I liked it either way.
While staring, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“Who we looking at?”
Kyree and his random pop-ups.
“Nobody.”
He laughed. “Yeah, a’ight.”
I think he knew. And when he called Cauvey across the court while the game was going on, it felt intentional. Lots of eyes turned towards Kyree’s vocal outburst, three in particular.
Kyree threw his hands up. “Where’s my seat?”
Cauvey waved him over. “We’ll make room.”
The row started shuffling, creating space for Kyree’s impending arrival. Sage abandoned her seat altogether, sliding past those still seated to depart the bleachers. She walked my way. RealizingIwas her destination, I saved her a few steps by meeting up with her.
“So you like animalsandstreetball.”
“Iloveanimals,” she corrected. “And I tolerate streetball.” She shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess. This is the second one I been to?—”
I cut her off with, “You look nice,” finding it hard to take my eyes off of her.
The more time we spent together, the more I enjoyed being around her. I found myself anticipating the next time we’d be in the same space. For three nights straight, she came over after work to check on Kaiser. After leaving last night she told me he was on the path to recovery and didn’t need the daily checkups.
Honestly, the home visits were just an excuse for me to see her anyway. Kaiser would be good whether or not she came by. At least, that was what I believed since the original option was for him to go home on vitamin K pills.
“Thank you,” she finally said, looking back at her former seat. Lanique was watching with a big ass smile on her face. Sage turned away, eyes rolling up to the sky. “Can you walk me to my car?”
I gave the area one last scan. “Yeah, let’s go.”
It became apparent Sage just needed to get away when she opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat. She became more vocal when we got to her car.
“She’s so annoying.”
“Family’s supposed to be annoying.”
“Yeah, well…I’m not used to having people all up in my business.”
“Be happy somebody loves you enough to care about your business.” Her eyes cut over to me. “Some people don’t have nobody.”
“They can have Lanique for the day. I’ll give her up. She can bother them and leave me alone.”
“What’s going on with you and Lanique?” I asked, because I genuinely wanted to know and it was obviously on her mind.
“I don’t know.”
That wasn’t what I expected.
“It gotta be something.”
She sighed. “It’s just… never mind. It’s nothing.” Her flustered words made me want to press the issue. I backed off though when she said, “I’m just frustrated right now. I’m hungry. I’m on my period?—”
“Whoa. Okay. I get it. You ain’t yourself.”
“Exactly.”
