Reign Delay

by Tracy Gray

  “Okay.” I agreed reluctantly. “But you might be jumping the gun. We don’t even know if this thing with me and Reign is gonna get off the ground.”

  She sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “Are you trying to fish, or are you serious right now?”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Everything you’re feeling for her, she feels for you. But just as damaged as your heart is from losing her, and losing your grandmother and all the shit you’ve been through that nobody knows about but you, she has the same damage. Just be patient with her, and love her.”

  Reign, River, Ayla, Busy and Brandon breezed into the dining room.

  “Ay, while you were off cakin’, we’ve been trying to put together a plan to get this house finished.” Brandon said with an accusing look that was aimed at me.

  I nodded, because I had been decidedly disengaged from helping with the plans for my grandmother’s house. “Do we have a timeline?”

  “We’re shooting for 12 weeks.” Reign responded.

  It halfway tripped me out that she seemed to know what was going on with the project, when she’d spent most of the day being distracted by me and my desire for her. I guessed that spoke to her professionalism.

  “So, after training camp?”

  “Honestly, it’s gonna be super tight.” River admitted looking regretful.

  “Super tight, like it can’t realistically happen or super tight, like it could happen, but if one thing goes wrong, it won’t happen?”

  “The second one.” River answered.

  My gaze shot over to Busy to see what he was thinking. He nodded slowly, then spoke. “Ay, we’re starting tomorrow, right?”

  Reign and River gave identical nods of their heads.

  After Reign and her people left, I headed to the Airbnb that Busy, and I were sharing. Brandon and I sat side-by-side on the sofa messing around on our phones. Honestly, he might’ve been handling business, I was actually glued to Trinity’s IG and the picture of Reign and me kissing that she sent me. There were a gang of comments on the post, most of them seconding Trinity’s query about who the girl was, some questioning if the dude was really me. I posted the picture to my own IG and Twitter with the caption, #CaughtInTheRain, purposely misspelling her name, so as not to put her out there. Anybody who knew her, knew us, would already know what it was. Whoever didn’t, well then it wasn’t for them.

  “What’re you getting into tonight?” Brandon asked, bringing me out of the reverie.

  “Hell if I know. Noble was talking about a bunch of us heading over to Kacey’s - that dude, Poncho Biggs is supposed to be performing.”

  Kelsyn Noble was the coolest white boy in the league, as far as I was concerned and a friend. I met him in college. He was the third year, starting quarterback, and I was the second-string rookie wide receiver. When the starting wide receiver went down with a season-ending injury that year, Noble and I went on to make football magic for the rest of that season, and into the next one. Our friendship endured even as he went on to the league, and I remained in college. Now, Noble played for Chicago, so even though it was my hometown, he was the one with the plug for everything that was happening in town.

  “Why? What’re you doing?” I asked Brandon, still half-preoccupied with the picture of Reign.

  “Shit.”

  I glanced over at him and chuckled softly. “Come hit this spot up with me and Noble and them.”

  “Probably.” He agreed.

  The notifications to the post were blowing up. I chuckled as I read my oldest brother, Maddox’s comment.

  @X.Mayhem.Mayhew, Try not to drown.

  I responded to him. @Mad.Mayday.Mayhew, most beautiful death ever.

  About an hour and a half later, I was dressed in a blue button down, and gray jeans, sitting in the VIP room of Kacey’s with my brother, Kelsyn Noble, and about five other dudes. I swallowed the last of my McCallan 12, and had just sat the glass down on the table, when I felt the sensation of warm breath beside my right ear.

  “So, that’s what we’re doing, now?” She asked, her voice husky and her perfume cloying. “We’re all on social media booed up with randos?”

  I knew exactly who that voice and perfume belonged to without turning around. I’d been intimately acquainted with both for the better part of a year. “What do you need, Meeyah?” I asked pushing back from the table to buy myself some real estate. She was too close. I didn’t need those problems.

  “No, hello?”

  I pushed back further, so that I could look at her. “What’s up, Meeyah? What do you need?” I was surprised by the coincidence of her being at Kacey’s the one time that I’d shown up there, but I wasn’t surprised that she was in the VIP section. Chicago was Meeyah’s town. Everybody knew her, and she knew everybody. For all I knew, she could’ve been invited as the special guest of Poncho Biggs or some shit. Or she could’ve just come, because some of the guys at the table with me were posting to IG and she spotted me in one of the pictures. Didn’t even matter why she was there - in my space, I just wanted her gone.

  “To talk to you.” She responded with a frustrated sigh. “Can I do that? Can we...talk?”

  Knowing her the way I did, I knew her actual request was for me to leave the table, so that she could speak to me a little less publicly. I stood from the chair, and led her to an unoccupied corner of the smallish room.

  “What’s up?” I asked again, once we were by ourselves.

  “You surprised me tonight.” She told me, using a delicate hand to push her blonde tresses back from her heavily shadowed eyes.

  Amayah Donald, also known as @meeyah_donna was a beautiful woman who liked to post pictures of herself on IG, and had a following that brought her major sponsorship deals which afforded her opportunities to rub elbows with moneyed men. I’d met her at a superbowl party, right after my rookie season. I was drawn to her beauty, her curves, and the “love don’t live here” vibe that seemed to emanate from her. Since I wasn’t looking for love, and was actively looking for anything but love, I thought we would be a good fit. And we were, for a minute, but that minute had been up...for a minute. So, I didn’t even understand why we needed to have private conversations in crowded clubs, or why she was talking to me about what I posted on the Gram.

  “I was surprised to see that picture posted on Instagram. I mean, people were tagging me like crazy.”

  “I don’t know why. What I post on my social media has nothing to do with you.”

  “Did you just say that? No cap? After we were together for a year?”

  I wasn’t the type of dude who got off on talking slick to women or being disrespectful, I wasn’t raised that way. So, in all honesty, I was really trying to be easy with the way I spoke to her. But if anybody knew that she wasn’t a one-man woman, social media knew it. They’d seen the pictures of her with everybody from hip hop superstar KJ Jamison to my teammate DeMonte Culpepper. I didn’t get why she was trying to pretend like I was embarrassing her on the internet. “Meeyah, we weren’t together, Baby. Not like that. We were never together like that. We hung out when we could - when I was at home and you were in town. You never came to Portland, and we rarely met up on the road. I haven’t talked to you in months and the last time I saw you, you were cakin’ with Armetrius Bishop. Why are you acting like your feelings are hurt? I wasn’t hurt when you were at DeSean Nix’s birthday shit with him, or when he posted pics of you chilling in his bed.”

  She huffed out a sigh. “I didn’t like what I saw.”

  “Okay.” I said, ready for the conversation to end.

  “Who is she?”

  “I’m not answering that.” I deaded the conversation right there.

  “I mean, I know her name. I know that she’s Reign somebody or the other, but who is she?”

  “I’m not answering that.” I repeated more firmly.

  “You’re not answering…”

  My phone chimed alerting me that I had a text message completely drawing my atte
ntion away from Meeyah.

  Long May She Reign: You posted pics of me on social media without my permission?

  Me: That was your girl, Trinity.

  Long May She Reign: So, Trinity posted a pic of us kissing on your IG?

  Me: Okay, that was me, but Trinity took the picture.

  Long May She Reign: I know, and I got in her ass, too. You’ve got my family blowing me up. You know most of my cousins follow you.

  Me: Yo, I liked the picture and I wanted to post it. I tried not to put you out there, tried not to use your real name. Can’t help it if your family knows that I like kissing you.

  Long May She Reign: Leave me alone, Xavier.

  Me: Not happening, Reign.

  Long May She Reign: Tell me about @meeyah_donna, and why she called the picture fake news.

  I didn’t even know she had posted a comment on the picture.

  Me: That’s something that we should talk about in person. Meet me somewhere. Let’s have dinner and we can talk about it.

  Long May She Reign: Dinner? Boy, it’s after midnight. These are prime booty-call hours and I’m not your booty-call. I’m thinking that’s probably why Meeyah Donna is in her feelings right now. Call her up to get your booty-call.

  Me: Me and her ain’t on it like that. Come through. Let’s talk about it.

  Long May She Reign: Is it me, or are these texts coming through a little...beg-gish? A little thirsty? A little parched?

  Me: LOL.

  Me: You’re fucking with me, cuz you know how bad I want you to come through.

  Long May She Reign: Maybe. Aren’t you staying with your brother, though?

  Me: Busy’s at Mecca’s.

  She didn’t respond for a long minute.

  Long May She Reign: Just come through my house. And bring food. Starving!!!!

  “So, just ignore me while I’m standing in your face, huh?” Meeyah asked, hand propped on her hip, eyes narrowed.

  Honestly, I’d forgotten she was even standing there. “Sorry.” I gave her a very weak hug. “You be easy, Meeyah.”

  “Be easy? What motherfucker?” I heard her say as I walked away.

  I walked back to the table, and started giving dap all around.

  “You outta here?” Brandon asked, his brows furrowed.

  “Yeah. I need to…” I let my thought trail off, deciding to keep my business to myself.

  “Whatever, Little Bro. You can’t wipe that dumb ass grin off your face, so I already know where you’re headed. Try not to drown.” He quoted Busy’s IG comment.

  That actually made me laugh out loud. “Later.”

  Reign

  What am I even doing? I asked myself, as I rushed around my place trying to clean it up as best I could in the little bit of time that I had. Not that it was super messy or anything. I tended to keep a pretty clean home. It was a holdover from my days as a teenager. I’d always kept a clean bedroom, because I did everything I could to discourage Joseph and Tammy Champion from coming in there. Messiness gave my mother anxiety, and compelled her to straighten things up. She stayed “cleaning” River’s bedroom, finding her diary/journal, her make-up stash, and even those micro miniskirts that River liked to change into after she left the house when she was going to the mall. I couldn’t chance her cleaning my bedroom. I was nowhere near as innocent as River. She would’ve messed around and found my birth control pills, some condoms, or some of those little skimpy, lacy panties I used to buy from Frederick’s of Hollywood to drive Xavier wild.

  When he told me that he was at Kacey’s I knew it would take him less than fifteen minutes to get to me, because it was right down the street. All I could do was hope that wherever he was getting food from was far away.

  I gave my place a quick once-over just as the doorbell rang. After padding over to the door, I looked through the peephole and saw Xavier standing there, holding bags of food. For a second my heart raced, because he looked so handsome. Sometimes, I actually forgot how handsome he was, and everytime I remembered, it blew me. I was taken aback by the idea that a dude that looked like him, wanted me. Little old me.

  I unlocked the door to my townhome and opened it for him. There he stood, clad in a blue button down, gray jeans and driving loafers. Not generally being the type of woman who was led by her vagina, I still had to admit that there was some tingling and pulsing action happening in my panties at the sight of him.

  My eyes were glued to his upper body, slowly taking in the way the fabric of the cotton stretched and molded to the contours of his chest. Pectoralis major. I thought to myself. Xavier studied Kinesiology at Hale Williams University. When I would visit him, we would lay in his bed, in the apartment that Busy paid for, while he named and traced the muscles of the body, using me as a roadmap. Sometimes, I would flip the script, and recite the muscles to him, while I slowly dragged my fingertips over the bumps and curves that gave his body such pleasing definition and made him so desirable. Those study sessions almost always ended with Xavier needing to remove my panties and bury himself deep inside of me.

  Before I could curve the impulse, my hand shot out and made contact, rubbing first across his chest, then venturing lower to caress his six pack. “Rectus abdominis.” I said softly, but not so softly that he didn’t hear me.

  He stood as still as a statue and as quiet as a church mouse, letting me refamiliarize myself with the smoothness of his muscular frame. Finally, my hand stilled while my eyes floated up and met his. He grinned at me.

  “Hi.” His voice was just above a whisper.

  “Hi.”

  “Can I come in, or you want me to stand out here while you feel me up? Honestly Reign, I’m down either way.”

  I shook my head at his silliness. “Come on in, cuz I wanna eat.” I stepped back and allowed him to enter my place. “What’d you get?”

  “Tacos.”

  “You remembered, huh?” Tacos were my favorite food. I could live off of them.

  “I remember everything you like, Raye.”

  I didn’t respond, I just led him through my place. It featured an open floor plan, so it really wasn’t a long walk from the front door, through the living room, and dining room into the kitchen.

  “You can set the food here.” I indicated the quartz countertop.

  While he went to the sink to wash his hands, I opened the bags and removed the tacos and sauces. I pulled two plates from my glass-front cabinet.

  “Where’s the cups?”

  I pointed and he took down two glasses, our bodies lightly touching as we moved around my kitchen preparing to break bread together. Finally, tacos were on our plates, drinks were in our glasses, and we were ready to eat.

  “So, the Instagram model.” I said, picking up a fish taco.

  “Straight to it, no chaser, huh?”

  “Nope.” I bit into the taco, letting the delicious flavors caress my tongue and taste buds.

  “Meeyah’s cool, but she’s not for me. She needs somebody with a higher profile than mine, so she can be in the spotlight at all times. Somebody whose paper is way longer than mine, so she can stunt nonstop.”

  “How’d y’all meet? She slide into your DMs with an indecent proposal?”

  “Nah. We met through a teammate. Rich Moore was having a party at his crib, she was there.” He must’ve seen by the expression on my face that I wasn’t buying his story, because he added. “For real, Reign. No cap.”

  “She’s pretty.”

  “She is.” He agreed with a nod.

  “What went wrong?”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “She wasn’t you.”

  “Ugh!” I pretended to gag on my taco. “Don’t do that, X. Just keep it a buck. If it was all about me, there wouldn’t have been a need for her.”

  “Not a lot of chemistry there.” He replied, after nodding in assent to my proclamation. “Actually, basically no chemistry. I was looking for somebody who wasn’t looking for a commitment or any type of...attachment. That’s what she was on
.”

  “Why’d you end up staying with her so long?” I took a long swig of pop, hoping that it would keep down the emotions that were threatening to bubble up, because the last thing I ever wanted to do was discuss Xavier being with somebody that wasn’t me.

  “Convenience. She didn’t require me to do anything, except show up.”

  “With dick?”

  He took his sweet time swallowing the bite of taco that was in his mouth. “I’m not answering that, Reign. Come on, Ma. I’m trying to win you back, opening a can of worms like that is gonna put me back at one.” He raised an eyebrow. “Besides, I ain’t asked you nothin’ about that light-skinned motherfucker who was stuntin’ all on your social media last year. I ain’t even know you was into light-skinned dudes.”

  I pretended to be busy brushing crumbs off of the counter top, in hopes that he wouldn’t notice me trying to hold back the laughter from him so effortlessly pulling my card.

  “Anyway.” I said, in an effort to move the conversation along. He was right, I didn’t really want to know about Meeyah. All I wanted to know was that her ass was off the scene. I enjoyed another bite of my taco in silence.

  “About 18 months ago, your father called me up, out of the blue.” He said.

  My head swung up, my eyes crashing into his. “What?”

  He nodded, slowly placing what looked like an entire taco into his mouth.

  “What did he want?”

  “To talk.” He said, finally swallowing.

  “About what?”

  He cocked his head to the side. “About you. About us.”

  The fish taco sat like a rock in my stomach. “What did he say?”

  Xavier

  Eighteen months earlier...

  Initially when I’d gotten the call from Mr. Champion, I’d been a little shook.