known that he wouldn’t actually be able to participate, I knew it was still something he could be proud of, hoping to use that fact to lift his spirits when I showed up to his condo after working the latest Trojans’ loss the following night.

  The doorman had assumed I was there for Katianna, so it was nothing getting into their building. But considering homegirl was all the way in South Carolina doing some scouting for the Nymphs, I could only hope that the doorman wasn’t always so lax about giving people access even though I knew I wasn’t here on any bullshit.

  At least, I was hoping it wouldn’t turn into bullshit when I finally gave a nervous knock on Kage’s door. But after receiving no response and trying again with a longer, louder knock, I started getting worried, making the executive decision to use the access code Ms. Jeanine had sent me to gain entry only to be met at the door by a dog.

  Since I didn’t even know Kage had a dog, I was surprised to see the black Frenchie puppy who was way too adorable for me not to bend down and pick up as I cooed, “Awwww. Well aren’t you just the cutest little thing. Yes, you are.”

  Baby girl was giddy as she made herself familiar with my scent until her owner came limping down the hall yelling, “Poochie, get back here! Poo… Bleu?”

  Popping up from the ground with “Poochie” still in my arms, I responded, “Kage. Hey. Sorry for just... busting all up in your place like this. But when I knocked and you didn’t answer, I started to worry because Ms. J said you would definitely be here, but that you’d been in a funk lately. And oh, she was the one who gave me the code to your door, by the way. I hope that’s okay.”

  It wasn’t until that moment that I realized just how much I’d been rambling, Kage giving a bit of a frown when he replied, “I mean, you obviously gave that more thought than she did.”

  “She’s just really, really worried about you,” I told him. And honestly, I could see why since Kage had definitely seen better days, his overgrown hair and the clothes that looked just a little too big on his obviously unhygienic body giving off some sad ass energy even as he defended, “She’s being dramatic.”

  “Is she though?” I questioned, one glance around his abnormally messy place giving an answer without him even needing to. And I suppose that was why he didn’t, instead choosing to hobble over to the couch where I joined him nearby to say, “Look, I get it. I mean, I watched my daddy deal with enough injuries over the course of his professional football career to know this whole rehab thing is not the easiest thing to go through. But if there’s anything I can do to help… actually, I’m not asking. Go take a shower.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me, Kage. Go take a shower. A long one. I’m gonna try to straighten up a bit, and then we’ll see about getting you somethin’ to eat,” I told him, extending my free hand his way so that I could help him up off the couch. And even though I could tell he didn’t really want to, he went along with my demands anyway, giving Poochie a little scrub on her head before he started limping back towards where he’d come from.

  “And stop walking around here without your damn crutches!”

  After receiving his annoyed groan of a response, I directed my attention back to Poochie when I told her, “Alright, Ms. Mamas. I’m gonna put you down for a little bit while I clean up, okay?”

  She tried to respond with a lick to my chin that I dodged just in case she was keeping the same hygiene routine as her daddy. But when I put her on the ground and she went to find one of her toys, I assumed we were on the same page as I removed my boots, rolled the sleeves of my sweater up, turned on some music, and then got busy making Kage’s place look a little less of a disaster.

  Most of it was just trash that never made it to the can and dirty clothes that never made it to the hamper. But there was also an inordinate amount of half-emptied cereal boxes scattered along the kitchen counter, bowls and spoons that needed to be put in the dishwasher, and some leftovers in the fridge that were obviously past the point of being consumable, almost all of it along with a bunch rotted fruits and vegetables going into the garbage.

  “To be young, rich, and wasteful,” I thought as I tied the bag so that I could take it down to the chute, Poochie joining me for the walk down the hall that was probably the most exercise she’d gotten since being in her new home. And with that in mind, I decided to let her run a couple laps; though it was clear she wasn’t about that workout life when after only one down and back, she’d decided to plop down for a rest well short of the finish line.

  Giggling to myself, I went to go pick her up so that we could head back inside, the air in Kage’s place already feeling different now that I’d gotten the obvious stuff taken care of. And honestly, I was proud of the transformation as I finished it off with the broom, singing along to Snoh Aalegra as I swept until I heard Kage ask, “I guess “Situationship” really is your jam, huh?”

  “Still to this day,” I answered with a grin, peeking up to find him resting against his crutches dressed in only a pair of basketball shorts and his ankle brace.

  The shower had done him a lot of justice.

  In fact, I was quick about pulling my eyes away so that I wouldn’t get too caught up in how good he looked, choosing to focus on sweeping i
nstead as Kage acknowledged, “I didn’t even realize how bad things had gotten around here. Shit looks ten times better now though, thanks to you.”

  With a shrug, I moved to grab the dustpan as I told him, “It’s nothin’.”

  “It’s somethin’,” he insisted. “And I’m grateful, for real. Thank you.”

  His appreciation made it hard not to smile when I responded, “You’re welcome.” But knowing my job still wasn’t quite done, I asked, “Now what do you want to eat? We’ll have to order something cause almost everything in your fridge had to be thrown out, but… what?”

  The way he was staring at me made it obvious he had something to say. Or rather, something he needed to do as he moved his crutches to the side so that he could open his arms and tell me, “Come ‘ere.”

  A hug was an innocent enough gesture for me to comply.

  At least, I thought it would be until I got into his arms and it felt like the world stopped.

  He was hugging me so tightly, so intimately, his face buried against my neck where he breathed, “You have no idea how happy I am to see you, baby.”

  “It’s good to see you too, Kage,” I told him, basking in the feel of his warm embrace and the smell of his freshly showered scent until I felt a little nibble on my ankle that made me scream, “Ouch!”

  Because of our height difference with my boots off, Kage was able to look over my head and discover, “Damn, Poochie. You territorial like that?”

  “Right? I thought we were friends, but I guess not,” I grumbled, extracting myself from Kage’s arms so that I could make sure I wasn’t bleeding as he chuckled and insisted, “I’m sure she likes you. She just likes me more. Ain’t that right, girl?”

  Now that we were separated, she was as happy as could be, bouncing around near her owner’s feet as I asked him, “What made you get a dog anyway?”

  “Needed some company that didn’t annoy the fuck outta me,” he answered with a shrug, moving his crutches back to their rightful place under his arms as I questioned, “Isn’t that what Kawasaki is for?”

  “Who?”

  “Damn you, Ms. J for putting that in my head,” I thought as I corrected, “Keilani. Your girlfriend.”

  With a bit of a smirk, Kage insisted, “Keilani was never my girlfriend, Bleu.”

  “Never?”

  “Never.”

  “But when I saw her at the arena, she had on your jersey.”

  “Along with a lot of other fans,” he defended with a chuckle as he made his way over to the couch. But just because he had a cover for that particular coincidence didn’t mean I was completely ready to take his word, following behind him as I made my second point.

  “The night of your injury, she was at the hospital.”

  “Still doesn’t mean she was my girlfriend, Bleu,” he responded amusedly as he got himself settled, his nonchalance about her existence driving me crazy enough to bring up the thing that might’ve pissed me off the most.

  “You bought her the same purse as me.”

  “What? I ain’t buy that girl no damn purse,” he argued, frowning hard when he realized, “Wait. You really thought I’d do that?”

  “I mean…”

  With a puff of breath through his nose, he interrupted, “Look. I’m not gonna sit up here and act like I’m above trickin’ cause I got it. But I’m also not some slimy ass nigga who’s gonna buy two women the same purse.”

  Just when I started to feel bad for assuming, he tagged on, “At least, not within a few month's span of each other.”

  “See!” I squealed, Kage letting off a hearty chuckle as he said, “Nah, I’m fuckin’ with you. And let me not pretend like I wasn’t at all involved with Keilani, cause I was. But honestly, shit just never felt quite right with her.”

  Curiously, I questioned, “Dare I ask why?”

  “Well for one, she was aggy as hell,” he mentioned with a heavy sigh that told me she’d definitely stressed his ass out over the course of their involvement. But then his demeanor softened, and it felt like the air in the room went a little thin once he looked my way to add, “But it was also hard to connect with her like that when all I could ever think about was you.”

  Truthfully, I didn’t know what to say to that. And before I could even start to come up with anything, Kage moved himself a little closer to where I was sitting and said, “Can I ask you somethin’, Bleu?”

  The short nod I responded with was enough for him to inquire, “Why’d you show up to the hospital like that after I got hurt?”

  “Because I was worried sick about you,” I admitted, the ache I felt in my stomach when I first got the news forever logged in my memory and nervous system even as Kage pressed, “Is that all?”

  “I mean, that’s what got me on the plane,” I told him, gnawing at my bottom lip before I continued, “But I knew once I was at the hospital that…”

  “That what?”

  “That maybe my feelings for you went beyond just friendship, Kage,” I confessed with a sigh, turning his way to explain, “But then Keilani showed up, and I just assumed it was a sign, you know? That maybe friends was all we were ever meant to be.”

  Now that all of that was out in the open, I thought I’d feel a little lighter. But instead, the air around us remained tense, my heart racing once Kage grabbed my hand to ask, “Bleu, you do know I never wanted to just be friends with you, right?”

  “Well, yeah,” I nodded. “But we still got really, really good at it.”

  “And we can still be really, really good at it while also acknowledging the fact that there’s obviously been somethin’ else going on between us,” he paused. “Somethin’ more.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  And when he lifted my hand to his mouth for a kiss, the way I blushed instantly only confirmed that my feelings from that day back at the hospital hadn’t gone anywhere, Kage taking advantage of that fact when he leaned a little more my way and used his free hand to pull my face towards his for a kiss.

  His lips were sweet and gentle, filled with a certain level of promise that made it feel like I was making the right decision when I moved to straddle his lap. And even though the fit of my skirt didn’t allow me to sit completely on top of him, Kage’s hands on my ass made up for the distance, holding me steady as we nipped and pecked at each other’s lips until he slipped his tongue past the threshold and turned everything frantic in an instant.

  I was moaning into his mouth and gripping into his bare shoulders. He was rushing to get my sweater off and my skirt unzipped. And since it was obvious where this was all headed, Kage made a point of stopping to mention, “There’s some condoms back there in the top drawer of my nightstand. Unless…”

  Before he could even get any ideas, I told him, “I’ll be right back,” climbing off his lap half-dressed to go get some protection as Kage called after me, “Don’t take all day!”

  Giggling, I slipped into his bedroom and couldn’t help but swoon at the sight of Poochie snuggled up in her doggy bed asleep, the adorable sight almost distracting me as I finally made my way to Kage’s nightstand and found two things.

  The condoms I was supposed to be grabbing.

  And the manifestation journal I’d gotten him for his birthday.

  “I wonder if he ever even wrote anything down in this,” I thought, curiosity getting the best of me as I pulled it from the drawer and flipped the front cover open to find a sticky note that read, “Note to Self: Bleu gave this to you because she believes in you, bruh. Make her proud, then make her yours.”

  Wow.

  The flattery was on full-tilt as I heard Kage yell from the couch, “You find ‘em?!”

  Quickly putting the journal back in its rightful place, I tried my best not to disturb Poochie when I gently shut the drawer and then tip-toed out of the bedroom. And once I made it back to the living area, I found Kage waiting on me with a whole ass tent in his shorts, the sight of his erection making my mouth water when I finally answered, “Yeah. No
w where were we?”

  Tossing the condoms to the side, I stepped out of the skirt that was already unzipped, Kage pulling me towards him so that I was standing between his legs where he pressed soft kisses against my abdomen. And after peeking up at me, he slowly slipped his fingers into each side of my panties, pulling them down and then helping me step out of them before he instructed, “Get up here.”

  Just like that, I was back in his lap, this time with no restrictions and a lot less clothes as Kage held me close enough to tease each of my clavicles with kisses and nibbles while also undoing the latch of my bra. And once he got rid of that, he gave the same attention to each of my nipples, using his lips, tongue, and teeth to drive me crazy until I begged him to put a condom on already.

  “Why so anxious, baby?” he teased, chuckling as he gave my left nipple a hard suck that told me he wasn’t done playing around. But lucky for him, that shit only had me even wetter by the time he finally covered his erection with the latex, the feel of his dick stretching me out as I glided down on top of it making me shudder as Kage hissed an audible, “Fuckkkk.”

  That single curse of appreciation was all it took for me to want to show out, Kage holding me close as I rode his dick while he tongued every bit of skin he could reach. And with his hands roving my back, hips, and ass, it felt like I was floating as I met his mouth for a kiss that was nothing but tongue and moans until Kage started pounding into me from below.

  Apparently, the power in his hips and thighs had not at all been affected by his injury, every stroke making me scream as he demanded, “Quit fuckin’ playin’ with me, Bleu.” And with a hard smack to my ass, he made sure there wasn’t a single game left in my system as we fucked each other into another universe that only included the two of us, everything around me turning to static as we came together in a perfect two-part harmony.