Center Courtship (37 page)

“Why would I do that?” I stood and went to her but did not indicate that I wanted her to come on my side of the gate.

“Mae, you are completely insufferable. Because, it's time you let Christopher and Candice have a turn at the fancy seats.”

“And I repeat, why would I do that?”

“Because there are cameras down there and these two could get exposure. It might bring their status back up again if they're seen in the Owners seats.”

I rolled my eyes. To think, she thought
I
was the insufferable one. “These seats were a gift. Besides, the seats Aaron and I are in are technically Brandon's seats from when he won the contest but they can't remove a seat from the Owner's row so he and Max are in my seats. I can't give them to someone else, that would be rude,” I said.

“You can take our seats, we're on the second level. They're really nice.” She was such a liar.

“Yeah, I'll pass. Elsu needs me down here,”

“Oh my God Mae, stop it with this fairytale of yours. He does not need you.”

I had an indescribable urge to smack her, but she was my mom, and there were 20,000 witnesses. Probably not the best place for such a thing.

“Is that Bart?” asked Christopher as he looked across the court behind me.

I rolled my eyes, hoping I could have gotten away without anyone else knowing. Bart and Christopher got along surprisingly well for their difference in age when we were dating. It was a weird relationship, but it was hard for Christopher to accept that Bart had done anything so horrible that would require him being put in prison and taken from him. I knew Christopher blamed me for taking his friend away, which is also why my mother defended Bart from time to time. If it hurt Christopher it was bad. It didn't matter if what hurt Christopher hurt her other child a million times worse.

Christopher waved to Bart and I reluctantly looked to see Bart waving back like there was no reason not to. “Really?” I
just turned and went back to my seat. By now the teams had returned to the court and were taking some practice shots. Elsu had apparently been watching me with my ‘family' as he sat on the side. I watched his face as his line of vision shifted from me to Bart. “Damn, he knows,” I said as I sat down beside Aaron.

“Who? What?” asked Aaron.

“Elsu sees Bart. This might be bad,” I said as I slouched down. I kept an eye on Elsu who then looked to Millard, made a nodding motion and stood to take some shots.

I turned to look at Millard who had also stood. “What was the nod for?”

“I'm pretty sure it's to take out some trash,” he said as he straightened his suit jacket. I caught a glimpse of a gun holster strapped under his coat.

“I don't want any trouble, Millard. He hasn't done anything, let's just leave him, ok? Please?”

“I'm sorry ma'am, ahem…Miss Mae, I work for Mr. Benjamin.” He slid out of the row and walked away.

The scoreboard went black and some of the lights went out above us.

We sat in semi-dark and waited.

Really? A power outage at the first game?

I watched the area where Scott and Bart were sitting and decided I didn't want any part of what was about to happen. I stood, gathered my purse and stormed out. At least I wasn't ‘not there' when the game was playing, since the electricity had to be fixed before they could continue.

Aaron followed me and we made our way toward the VIP lounge “Let's get a drink,” said Aaron.

“As long as it's not too crowded,” I said as I peered inside. “Hi, Jason,” I said to the guard as we started to enter the lounge. “Do you need anything? Water? Something to eat?”

He smiled at me. “I'm nursing a bottled water,” he said as he pointed to the half empty bottle under his seat.

“I can get you something to eat. What do you want?”

“I keep smelling the popcorn. Can I bother you for a bag of popcorn?”

“Absolutely!” I went into the lounge and grabbed Jason, myself and Brandon popcorn along with a second beer with two
cups. I poured half the beer into the second cup and Aaron eyed me curiously.

We left the lounge and I handed the half beer and a bag of popcorn to Jason.

“Mae, you are a saint!” He seemed to covet that beer with his soul.

“Not a problem! If you get in trouble, tell them to come find me!” I patted him on his shoulder and we returned to the court. The power still hadn't been restored and the players were milling around near the bench. I handed the popcorn to Brandon and sat down next to Aaron.

“You missed the action,” said Max as he sat forward in his seat.

“Good,” I said as I refused to look across the court.

“Millard asked him to leave quietly, and he refused. Elsu went over and said something we couldn't make out then Millard and some other guy lifted him by the shirt and hauled his ass out of there.”

I wasn't going to lie, I was grateful, but I also hated that we couldn't have just ignored him. Now he was going to be pissed.

“That was stupid, you know that, right?” I said as Millard slid toward his seat.

“I'm not going to disagree, ma'am. But I was only following orders.” I didn't even look at him about the use of ‘ma'am'. I had a feeling it might be a lost cause.

“By the way, thank you for assisting with Saraya earlier,” I said to Millard.

“My pleasure, ma'am.”
Grrr.

“So, was what I told my mom correct? Are those ‘my' seats, come regular games?” I asked him, pointing to Max and Brandon.

“Yes, Miss Mae.” Seriously? Pick a lane, dude! “I will be in this one, and then there is a fourth that he may have open for anyone else he might choose to invite. Every player is given two, Mr. Benjamin purchased the other two. He had the fourth saved for his friend Phil, but he hasn't gotten here yet. Not sure where he is.”

“Phil?”

“Yeah, they've been best buddies for a few years now.”

“So who did Saraya bring to the games?” I asked curiously.

“In the years that she and Mr. Benjamin dated, she only attended one game when he was playing in Phoenix. It was the same setup there, he had four seats.”

“She never went to a game? Did she meet him at away games?”

“Once, she showed up in LA but that was because she was mad at him and was there to yell at him.”

I turned around and looked across the court to Elsu who was definitely looking at me now, I smiled and made sure he knew I meant it.

“Mae,” said M'Kaya across Millard. I turned to see her smiling at me. “You're already a million times better than Saraya, don't worry. You've got this!” She gave me two thumbs up. I don't know why the wives were so supportive of me, but I appreciated it. It was like having my own beautiful, high-fashioned, perfect, skinny, cheering section. I regretted ever comparing them to Saraya when I first saw them. They were nothing like her.

Aaron nudged me in the boob, the freshly squeezed, still bruised boob and I grabbed it and squealed. “OUCH!”

“Ooh, sorry. Your man wants you,” he said as he motioned toward the other side of the court.

I looked across to Elsu who smiled and winked at me. In that brief interaction, the entire arena emptied and we were the only ones there.

Aaron leaned over to me. “You are so lucky, Mae.”

“I still can't believe it.”

“Believe what? That he likes you?”

“Yeah, just look at him. How can
he
really like
me?
”

“Because you're nice, and beautiful, and you deserve him?”

“I don't deserve good, Aaron.”

“Shut up, Mae. I remember when you were going through your issues back in school, you were a mess. You deserve that man over there. The question is if
he
deserves
you
.”

I smiled. “He's amazing.”

“Good. If he's ever anything less than amazing, you've got me and your brother to beat him up for you.”

I laughed out loud picturing the two of them trying to beat up on Elsu.

“Why does your boob hurt, Mae?”

I sighed. “Let's just say Casper is an ass.”

“Holy shit, Mae! At the party?”

“Yep, that would be why Casper's not playing too hot and has been on the bench most of the game. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a cracked rib or three,” I said. I briefly looked at Casper sitting at the opposite end of the team's bench area from where Elsu and the other team members were grouped.

“When are they going to get the power back on? Way to bring it, Massillon,” complained Aaron.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I quickly pulled it out. “Y
OU HAD
B
ART REMOVED FROM THE ARENA
? D
ON
'
T YOU THINK THAT WAS A BIT MUCH
?” It was a message from my mom.

“I
T WASN'T MY DOING, MY FAIRYTALE BOYFRIEND HAD IT DONE
. U
NLIKE SOME PEOPLE, HE FEELS A NEED TO KEEP ME SAFE
.” Yeah, I was pissed at everyone today for being overprotective but she didn't need to know that.

“D
ON
'
T
START
, M
AE
. G
ET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND REALIZE YOU
'
RE JUST A TOY TO HIM
.”

“I
F THAT
'
S TRUE
, I
HOPE HE NEVER PUTS ME BACK IN THE TOY BOX
.”

“I
F WE LOSE THIS GAME, IT
'
S ALL YOUR FAULT
.”

I mindlessly looked up at the scoreboard.
Duh Mae. no power equals no telling the score.
I leaned into Aaron. “What was the score?”

“I think we were down 40 to 48,” he said and Jonathan nodded in agreement.

“Shit,” I said as I sat back and prayed to whatever saint was in charge of returning electricity back on at basketball games.

“Your boyfriend was on the bench a little bit. He'll get it back. Just don't move from that seat.”

“Why do Ohio teams always depend on one player to get through a game? If we could run on our own alternative energy, it would be the lost hopes and dreams of sports fans across the state.”

“HAH! That's a new way to put it. I had hoped the Whoopsters would be different but it's not looking that way.
Besides, if his buddy Casper was playing at full capacity, he'd have help. But the powerhouses haven't all been playing at once all game. I'm not sure what the coach is thinking.” At least one of us knew what was going on.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” said a voice behind me. I turned to see a man wearing a stocking cap and sunglasses making his way to the fourth seat in the row. He sat down and Millard turned his attention to the man.

“That must be Elsu's friend,” said Aaron to me as we both tried to be discrete about eyeing him up.

“He looks familiar,” I said.

“Oh? How?”

“Not really sure.”

I looked toward Scott and saw him scowling at me. I had taken his help from him. I wanted to tell him it wasn't my idea, but there was no way. Not that I wanted him happy, I just wanted one less person angry at me. While there was a break I looked at my phone and saw the other messages I hadn't checked.

Colette's message was one of good luck and a brief description of where she was sitting compared to where I was. I looked up and saw her talking to her brother directly across from me, towards the top of the first section. “H
EY, JUST GOT THIS
. B
ART WAS REMOVED FROM THE PREMISES
. B
E PREPARED FOR A REPEAT OF A FEW YEARS AGO AT THE APARTMENT
. H
OPE YOU
'
RE HAVING FUN
, I
AM
. I
CAN GET A FREE STEAK
!”

There were several from my mom that I just clicked on to mark them as read, but didn't read.

I had a voicemail from Arnold. I knew I wouldn't be able to hear it with the crowd so I looked around to see if there was any indication of when power might be restored. An important looking man walked by and I caught his attention. “Any ETA on the power? “ I asked.

“No, Mae. It could be another half hour. The current rumor is that there were some lines cut on the outside.”

“Cut? You don't say.” Bart got carried out
after
the lights went out, so I couldn't blame him. Even though I wanted to.

Elsu finally walked over to me and knelt down on one knee to be at my level. “You better be careful, someone's going to think you're proposing,” I said with a smile.

“Are you mad at me?” He seemed unfazed by my warning.

“I think things could have been handled better, less dramatically. He's not one to back down, he'll be back.” I said as I sat forward, trying to keep our conversation private.

“I thought of that after he was taken out. I'm sorry. I just wanted him gone. Knowing he was here was going to be too much of a distraction. Did you know he was coming?”

“No, but it didn't surprise me. The guy he was with is his brother's best friend. Scott covered the sculpture for the paper for Aaron. He was at the shop yesterday, so he probably decided to bring Bart just to mess with me.”

“I can have him removed, too.”

“He's not hurting anyone, so please just leave him for now, ok? The fewer people who hate me, the better. My mom's ticked that you had Bart removed, too. He and Christopher were buddies back in the day.”

“Screw them,” he said as he gave me a kiss and started to stand.

“By the way,” I said as I touched his jersey. “You're hot when you're all sweaty.”

He leaned back down to my ear. “And someday I plan to make you sweaty when you're all hot.” He headed toward the other side of the court before I could react and a shiver went through my entire body.

“Ok, Mr. Man needs to work on his whispering skills,” said Aaron. “I need to go readjust. I'll be back.”