Page 80 of In the Safety's Zone
“My fault about that.”
“No need to apologize. A father that’s going to stick up for his daughter is never going to be anything but good in my book.” Some of the hurt that she still carried when it came to Ashe’s bitch ass slipped out but she kept a smile on her face. If they noticed it, they were cool enough not to say anything to her about it.
“Okay so no wings from the strip club. Where else can we go that is open ale but won’t have folks bothering us or trying to invade our space?”
“You know that food hall that opened up? I know there’s gotta be something open over there this time of night.”
“Ummm, when three-fourths of your party are professional athletes, that doesn’t seem like the best place for y’all to pull up if you’re trying to be inconspicuous.” Sterling motioned between all of us and she had a point.
I had no problem ending the night early so I could dip back in my girl but since I’d be leaving her soon I’d feel better if she had someone that she could hang with while I wasn’t around besides Billy.
“We can get that shit to go and hang out. You drove your truck, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool, we finna do a little dine-in situation and relax. That’s good with you superstars?” I was glancing at Phro and Money, and she rolled her eyes at me.
“Ant, shut the hell up and let’s go get this food before I gotta hit another teammate today.”
Eating with Money, orAldrichas Sterling loved to call him, and Sterling was cool. Money had always been a cool nigga to hang out with but we had more often throughout the off season. He’d been going through shit and after we worked out together that first time we’d trained almost consistently together the rest of the spring. Marcel normally hung out with us but he declined to come last night when he learned we were both bringing dates.
Sterling and Phro cut up like they were old friends and I was sure it was because of the connection they had by both being from the same area. Phro was working class rich and Sterling’s people were from the Hamptons. They were already talking about linking up and going shopping and trying to figure out if they’d ever crossed paths before. We’d made plans to get together again before we had to travel out of town.
I was finishing up breakfast, which was more like brunch since it was damn near noon.
“Not to stress you, but I was wondering about what you were going to wear to the game.”
I scraped the scrambled eggs onto our plates next to the bacon and biscuits I’d made. Phro’s ass couldn’t cook for shit and she hovered over my shoulder whenever I made food for us. I wasn’t about to trust her with a whole meal yet. She wasn’t there yet.
“I…” Her mouth opened and closed like she hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“You hadn’t thought about it? I know it’s right after your last final but—”
I sat the plate down in front of her and she couldn’t look me in the eye.
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to go.”
“Why wouldn’t I want you to go, AP?” She grinned like she always did when I called her that and now I was fighting my own.
“Because we hadn’t discussed anything like being official or making this public.”
“I think that was done for us after the way I was throwing bows at security trying to keep me from you. That picture of us made the front page internationally. I don’t give a fuck what people say but I want you there. There’s no limit—”
Her head fell back and I knew she was annoyed with me. “Nobody needs you to buy anything Ant—”
“You think I’ll allow you to pay for something for an event that I want you to attend? I know my money ain’t as long—”
Her hand went up and I closed my mouth because she looked angry with me. “Stop. Stop that right there. What are you trying to say? Because have I ever said anything about money to you?”
“No, but—”
“And I never will. I don’t care about how much money you have and I need you to get that through your head. What is your love language?”
“My what?” I talked around the grits I’d put in a separate bowl next to the rest of my food. She didn’t want to waste her carbs on grits when she just wanted to eat biscuits.
“Your love language. How you feel seen and appreciated.” She pulled a biscuit apart and shoved it in her mouth like she was afraid I was going to snatch it away from her or something.
“Gifts.”
