Page 43

THEO

“Shoot from your fingertips,” I said as I bounced the basketball back to Maya. She’d sent it flying in just about every direction, making me run circles to get it back before it bounced into the creek at the bottom of the hill’s edge.

There was a public outdoor basketball court on campus that was—unsurprisingly—empty throughout most of the winter here.

Even though I’d gone to practice and the gym earlier in the day, I still had energy to spare that I wanted to burn off.

The air was so cold that it made my skin and lungs sting, but the sky was fading into a perfect pink and purple sunset.

It was a nice change of pace to be outside and to be with Maya, who’d managed to keep me grounded during a long stretch of games over the holidays.

Our relationship was starting to feel like someone had hit the gas, and neither of us seemed to have any interest in slowing down.

It was even better than I’d been hoping for when I’d daydreamed about her.

Even though my schedule felt hectic and completely out of control, there always seemed to be a second to see Maya.

But things were really starting to ramp up.

As we rounded on February with only three losses so far under our belt, talks about me not only going pro but being the first draft pick overall felt certain.

Barring any injuries, things were lining up exactly as I’d always hoped they would.

But that meant that there was pressure—talks of agents, pending deals, contracts.

As soon as the season finished, I was able to be off to the races with all of it.

I was no longer making NIL money; I was making money as a professional athlete.

The gossip and theories and emails and meetings were all a little overwhelming.

It felt like everyone had something to say about me, even if it was good.

Hearing that people considered me the new face of the sport was an honor, but it was still a buzzing in the ear that took away from actually playing.

The only thing I didn’t mind was the pictures floating around of me and Maya.

They’d gone from a joke to something neither of us paid attention to.

My teammates still occasionally sent social media updates as a joke, but public dialogue around us had shifted from are they dating?

to they’re absolutely together . Maya’s new favorite hobby was sending edits made of the two of us online, saying, Maybe the fans are right? Should we sleep together?

I was happy to give it a pass, happy to let everyone else in the world break the news that things were pretty serious between us.

I wanted everyone to know, but I wasn’t about to break my streak of never speaking publicly about my personal life; that was inevitably going to be a can of worms I could never close .

The only people I had to talk to directly about it were my parents, since the rest of the team could pick up on the context clues.

My parents had essentially just said we already knew that when I told them.

I’d spent weeks hyping myself up for the conversation, preparing myself for the worst. But instead, I told them that, no, I wasn’t going to bring her home with me to Michigan when I played there in a few weeks, and, yes, they could meet her once the season was over.

The only holdup was that I hadn’t talked to Maya about formally meeting my parents yet.

We hadn’t gotten as far as labels, only confirming that we were the only person the other person was seeing.

It meant something, but it wasn’t everything.

I was still holding back in some ways with her, worried that she might run out on me.

As time passed, I started to feel more and more like she really meant it.

But any sudden move felt risky, at least until we really talked about what we were doing.

All I knew was that I wanted this to keep going for as long as she’d let it.

“How?” Maya asked. I could see her breath in the cold air. It was warmer than it had been, which wasn’t saying much. It felt good to breathe fresh air; it felt like I spent so much time confined to gyms and arenas.

“You know, like…” I said and then showed her, letting the ball spin off my fingertips and straight up into the air.

“You’re a terrible teacher.” She laughed as I tossed the ball her way, and she caught it .

“It’s a light movement. You don’t want to put too much pressure on it. It should feel effortless.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“It’s all in the fingers.”

“Oh, yeah?” Maya teased, and I had to resist scooping her into my arms and taking her home.

Being around Maya made me feel like a teenager.

Everything she did was the hottest thing anyone had ever done.

She made even the most mundane things—watching her do the dishes, sort through laundry, do her coursework, talk about graduate school—sexy.

It’d been weeks of us unable to keep our hands off of each other and finding it hard to have to leave each other’s side.

I’d push off falling asleep during sleepovers because I wanted to stay up talking to her for as long as I could.

I’d refused to let her get in the way of anything related to basketball, and it’d been easier than I’d imagined.

I’d spent so much of my life worried that everything would come crashing down if I invited someone in, but it was effortless with her.

My games and time management were just as good.

If anything, I was more on top of my shit than ever because I wanted as much time with her as I could get.

Maya dribbled the ball and shot it up, bouncing off the rim instead of missing completely this time. She reacted like someone who’d just made a buzzer beater.

“I’m getting it!” she cheered as I sprinted off to catch the ball that had bounced impressively far off the court. She was so cute that I didn’t mind the light exercise, even if I was optimistic that she’d eventually get better and we could do more shooting and less jogging in all directions.

“You’re so close to making your first basket of the evening,” I joked.

“My mom could see a video recording of this, and she still wouldn’t believe it,” she said. “I know sports are everything to you, but me even having a basketball in my hands is crazy.”

“You could definitely be worse, all things considered.”

“That’s what I’m saying!”

I ran back over to her and tossed her the ball. She dribbled it and attempted to go between her legs, but failed miserably. She caught it at the last second before it rolled off the court and down the hill into the abyss, swallowed by bushes and overgrown grass.

“Please don’t get the ick.”

I laughed. “I could never.”

I stepped in front of her as she dribbled, doing a slightly better job than when we’d first started. She tried to dodge me, but I got in front of her.

She threw her head back with laughter. “I’m begging you not to break my ankles. Please show mercy.”

My lips turned up in a smile. She’d gotten pretty good with her basketball slang, probably from listening to me talk shop with GJ when we crossed paths in our house.

I’d also managed to catch Iris a few times and would do the same with her.

She’d been out of the house more often with the holiday season, though, having made the drive back to her parents’ house when classes were out of session.

Not that Maya or I minded having the apartment to ourselves.

I playfully snatched the ball from under Maya’s hand and moved around her, shooting it in. She chased after the ball and sent it flying back to me. I caught it and shot it up again, sending it cleanly through the metal ring.

“We’re supposed to be working on your basketball skills, not mine,” I said.

“Watching you shoot is so hot, though. You can’t take that from me,” she said.

Maya hadn’t kept it a secret how much she liked that I played basketball. It’d been somewhat surprising hearing it from her, but it was a welcome one. I wasn’t about to say no to her appreciating my biceps or the way I looked in my uniform.

I bounced the ball in her direction, and she caught it as I walked up to her. “You ready to call it a game, big baller?”

“I think so,” she said. “Shower?”

I thought about Maya standing naked under her shower head, a mental image that had stuck with me since the first time we’d showered together. It’d come back to me when I was in class, working out, texting her. It’d never gotten old; I didn’t think it ever would.

“Absolutely,” I agreed .

We wandered slowly back to her place, taking our time as we walked.

Maya and I kept our hands laced together the entire way back.

I held the basketball in my free arm, dropping it by the shoes at the front entrance of her house.

It’d taken up a temporary home there since the outdoor court here was closer to her apartment than mine.

Warmth enveloped us as soon as we stepped inside.

The familiar scent of her home—warm and comforting, hints of floral perfume throughout—welcomed me in.

I’d come to prefer being at her place more so than mine.

GJ had made it clear she missed walking back to the house with me after practice, but I think it’d also given her incentive to get up to whatever fuckboy behavior she liked to engage in.

She’d fully come out of retirement since I’d become busy with Maya.

“Hello!” Iris called out from the kitchen as Maya and I kicked off our shoes.

We exited the front hallway entrance and stepped into the open floor plan living room and kitchen.

Iris was in the kitchen, chopping up some potatoes to throw into a pan she had nearby.

Her laptop was open nearby with a show she was watching on Netflix on low volume.

“Oh, you guys are pink . Run all the way home or something?”

“We were playing basketball,” Maya said.