My Addiction: Second Chances Series (3 page)

I didn’t see my father after the dust from the divorce settled. He managed to get hooked by a blood sucking bitch that kicked out a couple of kids for him. She told my father how confusing it would be for my brother and me to be around them if we didn’t live with them, and he bought it. My father’s wife was twelve years his junior and probably screwing his brains out, so he’d do anything for her.

I was pissed off at first, but, after a while, I just said the hell with it and him. Fences have been mended since then, but it took my father a very long time to get in my good graces. I can’t fucking stand my half-brother and -sister or their mother though, and that won’t ever change.

The elementary school I went to saw fights weekly. I stayed to myself and out of everyone’s way. I didn’t say shit, and I didn’t do shit. My brother’s high school was up the street from me, so we would walk to school together every day. When I went to middle school, shit got deep. I got into fights at least twice a month. Everyone wanted to screw with the quiet white kid.

Things started to change for me in eighth grade. I loved sports and was thinking about playing basketball for my middle school team. I decided one day to go to one of their games to see how good they were and if I had a chance to make the team. It was that day when I met the girl that would change me forever.

“Oh my God, are you kidding me?! You call that a foul?!”

Her voice rang through over the sounds of sneakers squeaking on a rather subpar basketball court and the echoes of a ball bouncing. I looked around and found the gym wasn’t packed, just the teams sitting on either side of the court. The stands had a few people in them, but the person who caught my eye was the one who seemed to be the loudest of everyone.

“Come on, Terrence! Post up, big guy. Stop playing soft!” she yelled.

I noticed a brown-skinned kid on the court, with our school colors and name on his jersey, frown and look up at her. The look he gave her didn’t seem to faze her at all. It actually seemed to charge her.

“Don’t look at me like that! You know that guy has no handle, and you’re letting him take you to the basket; unacceptable!”

I smiled and shook my head; this was going to be entertaining at worst.

However, when I tell you I had the time of my life at a middle school basketball game, I’m not exaggerating. I didn’t know who this girl was, but she knew her shit. And, apparently, in my opinion, when she called everybody out on their skills, it made them play harder. The coach, of course, wasn’t too happy about her presence and yelling, but, hell, what could he do? She wasn’t hurting the team or the game. She wasn’t causing any trouble or disrupting anything, so he had to suck it up.

At the end of the game, I stood, grabbed my book bag, dreading the walk to meet my brother. I didn’t mind the walk. I just hated having to deal with petty shit on the way, kids thinking they could push me around and bully me. I turned to exit the gym, getting my mind ready for the trouble waiting for me when I heard a voice ring out behind me. “Hey.”

I turned and found the girl who yelled throughout the entire game heading toward me.

“Are you thinking about joining the team?” she asked.

I frowned and looked in her direction. The moment my eyes fully met hers, my frown disappeared. My mouth suddenly went dry, and I swear my happy guy, who had been getting happy a lot lately, perked up. I looked away from her and stepped back a little, instantly shy for some reason, and I wasn’t the shy type.

“I don’t know; maybe. Why?”

She studied me for a minute, which didn’t do much for the now full boner I had. Shit, what is it about this girl?

She was brown skinned with some milk chocolate eyes that seemed to unnerve me and turn me on at the same time. She wore a skullcap on her head so, at the time, I couldn’t see her hair, but she was thicker than most of the girls at the school; not obese, just thick. She smiled at me, showing me a set of dimples that almost made me stumble off the bleachers.

She said to me, “Because the team could use you.”

My interest intensified. “How do you know I can play?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “I’ve seen you play at the park around the corner from Montgomery Elementary. I don’t live too far from there, so I hang out at the park all the time.”

I frowned again. I didn’t live too far from that school either, and I was always there, but I didn’t remember seeing her there at all. “Were you hiding or something? I’ve never seen you there.”

The moment I saw her smile and look away, I actually stumbled on the bleachers. Wow, I made her blush.

Ignoring my blunder, she added, “You seem to need more practice on your footwork though.”

I gathered myself and shook my head at my clumsiness and lack of finesse. “No, I don’t. My footwork is fine.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, care to show me? Play a little one-on-one tomorrow?”

“Play one-on-one with you?”

She pushed me on my shoulder. “Yes, you idiot, play with me; that is, unless you’re scared to play with a girl?”

“Don’t do it,” a voice said behind me, and I turned around in enough time to see the guy, Terrence, walk by me.

“Oh, shut up, Terrence. Go work on your game.” She shook her head and looked back at me. “Twin brother…”

I nodded but didn’t reply. How could I? I was stunned to silence.

“So, do you want to play or not?”

I should’ve said no. Seriously, what did I look like playing basketball with a girl? As I continued to look at her, my happy guy started to take over my thought processes. I couldn’t control my head from moving up and down or my lips from telling her, “Okay.”

Her smile broadened, which made me smile in spite of myself. “Great. See you there at ten.”

My smile quickly dropped, and my eyes grew. “Ten? Are you kidding me? It’s a Saturday.”

She backed up from me. “Yeah, it’s a Saturday. Why spend it in the house when you can be outside? See you then, Larry Bird.”

I was not ashamed to tell you that that Saturday she took it to me the first two games we played. She talked so much shit that I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t ready for her, I’ll admit it, but, by the third game, I caught on. We played hard for hours. We hung out and talked about basketball, who our favorite players were, and the games we watched on TV. I’ve never had so much fun with a girl in my life. She wormed her way into my life that day and became one of the best and closest friends I ever had.

I ended up playing basketball for the school that year. We did okay for the season, and, I kid you not, every game I played I’d hear her voice in the stands saying, “Get your head in the game, Mills.”

“Get your head out of your ass, Franks. I told you to have the order placed two days ago. Now we have to wait until next week.”

I almost choked on my beer as the voice that I knew all too well filled the bar. I slowly looked up and saw the woman that had been giving me grief for decades standing in front of the bar with her hands on her hips.

My shock quickly turned to concern. The woman I once knew didn’t look the same. It had to be at least five years since I’d seen her, and back then this woman had hips that could rock you, and I will say they did just that. Her ass was round and plump, and it still was, but I could tell she lost a lot of weight. However, it wasn’t the kind of weight loss that made you healthy. No, it was the kind of weight loss that made people think something wasn’t right, the same way I was thinking now.

My phone buzzed, and I looked at it and smiled. My brother, it seemed, got my text on where to meet me. He texted back and said he wanted to go somewhere else, but I returned his text and told him, “Too late. Already saw her.”

“Mills, is that you?”

I looked up finally and saw Ayana’s creamy chocolate eyes on me. I smiled and stood, bracing for the collision I knew was coming.

She smiled at me, giving me those beautiful dimples of hers, and then headed in my direction. When she got close, she leaped into my arms, wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. It was her signature move.

“Oh my goodness! It’s so good to see you!”

I wrapped my arms around her instinctively. “Uh, you know people are staring, right?” I announced.

I felt her shake before she buried her head deeper in my neck. “Deal with it. I’ve missed you so much.”

Hearing that from her and seeing the state she was in, I didn’t deny her any longer. I squeezed her tighter and buried my face into her neck.

When she pulled back, she smiled. “Well, it’s good to see at least someone misses me.”

I shook my head. “Sorry, sweetheart, that’s my phone clip.” I kissed her forehead. “But I still missed you.”

She finally unwrapped herself from me, and as I helped her down, I made sure she didn’t feel the semi-erection I got the moment she crashed her body into mine. Don’t judge me; it’s just what she does to me.

She placed her hands on the sides of my face and looked in my eyes. “It’s so good to see you. You really look good.” She smiled again and stepped back from me.

I greeted her smile with one of my own. “It’s good to see you too. You look beautiful as always.”

I tried to sell it, but she shook her head. “Yeah, well it’s nice of you to say, but I know you don’t mean it. I can still tell when you’re lying.”

As I studied her, I inwardly shook my head. Someone else had replaced the confident and charismatic woman I used to know entirely. I mean, I felt like I was standing in front of an imposter. She used to be so full of life and fire.

I touched her chin and tilted her head up to place her eyes on mine. “To me, you will always be beautiful no matter what.”

She smiled again and shyly moved from my touch. “Now
that
I believe.” She then looked around. “Where’s your fiancée? I hope I didn’t run her off. Your brother would be pissed at me.”

“How do you know I was getting married?” I asked frowning.

“Oh, come on.” She smacked my arm softly. “You know how much your brother hates me. He couldn’t wait to tell me. I’m sure he’s overjoyed, thrilled even, that you’re getting married to, I’m sure, a very lovely woman who is more
your
speed.”

I motioned for her to sit down with me. “First of all, my brother doesn’t hate you...” She scoffed and rolled her eyes, but I continued. “…and secondly, what does ‘more my speed’ mean?”

“I just mean you seemed to have found someone that’s good for you because I never was,” she insisted.

“Well, yeah, you’re right about that,” I smiled, as she rolled her eyes at me again.

“Well, with that being said, I’m glad you found someone that deserves you, Bradley. I really am.”

I didn’t reply. Instead, I changed the subject.

“So when did you get back? My brother told me that you moved away, but he didn’t tell me a thing about you returning home. How long have you been back?”

“Well, I’ve been back for at least two years. Ohio just wasn’t for me.” She shivered and smiled. “You know how much I hate the cold and it had the audacity to snow up there. I couldn’t take it at all.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I understand completely. So are you running this place now?”

“Now you know Ice doesn’t trust just anyone to handle his baby.” She ran both her hands through her shoulder length black hair. “I’m just helping him. He needed someone he could trust with a little bit of business smarts, so I offered to help keep his business afloat. And since I practically grew up in this place, it made sense.”

My eyebrows rose. “A little business smarts, huh? Did you finally go back to school?”

She shifted in her seat and nodded. “I actually got my Bachelor’s degree and started with my Masters since the last time I saw you.”

“
Really
?”

“Don’t sound so shocked,” she laughed. “I did pretty well in high school when it came to my schoolwork at least.”

“I’m not shocked at all.” I took her hand in mine and squeezed. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks,” she conceded, tilting her head to the side.

We stared at each other for a moment not saying another word, and I took this time to really see her. She seemed so sad in the eyes and a bit empty. I knew this woman, inside and out. Something wasn’t right, I could tell. I also knew it would be hell getting shit from her.

“So…” she started. I moved from my inner thoughts back to her, “…How long are you home?”

“I don’t know. Probably a month or two,” I offered.

“I take it you’re staying with your brother at his house.” She leaned into me. “How did it feel when you first walked inside?”

I shook my head and took the rest of my beer down. “I half expected to smell fried chicken the moment I opened the door,” I told her.

She laughed. “Yes, I’ve never met a white woman that could fry up some chicken the way she could.”

“I know. Her chicken was almost as good as your mom’s.”

“Yup, almost.”

We grew silent again, as I watched her fidget slightly.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

She looked up at me as if she forgot I was even there. “Yeah. I’m fine,” she nodded, with a fake smile on her face. “Listen, I have to get back to some paperwork, but order whatever you want. It’s on me.” She moved from the booth and stood.