Preseason Love (16 page)

Once in my room, I hung up all of my clothes, including my suits.
They were mandatory attire when working a League event. I lined up my nametag, all-access credentials, and hotel keys in preparation for the next day. After making sure that my security lock was on the door, I headed for the shower to freshen up before my dinner date with Bella.

I replied to a few urgent emails, then called Kari before hitting the streets, but to my surprise, he didn't answer. I left him a message letting him know that I'd made it to Miami. I also called Bella to check on her status. She was ten minutes away.

I grabbed my makeup bag and jetted into the bathroom. The lighting was fantastic and horrible all at the same time. It showed me every blemish and imperfection, but there was no time to dwell on what I could not change. Mascara check, eyeliner check, eyebrow pencil check, bronzer check, and last but certainly not least, a swipe of blush.

My outfit was the last beast to tackle. I prayed that what I'd packed would look right. Sometimes things looked better in my head than on my body. Thankfully, I had brought a few mix-and-match options in case. My leopard print pants were slightly challenging to wiggle into. The black tank that I'd brought was loose at the bottom so I could hide any unforeseen stomach spillover, and it cut in a bit by the breast region, giving a little sexy side boob. I had to sit down carefully on the bed in order to slip on my red stiletto booties. One wrong move and the pants of choice would be a wrap.

My phone was buzzing like crazy and I figured that it was Bella so I answered with my earphones not even bothering to look at the screen.

“Hey, boo, you downstairs?”

“Boo?”

“Really? That's how it is when you go out of town?”

“Hello!” I said as I looked at the phone.

I was rushing around and moving so fast that it took me a second to recognize Kari's voice on the other end of the phone.

“I'm sorry, babe. I thought you were Bella. She's on her way to pick me up.”

“Sure, tell me anything.”

“Stop it. I called you a little while ago.”

“I know. That's why I'm calling you back.”

“Okay, Mr. At-ti-tude!”

“So where are you ladies headed?”

“South Beach to do dinner and drinks.”

“South Beach…hmm…well, have fun. I'll speak to you later.”

I heard the sound of the dial tone.
Did he just hang up on me?

I had options. I could do one of two things, overreact and call him back cursing and flipping out, or give him his space to be annoyed and go on to enjoy my night. I chose the latter. Sprayed on a little sandalwood-and-vanilla scent, gave myself a once-over in the full-length mirror, tousled my short waves to frame my face, grabbed my gold leather clutch, and I was out the door.

Bella rolled up to the valet stand in a drop-top Mini Cooper. It was her style, understated and chic. She jumped out of her ride and ran around to the passenger side greeting me with her arms wide open. We squealed like two schoolgirls and gave each other
The Color Purple
-style hug. I missed my sister from another mother. It had been almost a year since we'd seen each other.

Bella chose to attend business school in Florida so that she could be closer to her father. When she was born, he took one look at his baby girl and said “Bella” in his native Italian tongue. He moved away from California when she was in junior high,
which was right after her parents decided to split. Bella had always adored her father even through the tumultuous divorce. Her mother was adamant that Bella would be raised with her in California, and as an African-American judge, she got her way.

Her father was loaded, so he must have given her the assist with the new car. He always spoiled Bella and gave her anything that she wanted. But she never came off as a freeloading brat. She was the sweetest person, with her big, dark-brown eyes and head full of soft, curly, sandy-brown hair.

“I'm so happy to see you. And you look fantastic, honey!” Bella continued to observe. “This new man must really be treating you right.”

We slapped high-five.

“Thanks, sweetie! You look amazing as always.” I stepped back as I checked her out. “Miami better watch out for you, honey!”

“You are so silly, Scottie!”

Bella zoomed out of the driveway and after a few turns, we were on the MacArthur Causeway with the wind in our hair. The humidity was low and the moon was shining brightly. It was a gorgeous, warm Miami night, which felt so relaxing.

“Where are we headed?” I yelled to Bella, trying to compete with the music and the wind.

She turned the music down. “I was thinking we'd go to the Italian spot on Española Way.”

“Great idea! I love that street.”

“Okay, good. Afterwards, we can go down to Ocean Drive and have drinks. We'll have a zillion options to choose from.”

Bella needed a night out. She did not have any of her close girlfriends nearby and business school had been kicking her butt. A release was long overdue. After dinner, our night consisted of drinks and more drinks resulting in a couple of tipsy tales
surrounded by a few good men. We'd made our way to a sexy little rooftop bar with a beautiful view of the Miami skyline.

Bella's eyes were glassy and a tall, muscular man with name-brand gear on from head to toe was relentlessly in her face. He and his boys were posted at a table covered with at least ten bottles, and they invited us to hang out with them. Essentially, I was taking one for the team. I had absolutely no interest in any of the guys since I had a great man waiting for me at home. I decided to text Kari.

Bella and her guy were getting cozy, but it was quickly approaching two in the morning and I still had to get up and report for work in a few hours. I thought it best for me to call it a night. To my surprise, when I went over to break the news to Bella, she was ready to go as well.

“You are in no position to drive,” I said as we made our way down to the lobby. “Maybe we should call a cab.”

I was definitely tipsy myself, but I slowed down around 1 a.m. and started drinking water to try to level my intoxication out. Even still, I was in no position to drive either.

“Girl, don't worry about it. I got this.”

“Oh no you don't! You live way too far to drive intoxicated, and furthermore, my Jolie will kill you if you killed me.”

“No, Scottie, my father set up a car service account for me, especially for nights like this.”

“Wait, so let me make sure I have this straight. You go out and get too drunk to drive and Daddy already has it set where you call the car service and it goes on his tab, no questions asked?”

“Pretty much. I use the same company that he uses for his business,” she continued. “He doesn't, you know, want me taking chances driving drunk.”

“I hope you know how lucky you are.”

It took the car service no longer than fifteen minutes to pick us up in a luxury SUV with the celebrity tint.

•  •  •

The next morning it would be safe to assume that I hated life. Mornings were not my thing and there was so much work to be done. Joel had already sent me about ten emails. My day would consist of heading to the temporary office in the hotel to try to get a few things accomplished before I had to go to the mandatory community service project.

The project site that I was assigned to was deep in the 'hood. This girl was no stranger to the 'hood, but this was a different type of hood. There I was, standing around with a bunch of people who seemed totally clueless as to the reality. The plan was to work with a local community partner and assist a deserving family in building the home of their dreams. The athletes would show up to take part in the build, do a few press interviews, pose for a few photos, and shake some hands. My assignment was to make sure that the right photos were captured as well as assist the media with getting their desired interviews.

I was pretending to be a pro and working on insulating a wall when a trio of players arrived. The SUV pulled up and they piled out. My mouth dropped wide open as I looked at them from inside the frame of the house. With hesitation I followed my coworker out of the house to greet them.
This cannot be happening!

My body almost refused to continue walking as we reached the end of the driveway. This was not the type of impression that I wanted to make on my colleagues. I couldn't envision how this would work out, but I took a deep breath and continued walking toward the players.

One in particular walked right up to me. “What's good, girl? What you doing here?”

“Working, how's it going?” I responded after giving the tall, muscular man, minus the name-brand gear from head to toe, an awkward hug.

I could feel the inquisitive glares piercing my back. They were probably wondering how I knew one of the star athletes on a personal level. Hell, this was my first event with The League! Turns out that Bella's guy friend from the night before was not a draped-up and dipped-out wannabe baller, but an actual baller. I felt silly for not recognizing him that night.

Still in shock, I introduced myself to the other two guys and we all proceeded to walk toward the build site. I still had a job to do. The guys got to work on their designated areas. I could not wait to get on the phone and tell Bella what I discovered. She did not mention anything about her guy being a professional athlete, so I assumed that she was clueless too.

Once I got back to my hotel, the key card could not activate the green light on my room door quick enough. I tripped out of my shoes, grabbed my phone, and spilled onto the bed letting out a long sigh of relief after an exhausting day. Bella's line rang four times before she finally answered.

“Hey, hun! How did you make out today?”

“Girl, never mind me. I got some scoop for you!”

“What happened?”

“Ok, so what did the guy that you were with last night tell you that he did for a living?”

“I actually don't know. I never asked,” Bella said with a slightly nervous hint in her voice.

“Why?” she continued.

I recounted the story of how I'd run into her boo earlier in the day. She was as clueless as I had been.

I could tell that Bella's mind was working on full speed. Had this been a few of my other girlfriends, they would have been super-geeked to find out that their new crush was a professional athlete. Not Bella. This only made her think that she would probably be wasting her time entertaining him.

“Now I don't know what to do,” Bella squeaked.

“What do you mean? I don't understand the dilemma?”

“He called me earlier and I was going to return his phone call. But now I don't know how to act.”

“You're trippin'. Be normal. He is a man like all the others.”

“But wait, how do you work for The League and you didn't recognize him last night?”

“I mean, hello? I just started working there. I don't know all of the guys' names and faces. Plus, I was drunk and he was so un-assuming,” I continued. “Call him back and stop acting funny.”

I couldn't spend any more time coaching Bella. I had real problems to solve and work to catch up on. It seemed as though working the Athlete's Annual was the equivalent to a doctor being on call for twenty-four hours. People would email you and expect a response at all hours of the night, and if you did not respond, that only meant that you would have an even larger pile of potential issues to deal with in the morning. Although I had been having a little fun here and there, I was definitely feeling the pressure.

The next day was Friday and that was the real kickoff for the weekend, starting with the youth games that were happening all throughout the day. I would be helping to escort media around a massive space, similar to a playground for all ages with sports-
themed activities, to facilitate interviews. From what I'd heard, it could've been a long and trying day, so I followed up on a few emails before falling asleep watching
SportsCenter.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to the Miami sun shining in my room. I had forgotten to close the shades before passing out. I squirmed around in the comfy hotel bed trying to decide what to wear. Knowing that I would be out and about all day I determined that the number one criteria for my outfit had to be comfort.

Breakfast was a necessity before the long day ahead. I saved fifteen minutes to grab food at the lobby restaurant before boarding the company shuttle to the park. I quickly learned that you have to eat when you can because things move so fast that you may find yourself going an entire day without eating, and between no food and little sleep, that's a recipe for an embarrassing situation. Who wants to be laid out on the ground requiring medical attention from the local EMS crew?

When we arrived at the event site, I was thoroughly impressed at the level of the production. There was so much to see. Colorful team signage and festive team flags were flying from posts in the ground. There were multiple stations for autograph signing, areas for kids to participate in hands-on drills and activities, spirit teams running around to cheer people on, and booths where guests could win prizes. It reminded me of a sports-themed carnival minus the cotton candy and funnel cake.

I headed over to the media check-in booth to meet up with my first crew for the day. Television crews were assigned specific time slots in which they could come and film in order to ensure that they would have a designated PR escort during their time at the event. Like I said, PR can easily be a glorified babysitting job.
The local CBS affiliate was up first. We toured every inch of the grounds and they were very satisfied with the footage until they noticed one of the star players from the Los Angeles Sting Rays exiting his car service and walking toward an autograph booth.

“Scottie, do you think that we can get a quick interview with Damien Telfetter?”