by Tracy Gray
“Hey X.” One of her friends said to me.
“What’s good, Li’l mama?” I asked with just enough energy to seem engaged, but not necessarily interested. “What’s up, Meeyah?” I asked, so as not to be childish or petty or whatever the hell this was.
“Hey.” She said, flipping her long blonde hair, and looking out over my shoulder.
This was stupid. Standing in the middle of Clark Street on a busy Saturday afternoon, blocking the sidewalk to have...a staring contest?
“Ay, Trin, the plumbing fixtures.” I prompted in an effort to move us the hell along.
Rolling her eyes at the three women, she agreed with me. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
“What the hell is up with your girl?” Busy asked as he drove. We’d dropped Trinity off at River Reign Exclusive Design, and were headed to the Airbnb, so I could get into my own rental truck. “Is she stalking you?”
“That’s exactly what I said.” I mumbled. “I mean, hell. First she showed up at Kacey’s when I was up there chilling with Brandon and Noble. Now, she’s showing up, outside the damn lighting warehouse? Shit’s weird.”
“Ay, this is about to sound real paranoid, but it’s getting real in the field out here. You ever thought about getting a body scan? Making sure she ain’t put no...chip in you or nothing like that?”
“Nah? You think I need to do that?” My eyes widened.
“I don’t know, Little Dude. That’s just weird. I mean, you say y’all were never serious, but she keeps showing up. And today, she was giving off crazy vibes. We all we got. I can’t have no Instagram model with a vendetta doing some unhinged shit, because she’s mad that you stopped giving her energy.”
“Shit, I stopped giving her energy months ago. At the beginning of last season. She didn’t care. She was giving energy to several motherfuckas in the league, and I didn’t care.”
He was pensive. “Maybe you ought to think about...slowing down, and…”
“You’re a little late to the party, Bizz. I slowed down. Completely down. Beginning of last season, when I cut everybody off. When I put up the best numbers of my career. When I beasted my way through the league and got voted AP Offensive Player of the Year. I’m all about one woman, and one woman only right now.”
“So, am I gonna regret giving you my address?” She asked when she opened the door for me. “I mean, are you really gonna just be stopping through unannounced and uninvited.” It wouldn’t have bothered me even if she wasn’t grinning when she asked, but the fact that she was grinning did make me grin back at her.
“That’s not really a concern, right? I’m only gonna be here a few more days.”
“Training camp. Right.” She stood back, and let me enter her townhome.
I liked it there. The Airbnb was nice, but Reign’s place was a home. It radiated with warmth, and the essence of her. And it smelled good. Like candles, and stuff.
I planted myself on her chocolate colored sofa, stretching my legs out in front of me. Absent-mindedly I reached towards my toes, to give my hamstrings a little workout. “Is training camp your nemesis?” I asked, opening a can of worms that I probably should’ve left closed, but we couldn’t dance around what happened forever. I wanted to get it out and dealt with before I had to leave, because I wanted her to be mine before I left.
She responded from the kitchen, where she was busying herself doing who-knew-what. “You did kinda leave me for it. But truth be told, your grandmother was actually my nemesis.”
It was the weirdest reaction, but I actually felt my shoulders relax. She’d given me honesty. We were about to get into it, and it was long overdue.
“Yeah?”
“Well, she was the one who got through to you, so she was the one that I wanted to throat punch. I promise, every time I saw that lady for more than a year, I wanted to whup her ass.” I heard her sigh softly. “I apologize. I know that’s your grandmother. I’m just giving you my truth.”
“I’m not in my feelings about it. State your case.”
“She knew I didn’t fuck with her, too. She gave me a wide clearance. Avoided me as often as she could, but hell, I was avoiding her, too.”
“You were avoiding her, so you didn’t feel compelled to throat punch a senior citizen, Shorty?” I couldn’t help chuckling, as I grabbed the remote and turned on the television.
She chuckled, too. “Pretty much.”
“Did you forgive her in your heart before she passed?” I asked. I understood Reign. Knew that she didn’t have a vindictive bone in her body. She wasn’t typically into grudges and revenge, but she would bust that ass if you asked for it. If a person was bold enough to come for Reign, she was going to give them what they came for. If you were smart, you didn’t want those problems, but because of her demeanor and disposition, most people didn’t realize how formidable an opponent she really was.
“I forgave her period before she died.”
“Oh yeah?”
“She caught me up at Auntie Bo’s house one day, and had a little come to Jesus meeting with me.”
“Word?” I asked, pausing as I mindlessly flipped through channels. “When? Her and your dad must’ve been on some tag-team shit. He got with me, she got with you.”
“Maybe.” She agreed with a shrug as she plopped down next to me.
Since it felt as unnatural as hell to sit next to her and not touch her, I lifted her lower leg, taking her foot into my lap and rubbing it.
Her head fell back and she closed her eyes against the pleasure. Reign was a sucker for a foot rub. “She was really remorseful, Baby.”
I smirked to myself at her calling me Baby. Definitely felt like it had something to do with the fact that we were discussing my grandmother, who had probably referred to me as Baby throughout the entirety of whatever conversation she and Reign had.
“Like, the first words out of her mouth, after “have a seat, Reign,” were that she made a mistake.”
I felt Reign’s gaze on me, but I kept my eyes on her feet.
“Basically she said that in an effort to give us an opportunity to find ourselves without each other, she ended up alienating both of us. She talked about how much she loved us, and how she was only doing what she thought was best, at the time. But after she sat in the repercussions of what she’d done, it wasn’t worth it.” She paused. “I had no idea that you weren’t speaking to your grandmother, Baby. When she told me that, it really hurt me, because I knew how much you loved her. I never knew you were mad at her.”
“Yeah, I was pissed with her. I’m saying, not only did she talk me into letting you go, she fucked up my mind in the process. I’ll always stand on the fact that I know how I took her words wasn’t how she meant them, but when you say shit, you can’t control how the other person receives it. That’s why you’re supposed to be careful with your words. I spent my whole life hearing her preach that, then she didn’t do it. She was reckless as hell with her words.”
“I’m positive that the hit y’all’s relationship took really hurt her, Baby. Did you ever get a chance to forgive her in your heart?”
I slipped the sock off of her foot, and kissed her toes. Reign had a thing about bare feet. She didn’t like them. Wouldn’t wear open-toed sandals ever and wouldn’t even wear house slippers without socks on. She didn’t like her feet to be bare, which I didn’t get because she had the prettiest feet I’d ever seen, and she kept a pedicure. Like right now, her toes were painted a bright, cheery yellow.
“I forgave her. As soon as he found out she was sick, Busy called me up and told me to fix shit with her. Told me that we had lost enough parents, if we were gonna lose another one, he didn’t want me to live with the regret of being out of relationship with her. So, I got in right relationship with her. I couldn’t stay mad at my grandmother once she apologized, anyway. She was looking all pitiful and stuff.”
Reign laughed. “She was. I almost felt guilty for being pissed with her.”
“Me too. She had that gift
.” I took a deep breath. “Long may she Reign, I owe you an apology. I’m sorry that I wasn’t man enough to put my own bullshit aside and at least tell you where my head was at. Instead, I...stuck my head in the sand and buried myself in football. Like, I ghosted you, and that’s so...fucked up. Like, sometimes I can’t even deal with that. Sometimes, that alone…”
“Sometimes, that right there, besides all of the stuff my father and your grandmother did, that right there. The fact that you ghosted me...sometimes, I can’t even deal with that. And honestly, that is what I have to work towards forgiving, Xavier. You never dogged me out or anything like that, it was the disappearance of you that almost killed me. Like, you withdrew yourself from me, and it was like somebody took my oxygen away, my heart away, my reason away.”
“I know this doesn’t make it any better, but I took my oxygen away from me, too. I think I was punishing myself, denying myself you. It never occurred to me that I was punishing you, too. I never would’ve done anything to hurt you, Reign. Somewhere in my fucked up mind, I really believed I was freeing you.”
“If I didn’t believe that, you wouldn’t be here right now, X. If I didn’t know that you love me, I wouldn’t be giving you my time. I would’ve given you my ass to kiss.”
“Really?” I lifted my eyebrows, thinking about how much I would love to kiss her ass, or her lips, or her thighs, or her pussy.
“Whatever.” She waved her hand dismissively, and tried to pull her foot out of my grasp.
I resisted, though, instead lifting her foot and taking her big toe into my mouth, sucking it.
“Oooh, you’re not playing fair.” She accused.
“Nope.” I sucked the next toe.
“What are we doing here, X?”
“You don’t know?” I asked, stopping mid-suck to respond. “So, you giving me control of the situation?”
“Uh, no.” She said, fighting to keep her eyes open, as she drifted on a cloud of pleasure. As much as Reign didn’t like feet, they were an erogenous zone for her.
I put her sock back on, because again, she didn’t like bare feet, and pulled her on to my lap so that she was straddling me.
She let me, but once we were face to face, she spoke. “For real. What are we doing?”
I cocked my head to the side. “You know exactly what I’m doing, Reign. So, are you asking yourself? Because you know I’m trying to win you. I’ll put that shit on Twitter, the Gram, write it in the sky. I want you back, and ain’t much I won’t do to make that happen.”
“You live in Portland, X. You’re headed to training camp for…”
“Four weeks.”
“And training camp is my nemesis. I have...PTSD. I would never be okay trying to start something up with you with training camp right around the corner like this. I can’t trust you to come back to me after it ends, and I don’t have another three years to wait.”
My right hand instinctively went to the top of my head and scrubbed across my hair. My left hand pinched the bridge of my nose. “Come on, Reign.”
“You willing to put me in your luggage and sneak me in?” She teased.
“Hell yeah.” I assured her. I fucking despised training camp. Having her hiding in my room would at least make the situation bearable.
She was still straddling me when she broached the next subject. “Trinity told me that y’all got accosted coming outta the lighting showroom.”
I cut my eyes up to the ceiling. “Yeah. What was that all about?”
“I don’t know, Baby.”
Low-key, I liked that she kept calling me that. Made me feel closer to her than I already felt.
“Me either, Ma. Busy said I should go get a body scan, make sure her ass didn’t put a chip in me.” I wanted to laugh at her expression.
“Is it like that?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged my shoulders, my gaze falling to her mouth, so close to mine. I leaned forward a little, kissing her full on the lips. “Can I do that again?” Floated softly into the atmosphere.
“Yeah.” She responded just as softly, leaning forward herself this time and meeting me in a kiss. My tongue swiped across her lips. I pulled the bottom one into my mouth and sucked it. Releasing her lip, I plunged my tongue into her mouth over and over again, encouraging her to match my passion. She moaned in contentment while I devoured her.
“Xavier.” She said breathlessly when I finally gave her back possession of her own mouth.
I wasn’t interested in talking, so instead, I placed open mouthed kisses on the sensitive area behind her ear. My mouth moved down to her neck, alternating between licking, nipping and outright biting her sensually, while my hands caressed the ridges and curves of her body. I could feel my dick threatening to burst through my jeans.
I eased up on my attack. “Ay, we should run out and get something to eat or something.”
She hadn’t quite come back down to earth, I could tell she was confused. “Huh?”
I kept it one hundred with her. “We gotta get outta here. I want you too bad, and being in here, all alone like this...it’s nothing but time and opportunity.”
Grinding down on me, her expression was quizzical. “Do you really want me to get up?”
“Nope, but I didn’t think we were trying to escalate things. You can’t give yourself to me, and I’m not looking for casual sex with you, Twin. I’m not willing to take less of you than what I’ve already had. What part of the game is that?”
She didn’t move, her thighs still straddling mine, the heat from her pussy (real or imagined) still radiating on my groin, her nipples still razor sharp, her lips still parted. I watched her carefully, as element by element, she brought herself out of that moment of arousal and into this moment. “Okay.” She slipped off of my lap, and stood up straight. “Let me grab my purse, and my shoes.” Before she walked away, she leaned over, giving me a peck on the cheek, while mocking me, “always with the self-control.”
“I’m an athlete, Girl. I’ve gotta be able to channel my energy.” I called to her retreating back.
She turned around, squared up. “You’re just not trying to channel it into me. I get it.”
My hands went to my face and scrubbed across it. Why was Reign trying to take it there, when she said she didn’t want to take it there? I got off the sofa and walked through the house in the same direction she’d gone, softly bounding up the stairs. At the landing, I saw light coming out of the back bedroom, and made my way back there.
“What’s good? Why’re you acting like I’m rejecting you? This ain’t a rejection. This is protection, Babe. This is me, protecting you from me. Cuz honestly, I’m trying to fall all into you right now. It’s a cute idiom, but I really am trying to drown in the Reign and I’m not talking about sexually, Reign. I’m talking about being all in. I’m all about you. Everything I’ve been doing lately is motivated by you. Did you see the numbers I put up during the season? Did you see the magazine covers? The commercials? Do you get what that was about? That was about you. Getting you to see me. Even when you didn’t realize it. I tried to be everywhere you would look. You turn on the t.v., Reign, I wanted to be on there. You go to the grocery store? I ain’t want you to be able to check-out without coming face to face with me. You ready for that? Cuz that’s how I’m trying to come at you. I’m full grown, now, Baby’s girl. I’m trying to love you like a grown ass man. You ready?”
She seemed to be frozen to the spot, looking at me like a deer caught in the headlights. Eyes all big, jaw almost to the floor, holding her breath and I had my answer. It hurt, but I damn sure wasn’t going to let it deter me. I didn’t like to lose, and I didn’t plan to lose. It was just a slow-down-and-regroup moment.
“Let’s go get something to eat, Li’l mama.” I said with a smile, and my hand stretched out towards her.
Reign
7
I rolled over in bed, slowly reaching over to the nightstand to stop the alarm blaring from my cell phone. Why did nighttime go so qui
ckly, while daytime hours moved so slowly? I threw back the blanket and swung my legs over the side of the bed. It was my own fault that I was still sleepy. I was the one who stayed up thinking into the wee hours of the night. And when thinking didn’t get me anywhere, I’d texted River for a different perspective on the Reign x Xavier situation. She’d weighed in, that she understood why I was hesitant about trying to start something up with Xavier, but didn’t think that I should let the reluctance paralyze me. When River stopped texting me, so that she could pay attention to Shawn, I woke Trinity up. Played 20 questions with her about her take on the Xavier x Reign experience. Trinity could be idealistic, passionate and highly romantic, so she of course wanted to see Xavier and me end up together. I took both sets of advice with a grain of salt, and was still basically as confused as ever.
I didn’t have time to lollygag, though - didn’t have time to ruminate over yesterday’s conversations. I needed to hustle. The last thing Xavier had done before we parted ways the night before was invite me to church - at Works of Faith. Truth be told, I had no intention of stepping foot in Works of Faith for Sunday services ever again, but Xavier asked. It was Xavier, so I was going.
Church was everything. When my father came out into the pulpit and spotted me sitting in the sanctuary between Xavier and River, he shot me a wink. And while he was bringing the word, his eyes kept landing on me, and the two of us shared smiles. After service, my parents sought Xavier and me out.
“Reign drop.” My mother pulled me into a warm hug, like she hadn’t just seen me the day before. When she finally released me, her eyes swept over Xavier. “And Baby Mayhew. Look at you. You aren’t anybody’s Baby anymore, are you?”
