Page 46 of His Team

“You’re being forced to marry some guy you don’t want, so you ran off to Texas. To come here to hide from that engagement? And here I was, trying to force you into a relationship with me.

“I’m the one who’s sorry, Maribel. Fuck, so much makes sense now. I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t know. You couldn’t have known. It’s so crazy. I didn’t want anyone to know.

“I couldn’t even go home for Christmas because he’s waiting for me and wants to throw an engagement party. I thought I had more time, you know? The next four years.

“I thought I could figure out a way out by then. I can’t marry him. It should be my choice who I fall in love with and marry,” I whisper the last part.

“I understand more than you think. Trust me, I do,” he says.

I look at him and knit my brows. He reaches for a napkin and then wipes the tears I hadn’t noticed I allowed to fall. Grabbing his food and drink, he gestures for me to follow him.

We go into the living room and sit on the couch. Cameron then begins to tell me all about Kay, his childhood friend who became his girlfriend. I feel like I learn about a whole different side of Cam.

***

“You know,I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a while,” I say as I lie on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Cam is sitting on the floor with his back against the couch while we digest our food.

I’ve grown more comfortable with each passing second. I think he’s been able to get his mind off his own worries as well. We’ve fallen back into our familiar friendship.

“What’s that?” he asks.

“How did the Jodeci thing come about? I mean, I expected you to be a Garth Brooks fan, Shania Twain, Keith Urban maybe. Not Jodeci.”

Cam laughs. “Do you remember The Box?”

“Yeah, I remember wanting to call in so bad, but my mom would have whooped my butt.”

“Well, my parents were never around to keep us from getting into shit, so I would call in to order videos all the time.

“The fucked-up part was, you had to wait through all the other videos for yours to come up.”

“Right, it would take hours. My friends would call in at their houses and I always had to leave before we got to see our video,” I snicker.

“One night, I was sitting up waiting for a video. I couldn’t even tell which one it was now if you asked. What I do remember is these four cool-ass guys in the desert.

“Wearing leather pants. That shit was so fire. Someone else thought it was too, because it came on, like, a dozen times before my video did.

“By the time my video did come on, I had called in for their video to play again and I had their moves memorized. I went out and got all their shit I could find after that.”

“‘Cry for you’? You got hooked off the ‘Cry For You’ video?”

“Baby, I’m begging, baby, I’m begging, begging, begging,” he croons.

I burst out laughing. It makes so much sense. Our dance at the party. I can tell he spent time watching and mimicking those videos.

“I do like Garth, Shania, and the others, but Jodeci is my shit. I know every album, every track, every word. If I play one of their songs for you, you know I mean the words from my heart.”

“You don’t know each album by track. That’s bullcrap,” I scoff.

“Want to try me? I have all their albums in my playlists. Pick a track, I’ll give you the album and title of the song. Here, take my phone,” he says after grabbing the remote to turn on the sound system and connecting his device.

I smile as I see the collection of albums on his phone. I go for the earliest album and look through the list. I click on one of the songs and wait for it to play.

Cam looks me in the eyes with a smile on his face. As soon as the intro plays, his eyes light up and his smile grows.

“Track two. “Come & Talk to Me.” TheForever My Ladyalbum. It’s also track three on theBack to the Future-The Very Best of Jodecialbum,” he says confidently.

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