Page 103 of In the Safety's Zone
“Hope you didn’t think I wasn’t going to rep both of my nephews at once? I got them to put your number on one shoulder and Flash’s on the other. It still says Phillips but I have his number on front and yours on back. Coming or going folks gone know who I’m there to see.”
I had to swallow hard and hold my breath for a minute because he was gone have me balling like a bitch out here.
“‘Preciate that, Unc. That and everything else you’ve done.”
“It’s always my pleasure, Knuck. Remember that.”
“I wish I could be there.”
I straightened up the tie that I had for this tuxedo and tried to fight the melancholy I was feeling. Truth be told I missed her too. I missed her something crazy but I didn’t want to put that pressure on her. She was so damn close to making history this year and after what happened at Wimbledon she needed to keep her head in the game. Her quad was better and her serves had been even more powerful than before. It showed that her training her chest had helped her improve. I couldn’t take the credit for a simple suggestion because Aphrodite was the one who put in the work to get better. I was grateful that she was in the position to live out her dream.
“I can always just stay here and cake it up on the phone with you, AP. I’d much rather do that shit anyway.” As I was saying that I was reached to take the tie back off my neck.
She shook her head like I was committing a crime to skip a party. “No! It’s important that you network—”
“My ass been with them all damn summer. There’s no way to network with them muhfuckas any more than I already have.Unless you wanting me to cross some freaky ass lines and I ain’t about to do that.”
She was giggling but I could hear in her voice how tired she was. She was icing her hamstring from the last match and I was happy to see her taking care of herself. “Never, but you must be missing me talking crazy like that.”
“I missed you the second you got on the plane, baybeeh.”
Her eyes softened and she had a sweet smile on her face. “Stop talking like that to me, Bam.”
I was grinning thinking of the reason why she started calling me that. The shit never got old to hear her say it. “Can’t help it, that’s how I feel. But you supposed to be focusing on this semi-final, not me.”
“I’m good. I’ve rested. I didn’t fly back like I wanted to so I could be your date so fatigue won’t be an issue.” When she threatened to bring her ass back to Texas just to come to theDesperadosGalait took everything in me to keep a civil tongue in my head. She had a semi-final game in two days and I would’ve been pissed if she’d shown up here putting her match in jeopardy.
“Not you thinking I wouldn’t have put you immediately back on the plane if you’d have come here.”
“I thought about it. I wanted to be there. This feels important.”
“And what you got going on ain’t?” I appreciated the way she wanted to show up for me but not at the risk of messing up things for herself.
She sighed and I could tell that the pressure might have been getting to her. “I’m just in my head. Worried that I won’t be able to support you how—”
“You can stop that right there. We’re lucky enough that our sports are mainly the opposite of each other with little overlap. We said we’d put in the work to make this work and that wasn’tlip service. But what we not gonna do is sabotage anything we got going on respectively to try to keep this relationship alive.” I’d sat back down on the bed wondering if I should skip this and stay on the phone with her to make sure she kept her head in the game.
“Sacrifices sometimes need to be made.”
“Not this and definitely not you. Our sons and daughters in the future gonna be able to say not only are they tennis royalty, but that their mama was the first Black woman to sweep the grand slams in a year. You think that’s something they wouldn’t want to be able to brag about? How you taking that away from my babies all cause you wanted to run from being great?”
I had her laughing again so I felt less stressed out about her mental. “Why you saying it like that?”
“Because you know I’m right. You’re afraid because the voices you thought you’d silenced all these months were gone. But now they’re back with a vengeance. I know how you feeling since I’m sure in a few days I’ll be right where you are. Needing to be reminded that I’m worthy of this opportunity and that I worked extremely hard for what I have going on. It’s easy to forget when you don’t have the positive voices pouring into you that you’re not where you’re supposed to be. But you are, Aphrodite. You put in the work so reap the rewards, baby.”
I watched her sniffle as she nodded her head slightly. She wiped her eyes and turned toward something off in the distance that I couldn’t see. “Thank you. I needed that so much. They’re here and the press keeps asking me what I’m doing and the pressure feels—”
The tears streaming down her face damn near broke me.
“Heavy and loud. But remember who you are and how you worked for this. Don’t let people who could never do what you have determine how far your talent can take you. That’s the quickest way to lose focus on the prize and we’re not doing that.”
“No, we’re not. I hate being away from you while I’m playing and you’re getting your last few practices in. But these are the moments that are gonna test us I guess. To see if this is something we can handle.”
Phro dried her face and nodded her head like she was getting her mind back in the game. I was happy that she was refocusing without me having to put too much pressure on her. We were going to have so much coming at us I was glad she could get herself together without me. She had to be strong on her own and this showed me she could be.
“We can handle it. We just got spoiled coming home to one another every night but we got this, baybeeh. I promise you. This shit is going to be okay and it’ll be worth it when you’re hoisting that winners trophy over your head.”
“Unwavering faith in me.” She smiled again and her soul seemed more settled. I still didn’t want to go to this without her but I damn sure would feel better about it knowing she was good.
