Page 104 of Game Changer

“You mean you like him,” Jay laughs.

For the past week, life has been extra busy.

Harlan’s wedding is this weekend. We’re hurtling toward the season.

We played our final two preseason road games, winning them both.

My downtime’s been spent with the entire team packed into Bear Force One.

I’ve barely seen Nova.

There’s nothing like the high of victory. It’s what I live for.

But I miss her face. Miss the sound of her voice.

We text every day, talk when we can.

I asked for a picture, and she sent me one of her in the jersey I gave her, annotated on the screen with text that read “LEFT” and an arrow helpfully pointing to one of her tits.

Joke’s on her because I still got off to that picture lying in a hotel bed in Phoenix.

We haven’t had a minute in private, but every time I close my eyes on a plane or when I fall into bed, she’s there.

I hadn’t realized I could be this obsessed about anything but basketball.

Even now, as I’m standing here in a gym filled with the guys I train with and professionals of every kind, all I can think of is the last time I saw her.

She grounds me. As if even in my darkest moments, I might be someone worth saving. A man whose worth goes deeper than the court.

“How long before we’re done with this?” I ask Jay.

He glances at his watch. “An hour.”

“What’s on your mind?” Jay asks me.

I’m a grown man. Not a teenager with a crush. I don’t do this shit.

“There’s this woman.”

“You mean Nova.”

“I mean Nova.”

He grins at me like the cat that ate the canary.

“What?” I say, affronted. “It’s not like I’m here every night thinking about her.”

“No, but you don’t have her here with you, so you think about her.”

“Fuck you.”

He laughs. “If I had a girl like Nova, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.”

“No shit.”

“You don’t do relationships,” he says.

“I know.”

---