Worth Saving

by W. S. Greer

  “What?” I ask with a shrug. “You better D up.”

  Austin wipes the dumb look off his face and steps up. It’s his ball now, and as soon as I give it to him, he does a dribble crossover move that leaves me in the dust while he runs to the rim and lays it in. Maybe he’s a little better than I thought.

  “What?” he says as he grabs the ball and hands it back to me. “You better D up, BFF.”

  “Alright then, it’s on. First to ten wins. The score is one, one. Let’s go.”

  I take the ball at the top of the three point line and start to dribble. Austin isn’t dancing around this time. Now, he’s in a defensive position that looks like he’s been practicing it for a while. I try to dribble past him, but he moves everywhere I go. I move to the right, he jumps to the right and lands with a thud, I move left and he does the same thing. It all looks so funny that I start laughing.

  “What are you doing?” I say, as I giggle and stop dribbling.

  “What? This is how real defense is played. You picked up your dribble, you gotta shoot it now.” He moves closer to me and puts both of his hands up so I can’t get the shot off, which only makes me laugh harder.

  “No fair, I can’t shoot it with you so close to me and making me laugh,” I argue. “I’m already so far away, just let me shoot it. I won’t make it from here, I’m three feet behind the three point line.”

  He looks at me, suspicious, then he steps back. “Fine, but only because I think you look sexy in your tank top and leggings. If you make it, I’m not gonna have mercy on you for the rest of the game. Go ahead and shoot it.”

  “Aww, you’re so sweet,” I say as he steps back and I release the ball. As soon as it leaves my hands, I know it’s going in. It swooshes through the net and I burst out laughing. “And dumb!” I exclaim.

  “Dammit! That’s it.”

  “Two to one,” I yell as I laugh and spin around in circles, feeling like a little kid.

  Austin grabs the ball and immediately turns his back to me when I start to play defense. He’s trying to use his weight to back me up. We’re both starting to sweat, which would usually gross me out, but his sweat doesn’t even stink. I mean, maybe it does, but not to me. To me, his sweat has mixed in with his body wash to conceive a sexy, masculine fragrance that I take a big whiff of. His chiseled muscles are on full display as the shirt starts to stick to his body, and I playfully slap at the ball, missing on purpose so my hands can graze his stomach.

  “Hmm, I think I like the way you play defense,” he jokes, then he does a spin and shoots the ball. It bounces off the rim with a loud clang. “Uhh, do-over! You distracted me.”

  “There’s no do-overs in basketball, sir.”

  “Yeah, there is when the person playing defense puts their boobs on your back. That’s a technical foul for sure.”

  I bend over at the knees and let out a thunderous laugh. I laugh so hard it’s almost embarrassing, but we’ve laughed so much together I’m sure he’s used to it by now.

  “Stop laughing,” he gleefully bellows as he fights back his own laughter. “You’re only laughing because you know you’re cheating. You can’t put your boobs on a man’s back and expect him to not be distracted.”

  “Whatever, you should’ve been focused when you shot it.”

  “I was focused . . . on your boobs,” he laughs as I grab the ball.

  I let out another giggle, then I try to act serious. “Whatever. I told you, no excuses. You better focus or you’re gonna lose to a girl.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  This time, it’s me who turns around and tries to back him up, but as I put my pressure against him, I feel something thick on my leg. The second I feel it, I know what it is and I scream as I back away trying to keep from laughing.

  “Oh my god, you pressed your penis against my leg!” I bellow. “You can’t do that, you cheater!”

  “Yes I can. You’ve met your match, Layla Davison,” he exclaims in a weird, evil villain voice. We both have to take a break just so we can laugh at how ridiculous he is.

  We spend the next fifteen minutes playing with the lead changing hands a bunch of times. I’m not even sure if we’re actually playing to win or just playing so we can flirt and grab at each other. All I know is that by the time the score is tied nine to nine, I don’t want it to end. I’m having a great time with him.

  “Alright, nine to nine,” he says, tossing me the ball. “Your ball. Your last chance, don’t blow it.”

  I bounce the ball between my legs back and forth like I never stopped doing it since high school, and I fake in one direction. Austin jumps to one side, but when I move to the other side, he trips and falls down. I start to laugh, but I need to score, so I run towards the hoop and lay it in. But, when the ball comes out of the net, I don’t feel excited. For one, I don’t want the game to be over, but I also don’t think he was playing real defense.

  “Hey, did you just let me win?” I ask as he sits on his butt and puts his elbows on his knees.

  “What? Of course not!” he replies, but then he grins and stands up. “You won fair and square.”

  “Oh, you bastard, you let me win,” I say, frowning at him. “I don’t need you to let me win. Let’s play again.”

  Austin smiles and then gives me a quick peck of a kiss on my lips. He does it so fast I don’t even have time to kiss him back.

  “You won, BFF” he says. “I don’t mind losing to you. Now, let’s sit down and chill for a minute so I can catch my breath. You wore me out.”

  Austin runs up the stairs to the car and grabs a small cooler out of the back. When he comes back down, I ask what’s in it.

  “Just a couple of sandwiches and some Gatorade. Follow me.” I take his hand and he leads me over to the small pond. It’s so serene and beautiful, and as we walk, little ducks start to follow us around.

  We sit down in the grass and Austin pulls out two sandwiches and two orange Gatorades. We open them up and start to eat, and after the first bite, I’m so glad he brought them because that basketball game took the food from Applebee’s right out of me.

  “It’s really pretty out here,” I say as I chew the ham, turkey, and cheese sandwich.

  “Yeah, it is. I like sitting here and watching the little ducks swim around.”

  “I know. They’re so tiny and cute, I want to take one home to be my pet. I won’t though. I can resist.”

  “I hope I didn’t interrupt the thing you had with your friend,” Austin says, his eyes fixated on the pond as he sips his drink.

  “No, it’s okay. Marlene’s a great friend of mine. My best friend, actually. She understands, plus she had to go back to work.” I look over at Austin, and he’s glaring at me like something’s wrong. “What’s the matter?” I ask.

  “Your best friend?” he jokes. “I thought you and me were BFF’s this whole time.”

  I giggle to myself. “Me and you are friends, that’s for sure, but Marlene’s my closest friend. I’ve known her a long time.”

  “I’m crushed. Crushed, I tell you!”

  “Shut up,” I say behind a laugh. “I’ve been thinking about that, actually. I’m not trying to label this thing we have, but it’s definitely nothing like being BFF’s. I think we’re on a totally different road.”

  Austin looks over at me and I can see he’s holding back a smile.

  “I see,” he says, obviously trying to play it off. “Well, I don’t want to label us either, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love spending time with you and talking to you. I’m not trying to rush anything, I want us to have fun together. I just want to show you that not all men are like your father. I know you have big gigantic walls up, but I’m gonna keep on climbing them. I’m not gonna get tired of it. I don’t get tired of trying to make you smile.”

  We stare into each other’s eyes for a while, something I’d usually be the first to pull away from, but this time I don’t. I look right back at him. I take a moment to admire the beauty in those big blu
e eyes, and try to let myself open up to the feelings I know are on the edge of breaking through. I can’t help but to acknowledge and be appreciative of how he has gone out of his way to do things that he heard me say I liked. He’s trying to make me happy, and someone who goes out of their way to make you happy is worth saving.

  So, I place my hand on Austin’s chest, and I lean in. I touch my lips to his and my body explodes with excitement. I feel a fury of elation surge down my legs and back up to my head as our tongues touch. It only lasts a few seconds, but it was a really important few seconds to me.

  Our kiss is interrupted by a big white goose that comes waddling its way up to us. Austin notices it first and turns his head to see what’s going on. The goose has another small group of geese behind it who watch him as he approaches us, obviously looking for something.

  “Aww, this little guy is hungry,” I say. “We have to give him some bread.” I break off a piece of my sandwich and toss it on the ground in front of the goose.

  “No, don’t!” Austin exclaims. He tries to reach out and grab the bread before the bird gets it, but it’s too late. The goose picks it up and tries to run off, but the entire pack behind him comes running over to steal it. “Oh, you just made a big mistake,” Austin says, looking at me.

  “What? He wanted food. The poor guy was hungry,” I reply, unaware of what he’s talking about.

  The next thing I know, the whole pack of geese comes charging at us full speed. Their wings are in the air, flapping violently as they try to find the source of the food. Austin and I have to get up, but even when we’re standing, the birds don’t stop. They charge at us, trying to peck at our clothes like they’ve suddenly gone insane. I let out a small scream when one of them pecks my hand. They look innocent, but that shit hurt.

  “Holy shit. Come on, we’ve gotta go,” Austin says, then he takes both sandwiches and tosses them in the middle of the pack of geese. The birds flock to them and go to town while Austin and I run away towards the stairs. When we make it back to the car, both of us burst out laughing.

  “Oh shit, that was funny!” I exclaim as I hunch over laughing.

  “Damn, Layla. You’re out there trying to get us killed.”

  We’re both still laughing when Austin starts the car and drives away. When we make it back to my apartment, we’re still talking about the goose incident.

  “I bet you learned from that one, huh?” he says as he pulls up the parking brake.

  “Oh yeah. Don’t feed the damn geese. They’re psychos,” I reply.

  “Yeah they are.”

  I look out the window at the apartment complex. “Umm, you wanna come up. We can watch a movie or something,” I say, hoping I don’t sound desperate.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t right now,” Austin says with a genuine look of disappointment on his face. “I just wanted to hang with you while I had time. I have plans to meet up with my boys from Seattle. They’re here for work, but we’re old friends. Maybe you can meet them while they’re here. If that’s okay with you.”

  “Yeah, okay. That’d be cool. Well, I guess I’ll talk to you soon?” I say in the form of a question that I hope he agrees to.

  “Definitely,” he replies with a smile and a nod of his head. “Have a good night, Layla.”

  “Okay. You too.”

  I get out and stand on the steps as he drives away. I keep watching him until he turns the corner and I can no longer see his tail lights. I hate to watch him go, and that’s the first time I’ve ever let myself admit that. I know I have feelings for Austin, and every day I spend with him, it becomes more and more impossible to deny, and I become more and more afraid of what I haven’t told him.

  Austin

  When she says hello, I’m glad she can’t see me, because I scrunch my forehead. I can’t believe I’m excited by the sound of her voice. I don’t know where these kinds of feelings come from, so they’re strange to me. They’re strange, but I like them, too. The weird, tingly feeling I get in my gut when I see her is something that puts a smile on my face. I don’t know how she does that.

  How does the sight of another person, or the sound of their voice feel like a sudden shot of adrenaline? I can’t explain it, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m just rolling with the punches and doing what I feel comes natural when we’re together, and when we’re not together, I’m thinking about the next time we will be. I’m not holding anything back, but I’m not forcing the issue either. So, the things I feel when Layla answers the phone—I don’t fight them. I enjoy their company even though we’re perfect strangers.

  “Good morning,” I reply after she answers.

  “Hey, Austin,” she says. She sounds like she’s in a good mood. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m sitting in my bedroom watching TV, totally not thinking about you.” I hear her giggle and the sound makes me smile.

  “Not thinking about me, huh? Interesting. If you’re doing so much not thinking about me, how’d you end up calling me?”

  “Uhh, I object to the question and plead the fifth.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so. Overruled.”

  “What? I’m pretty sure you meant to say sustained.”

  “Whatever. You’re crazy,” she says behind a laugh. “Well, I was not thinking about you when I woke up this morning. So, I guess we have that in common.”

  “I’m totally confused now. I don’t know if I should be happy or sad,” I kid. “So, what are you doing today, Layla, besides not thinking about me?”

  “Not too much,” she replies. “I’m getting ready right now because Marlene’s girlfriend is back in town, and I have to talk to her about some stuff. So, the three of us are gonna go have a late lunch before Marlene has to go to work. After that, though, I don’t have anything planned. You?”

  “Well, I was kind of hoping you might wanna come hang with me and the guys tonight,” I reply, hoping that introducing her to my friends isn’t too much too fast. “We made plans to go see Southpaw tonight, and I was thinking I’d enjoy it more if you came with me.”

  I hear her exhale, and somehow I can tell she’s smiling.

  “That sounds great,” she answers. “What time are you guys going?”

  “We’re not too sure yet, but I can text you and let you know since you’re gonna be out with your girls.”

  “Okay, that sounds good.”

  “Great. Okay, well I guess I can let you get ready now. I’ll talk to you here in a bit.”

  “Okay. Bye.”

  It may sound strange, but this is new territory for me. I’ve never been with anyone that I felt was worthy of meeting friends or family of mine. I’ve had a lot of flings in my life, all of which I don’t feel very proud of these days, but I’ve always been so busy I didn’t have time to settle into anything. But the past few weeks with Layla have been crazy. The connection we share is ridiculous and I’m wondering what the hell is wrong with me. It’s like I have this little bug inside me that desires nothing more than to make her smile. Something inside her smile drives me to a place I’ve never been before. It’s like I’m being taken to a new town I’ve never known—I feel uncomfortable and everything is out of place and new, but it’s fucking beautiful here and I want to stay. That’s the only thing I can think of to describe how being with Layla makes me feel.

  I’ve been talking about Layla a lot since Jason and his business partner, Jordan Harper, got into town, so naturally they want to meet her. As crazy as Jason can be, he’s been pretty supportive of the idea of me spending time with Layla. When I first told him about her, he acted like I wasn’t mature enough to pull this off. He’s one to talk, considering the shit he just went through with one of his clients back at home, but the more I talk about her, and the more time I spend with her, I think he’s seeing the effect she has on me. So, he’s coming around.

  The biggest change I’ve noticed in myself since we started spending more time together is that I’m spending less time thinking about what happened in t
he desert. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that Layla is occupying more of my time, so there really is no room to think about Lieutenant Weston or his death. When I feel those thoughts of him starting to creep up, it’s become habit to think about Layla instead. I think about that smile and the sound of her laugh, and I’m good to go. Maybe that’s why I’m going out of my way to see her so often. The more I see her, the more space she takes up in my mind, and I think that’s helping me with this PTSD.

  As usual, I push any thoughts of PTSD or Lieutenant Weston out of my mind and replace them with thoughts of Layla while I get ready. I have to meet Jason and Jordan in a little while so we can have lunch and then pick a time for the movie. Since I know Layla’s coming, I make sure I put on something I think looks good on me. I go to my closet and check out my pants. Sweats? No way. Shorts? Nope. Jeans? Probably not. I’ll just go with some slacks. You can never go wrong with black slacks. Now for the shirt. T-shirt? Negative. Button up? Overused. Dark gray sweater it is. I pull everything out, along with some dark gray shoes, and I put it all together on my bed so I can see how it looks. I like it. Now I just need to jump in the shower so I can smell good too.

  Two hours later, the three of us are standing in the lobby of the movie theatre waiting for Layla to show up. Her lunch with Marlene and Amanda ended up going longer than she expected, so she decided to meet us here. While the three of us wait, I start to feel anxious, and I can feel my foot tapping on the floor from the nerves.

  “What’s the matter with you? You gotta pee?” Jason asks, frowning at me.

  “No, I don’t have to pee,” I reply, mocking his face with my own frown.

  “Then why are you tapping your foot like Sonic the Hedgehog?”

  “Don’t worry about my foot,” I snip. “Worry about your own feet.”