Fair Play

by Mia Ford

  We made love again before I fell asleep in his arms.

  I took the next day to think about what I truly wanted. I knew that I wanted to be with Perry, and I imagined all our years in Colorado with a wistful smile. That was home. “Are you okay?” Lauren asked as I looked across our office at her.

  “I think I’m going back to Colorado. Am I crazy?” I asked as she laughed, knowing everything about Perry and me. We’d celebrated with donuts from the corner bakery after I showed her the ring.

  “Not at all.” Her smile was bright.

  I told Perry the following day after we saw our daughter, both of us reduced to tears. He said that he never looked for a place to begin with before he kissed me. I went to talk to my boss that afternoon with him to tell him the bad news, not surprised when they supported me wholeheartedly. They even offered to give me a letter of recommendation, making me thank them tearfully. I hadn’t been there long enough to ask any of that, in my opinion.

  We decided to marry at a local chapel since there was no family to invite. We’d both lost too many people and just wanted our new life to start, so we said our vows on a balcony overlooking the ocean as the man performed the ceremony while his wife and daughter watched with tears in their eyes.

  He packed up my car the following day after we’d spent the night in the bed at the condo, promising me a wonderful life filled with babies as I came repeatedly. We took his rental car back to Avis, and he took the driver’s seat for our ride home.

  Perry stopped a hotel halfway through the drive. He told me that I needed some proper sleep but undressed me once we were in the suite, making love to me in the big bed as if he hadn’t seen me in weeks. “Is every time going to be this good?” I asked as I rested in his arms afterward.

  “It might be more of a quickie when the baby comes along, but you’ll always be the best thing that happened to me,” Perry assured me as he smiled at me. “Do you think that they’re looking down at us?”

  We’d seen a gorgeous sunset right after we were pronounced husband and wife, so I knew it for a fact. That was her sign to us.

  It seemed like time flew by once we were home and getting ready for the baby. Mila Delaney Adams was born at the end of February, named after her grandmothers. She had his eyes and my hair. Perry and I took her home to the house in the woods, holding her as the fire roared in the fireplace. Her nursery was in the room beside Perry’s that was never used before since it was his floor. Now it was her little place in this house.

  We were married for two years when we gave Mila a brother named Brandon, happy to welcome another member into our family. I was staying home with the kids and helping Perry at the office as needed. We had two dogs by now from the local rescue as well as three cats running around the house. It was chaos, but it was ours, and we loved every moment of our lives.

  I can’t say that everyone in our life accepted us as a couple. There was a handful that found it disgusting as well as disrespectful to my parents, but we just had to leave them behind. We had our own life to carve out with our new family. We had each other.

  We had love.

  The End

  BAD BOY BALLER

  BAD BOY BALLER

  Losing my parents was one of the hardest things that I’d ever been through. I was just a teenager and needed my mom. Through legal paperwork as well as love, I went to live with Dad’s best friend, Perry Adams.

  They were friends since grade school, and I didn’t know anyone better than Perry. It was perfect.

  Then came the years when I grew older and more aware of hormones and emotions. I knew it was wrong to want to sleep with a man that was twice my age as well as such a close member of my family.

  It just got harder, though. I knew so many guys at school that would take care of my needs, but they were crass and immature.

  They weren’t Perry.

  Before I knew it, I was graduating from college and more attracted to him. He suggested a trip together to celebrate, and I agreed, with no intentions of anything happening between us.

  Then there was a kiss, and we couldn’t stop it.

  Was there a future for Perry and me?

  Could we get past all the wrongs in our relationship?

  Could I start my life without him in it now that I didn’t have to stay?

  Maya

  I was young and stupid, but that was no excuse. Everyone is young and stupid at some point in their life, but not everyone makes the mistakes I'd made. It all started when my brother Luke brought over a new friend. I was a senior in high school, a good girl. A girl my family could be proud of. I didn't go out and party like my brother. I studied. I worked hard. I was going to be a doctor one day, and that meant taking advanced classes while I was in high school, to prepare myself for college and beyond.

  I was the white sheep of the family, my brother the black one. He would disappear for days on end, partying and drinking, until he finally couldn't party anymore. Even at twenty-one, he was still living at home. He worked mostly odd jobs – his latest one at a club in Chicago. Luke told me all about it, making it sound like an incredible opportunity, rather than the latest waystation on the road to nowhere he was on. But I'd listen as he told me how great it was to sling drinks and flirt with all the hot women – and to get paid for it too.

  He'd apparently found his dream, and I guess that I had to be happy for him.

  Every week, we had a family dinner. It was something of a tradition with my folks. Once a week, we'd all gather around the table and eat a home-cooked meal, all in one place. During the week, my father's job kept him away a lot and Luke was, well, Luke. He was hardly ever around. But he was good about never missing a family dinner. Mostly because mom would have had his hide if he had.

  But I remember clearly, this one specific family dinner, when Luke brought a friend from work to our weekly family gathering.

  “His name is Reese,” he told my mom beforehand.

  “Reese isn't family, dear,” she said. “Only family should be at family dinner.”

  Yeah, my mom was a bit uptight. Sometimes too uptight for her own good. But I had to admit that I agreed with her. At least on this one thing. I didn't want any of my brother's scumbag friends hanging out with us. Especially not on the one night we were supposed to come together as a family.

  “He has no family, mom. I feel bad for the kid,” Luke complained. “Would you really turn away a guy who has no family instead of welcoming him into ours for an evening?”

  I rolled my eyes as I listened from the living room. My brother knew how to work it and play on my mom's heart strings. It made me sick.

  I heard my mom sigh as I walked into the kitchen. She put the lasagna in the oven and wiped her hands on her apron. She tried a little too hard to be the picture of the perfect mom – her perfectly coifed hair, the church dress, the pearls around her neck. She had that Donna Reed thing going on, but was exactly the type of woman I aspired to be. Except, of course, that I wanted a career. I gave her props for all she did, but being a stay-at-home mom wasn't for me. In that regard, I was more like my dad – who was a doctor too, of course.

  “Fine, I guess I shouldn't be so cold,” she said. “Tell him he can come over, but please – and I beg of you, Luke – tell him to make sure he dresses properly. None of those baggy jeans and baseball caps at the table.”

  I snickered. It was hard enough to get Luke to dress properly, especially back then. He was trying so hard to be a gangster type – baggy jeans, tennis shoes that cost his entire paycheck, baseball caps turned backward with the brim left unmolded. He didn't want people to believe he was the adult son of a doctor and a stay-at-home wife living in middle class suburbia outside of Chicago. That would have damaged his street cred or whatever he called it.

  If Luke heard me laughing, he ignored me. Instead, he agreed – reluctantly – that they'd dress appropriately for the dinner table. Though, it didn't take a genius to know that his idea of appropriate and my mom's likely didn't matc
h up too well. I figured we'd be lucky if he wore anything that even remotely resembled appropriate dinner table attire.

  When he brought Reese over though, I wasn't surprised to see that the kid was wearing the exact attire that mom had said not to wear to the table. Of course he was. So was my brother.

  But Reese, unlike my brother, made it look natural. Unlike my upper middle-class, spoiled snot of a brother, Reese actually looked the part. His brown hair was shaggy and stylishly messy. And unlike my brother, he had the decency to take his hat off at the dinner table – something that surprised the hell out of me.

  My mom shook her head, mumbling to herself about ungrateful kids, but she let it go without causing a scene. She never let us argue at the dinner table and always made sure to set the example for us.

  I, of course, was dressed in a pink floral skirt with a white, button-up blouse. Not the type of outfit I'd wear to school, but for family dinner, I was expected to dress a little nicer than normal. My father usually wore whatever he wore to work that day – usually a shirt and tie.

  “Luke, would you care to say grace?” my mom asked, shooting him a look of pure death that was camouflaged by a saccharine sweet smile, of course.

  “I'd rather not,” my brother said. “I'm sure Maya would be more than willing though.”

  It was my father, the one who normally didn't like confrontation, who started the dinnertime prayer. I bowed my head, but caught myself staring over at Reese with wide eyes. He pretended to bow his head, but while everybody had their heads lowered, he looked around our dining room, his eyes almost as wide as mine, but probably for different reasons.

  I was staring because Reese was actually pretty hot. My dorky brother usually had dorky-looking friends, but this time, his friend wasn't so bad on the eyes. So, sue me. I was a warm-blooded high school girl who didn't get much attention from boys because I was shy and often kept my face hidden by a book. But there was an older guy, someone with a little more experience behind him than the stupid boys in my high school class. I stared until Reese caught me staring. I quickly looked away, my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

  My father ended the prayer and we all started eating. I kept my eyes lowered and tried hard not to get caught staring again. I was, after all, a dorky high school girl and he was a cooler, older guy who worked at a club. There was no way, in a million years, my brother's best friend was going to look twice at me.

  But a girl could dream, couldn't she?

  “Dude, where did you get the money for that?” my brother asked.

  We were hanging out in the living room, watching television as I pretended to study, and my brother was on the phone – talking to Reese most likely.

  “I'm so jealous, dude,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Could you please be quiet – ” I started to ask him, but it was my mom who beat me to it.

  “Please don't make us listen to your conversations, Luke,” she said. “Take it to your room.”

  “Nah, it's fine,” Luke said. “He's coming over anyway.”

  “Who is?” I asked, already knowing the answer and feeling the heat rise in my cheeks.

  “Reese, Duh. He just bought a killer new sound system for his car and wants to show it off,” he said.

  “Where does he get the money for stuff like that?” my mom asked.

  It was a question that had occurred to me, but one I never really pursued because it really didn't matter all that much to me. But I had thought about it briefly given that my brother worked at the same club and couldn't even afford his own toilet paper – he made our parents buy it for him.

  “I dunno. Side jobs and stuff,” Luke said, not meeting our gaze. “What's it matter to you? At least he's making a living, right?”

  “Unlike someone we know,” I muttered under my breath.

  “You're just jealous and you have a massive crush, Maya,” Luke said. I turned bright red. “But keep dreaming. There's no way he'd ever be into a nerdy little high schooler like you.”

  “I don't have a crush,” I lied, looking down at my textbook as if mitochondria and nuclei were the most interesting subjects on the planet. “I would never have a crush on one of your loser friends, Luke.”

  “Ha. Yeah, right. We both see the way you gawk at him every time he comes over,” he sneered. “You're not fooling anyone.”

  “Enough!” My mom shouted, putting her hands up between us. “Stop it already. Just stop arguing. I'm trying to watch my movie.”

  I glared at Luke and he smirked at me. He knew he was right. And even worse, I knew he was right. He knew I had a crush on Reese, and no matter what I said, there was no denying it. And now that Reese knew, well, that would make running into him even more awkward than it already was.

  I picked up my textbook, slammed it shut and walked toward my room. The tears were fresh in my eyes and stung, but I couldn't cry in front of Luke. I couldn't give my obnoxious brother anymore reason to smirk or laugh at me than he already had.

  Only a few more weeks until graduation, then I was off to college, I reminded myself. I'd be going to Northwestern, so not terribly far – but far enough that I would be able to avoid my brother and his friend. I'd meet other boys at college and forget that Reese even existed, I was sure of it. I was going to meet more worthy boys, not boys who worked at nightclubs and likely sold drugs on the side to live an expensive lifestyle that he otherwise shouldn't have been able to afford.

  It was hard being eighteen and a virgin still, but I'd survive. One day, I'd find the right boy and we'd have sex and it would be magical. Reese would be a distant, shameful memory. And sooner or later, he'd wise up and drop my brother, the wannabe gangster. Then I would be the one laughing at Luke.

  But until then, I'd hide away in my room, do what I needed to do to get ready for college, and escape from it all. I'd watch from my window as the two of them played basketball, laughing to myself as Reese obliterated my brother every time. Luke sucked at basketball – most sports, really. He only played so he could look cool next to his new friend from the city. The basketball hoop attached to our garage was just beneath my window, so sometimes they'd catch me watching. Luke would flip me off, Reese would roll his eyes and pretend I wasn't there.

  But I could always find some measure of escape in my room. And by escaping, I, of course, meant masturbating, because God knew, I was still very much a young, warm blooded woman with needs and desires that needed to be met.

  And yes, I often imagined Reese while I touched myself. Because I knew that he was just the right type of bad who could talk me out of my panties. He'd let me do all the dirty things my heart desired – and I wouldn't have to feel guilty about any of them. Not with Reese.

  Not that it would ever happen, of course.

  Which is why they were called fantasies.

  A Few Months Later

  Allie poked her head into my room with an overzealous smile. “We're all going to a club downtown, wanna join us?”

  Inwardly, I groaned and stared down at the textbook in my lap. I was studying for a test, my first one in my chemistry class and I wanted to ace it. But there was some small spark of desire in me to get out and have some fun.

  “Come on, the test isn't until next week, Maya,” Allie said, rolling her eyes at me. “Don't you want to get to know your sorority sisters?”

  Yes, my sorority sisters. Me, of all people, had pledged a sorority – though, it hadn't been my choice. No, my mother had insisted I pledge. She'd been a Delta Lambda back in her college days and wanted her little girl to be her legacy. Even though sororities were so not my thing. I got in – thanks to my mother being an alumna – but I never really fit in. The girls – and my mother – kept trying to get me to come out of my shell, but it hadn't taken very well.

  “You're a smart girl, Maya. Smarter than most people I know,” my mother had once told me. “You don't have to study all the time to do well. Go out with your sisters, make some memories. Heck, maybe meet a good man like I did wi
th your father.”

  I tried telling my mom I wasn't interested in meeting a husband, not while I was in college. Not with medical school on the horizon. I didn't want that to deter me from my dreams. I could meet a husband afterward, once I'd gotten settled into my career. I had plenty of time and wasn't in any hurry.

  And as far as the sorority went, well, I wasn't thrilled to be a sorority girl. Though, I had to admit – if only to myself – that it was nice to have friends and feel like I was part of the cool crowd for a change. I knew my mom was right about getting out and creating memories with my newfound friends. I didn't want to look back at this part of my life twenty years into the future and remember that all I had were books and tests in my life. There was a part of me that wanted some fun and some wild stories to tell. And Allie seemed cool enough – so did a few of the other girls.

  “What club? You know I can't get into most clubs because I'm not twenty-one – ”

  Allie held up what appeared to be an ID – an ID I knew had to be fake. “We have you covered, girlie. And we're headed to the Neon Dragon – that hip place downtown.”

  The Neon Dragon. Why did that name ring a bell? Then it hit me. My brother worked there. At least, he had once upon a time. Not that long ago really. He'd not so surprisingly managed to get himself fired for drinking on the job. His good friend Reese still worked there, though. If I was going to go – and I was leaning toward going – I knew I would just have to avoid the DJ booth since he knew I wasn't twenty-one.

  “I've never been to a club before,” I said, biting my lip. “I don't think I even know how to dress for it.”

  Allie squealed with delight, as if I'd already told her I was going. I hadn't given her an affirmative answer yet, but she heard one anyway.

  “That's fine, you can borrow something from me or my roomie – you're about the same size as Lauren, I think. You have some curves on ya, girlie – you can totally look sexy, you know. In the right outfit, with the right makeup – you'll be a sex kitten in no time, doll.”