Two Wolves For Lizette

by Jessica Miller

  “Hey, any guy can dance—tall or short,” I defended my kind and she held her hand up in surrender.

  “And clearly I’ve been proven wrong. You’re good on the dance floor.”

  “Thank you. So how about another drink and I get to know you a little?” I gave her a hopeful look and she nodded, her expression all cute and a little shy. I didn’t know if it was that smile or what, but this woman had definitely worked some sort of enchanting magic on me.

  *****

  Christina

  I could not believe I was actually sitting in the Chicago Red’s VIP section and flirting with Miles Anderson. He was even more gorgeous in person than he was on TV or in pictures. He looked exactly like his nickname entailed; superman. His wavy black hair had that superman curl, he had the traditionally handsome features. A square angular jaw and slightly cleft chin, straight nose, and slightly intense brows. He also had cheekbones that any male model would kill for and lips that looked so unbelievably soft I wondered if he wore lip balm.

  “So what do you do?” Miles leaned forward on the couch we sat down at and gave me his full attention, it was like to him I was the only other person in the room.

  “Well I just passed the Bar exam so now I’m a full blown lawyer,” I said and then took a sip of the second drink Miles bought for me.

  “Ah, so that’s what brought you out tonight; you’re celebrating,” he grinned at me and then picked up his glass of bourbon and clinked it with mine. “Congratulations, how many years have you been studying?” he asked and I sighed dramatically.

  “Too many years, but I’m done and now the real work begins.”

  “Hard work and dedication pays off, believe me,” he said and then took a sip of his drink.

  “That’s definitely true for an athlete like you,” I observed and he shrugged modestly.

  “It can be true for anyone pursuing any kind of success. Anyways, it takes a lot of discipline to stick to the books like you did. I admire that,” he said sincerely and of course that made me blush.

  “Thanks, but it’s not a hard thing to do if you really love it and it catches your interest.”

  Miles gave me a thoughtful smile and then ran his fingers through his hair, distracting me from our conversation to watch the flex of his biceps. He was wearing a form fitting sweater and jeans that fit him snugly. I was sure for such a simple, yet tasteful outfit, it was all designer and cost a fortune to anyone who didn’t make what he did.

  “You’re different,” he said thoughtfully and I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

  “How so? Like weird different?” I chuckled and he shook his head.

  “Like good, refreshing different. Usually if I meet a woman out at a club we’d still be dancing and not talking much and then she’d end up…well usually girls I meet are after one or both of two things from me,” he admitted and I followed him.

  “Sex or fame?” I asked and he nodded.

  “Yeah and fame usually equates to money,” he said and I patted his knee comfortingly.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not interested in ‘fame’ and I’ve never done a one-night stand before.”

  Miles looked at me in surprised disbelief.

  “Get out, a girl like you? How do you keep the guys off you?” he asked and I laughed.

  “It’s not hard, usually guys that come up to me aren’t all that persistent and know how to read body language and such. If they’re after a one night stand I say I’m not interested and that’s that.”

  Miles looked at me as if I were a jewel from heaven.

  “I just can’t believe this! Where have you been all my life girl? You got your head on your shoulders and that’s…well that’s sexy,” he grinned at me and I actually blushed a little.

  “Thanks, but I’m finding it a little hard to believe you haven’t met other women that have their heads on their shoulders,” I gave him a look and he chuckled.

  “It’s a product of where I hang out in my recreational time. I guess I attract the wrong kind of woman.”

  I snorted and he quirked his eyebrows at me.

  “What?”

  “Well that’s just…bullshit, pardon me for saying, you approach the wrong kind of woman because deep down that’s the only kind you figure you know you can get. You came up to me because I’m dressed like this and have my hair and makeup done and appear like all the other women you’re used to. If you saw me on the street I’d be wearing SpongeBob glasses and comfortable jeans…yes the jeans may make my butt look good, but that’s beside the point. If you went out of your comfort zone a little you’d find a lot better women than you supposedly ‘attract.’” I schooled him a bit and he simply sat and stared at me in disbelief.

  “I think I love you,” he said and then we both cracked up. “Seriously how did you just read me like that?” he asked and I shrugged.

  “I have a lot of brothers who all go through the same crap. I’ll admit it is hard being a successful and attractive guy just trying to find a good woman. But part of that is knowing where to find a good woman…or simply wait around and let her fall into your lap,” I said and Miles grinned at me.

  “Or realize that she’s staring at you from across the bar and go up to her,” he said and I gave him a shy smile. “How about another dance?” he asked me then stood up and offered me his hand. I put my drink aside and took it, then we hit the dance floor and spent the rest of the night talking, drinking, and dancing. By the time the club announced last call I was well and truly drunk.

  “Hey where are you going after this?” he asked me as we made our way outside a bit clumsily.

  “Uh, home I’m pretty sure,” I said and he gave me a slow sexy smile before he leaned down and kissed me on the jaw.

  “How about you let me give you a ride?” he asked and I cracked up.

  “There you go being corny again…how about we just go to your place and…play video games.” Miles looked at me as if I was the light of his life at that point.

  “Yes, yes let’s do that!” he enthused, making me laugh all over again, yep he was probably just as drunk as I was.

  *****

  Miles

  I woke up with a start, my phone was going off loudly and right next to my ear. I groaned and then silenced the thing before I looked down and saw Christina stirring from her sleep. She was wearing one of my jerseys and I had to admit that it looked hella good on her. We were lying on the floor in the upstairs family room where we had been playing video games, but then it turned into something much more.

  Christina stretched and then pushed the blanket I had grabbed from my bedroom down a bit before she looked up at me in shock. “Oh…my god.”

  I didn’t know how to read her mood, but it was becoming clear that she wasn’t exactly happy waking up next to me.

  “What the hell happened last night?” she asked me in a gasp and I sat up. Her eyes went to my chest as I wasn’t wearing a shirt and they widened.

  “Well uh…we met at the club…how much do you remember?”

  “I remember I met Miles Anderson, but oh my god I never thought I would end up…like this—with you!”

  “Well you did have a lot to drink last night, but this isn’t just a one-night stand, I promise. Maybe it’ll all come back to you once you’ve had something to eat,” I said to try and calm her down, but at that point she was getting up and looking for her clothes.

  “No I can’t, I have to go. This so isn’t like me…I’m sorry, but I can’t stay,” she said in a rush and then changed from my jersey into what she was wearing the night before right in front of me.

  “Not even for some coffee?” I asked her and she shook her head as she slipped on her shoes and found her clutch purse near the couch.

  “I can’t, I have to go…this was crazy, but super cool to meet you…um—yeah,” with that she hurried towards the stairs and then left without a second glance.

  For a second I just sat there thinking…I’m Miles Anderson, women did
n’t walk out on me, usually I told them to leave. Then I realized that after all we did last night I didn’t even get her fucking number!

  “Hey wait! Christina, wait!” I called after her and then ran downstairs in my boxers to try and catch her. I raced to the front door just in time to see her getting into a car through the window, my housekeeper, Linda, was locking the front door and she looked at me apologetically.

  “I’m sorry Mr. Anderson, I had a car waiting, I know that you prefer to have one ready when you bring a woman home…” she said and I waved away her concern.

  “It’s alright Linda…she was in a hurry anyway I’m sure you helped her out by having that car waiting,” I assured her and she smiled in relief.

  “Alright then Mr. Anderson, can I get breakfast going for you?” she asked and I nodded. She walked off in the direction of the kitchen and I simply stared outside until the car was no longer in view driving away. After having a quick breakfast, I showered and changed to head over to the arena for a team practice. As soon as I walked into the locker room, Jackson came up to me and nudged my arm with a dumb grin on his face.

  “So, what happened last night man? You were all wrapped up in that girl, the guys were makin’ fun of you, said you had stars in your eyes,” he joked and I rolled my eyes.

  “Man whatever, Christina was just different and I guess I liked her,” I tried to play it off, but of course Jackson pressed for more. He was basically the team’s gossip and if anything private got out to the tabloids it was usually him that was behind the words, ‘sources tell us’.

  “It was nothin’ man just give it a break,” I said and he rolled his eyes.

  “Clearly you didn’t get any last night,” he said and I whipped him in the back with a hand towel. After that we went out onto the practice court and ran drills and plays as usual. I couldn’t say I wasn’t distracted though; all I could think about was how much of an idiot I was that I let Christina just get away from me like that. Any guy worth half his own dick would know to always get a girl’s number as one of the first steps in trying to pick up a girl worth anything.

  “Yo Anderson, you better get your head in the game. You’re staying after practice to work on those three pointers. You usually make those naturally,” coach caught my attention after the fourth easy shot I missed.

  “Anderson’s head is in the clouds, he met a girl last night and she didn’t give it up,” Jackson said and everyone ganged up on him, tellin’ him to shut up and whatnot.

  “Always in someone’s business Jack, why don’t you find yourself a woman and leave the rest of us alone,” Parker berated Jackson and got a few laughs from the guys. But coach was serious in the look he gave me, I was stuck after school basically.

  “Alright coach, I’ll be good for the game,” I promised and he nodded.

  “Good, everyone let’s run that play again,” he got the team back in gear and I tried to push Christina out of my head.

  *****

  Christina

  “Mommy are you done typing yet?” Caleb asked me as he passed by the little office nook near the living room for the tenth time. I told him that we’d go out for pizza as soon as I was done sending in applications to a few law firms in the city. Chicago was a big place with many big firms, I was sure that I’d get a hit from at least one of them.

  “Yes honey, just a second. If you’re hungry there’s some cut up apples in the fridge, I put them in the green Tupperware,” I said absently as I finished up my last inquiry letter.

  “What’s a tuppware Mommy?” he asked me and I couldn’t help but chuckle. I turned away from the laptop and opened my arms. He came willingly and I gave him a kiss on the forehead.

  “A Tupperware is a plastic container that preserves food. Like how we had leftover apples from this morning, I put them in the Tupperware and then stuck it in the fridge so they wouldn’t go bad or go to waste,” I explained and he nodded as understanding crossed his features.

  “Okay, so can we go to pizza now?” he asked and stuck out his bottom lip, giving me his classic five-year-old, ‘this pout will get me pretty much anything I ask for as well as get me out of trouble’ look.

  “Yes baby, give me two minutes. Go and have some apple,” I told him and he sighed before stepping out of my embrace.

  “Two minutes Mommy,” he said sternly and then walked over to the kitchen. I smiled and chuckled to myself as I finished up my email and hit send. I quickly ran back to my bedroom to put on some shoes, a sweater, and to grab my purse. Caleb was waiting by the front door with the small container of apples in hand.

  “Are you ready?” I asked him and he gave me a dramatic sigh.

  “I was ready before you,” he said a bit saucily and I smiled.

  “Oh that’s right, I’m sorry. If it weren’t for you I’d always be running late,” I said and he nodded as if that were completely true.

  “And you’d always forget your keys too,” he added and then handed me my set just before I could realize I didn’t have them in my purse.

  “Well, that’s because I think you always take my keys,” I said and he shook his head.

  “No, I keep them for you because you always lose them, and birds could get them like that hawk. Remember?” Of course the hawk story came up again. A year ago Caleb and I had been having a picnic at a park nearby and a hawk simply swooped down and grabbed my keys from on top of my purse. I then proceeded to chase the hawk until it landed in its nest high up in a fir tree. Luckily there was an odd character nearby; a white guy with long dreads and no shoes. He offered to climb up and retrieve my keys, which he actually did despite my protests. Ever since then that’s been a major moment in Caleb’s life that he still to this day often refers to.

  Caleb and I went to a nearby pizza parlor and shared a medium cheese pizza. We were discussing his habit of taking my keys. One thing I’ve learned as a mom was that I had to rationalize with Caleb on certain things or else he would continue to go against me.

  “Ah, excuse me miss?” both Caleb and I looked up at our waitress who was standing at the end of the booth and holding a white envelope. “Someone brought these to the counter and asked us to give them to you…” she said and then handed me the envelope.

  “What is it?” Caleb asked as I opened it and pulled out two tickets, courtside it seemed like, to a Chicago Red’s game! “Are those tickets mommy?” he pressed and I nodded then looked up at the waitress.

  “Oh my goodness, who dropped these off?” I asked and the waitress shrugged.

  “He didn’t say, he looked like a regular guy to me. Must be one of those good Samaritans or something you know. Like the ones who pay for people’s meals at a restaurant or give like huge tips or something,” she said and I looked down at the tickets again in shock.

  “Wow, that’s this is quite generous of whoever that was,” I said and looked across at Caleb who was standing on the seat and leaning over the table to see the tickets. “They are tickets to a Red’s basketball game,” I enthused and his entire adorable face lit up with excitement. “It’s for tomorrow night too.”

  “Wow Mommy that’s so cool!” he yelled and I shushed him a little and motioned for him to sit down properly. The waitress giggled at Caleb’s excitement and then left us to our dinner. As I safely put the tickets in my purse and told Caleb not to steal them for ‘safekeeping’, I remembered that not too long ago I had woken up pretty much naked next to Miles Anderson. How coincidental was that?

  “You know what?” I said conspiratorially to Caleb and he lit up in interest.

  “What, what?”

  “I think we have to go and buy a couple of Red’s jersey’s,” I said and Caleb exclaimed in enthusiasm once more before I shushed him again. We quickly finished our pizza after that and then took a trip to the mall. All Caleb could talk about was how tall basketball players were and if they are actually giants. Any chance I could get to make my son happy like that I took, because moments like those were so precious to me.


  *****

  Miles

  “Anderson I need you focused tonight. We have to keep our record intact from here on out in order for us to keep our spot in the playoffs,” Coach had pulled me aside just before the team went out onto the court and stressed to me the importance of not fucking up my shots. It was unlike me to be distracted on the court so I could see how he’d want to make sure I was focused.

  “Alright coach, I got it. I won’t fall short,” I said and he nodded, satisfied with my answer.

  “Good, now get out there,” he motioned for me to leave his office and he followed me out. The announcer had just started to present us to the crowd out in the stadium. The team jogged out to the court and as usual the volume of the cheering home crowd was pretty deafening. Our fans were some of the best, win or lose, even though there were more wins than losses, they were always cheering for us. We were playing against Cleveland that night and I was up against another of the best forwards in the league. It was bound to be a good game, but a hard one that was for sure.

  Before I knew it the warm up drills were over and the whistle was being blown to start the quarter. I was on the starting lineup and went into my zone as soon as the ball was tipped. Defense was pushing hard from both teams and for the first quarter it was a low scoring game. I picked up the pace in the second quarter and managed to get around my defender more often to make space for perfect shots. Every time the basketball sank through the hoop for our team the crowd went wild. Then a member of the other team was trying to shake his opponent off of him and must have tweaked his ankle because he went down hard and the whole stadium took a collective gasp. Time out was called and the medics swarmed the court.

  “He looks alright, though, maybe he just tweaked it,” one of the guys said and I nodded.

  “Yeah that what it looked like to me…” I said and then glanced to the left and took a double take. There sitting in a second row floor seat was none other than Christina! “Holy shit,” I muttered and then before I even realized it, I was walking quickly towards her. She was wearing a Red’s jersey and dark colored jeans with matching kicks. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she looked just as beautiful as I remembered her. She was also wearing big square glasses that did resemble the ones SpongeBob sometimes wore.