“One of many I think about when I'm away. I realize I know too little about the person you were prior to moving out to Cali.” The ardent look in his glistening post-coital eyes told me that I should play along.
“Ummmmm...in my formative years I was an average student. I brought home mostly B's and when I became distracted by sports or indifferent about a particular subject I’d slip and get an occasional C. College was totally different. I used school to escape and viewed Cs as failures. Needless to say, I did well.”
I was still thrown by his inquiry but for the sake of conversation, I threw the question back to him. “How about you? What type of student were you?”
“Well…that depends on what period on my life we’re talking about. From the start of school I was a straight A student and got an occasional B for the same reasons you mentioned.” He eyes furrowed while he paused. “But all that changed when my father died. I skipped school and ran the streets with my boys.”
I scoffed. “I don’t see Yazmine going for that.”
I heard the snap from the bracelet. “There you go.”
I marveled at the brilliance of the diamonds showcased on my ankle. It had the semblance of a leash, though a very expensive one. The thought was unpleasant, but I couldn’t deny the beauty of it.
“Looks even better than I thought it would. I’m glad it fits.” He kissed my lower leg, sealing the deal. I smiled to hide the lurch of my belly reminding me that I still had needs to be met thanks to the BJ I’d just bestowed upon him.
Azmir slowly took back to his pillow and seamlessly continued with the conversation. “She didn’t. The only reason I got away with it was because her mourning my father presented a distraction. She was the reason I’d received honor roll every marking period from the time I got letter grades. When she snapped out of her depression, she packed us up and moved to Chi-town. And when I got there, she worked hard with me to regain my focus. I played the game and made sure I brought home amendable grades to get her off my back, but the streets were calling and I answered the door.” His brown eyes markedly traveled over to mine.
“You ended up at Stanford, so you were wise to play her game.”
“Oh, that came from making a deal with Big D. He didn’t want to transfer me out of the school system so quickly so he promised to take care of me if I agreed to lay low in school. Laying low to me meant hitting the books. It earned me several scholarships to schools across the country. I chose Stanford for the location. To me it was in the cut and I could stay out of trouble.”
Lucky enough for me he chose the high road. I couldn’t see Azmir as a knucklehead. He seemed too suave for that.
“Softball?”
“Huhn?” His question threw me.
“You said you played sports. Did you play softball? Or did you cheer?”
I sucked my teeth. “Whoa! Why does it have to be one of the two? Back to your chauvinistic ways, I see!” I feigned offended.
“I don’t mean to be chauvinistic. I was just using deductive reasoning. Did you run track?”
“No!” I swung, catching him in the right pectoral.
He belted a hearty laugh. Trying to catch his breath he asked, “Well? What did you play, Ms. Brimm?”
“Basketball!”
“Get the hell outta here!” he couldn’t stop laughing.
“Yes, point guard! Varsity!” I hissed over his loud amusement.
“Okay! Okay! I believe you. It’s just that I can’t picture you in a uniform. That’s cool though. I played a bit myself throughout school. I wasn’t the star of the team, but I partook.”
“Really? Now, see I can see all the girls lined up around the corner at your Tuesday night game, hoping to get a drip of your sweat flung at them.” I teased.
“Nah, not necessarily in that order.” He smiled at the ceiling, After calming himself, in a more serious tone he asked, “Did your boyfriends come to your games?”
“I didn’t have boyfriends, Mr. Jacobs. What type of girl do you take me for?”
“Well, I guess I’m asking did you have a lot of boyfriends coming up.”