Authors: Anne Leigh
My call went straight to voicemail so I left a message, “Babe, call me.”
She was at her clinical rotation
so she would not be answering her phone. Still, it didn’t calm my rattled nerves. I needed to talk to her.
I called again and left another message, “Babe…please, let me explain. Holly knocked on my door last night. We just had a friendly chat and she left. Nothing happened. Please call me.”
I looked over at John and asked, “Do you have Tanya’s number?”
Thankfully, he did.
Tanya answered on the second ring. I explained to her what happened. She just listened. I was so damn worried. I hadn’t spoken to her last night because my phone was lost. Now, this crap was all over Chatty Pepper. I didn’t need this. Sedona didn’t need this. We didn’t need this.
I must have called 10 times and left messages each time. John finally took the phone away from me.
All day, I was on the edge. My last message was for her to call me through John’s phone.
It was already 7 at night. Our team was now at the airport, waiting for our plane to leave in an hour and a half for New York. She still hasn’t called.
Every time, John received a call, my heart jumped. Maybe it was her. But each time, it wasn’t. I was so nervous that she wouldn’t call back.
Sedona was a no-nonsense girl. If she saw the photos, she would run through the facts. The glaring fact was that I was that I was hugging a girl who was not my girlfriend, pretty intimately. She would ask me what happened, right?
Right
. How come she hasn’t called?
I was standing at the far end of the airport’s lounge, away from my teammates, looking through the window. The plane that we were about to board was on the tarmac. We were going to be in that floating bus for almost 3 hours. 3 hours of no contact with her. What if she called at that time?
John came up to me, handing me his phone “It’s for you.”
Finally, it was her. Relief rushed through me.
“Babe, I was so worried you wouldn’t call,” I rushed.
She was quiet, I listened to her breathe. Finally, she asked, “Who was she?”
The overhead intercom made the announcement that our plane would start boarding in 15 minutes.
“I just hugged her. Nothing happened, babe,” I staggered, “Nothing happened.”
“Ok, I get it, Zander, nothing happened.” Her voice was cold, distant. “My question was, ‘Who was she?’ Did you meet her at a bar? At the hotel lobby? Last time I checked, the football team didn’t travel with women.”
I winced, “Holly is one of the members of the cheering squad that travel with us to away games.”
“Oh,” her voice was definitely off, “You guys travel with cheerleaders?”
“Yeah,” I explained, “They go on different flights and buses. I’ve known her for a while.”
“How long?” she asked, “And what was she doing in your room? It looked like you were ready for bed.”
“She was, umm,” the next words were going to screw me royally; there was no going back from this, “my ex-girlfriend.”
Her voice was deadly calm, “You travel with your ex-girlfriend to away games? We’ve been together for how many months now and you’re just telling me this?”
She let out a sigh.
“So let me get this straight, you were getting ready for bed. Your ex-girlfriend travels with you. Then, she hugs you in the middle of the night or morning, whatever. In your sleeping clothes.” Her voice was really strained at this point.
“It’s not what it looks, babe,” I dug myself in a deeper hole, “I didn’t tell you she traveled with us because it was insignificant. Holly and I were only together for a few months. It was a long time ago.”
I saw my teammates lining up to board the plane.
She spoke again, softly this time, “I’ll talk to you when you get back.”
I struggled, “Babe, I’m sorry. Please, it’s not what it looks like.”
She let out a sarcastic rasp, “Zander, it is what it is. I’ll talk to you when you get back.”
“I’ll call you when we land. I really want to talk to you some more but we have to board the plane now.
” I did not want to let this go but we were boarding.
Great fucking timing.
“Just text me or email me. I have a lot of stuff to do,” her reply was terse, short.
“Babe,” I said, frustratingly, “I miss you.”
“We’ll talk when you get back,” she replied.
“Sedona, please,” I said again, “I miss you a lot.”
Her voice slightly broke, “Have a safe flight,” and she hung up.
All throughout the flight, I was quiet. John, my seatmate, asked if I wanted to talk. I said ‘no’ because I was so upset that I upset her. I’ve come to know that Sedona did not care for bullshit. She was a toughie. Our stilted conversation told me that she was looking at the facts and trying to leave her emotions out of it. Her defenses were up. And, when they were up, it was tough to crack. The paparazzi thing was a hurdle that we had to get past through. Brennan was another issue. Hopefully, of the past. This thing with Holly was looking pretty bad for me.
I totally overlooked the fact that Holly and the squad traveled with the team. Holly and I haven’t really talked to each other since we broke up two years ago. I saw her on the field but that was it. Last night was the first time I chatted with her. She happened to be in my floor and decided to stop by and say hi. I didn’t think much of it. Maybe, I should have. I was pretty buzzed when she knocked. She hugged me and I did the same thing. She might have wanted to come in but I told her I was tired. Plus, it would not have been decent of me to invite her in, without anyone else around. We talked about the game and she said that it was nice to talk to me again. I cut the conversation short because it was really late and I wanted to e-mail Sedona before I went to bed. If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have even opened my door.
As soon as we landed, I asked John if I could borrow his phone again. I was going in to a cell phone store in the morning. I needed a phone to keep in touch with her. I wasn’t going to be home for another 3 days.
Sedona did not pick up. Granted, it was almost 2 in the morning when we reached our hotel.
I left her another voicemail, telling her I missed her.
Sedona
Zander kept calling and texting. He had gotten a new phone. I replied to most of his texts. Just a bunch of “Hi”, “Hello”, “Goodluck”. I told him I was really busy every time he wanted to talk.
I was really busy.
I was also sifting through my emotions.
I was upset that he didn’t tell me about Holly. I was upset that he hugged her and pictures of them were floating around. I talked about this with Nalee and Tanya. They were both rooting for Zander’s explanations. It disconcerted me that he would do something like this. When I asked Kieran what he thought, he advised me to look at it through Zander’s eyes.
His team arrived today. Their game last night at New York was a win. He was interviewed again by one of the college sportscasters. He looked pretty banged up. After all this time, I knew that I would never get used to seeing him with any type of injury. I watched the interview because Zander asked me to; I also wanted to see him. I missed him.
I could hardly concentrate in class. His flight came in at 5 in the afternoon. He texted me that he would be coming over at my place, around 8.
At 7:48, the doorbell rang.
I prepared myself to see him. As soon as I opened the door, his arms went around me. He hugged me so tightly; I had to say, “I can’t breathe.”
He slowly let go. I stayed in his arms. He smelled fresh, masculine, like he always did.
He caressed my back and whispered, “I missed you.”
Slowly, he cupped my chin to face him. Uncertainty was reflected in his eyes. He looked tired. Still sexy but tired.
We walked to my room, I was hungry but I did not need food. I needed to be close to him. Right now.
I slowly shed my clothes as we walked to my bed.
We still had to talk. I knew that. Before that, I needed to relieve my head and my body of the longing that I felt. I haven’t seen him for a week.
He must have removed his clothes in a matter of minutes. As soon as our bodies touched the bed, we were consumed with the need for each other.
The sex was slow and passionate. Savoring. It only lasted a few minutes. The need was still there. It hummed between us; it was in my thighs, in my legs, in my body. It was only satisfied for the moment.
I was spooned into his body; he was lightly peppering my neck with kisses.
“Baby, I’m so sorry,” his voice was apologetic, “She was my ex. I’m just so sorry.”
I turned around to face him. My legs were wrapped in his, “Zander,” I said, “I wouldn’t be doing this with you right now if I didn’t believe you.”
His gaze pierced through me. He held my right hand close to his chest and said gravelly, “I was scared you were going to break up with me. I mean, you didn’t even want to talk to me. It was so fuckin’ hard.”
I stared at him. This man held a piece of me. I also held a piece of his. We have been through a lot these past few months. Somehow, we’ve managed to come out on the other side, better. I just needed time to process what I saw. What I saw was that he was just hugging a woman and it just happened to be really late or early, depending on how you looked at it. He was not the kind of guy who cheated on his woman. He was decent and honest. I held on to that belief. And, I was right. The emotions that I saw in his eyes when I greeted him at the door, confirmed it. He cared for me. A late night romp with an ex-girlfriend was something he would not do to compromise what we had.
I smoothed a hand across his cheek, “I didn’t want to talk to you because I knew you would cloud my judgment. I believe you, babe. I do. I just wanted to come to a conclusion on my own. I care a lot about you. Those pictures were upsetting. What upset me more was that you put yourself in a position where people could take those kinds of pictures.”
His eyes shifted regretfully, “It was really stupid of me to open the door and hug her. She hugged me first. I hugged her for a second and pulled away. There’s nothing going on between her and me and nothing in the future. I’m with you and it will stay that way, as long as you’ll have me.”
I pressed my legs closer to his.
His eyes flared with renewed passion.
I initiated a slow kiss. He responded with a deeper, hungry kiss.
“I missed you,” he rasped.
I lowered my hand to his growing erection, “It looks like you’re not the only one who missed me.”
His eyes blazed, his breath was hot against mine.
“Baby, only you can make me feel this good,” as he jerked against my hand.
I ground against him. Teasingly, slowly setting up a rhythm.
“So, what was the final score against New York?” I asked hoarsely.
His eyes were in a blaze, his hips synced with my rhythmic, rocking motions, “24-19.”
“24, huh?” I inched him slowly inside of me.
“Yesss,” he hissed. I felt him tighten against me. His breathing was harsh, deliberate.
“What do you say,” as I guided him all the way inside. My hands clasped around his neck, “Since your team scored 24, we don’t leave my room for 24 hours?”