Sunday evening, Blair is still hanging around my apartment. After we left the club last night, she took one look at me and demanded answers. She hasn’t left my side since. She even slept in my room at the cabin, leaving Wes sad-faced and completely cock blocked.
“I’m fine. Seriously. Go study. I know you have a test tomorrow.”
She still doesn’t budge.
Making an X over my heart, I say, “Cross my heart. I’m really okay. It happened. It’s happened before. It’s probably going to happen again. I’m okay.”
“Why don’t you come with me to The White House? The guys usually have movie nights on Sunday, so you can hang with them while Wes and I study.”
“And make out.”
“I don’t have time for making out. Well, not much time. Come on.” She sticks out her bottom lip in a pout.
“Fine, fine. It beats sitting here by myself. Can you bring me back after or are you staying at Wes’ tonight?”
“Probably staying, but I can drop you off later.”
The White House is the quietest I’ve ever heard it. Wes is waiting in the TV room with bags of takeout, books spread out on chairs and he’s wearing the reading glasses I know Blair likes so much. The way her eyes light up at seeing her boyfriend… yep, no way I’m going in there.
“Where is everyone? I thought it was movie night.”
“Joel is at Katrina’s house and I think Nathan went to the dorms. Zeke’s upstairs.”
“Then that’s where I’ll be,” I say to the room. Wes and Blair either don’t hear me or just don’t answer.
On the way up the stairs to the second level, I can hear a basketball bouncing off the gym floor.
The door closes loudly behind me and Zeke looks up to see who has intruded on his space. “Back at it, I see.”
“Hey. What are you doing here?” His smile stretches wide and some of the nerves I had about seeing him fall away.
“I came with Blair. She and Wes are studying downstairs.” I take a seat on the sidelines, prop my back up against the wall, and pull out my craft thread to make a new bracelet. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to bother you. I just didn’t want to be the third wheel.”
He dribbles the ball over to me and I get a good look at him shirtless and glistening with sweat. The ball in his giant hands eases his features and relaxes his shoulders. I’ve seen it before, but it still amazes me the way he physically changes when he’s holding a basketball. He looks younger and happier. Dare I say carefree even.
“On second thought.” I push to my feet. “Can you help me dunk? I’ve always wanted to, but you know.” I motion in front of all five foot four inches of me.
A playful smirk tips up one side of his mouth. “Yeah, alright.” He squats down and motions for me to move behind him. “Grab my shoulders and use my leg as a step.”
I do as instructed, and he links his arm around my leg balancing me as I lift the other one up and then miraculously I’m on his shoulders. “Woah, don’t drop me, it’s a long way down. When you fall, does your body hit the ground at triple speed because of the distance?”
He chuckles and passes the basketball up to me. We move under the basket. Well, technically I’m eye level with it. “Bend down a little. I want to dunk it not drop it through the net.”
I feel his head shake side to side, but he bends down a couple inches.
“Any advice?” I roll the weight of the ball from one palm to the other.
“Don’t miss.”
I roll my eyes, lift the ball above the rim and bring it down through the net, grabbing on to the rim for good measure.
“Nice,” Zeke says, and he moves to rebound the ball and hands it back to me. “Now this time, do it like you mean it.”
I get three or four dunks in, gaining a little more confidence each time, before Zeke lifts me off his shoulders. “My turn.”
I’ve seen Zeke dunk before, but the tease in his eye and the cocky way he moves as he performs dunks that are more show than practical, is a new brand of hot I didn’t realize I was into.
When he finishes showing off, he’s out of breath but smiling bigger than I’ve ever seen and I don’t even care that the smile may be due to some sort of hard wood and leather basketball combination high, I’m just glad to witness it.
“How ya doing? I didn’t get a chance to see you before we left this morning.” Zeke and I were in separate cars coming back from the lake. A day without seeing him has not made me feel any less humiliated that he was there to witness such an awful incident.
“Good.”
His stare tells me he was looking for more than a pacifying answer.
“I’m good,” I say again, but I smile reassuringly this time. “Thank you, again, for last night.”
“Nothing to thank me for. I’m glad I was there. I’m gonna grab a quick shower and watch a movie or something if you wanna join.”
“Can I pick the movie?”
He raises one eyebrow. “No Nicholas Sparks anything.”
He hesitates like he’s trying to think of more items to add to the ‘will not watch list’ but doesn’t come up with anything before I say, “Deal.”
Sitting on Zeke’s bed, I scan through the options while he showers. My phone pings with a text.
Mom: How are you? Just checking in. We haven’t heard from you in a week. Call soon. Love, Mom.
I snicker at the way she signs her text.
Me: Things are great. Don’t worry. I’ll call tomorrow. Xo
Bless her heart, I know my mother is trying to give me space now that I’m living on my own, but when I go a few days without calling, she imagines the worst. I’m sympathetic to her need to know I’m safe, but if I checked in as often as she wanted me to it’d be too much like I was still living at home.
Zeke reappears smelling divine like soap and just… Zeke. He’s left his shirt off and only wears a pair of grey sweatpants that sit low on his hips.
He runs a hand over his head. “What did you find?”
I’m silent too long, staring at the wall of muscle greedily when he calls my name.
“Yeah, sorry, I got distracted texting my mom.”
He sits on the edge of the bed and I scoot over to make more room for him. We settle on a movie and then stretch out next to each other to watch.
We’re only a few minutes in before the tension in the room makes me start to ramble. “Is watch a movie still code for make out or have I been out of the game too long?”
He answers with a chuckle. “What?”
“I’m just curious if you asked me up here to make out or if we’re really watching this movie.”
He just shakes his head. “Watch the movie, beautiful.”