Page 15 of In the Safety's Zone
Don’t get started trying to analyze another man, Dite. Your father is more than enough for anyone to handle.
When he turned around and looked back out presumably toward the camera our eyes caught for a second. The smile on his face didn’t dim, it widened and he gave me a respectful nod of his head. When he didn’t look away and held my gaze I felt my breath catch in my chest. The feeling blossomed and seemed to spread throughout my body like smoke just before a fire flashed over. I wondered whether having this shoot with him was going to be just as combustible. Even with the questions in my head I still couldn’t look away from him. I felt my face heating and even then I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
Yeah, this was absolutely going to be trouble.
ANTHONY
I’D WATCHED HER shoot with her father. They were tense together, something I hadn’t expected with a father who had a daughter like her. She’d graced magazine covers and cereal boxes. Had been the pride of many Black families as the next big tennis star to take up the torch along with her other famous Black peers. Everyone knew who Aphrodite Harper was, even if they didn’t like tennis. She had a gold medal, more championships than I could remember and was the darling of America. She was the palatable type of Black: unproblematic and beautiful without saying too much. The ability to tokenize her made white folks want to root for her. Aphrodite seemed to take the praise all in stride and kept to herself and kept winning. That was always key to shutting your haters up.
And she had them. Despite being good at what she did, folks were still willing to talk shit about her being too good. It was the quintessentialBlack girl making them look bad in their sportthat the Williams sisters had endured for years. But baby girl kept that smile on her beautiful face and collected win after win.
Which made me wonder why she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but standing next to that man. There had been plenty of rumors that he had a secret love child not too long ago that was actually older than her so he clearly didn’t treat her mother like he should. With the way she had to force the smile on her face, he wasn’t shit with her either.
He seemed to think that he was still the champion he hadn’t been in the last seventeen years and that they were here for him. Even I understood what this shoot was about and I wasn’tthe main character. It didn’t bother me because the only place I needed to prove myself was on the field. And I was praying I got that chance this year.
I was happy to be invited back to workouts and hoped to hear from Coach Stew that I would be invited to camp. He’d told me that I wouldn’t get special treatment because of my brother and I wanted him to know and understand that I would be pissed if I did. Proving myself based on the skill I knew I still possessed earned me a spot on the practice squad last year. Some people would’ve thought it was a failure, but for me I was elated. I’d been working a regular job making regular money but the practice squad players in the NFL earned six figures every year. That meant I could stack my money and actually have something left over to save and invest. I’d started taking classes again online during the off season so I could continue to work toward my degree. If I didn’t make it back on the practice squad roster, I had plans to work out with a trainer more than I did last year to help me with any deficiencies I had. Folks could stay in college for six and seven years now, I wasn’t about to give up on my dreams this easily. Rye was a financial genius so for the first time in my life I felt comfortable with where I was. My money wasn’t long, but it was what I earned for myself and that shit felt good. And if all that failed there were still other leagues I could take my talents to. I’d wanted to do so this year but Antwan told me to rest my body during this off season. I listened, but I ain’t like that shit.
But back to the goddess.
I saw her once I’d made the play against Antwan and her interest made me smile. When my eyes hit hers it was like I couldn’t help but stare. Something about her felt like joy so when I looked at her the reaction was natural. I was surprised at how she smiled back, unbothered by how I was looking and I damn sure was checking her out. It wasn’t too long before she hadbeen shuffled away and I needed to get back to the photos I was taking. Being with my brother was always a damn good time. We had the entire set laughing because it came naturally for us to cut up with one another. I fucked with the fly-ass pants they had us wearing on some warrior shit and running around doing drills with Antwan made me feel like it was old times.
We had wrapped up and the man who’d designed our pants and the other pieces we wore during the pictures said they were ours to keep. The only thing he wanted us to do was not to wear them until after they released the photos and to shout him out if anyone asked who we were wearing. He was a young Black man and cool as hell so I had no issue with giving him his respect.
“Anthony?”
I looked up from where I’d heard my name being called surprised by who it was speaking to me. Antwan was finishing up his part of the interview so I’d been outside waiting for him to finish up. I stood up and tried to keep the smile from spreading across my face but that was absolutely pointless.
“Hey, Aphrodite. You needed something?” Her voice had done something to me. My skin was prickling up and the sound went straight to my dick. She had the proper type of English that folks in the south didn’t use but she didn’t sound stuck up. Just…polished. Almost like someone had threatened her about using slang. Her father being who he was I was sure she’d had some sort of training to always appear perfect.
“Yeah, you.”
She bit her lip and I knew it wasn’t intentional but damn if it didn’t have me thinking the wrong thing. Her frame was tall, probably around five foot eight and she had a slender build. Her arms were toned but slender and she had powerful thighs that were currently clad in leggings. She had locs that were tiny as hell but extremely long almost touching the small of her back.Aphrodite was fine as hell and I was wondering if she had really said what I’d heard.
“I’m sorry?”
I was blowing this. My brother and even my sperm donor who was a known womanizer, would be shaking their heads at the way I was stumbling over my words and shit.
Her smile broadened and she nodded her head slightly behind her. “I need you for this part of the shoot.”
“What part? I thought it was a family thing.” I was glancing around knowing that folks were thinning out, but I wasn’t aware of something else I needed to do.
Her teeth sank into her lips again, and she was the one who looked nervous now. “It is but there’s another angle they want and I've got to pick who I work with.”
“And you wanted me?” I pointed at myself like a fool and she giggled slightly.
“Uhhh, yeah. That’s why I’m asking you.” Her pretty face was sitting there watching me like she was confused about why I was asking for clarification. She had feline-shaped eyes that were raised slightly in the corners and were emphasized by the liner she wore. Her body was dusted in some glowy stuff when she’d been taking pictures earlier but she’d thrown on a jacket that matched her leggings. I wasn’t trying to ogle shorty but I couldn’t help but check her out.
“My brother is—”
One of her brows shot up and she tilted her head at me in a way that was universal Black woman speak for,nigga did you not hear what I said?
“Not the person I asked for. I wanted you to take the pictures with me.”
“Why me?”
“You want me to be frank?”
I nodded and folded my arms across my chest. I watched her eyes follow the movement and relaxed slightly. “Yeah, who you want me to be?”
