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I laughed. “I dribble a ball better than the average person. It’s not, like, a revolutionary contribution to society. Ego isn’t necessary outside of the court.”

“It seems like it might be. Revolutionary, I mean,” she said. “But what do I know?”

Absent-mindedly, I picked up her highlighter and twirled it between my fingers. “You study here often?”

“Pretty much exclusively. Come find me whenever.”

She was so quick with it that it stirred up an unfamiliar feeling in me.

Jealousy .

It took a second to place, but as soon as I had it, it was undeniable.

I thought about her going to parties, effortlessly throwing around lines and attention.

It was easy to imagine her breaking hearts, fucking people up long after she’d ended things with them.

She was genuinely kind and warm, and had a specific magnetism I hadn’t seen in anyone else.

It had to be her confidence. She walked around with the same kind of aura that people on my team did, but without any kind of stats or ball skills to back it up. She was naturally that self-assured.

I wasn’t jealous of the confidence; I was drawn to it. I’d always liked that in someone else. But I was jealous of the thought of her using that confidence to charm other people in the same way she was charming me.

I didn’t mind the competition; I just had to know where she stood on me versus everyone else. And that was the part that I couldn’t get a read on.

“I don’t think I can study here with the noise, but I’ll come for you.”

“You really can’t handle the noise? Don’t you have, like, literally thousands of people screaming at you during a game?”

“It’s different. I need the crowd to play. Noise is distracting everywhere else.”

She smiled a little bit. I couldn’t figure out what exactly it was that had her smiling at me like that but I didn’t mind it. I wasn’t going to ask questions. At least, not now. I knew when to appreciate a good thing for what it was.

There was a slight pause in the conversation. A beat passed. Maya kept her eyes squarely on me. “Why did you ask me to get coffee?” she finally asked .

“You’re literally my girlfriend.”

Maya let out a singular laugh, and I was proud of myself for managing to pull it off. “Right, right. Of course. Stupid question.”

“But actually, no, I just…” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Thought I’d see what was up. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to discuss the photo in extensive detail. Which, by the way, might be the most intimate photo I’ve ever taken with someone.”

Maya looked amused all over again. “Right,” she said.

I could tell she didn’t believe me, but it was genuinely the truth.

There wasn’t time to meet people, wasn’t time to fuck around.

Relationships weren’t in the picture for me, especially not to the level of being photographed in public together.

I didn’t give myself that time, and I didn’t really want it.

I saw what love did to my teammates—feeling sick to their stomachs, getting in their heads, worrying all the time about one thing or another.

It never felt easy. And I’d see, time and time again, how hard it was for people to maintain something committed when their schedule could be so overwhelming.

It also didn’t help that most of my teammates weren’t necessarily interested in stability.

GJ was entirely uninterested in something monogamous.

Mags kept her dating life completely locked down; not even we knew what she was up to.

Gemma, Nia, and Ellie all seemed to be doing their own thing, mostly focused on making their game the best it could be than trying to find love.

Our schedules weren’t so busy that there wasn’t time, but it wasn’t easy. Something eventually had to give. The easiest solution was to either do casual or nothing at all. Or to have found their lifelong partner before diving deep into D1 basketball, like some of my old teammates had done.

“I guess the line of women waiting for me after the game gave me away,” I said.

To my surprise, I could see a look of panic on Maya’s face.

It passed quickly and effortlessly—if I blinked, I would’ve missed it completely—but it had been there.

“Joking. Sorry. You were visibly the only person in general waiting for me after the game, which was a first. Normally, I don’t have anyone waiting for me other than my parents sometimes. ”

I waited, hoping the sound of Maya’s laughter would ring out soon. I tried to read her expression but she’d shifted, a closed book. My heart raced at the thought of potentially having fucked it up already.

“Other than the people waiting for your autograph,” she said and I nearly let out a sigh of relief.

I snorted. “Yeah, they were there too. But they don’t look at me longingly, leaning over into the court to talk to me.”

Her jaw dropped. “I was not looking at you longingly —“ she protested.

“Everyone online disagrees.”

“Okay, well, then you were also staring at me longingly.”

“And some would say I was right to do that.” Maya tried to hide her smile, but her lips perked up, giving her away. “I can’t believe we’re dating now. No one ever told me it could be this easy.”

“I don’t believe for even one second that dating isn’t easy for you.”

“You don’t even know me!” Maya laughed.

“I’m just saying,” I said. Something in the spirit of GJ had absolutely taken over me, but I didn’t care. It’d never felt this easy with someone before. There was no weirdness or discomfort.

As I’d gotten more and more public attention, people seemed to have lost the ability to flirt with me normally.

Everyone would either stare at me from across the room or approach me, looking genuinely nervous.

And while I appreciated being the kind of person who was hot enough to make other people nervous, it didn’t give me much to work with.

Maya matched me exactly. She understood the rhythm of the conversation.

She talked to me like I was someone she found hot—hopefully—but not intimidating.

And she definitely didn’t see me as some on-the-rise basketball player who could help fulfill her WAG dreams. Basketball and my micro-celebrity status were something she could tease me about.

She didn’t have the anxiety of someone who worried she might lose me; she had the ego to know she could have me if she wanted.

And it was hot as hell.

“I’m sure dating isn’t particularly difficult for you either, Troy Bolton,” Maya said.

I laughed so hard I threw my head back. “Troy Bolton? ”

“That was the best basketball reference I could come up with,” she said, also laughing. “I don’t think you’re either of the Scott brothers. Maybe you’re one of the Space Jam characters.”

I was laughing so hard now that I could feel my face flush. “Oh my god . Even if I don’t manage to get you into the sport itself, I’m happy to offer the public service of introducing you to other basketball-related media. Everyone would benefit.”

“I think I need that.” Her voice was so earnest, her laughter so real, that it felt like I was seeing behind the curtain.

Her facade had dropped the tiniest bit. It wasn’t to say that she was faking her friendliness or flirtiness, but I was sure there was more depth to her than quick lines and looking at people through her long lashes.

The cracks were starting to show through; she was warming up to me.

“Call whenever, I’ll be there,” I said. As soon as I said it, my mind flashed to what my schedule looked like.

Call whenever didn’t carry the same weight it did during the offseason.

I’d have to be intentional about making time for Maya, and I wasn’t going to get ahead of myself with restructuring my days around her, even if it was tempting.

Maya’s eyes met mine again, and the urge to kiss her suddenly hit me like a truck. It hadn’t been the first time it’d crossed my mind—I’d been thinking about it incessantly since we met—but it was the first time I’d felt it when she was right in front of me.

Based on the way Maya’s lips separated and her gaze drifted over my face, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was thinking about the same thing.

“What else would a girlfriend do?” she asked softly, and I couldn’t tell if we were kidding anymore.