DAMON
“Bruh, are you okay?” Dominick asked after a particularly hard foul I’d committed against Dorian as we played our weekly game of two on two. Nico had started spending more time here instead of out on the West Coast where he also owned property, so we’d gotten into the habit of linking up on Sunday mornings and playing a few games. Sunday was the only day that Sweet Thang was closed, so I was able to sleep in a bit before hoopin’ with my brothers.
“I’m good, bruh. Check up,” I said, throwing the ball in his direction.
The truth was, I wasn’t all right, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to discuss with Nico; he wouldn’t understand and would just tease me mercilessly about being whipped. It had been a few weeks since I’d had a blow up with Patricia and she had reached out a few times, but I was ignoring her until I could reconcile us not moving past just hooking up. The more time I spent with her, the more I liked Patricia and wanted to build with her. I was willing to make time in my schedule in order for us to progress and get to know each other beyond what made our bodies shudder and shiver. I was tired of being a bachelor.
Since moving back home and consistently being around Dor and Danny’s families, the urge to settle down and start my own was becoming almost all consuming. If Patricia wasn’t willing to give me more than a few hours of off peak time, then I didn’t need to even be wasting my time with her. Truth was, however, letting go of her and the possibility of what could have been was easier said than done. Thinking about her had me all off my game and it was evident as my brothers teased me mercilessly about how I played.
Our game ended and Nico asked me to hang around for a bit because he had a favor he needed to ask. His staff had been going through some changes lately and he was coming up short when it came to coaches for the pre-teen indoor football league. He wanted me to step in, coaching a squad for a six week period until he could find someone else to do it permanently. I agreed with no hesitation, having missed coaching. Before I took my sabbatical to go to pastry school, I volunteered at the local boys and girls club coaching a variety of sports, as the center needed me to step in. Helping my brother and getting back into coach mode was a no-brainer for me.
I would be responsible for coaching two evenings a week and then games would be on weekend afternoons at Indoor Sports. The games alternated between Saturdays and Sunday. I’d have to coordinate with Ty to make sure he could cover at Sweet Thang on the days that I had Saturday morning games, but everything else should be able to fit into my schedule perfect. Before I left, Nico outfitted me with a coach’s shirt and printed out a roster as well as the game schedule. I would be coaching a team of kids ranging between the ages ten through twelve, with a broad range of skill levels. Nico had mentioned that some of the kids played in the league for the past couple years that it had been running while others were new to organized sports as a whole.
Ty had invited me by his place for a barbeque later that afternoon, so until I had to go over there I busied myself with reacquainting myself with the rules of flag football league play. Even though this was strictly recreational, I still took the responsibility of being a coach very seriously and wanted to ensure that my team would be prepared to progress to the championship rounds at the end of the program. I wanted to not only teach them the basics of the games, but also impart the importance of playing as a team in order to effectively achieve the end goal of winning the game. I put together a rough practice outline as well as drew up some plays that we’d focus on during the first practice session.
***
“Damon, come over here for a second,” Andrea called out.
Andrea was Tyrel’s long term girlfriend and child’s mother. She stood off to the side of the yard with a group of women who varied in age from old enough to be my mother to what looked like high school age.
“Hey, Drea, what’s going on?” I asked as I got closer.
“We need a man’s opinion on this little situation that Saniya is dealing with. As her elders we’ve come to a difference of opinion on how she should proceed and figured having some masculine insight on this could help,” a sultry voice replied.
I turned to see the owner of the voice and was greeted by a lovely sight, a light skinned beauty with sisterlocks and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose.
Andrea rolled her eyes, “Focus, Didi and stop tryna push up on Damon. We need to get Niya another perspective on what happened so she can make an informed decision.”
This felt like I had walked into a trap, but it would be too late for me pull up now. I looked around, hoping that Ty had returned and could save me from what I knew would end up being a sticky situation, but he and his brother still hadn’t returned from their run to the liquor store. The only other men around were little boys and the old heads who were too into their game of dominos to even provide any relief for me. I ran a hand over the top of my head, visibly uncomfortable at being put on the spot.
“Y’all don’t wanna wait for Ty and Quise to get back?”
“We won’t take too much of your time, Damon. Promise,” Andrea replied.
“Aight, so what’s the situation?”
The ladies all began talking at once before Andrea hushed them all and motioned toward the youngest one in the bunch to explain her dilemma. The girl was adorable, stuttering through a story of trying to figure out whether or not a kid she was interested in at school was genuinely interested in her or if she should let her crush go. As she explained the different interactions that they had, the rest of the women would chime in with their interpretations of what comments or simple actions like a brush of hands or cheek pinch meant.
“Do you want my honest opinion?” I said, after Saniya finished her tale and looked over at me expectantly.
She nodded quickly and earnestly, her eyes never leaving my face as I began to speak.
“You need to ask him straight up if he’s interested,” I replied, “It’s that simple. Just like you’re unsure, he’s probably just as unsure. Even the coolest guy is shook when trying to approach a girl that he’s interested in. And I know y’all are trained by society to let the man take the lead, but sometimes you gotta move that shit out the way, throw caution to the wind, and take a chance. Will it be scary? Absolutely. But wouldn’t you rather just know instead of spinning your wheels trying to figure him out and hoping he’ll come to you?”
“And he won’t think I’m thirsty for asking him if he likes me? I’m not trying to see too pressed,” Saniya asked with a hint of attitude in her tone.
“Sweetheart, I can’t tell you how he’ll react. All I can tell you is that it’s better to know what’s going on than to assume or keep constantly wondering where you stand,” I said with a shrug.
Just then Ty and his brother Marquise returned back from the store, walking straight over to where I was standing in the middle of all of the women.
“Aw damn, boss man, we got you hemmed up. My bad, we shoulda had you come with us. Drea, how you let the council of witches get my boss all strung up?”
“It’s cool, Ty. We just having a little conversation,” I responded with an easy laugh.
Tyrel looked at the women and they all schooled their faces into expressions of complete innocence. He looked suspicious, but said nothing more as he steered me away from that crowd and back over near where the old heads were still talking shit over their domino game. I didn’t stay for much longer at the cookout since I was going to be alone doing prep in the morning. Ty was taking some much needed vacation time over the next week, so I’d basically living at Sweet Thang until his return.
I said my good byes to everyone and walked to the front to get in my car. As I reached for the handle of my ride, I heard a voice call out my name. I looked up to see the woman that Drea had called Didi earlier walking my way. I took my hand off of my car door’s handle and walked toward her on the sidewalk.
“Hey, what’s up, did you need something?”
“Actually,” she said, stepping so that we were damn near flush with one another, “I decided to take the advice you gave Niya and shoot my shot. I find you extremely attractive, Damon and wanted to know if you would like to go out sometime?”
I am sure the shock showed on my face because this certainly was not what I was expecting when I heard my name called out.
“I, uh, am flattered Didi, but I’m kind of unavailable currently,” I said, stepping back.
She moved forward again, advancing on me as she asked, “Kind of isn’t fully, so are you sure we can’t get to know one another a little better?”
I stepped back again, crossing my arms, before responding, “I just got out of a thing and am not quite ready to date yet.”
“Who said anything about dating? Look I’m just going to be completely transparent with you, Damon. I’m tryna see if the myth of height, shoe size, and finger length is true or an old wives tale,” she replied, pulling out a card and sliding it in the pocket on the front of my shirt, “If you’re down for a little fun once you’re out of your mourning period, hit me up.”
With that she turned on a heel and sashayed away. I stood rooted to the spot for a minute, taken aback by what had just happened. Didi turned back to see me standing in the same spot, winked, and kept walking toward the back of the house. I got into my car and took my ass home.
***
Practice for the football team brought a surprise as I realized that Patricia’s son was on my team. Just like I’d been impressed with his basketball prowess, I was equally taken aback by the keen athleticism and skill he showed on the turf. The kid had speed and hands that caught every ball thrown his way as if they were magnetized. I was looking forward to moving through this season victorious if his play along with the promise I’d seen from a few of the other boys was any indication. Our team also had one girl, Zoe, who was our secret weapon. I’d made her our quarterback because her throwing skills were ridiculous. Hell, she almost had me running for balls as we threw the football back and forth just warming up. I was looking forward to seeing them face opponents and hopefully come out victorious. The kids dispersed after practice and I headed to Nico’s office to see if he still wanted to grab a drink.
As I walked that way, I noticed PJ sitting in the lobby still, obviously waiting for his mother to pick him up. Just as I was about to go over and ask if he was all right, Patricia rushed through the doors apologizing to him for being late. She looked gorgeous as usual, despite being harried and stressed. I watched them exit, but felt the urge to let my presence be known. Before they could make it fully through the double doors I called out to them.
“PJ, great practice, take it easy tonight, lil guy. You have a good night too, Ms. Payne.”
At the sound of my voice, Patricia stiffened slightly.
“Later Coach D,” PJ called out as they passed through the doors.
I turned to walk toward Nico’s office again, but he was actually already in the lobby, having witnessed what just occurred.
“What was that all about, bro?” Nico asked.
“What was what about? I can’t speak to my kids and their parents?” I asked.
“Sounded like a little more than speaking, but if you say it wasn’t…”
“It wasn’t.”
“Aight, you tryna go grab this drink and watch the end of the game or nah?” Nico asked, changing the subject.
“Yeah, let me grab my bag and then we can go over to Pour the Love of the Game. BJ is bartending tonight,” I replied.
“Aw shit, you must don’t have to be up early if you’re willingly going to the Pour and BJ is behind the bar.”
BJ was one of our homeboys that we grew up with. He owned a local sports bar and every now and again jumped behind the bar because he claimed that he never wanted his skills to get too rusty. Almost every time he’d invited my brothers and I out to the bar on one of the nights he was bartending, we had drank triple the amount we normally would have and left the bar seeing double.
“Danny and Dorian coming too or nah?” I asked, assuming Nico had been in contact with one or both of our brothers at some point today.
I’d come straight to Indoor Sports from work, so I hadn’t had a chance to check in with them.
“Dorian for sure, but with Leila being damn near ready to drop that load, I think brother Dan will be sitting this one out,” Nico replied.
“Yo, you gotta chill out on saying she’s dropping a load. You know if she heard you talking about her precious child that way, Lei would put you in a headlock,” I laughed.
“Well since they won’t tell no damn body what they’re having and she hates that I call the baby an it, the load will be the name until he or she is here,” Nico replied.
I laughed again, following him out of the Indoor Sports complex, “You driving or me?”
“How about neither? You know how we can get after messing around with BJ? Let’s just Lyft over there. Our cars will be fine here and you can just come back tomorrow to pick it up.”
“Works for me.”
A car arrived to drive us over to Pour within a couple minutes and soon after that we were sliding onto stools, awaiting our drinks. BJ’s silly ass had reserved bar stools for us so that we could talk shit with him as we sipped and watched the game
“Hey man, I got something I want y’all to try,” BJ said, coming over to us with two squat glasses filled halfway with an amber colored liquid.
“Aw, here you go…” I said, with a groan.
“Look, have I ever steered y’all wrong?”
“Does getting us so drunk that we could barely call a damn Uber to get home count as steering us wrong?”
“You got home though, right?”
“Barely,” Nico chimed in.
“But did you die though?” BJ asked.
We all busted up laughing at his response. BJ quickly sobered and said, “Nah seriously though, this is some of the smoothest scotch I’ve tasted in my life. It ain’t for everybody; this shit is from my private stash. But I had to hook my bruhs up. Now listen, you don’t gulp this shit. You sip it…slowly.”
He put the glasses down on the counter, sliding one in front of each of us.
“Enjoy, gentlemen.”
I grabbed my glass, lifting it in his direction before taking my first sip and goddamn he was right, this shit was smooth.
“Yo, B, what is this?”
“A Japanese scotch Rio brought back from his last trip over there. I’ve been rationing it out, but I knew y’all could appreciate this.”
“Hell yeah,” Nico said, “You need to add more shit like this to your bar instead of all these damn Jack Daniels specials.”
“Jack is the whiskey of the people, my brother. And I am but a servant of the people,” BJ responded, walking away to take care of a paying customer.
As Nico and I sipped, I felt like I was being watched. I took a glance around the bar, when my gaze fell upon a familiar, freckled face. I inclined my head in acknowledgement and I guess she took that as her cue to come on over because the next thing I knew, Didi was wedged in between the stools at which Nico and I sat, all up in my face.
“Hey stranger,” she said in greeting.
“Hi, Didi. Nice seeing you again.”
“I’d hoped we would have seen each other before now,” she replied, “You still got my card?”
To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what I did with that card. I simply wasn’t interested in her. She was attractive enough, but nothing about her called out to me. Neither of us would have been satisfied if I’d just called her up for the quick hit and quit. Didi would be nothing but a poor substitute for the woman I wanted in my bed. Until I could figure out how to make that a reality? Pursuing anybody else was a fruitless effort. Though a woman could temporarily capture my attention, none of them held it for very long because inevitably I’d end up comparing them to Patricia.
“My availability hasn’t changed, Didi,” I said.
She pursed her lips, feigning a pout, “I’m not asking for your heart, Damon.”
“And I’m not interested in another woman who isn’t. Good luck on your hunt, though.”
***
Our first game day was upon us. The kids were wound up with excitement and in the lowest of keys, so was I. I mean, I knew it was a recreational sports league so nothing was truly on the line, but I was excited to see the season through. It was a thirteen week league, so I told Nico instead of having someone else take over halfway, I’d coach the entire time. In just two practices, the kids had worked their way into my heart and I couldn’t think about letting them down and switching coaches on them mid season. I looked around to make sure everyone was here before calling them to huddle up.
“Aight, y’all. Let’s get it. Y’all have been waiting for this day all week. You know what you gotta do to get that W,” I said, “Hands in. We ready on one.”
I counted down from three and by the time I reached one, all of them yelled out in unison “WE READY!” much to the shock of everyone around us as I saw a few bucked eyes and flinches. The kids on the other team seemed rather disorganized and overwhelmed as my kids headed to the turf getting in position. It was determined that we would be on defense first. Since we had a limited number of players, the kids played different positions dependent upon whether or not we had the ball. The game commenced and my team was all over the other kids. They barely got a snap off before one of my kids had fought through their offensive line and snatched a flag.
We ended up winning the game, twenty-one to zero. The parents had worked out a schedule amongst themselves for team snacks post game and Patricia was responsible for today’s. She passed out Gatorades and Sun Chips to the kids, sending PJ over to hand me a Gatorade as well. Twisting the cap off, I lifted the bottle in her direction in acknowledge. Her response was a nod and a small smile. I started to walk over to her when, Zoe’s father stopped me to chat about ways we could maximize her at quarterback. After being hemmed up by Mr. Washington for about fifteen minutes, when I looked around I saw that Patricia and PJ had taken their leave. Damn.