by Croft, Rose
“You okay?”
“My roommate is here and still asleep.” His voice was low and edgy as he spoke.
He had to be exhausted since he didn’t sleep as far as I knew. “Well that’s your cue to take a nap.”
“I will. Take off your shirt,” he said still using a quiet voice.
“What? I’m not doing this with your roommate next to you.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m in the bathroom.” He sounded offended.
“Go to sleep, John.”
“I will, but this will help me go to sleep quicker.”
“Oh my God, you cannot be serious about masturbating over the phone.” I was already pulling my shirt off regardless. “Okay, my shirt is off. I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
“That’s right baby, you’re just as bad as me. Now, take off your bra, rub yourself and tell me all of those things you want me to do with your titcakes, I mean cupcakes.” His voice was still deep and sexy with some heavy breathing.
I unclasped my bra and eased back on the bed. I rubbed my nipples and let out a slow moan. “I want your mouth on my nipples with your tongue and teeth rolling around them making them as hard as your dick gets.” I couldn’t believe I was saying that, but I was now really ready to get myself off. “Lap them really hard and get them nice and wet, so I can squeeze them around your big cock.”
“Aw, fuck, keep talking,” he groaned out and was breathing erratically. “Touch yourself, Rose.”
As I was reaching down into my shorts about to whisper more dirty words, I heard several knocks through the phone. John called out what in a strange voice.
I heard another muffled voice saying that he had to take a piss.
Then, John told him to hold on, and he’d be out in a minute.
But, the other voice said he couldn’t wait and asked John what the hell he was doing talking and making weird noises in the bathroom.
“Um, okay, this is really embarrassing. I’m going to hang up now.”
“Wait. Hold on a sec,” he breathed, and I heard a door opening. John explained that he was talking to his girlfriend.
“Sorry about that Rose. Where were we?”
“I’m hanging up now. I’ll see you later today okay?”
He sighed. I could almost imagine him pouting. “Okay, beautiful Rose.”
Andrew, Loren, and I were waiting outside the clubhouse after the game. They lost, and John played like crap. I’m certain that it was because of lack of sleep and a change in his routine. He looked off today. He made a couple of errors, which usually never happened.
Great. He would probably be in a foul mood. I really didn’t want to say goodbye on a bad note. Hopefully, he would be in somewhat of a good mood.
I had some gum that I’d been chewing for the past hour and needed to throw it out. I found a trash can down the hallway and walked over and spit it out. As I turned back, I ran into someone. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay, darlin.’ You can bump into me anytime,” a male voice said as he had both hands on my shoulders to steady me. I looked up and saw a tall lanky guy with long, stringy hair, and the worst mustache ever. I recognized him as one of John’s teammates.
I began to walk away, and he stopped me. “Where are you going?”
“I have to get back to my friends.” I scooted around him. I noticed John stepping out of the locker room and hoped he didn’t see what just transpired.
He looked really tired and glum. But, when he saw me, his face lit up a little. “Hey baby.” He drew me in his arms and hugged me tightly.
“Hi.” My face dove into his chest, inhaling his scent and committing his hard body to memory.
“Oh, I didn’t know he was your friend.” I heard the nasty guy say as he passed by stressing friend in a sarcastic way as if I were his flavor of the month.
John’s body tensed. “What the hell does that mean?” He growled about to take off after him.
“Nothing, John. Let it go.” I held him trying to calm him down. “I had to throw something away a minute ago and bumped into him by the trash can.”
“Was he bothering you?” His eyes were narrowed; his body was stilled bowed and tense.
“No. It was an accident. He didn’t do anything. Come on, let’s go see Andrew and Loren.”
Finally, he relaxed and reluctantly followed me as we chatted for a few minutes and walked down the hallway. When he saw Loren and his brother, he seemed calm again.
“Hey, I’m trying to get Rose to fly up to Chicago over Labor Day Weekend. Loren, do you think you could convince her. Maybe you could fly with her so she would be more comfortable.”
“Loren is not going without me!” Andrew warned possessively.
“You can come too. I don’t know why she would want to be around your grumpy ass, but whatever, to each his own, I guess.” John slapped Andrew on the back.
“We’ll see,” I said as we stepped out into the parking lot. I would definitely need Xanax or Valium to make the flight. Thank goodness it wasn’t too long of a flight. But me even considering it was kind of a big deal.
We were in front of the team buses that would take them to the airport. The players were already loading up. Some players were saying goodbye to family members.
John had his arm around me. “I’ll call you as soon as I land.”
I nodded.
He leaned in, his lips moving on my ear. “I’m gonna miss you so fucking much.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
He gave Andrew and Loren a big hug and whispered something to Loren.
She smiled. “I’ll try.”
Andrew gripped his shoulder. “Handle your own business, John.”
“Hey, I helped you out, bro. You owe me,” John responded. He gazed around the parking lot searching for something and pulled me off to a private spot.
“What are you doing?” I asked warily hoping that he didn’t think we were going to have more sex. I drew the line at screwing in a parking lot. Okay, he could probably convince me otherwise the way I acted around him.
“I just wanted to give you a goodbye kiss without everyone watching us.”
“So now everyone will know what we’re doing and probably assume something more.”
“Are you freaking kidding? I’m not going to treat you like that and have sex in the parking lot. I mean, not unless you want to.” He must have seen my scowl because he amended, “I’m joking, Rose. We don’t even have enough time for that anyway.”
I was trying to make some witty retort, but he pulled me in and kissed me with desperation like we would never see each other again. When we finally pulled apart, his eyes were dark and intense. The way he looked when he was about to sink into me.
“We better get going. Everyone’s loading up.” I felt tightness in my chest, not wanting to say goodbye.
He reluctantly agreed and walked us back over to the crowd. He gave me a chaste kiss and stepped backward towards the bus still gazing intently at me, his hand still gripping mine until the distance forced him to either let go or pull me with him.
I did not want to let go of her hand. This whole day had been bittersweet for me—spending the greatest moments of my life intimately with her while dreading the time when I wouldn’t physically see her again. And, she never gave a definitive answer on coming to see me over Labor Day.
I stepped onto the team bus and kept staring through each window at her as I passed to a seat. I found one in the center of the bus and sat down. She stood outside with my brother, Loren, and the rest of the small crowd as our charter began to pull away.
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. It had been with me all day. I was surprised about this development. It all had to do with knowing I wouldn’t see her for several weeks.
We were headed to New York for a four-game series. As I sat on the plane, waiting for take off, I put on my noise reducing headphones to play some music off my phone. Then, I began scrolling through the pictures that I ha
d of Rose. I sent her a text.
About to take off for New York. I’ll call you.
I put my phone in airplane mode and leaned back shutting my eyes. When I opened my eyes, we had landed. Wow, I must’ve been really tired.
I grabbed my backpack slipping it over one shoulder. I still felt groggy and bummed out as I descended the steps of the charter. I checked my phone. It was almost 10pm. It would be an hour earlier in Texas. Rose should be home by now if they didn’t stop somewhere and take a long dinner.
“Did you tap that ass, McKeon?” Someone asked behind me slapping me on the back.
And, I knew the voice before I even turned around. Fucking Kip Cummings. Or more like Kip Cum Stain, which was the nickname he’d earned because he was constantly after women—and, not in a good way. He wasn’t even subtle about it, and sounded like a pervert. I get guy talk, but the way he spoke, made me want to take a shower and wash off the grossness of his words. The dude was disgusting and not just because his hair looked like it’d never been washed. If Kenny Powers and Ron Jeremy could’ve had a baby, it would be him. Furthermore, his name was Kip, enough said.
“What are you talking about?” I asked calmly, although my hand clenched.
“You know, the hot little señorita with the nice fun bags.”
The thought of him even leering at Rose made me want to rip his pornstached face off, not to mention making inappropriate comments about her. I reactively grabbed him around the throat. “Don’t you ever talk about my girlfriend like that again!”
“Hey, ease up, I didn’t know it was like that.” He struggled to get the words out trying to push me off.
I released his neck. I noticed some other teammates had stopped around us. “Well, now you do. And, keep you and your STDs away from her.” I stalked off to the bus before I brought any more attention to myself.
Again, I had never experienced this type of jealousy. Even when I was with Jenny in college, I never got jealous to this extent. I was pissed off from embarrassment that she had fucked my teammate more than anything else.
But, with Rose, if I even saw a guy look at her, which I noticed happened a few times when we were out in public, and it almost set me off. That was crazy thinking, and rationally I knew it. However, when it happened in the moment, I couldn’t control my emotions.
I waited until we made it to the hotel to call her. Luckily, my roommate, Joey, was over on the couch talking to his girlfriend. The phone rang a few times.
“Hello.” Her damn voice was soshe answered which sounded sexy.
“Hi. Are you home?”
“Yes. What are you doing?”
“Sitting in my hotel room.” I glanced over at Joey, making sure he was still occupied. “In my bed, wishing you were here beside me.”
“Me too.” Her voice sounded wistful and hot as usual. “Did you have a good flight?”
“I slept the whole time, so yeah.” Then, I started thinking about what Kip had said. “Did Kip say something inappropriate to you?”
“Who’s Kip?”
“You know the guy with the greasy long hair and pornstache.”
“Oh that guy. I told you nothing happened. He bumped into me and asked me where I was going. I said I needed to find my friends and walked away. That’s it. Do you really think I would have a conversation with that guy? He’s disgusting.” She seemed annoyed having to explain herself.
“I know you wouldn’t do that. I was more concerned about his behavior because he’s a douchebag. That’s all.”
She sighed. “Okay. I need to go to bed. I have to get up early in the morning, and my body is not used to it.”
I didn’t want to hang up, but I knew she had to be exhausted from last night and this morning. “All right. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight baby.”
“Goodnight John.”
The next morning, I woke up around nine. I was about to call Rose, which had been customary these past few weeks. Then, remembered she was at work. So I sent her a text to call or text when she could.
Basically our schedules were now the exact opposite. We sent a few texts back and forth during the day. After I returned back to the hotel at around 11pm, I called her. This was basically how we passed the time for the next few days.
On the team’s final day in New York, we had an early evening game, and would have the following day off before we started another series in Cleveland. It was a fellow teammate’s birthday, so we went to dinner. I told Rose my plans and would call her or text if it wasn’t too late.
After dinner, a group of guys was taking Javier, the birthday boy, to this new club that had recently opened in the Meatpacking District. I didn’t really want to go, but Javier was giving me shit about it. “Come on, man, it’s my birthday. I’m finally legal.” It was his twenty-first birthday.
Reluctantly, I agreed. It wasn’t far from the restaurant, so we walked a couple of blocks over. It was a large group of us, at least ten. Unfortunately, Cum Stain was with us too, but he steered clear of me.
Since we were professional athletes, and Javier had someone reserve a section in the back, we were let in while a line of people around the building waited. As we sat down and joked around and had drinks, I checked my phone. It was probably too late to call Rose, but I texted her anyway telling her where I was and how much I missed her. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to be shady, and then her later find out where I was by seeing pictures of me in the club on the Internet.
Javier had been out on the dance floor, and when he returned, he was walking with three tall thin beautiful girls that looked like models. And, I knew one of them. Alyssa, my brother’s ex. Fuck, this could get awkward if she saw me.
Of course, she did, and approached. She smiled wide. “Hey John.” She hugged me and kissed both cheeks. That was how she liked to greet people.
“Hi Alyssa. How’s it going?”
“Great. How’s that asshole brother of yours? Still hitting it with his high school sweetheart?”
This was going to get uncomfortable because she still seemed bitter if her tone of voice was any indication. I kind of felt sorry for her, but I didn’t want to sit here and listen to her hash it out about Andrew.
“My brother and Loren are doing well.” I looked around and noticed Kip seemed to glance back and forth in interest between Alyssa and me.
“Awesome,” she said in a way that meant the opposite. She motioned for me to scoot over and sat down next to me. “Yeah, that really threw me off because I was almost certain you were the one interested in Loren. You know, the way you kept flirting with her at that restaurant.”
Quick recap: Andrew, Alyssa, and I went out to eat at an upscale steak house where Loren happened to work. Andrew and Alyssa were broken up at the time, but she’d made a surprise visit wanting to get back together. But, it was clear that Andrew still had strong feelings for Loren. Watching Andrew and Loren that night was like watching some chick flick. They both looked miserable, but neither one would take the first step to do anything about it. I was just trying to lighten the mood, and maybe light a fire under Andrew’s stubborn ass by flirting with Loren. Guess it worked.
“I was teasing with Loren, and she knew it.” That was all I going to say about this. “So, how’s the modeling going?”
She was sipping a pink drink out of a martini glass and casually laid her hand on my leg. “I leave for Milan in a couple of days. How long are you here?”
“We leave in the morning.”
“Has anyone told you how much you resemble Andrew?” She lifted her hand off of my leg and swept it in front of me. “I mean you could almost pass for his twin.”
“I don’t know.” Where the hell was this conversation going?
Her hand returned to my thigh. “You’re really cute, John. And, I like how funny you are, not as serious as your brother.”
This was both strange and uncomfortable. I removed her hand from my leg. “I have a girlfriend Alyssa.” Even if I wasn’t with Rose, I
would never go out with someone my brother had been with. That was just too weird.
“Oh, okay, John. I was just giving you a compliment, not trying to have sex with you,” she said in a defensive way.
“Sorry. I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding.” My phone hummed and I saw a text from Rose.
Have fun, but not too much, or you’ll never see these again.
And, followed it with a photo of her tits in a black lace bra, where the cup barely covered her nipples. I quickly clicked off the phone before anyone else saw it. Dammit, why was I here? I just wanted to finish my drink and leave. I wanted to be alone so I could stare at that photo.
“Was that Andrew?” Alyssa leaned in trying to see my phone.
“No.” I frowned at her nosiness and quickly laid my phone face down on the table. Wow, this girl was getting a little stalkerish about my brother.
“How about we take a picture together?”
Before I could answer, she pressed herself into me, and kissed my cheek as she clicked a photo of us. “What the hell Alyssa?” Now, I was getting pissed.
She nudged me playfully. “Stop being so prudish, John. You used to be fun with me. We used to take pictures all of the time.” She proceeded to type something on her phone.
“What are you doing?” I didn’t want this picture posted if that’s what she was doing. And, the photos she’d taken before were never like that. Andrew was normally in them too.
“Sending it to Andrew.” She smiled in a way that definitely appeared malicious.
“Whatever. I’m leaving.” I waved to the waiter to settle my tab. As I waited, I turned to her. “Alyssa, please don’t post that picture on social media.”
Her smile faltered as she paused. “I won’t.”
I hoped she wouldn’t, but this girl was a social media butterfly with the pictures. I’m sure with her being so photogenic and having photos taken of her all of the time, she knew no other way to be.
When my tab was settled, I stood up, waiting for her to move so I could pass. She eyed me up and down and reluctantly stood up. “You sure you don’t want to stay for another drink? I just want to talk to you.”