by Gold, Bella
Tinaya walked back to her office and sat down. She was supposed to be writing down all of these great questions. This was her chance, but all she could think about was seeing Dustin again. Tinaya had figured that she wouldn’t see him past commenting on the games he played in. She certainly didn’t think he would call and then come down to give her the interview every sports journalist was dying for.
“Hey, I just heard about the interview. Great job Tinaya. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged. “He is going to be here in a minute, what should I ask him?”
“Well, I always wanted to know how big it is. I mean the man wears a fourteen shoe.”
Tinaya looked away, telling her friend that she wasn’t helping the situation at all. She heard a commotion in the main room on the floor and looked out to see Dustin Bird coming towards her. God, he was handsome, she thought to herself. He was quite a sight and her eyes took all of him in before he saw her and started towards her.
Camille had turned to mush and Tinaya introduced them before she made a fool of them both. “Dustin, this is my friend and co-worker Camille.”
Her blonde friend blushed, something that her fair skin did not hide and when he shook her hand, ponytail thought she was going to melt into a puddle right there. After a minute, Tinaya got her attention urging her to leave. Camille said something about having something to do, but it was clear to everyone in the room that she didn’t want to go anywhere.
When she finally left, Dustin put down the shades in her office and turned towards her. “We have time if you wanted more than an interview Tinaya.”
She sighed, more that her body seemed to be reading itself as they talked. Tinaya was already in need of more and the devilish look in his eyes told her that he knew it. “I am at work.”
He frowned, seeing that she wasn’t going to go for it. “Fine, I can be professional, but I am not so sure if you can or not.”
Tanya gave him a dirty look. “What are you doing here?”
“Giving you your interview. Do you have your questions ready?”
“I didn’t know we were doing this. I just got here.”
He sat down across from her in the chair and pulled out a list of questions for her. “I figured you might not have time for that. I will answer any of those questions and any more if you tell me about them now. I do not like to be surprised. Well, I liked your last surprise, but I don’t think I would like this kind of surprise.
She scanned the questions and realised that he was going to go over every controversy that he had been involved in as of late. “I don’t understand. Why would you do this?”
“You were the one that said I need to set the record straight and stop letting the media say what they want. I trust you. I don’t know why, but I do Tinaya and I want it to be you.”
Tinaya couldn’t help the goofy grin. It made her want to kiss him, but knew that she was not going to be able to stop once she started. “Afterwards I will take you out for lunch to celebrate.”
“Only if I get some dessert with my meal.”
She nodded that he would. He was going to get all of the dessert he wanted after the sweet gesture. It was everything that she ever wanted, the story of a lifetime.
Chapter 5
The taping of the interview went better than she could have thought it would go. Though Dustin kept giving her a look that made her want to melt in the chair, he was respectful and answered all of the questions with the brutal honesty that she had recently come to know him for. It was abrasive and hard to deal with on one hand, but on the other it was refreshing. Dustin Bird was not the kind of man to say anything but what was on his mind.
When the interview was over, it was about lunch time and instead of going with Camille, she ditched her again for a quickie in a restaurant bathroom. She had never been so tempted and felt so cherished than when she was with him. He had made the comment that he was a sex addict, but it was Tinaya that was feeling like she could never get enough from him. It was all that she thought about and even after they went back to their seats and had their plates brought out, Tinaya wanted more.
The relationship quickly became something else and each evening when she was off of work, Tinaya would either go watch him practice or he would pick her up and they would go back to her place. Their trysts were always kept hush because of what she did for a living, but Tinaya was falling hard for the man.
About a month after they started dating or whatever it was that they were doing, they had one last night together before he would have to start playing. Tinaya was worried about what that would mean for them. The media would be back on the basketball players and he was going to be travelling. Part of her was worried that he wouldn’t be able to wait for her, or that temptations would be too much. He had come a long way, but it didn’t mean that he wasn’t still the player that she had met.
“Why are you so frowny-faced today?”
He moved behind her as she got dressed in front of the mirror. They had been making love for hours and she had just finished rinsing off his need from her body. Kicking him out of the shower when he wouldn’t let her get clean, Dustin was now wrapping his arms behind her from behind. She liked the way his hands contrasted with her chocolate brown skin.
“I am not being whatever you just said. I am just thinking about what happens when you start playing again. I will never see you.”
She was pouting if she was honest with herself. The idea of not seeing him every night was not one that she was very happy with. Tinaya had come to cherish their time together.
“Come with me when I travel and when I am home, you will be in my bed. Nothing will change.”
“What if you have a desire and I am not around?”
“Are you worried that I will cheat?”
She turned around and moved to his arms. “I know that you owe me nothing. We aren’t even together really, so I don’t think you could cheat.”
“Do you really not know what you mean to me?”
“I don’t know what this is, but we can’t be this when the cameras roll. We have to be professional because you can’t take another scandal.”
“Baby, I am the top point guard with all kinds of rings. I can take another scandal.”
She pushed him aside and started to get dressed. While he had toned down his womanising ways, he was still just as egomaniacal as he had been before. “I have seen better players lose it all with a little too much ego. No one is invincible Dustin, not even you.”
Tinaya turned back around after she got dressed and noticed a change in his face. He was not happy with her comment, but she had not thought that he would be so pissed off about it. “What Dustin? You know that I am telling you the truth. You have a contract coming up and the last thing you want to do is start losing it again or get caught up in another media frenzy. As good as you are, the team doesn’t want all of the bad press.”
“So that is what you think huh?”
She moved to kiss him and he pulled away. “Are you seriously mad?”
“My girlfriend basically just told me to shut my mouth and look pretty. Why would I be mad?”
Tinaya was more moved by him calling her his girlfriend. It was the first time that he had called her that, but she had no time to get mushy about it when he was giving her such a dirty look. There was something more that he was upset about, there had to be, but Tinaya had no idea what it was. He was known for a temper and with her he had been moody before. When he left though not long afterwards, Tinaya was left wondering what the hell had happened. Was his pride and ego so big that he couldn’t take criticism at all?
She didn’t know, but Tinaya hated the feeling that he was mad at her. She tried to call him on his phone, but he didn’t answer. It looked like he was the one that was pouting now.
***
Tanya tried to ignore the dread she was feeling from her fight with Dustin the night before. She wasn’t used to fighting with him and in the short time that they had been toge
ther, he had become her best friend. She also missed the way she felt in his arms.
She tried to stay busy, but when it was time for bed she couldn’t sleep. Instead, she stayed up and went through her calendar that she hadn’t been keeping up with. Tinaya used to live by her calendar. It had everything that she needed to do, written in the small boxes, but for the last month or more, all she could worry about was Dustin. Maybe it is a good thing that we take a break, she thought to herself. She didn’t believe it, though, even when she said it out loud, her words sounded hollow to her own ears.
Her melancholy continued as she filled in the last month worth of bills and made some appointment notes for the next month. With all of the NBA games coming up, she had a lot of travelling to do herself and it made her think about Dustin. She didn’t want a break. She wanted to be with him and the idea made her even more moody. Why did everything have to be so complicated?
Her hand paused when she went back to the prior month and saw the small drop that she put on three of the days. It was always her little note to herself for her period and then she went back to the month she was filling in for. She didn’t remember having one and the more Tinaya thought about it, the more she realized that she had missed it completely. It had been at least four weeks since she was supposed to have it. Something was going on and then she thought of Dustin again for a whole other reason.
Tinaya panicked. She didn’t mean to, but her brain couldn’t wrap itself around it. She was on pills but hadn’t been as diligent as she should have been. She had forgotten them a couple of times when she stayed at his house and when they had first met. Could she really be?
Leaving her house, it was the middle of the night, but she had a 24-hour drugstore a few blocks away. Tinaya didn’t even care that she was wearing her pajamas. All she could think about was an answer, knowing she would not be able to sleep until she knew the truth.
When she got the truth, she stared at the small stick for several minutes. So long that her legs started to go numb and she had to stand up to let blood start flowing again. Her heart was beating fewer beats and Tinaya worried that she was going to be sick, or faint. She really wasn’t sure which one. Maybe she was having a heart attack.
The one question she kept asking herself. “How could I have let this happen?”
Chapter 6
Dustin was having his own revelations about life in general and he knew that as soon as he had stormed off in a huff, he wished he hadn’t. Tinaya was just telling him the truth, something that he had always admired about her, but it was not something that he had wanted to hear. He didn’t want to hear how close he had been from messing it all up. He didn’t want to hear that he had to be polite, hold his temper. More than anything, Dustin didn’t want to think about the idea of not being able to play basketball. Like Tinaya, his life had revolved around it since he was a kid.
He fought the urge to call her when he got home and lay down in the bed by himself. It had been a long while since he had slept without her curved body next to him and he was wishing that she was there. He didn’t want to seem weak though and convinced himself that he was right before he would finally get some sleep. It would all work out, he told himself.
The next day he had practice and when he got a call to go in early, Dustin did not know what it was for. He wasn’t in the mood for the media that he saw piled into the front room as he drove around back. Dustin had a feeling that he was not going to like what it was about. He racked his mind, but couldn’t for the life of him think of anything that he had done to cause the media stir. Dustin was hopeful that it was one of the other players that had been caught with their pants down. He couldn’t always be the only one getting into trouble.
Dustin had talked himself out of freaking out. It was someone else. Since meeting Tinaya he had kept himself out of trouble and hadn’t been photographed once getting into it with anyone or coming out of a club drunk with a couple of women. Everything in his life had changed since he had met her and he would be the first to admit that it had all been for the best. It was a realisation that was clearer in that moment walking into the building. It was the first time that he didn’t dread having to pay for what he had done because he hadn’t done anything.
It didn’t matter, though, it was always about him. He didn’t even have to do anything to make front-page news. All that had to happen apparently was some woman that he had met once or twice after a game claiming that he had impregnated her. The sad part was that Dustin had not even had sex with her, so there was no way. He was sick of talking about it, but they were there for him and his manager was trying to give him a pep talk as they walked into the press conference. She had apparently had the baby and was petitioning the court for a DNA sample.
“Scott, I am really not in the mood for this right now. I mean really not in the mood for this. Can’t you put this shit off for another time?”
Scott shook his head. “You need to handle this and after the interview with that chick from ESPN. Which I didn’t sanction I might add, but it needs to be put to rest. I thought that was what you were doing now.”
Dustin could tell that Scott was still mad about him not telling him, but there really hadn’t been much of a choice. Everything had happened so quickly and after the night they had together, he had wanted to do something for her. Her words about getting the truth out there had struck a chord with him as well. One that he now could see had helped him. She made him more peaceful, but it didn’t mean that he wanted to hold a press release every time someone lied about him either.
“What are you thinking Dustin? You got this strange look on your face. You aren’t going to lose it, are you?”
The smile that her thoughts brought him faded as he looked over at the man. He was wondering to himself why he was working with him but knew that right then was not the time to wonder. There was nothing he could do about the press conference but to go to it. When he walked in and saw the lights of the flashing cameras, he tried to steel himself. When he saw Tinaya in the front row, he felt betrayed in a way that she hadn’t given him a heads up. It didn’t matter that he had been acting like a child of course.
Sitting down, their eyes locked and Tinaya was the one that finally looked away. She was looking good, her hair was pulled back and his thoughts went to holding the pony tail of curls. Shivering he knew he had to get it together, but it felt like it had been forever since he had filled his eyes with her and he couldn’t help but drink her in. What were they even fighting about?
The questions got him out of his stupor and they were all about the girl. He assured everyone there that he was going to take the DNA test if that was what was ordered, but he knew that it wasn’t his. Dustin didn’t care that most of the reporters didn’t believe him. He was watching Tinaya and wondering why she was there.
“So you are trying to pretend like you never had sex with this woman?”
His head went back to the tall man in the back that asked the question. “That is what I said, wasn’t it?”
“Considering your past with women, do you really expect the public to believe you this time?”
Dustin could feel himself getting angry. He knew that they had no reason to believe him. They couldn’t see that he was trying to change. Dustin had never wanted to change, but Tinaya had changed him. He looked at her before he said anything else. He was trying to keep his temper in check.
“The DNA test will prove what I have been saying all along. Now if there is nothing else…”
“One question.”
Dustin sighed, knowing that he didn’t want to answer another question. Not from her. Not now.
“Are you going to let these allegations keep you from giving it your best at the first game against the Lakers? Your game has been lacking through practice and I am wondering if you expect this to continue to affect you on the court?”
His eyes went to the person asking the question. She looked different then and for a moment his heart melted. How could he be mad at
her? But the noise from the rest of the ravenous group distracted him and he remembered where he was and why he was there.
“I will never let some woman get in the way of me playing the game. No one is worth that.”
Tinaya blanched a little and she knew that he was meaning her and every other woman he had been with. She had other questions written down on her notepad that she should have asked, but she didn’t, she couldn’t. Not with the way he was looking at her as if she were the enemy. It was how he had looked at her the first time that they met.
“If that is all, I have practice to go to. Where I will try not to be so lacking.”
She was quiet, as were the rest of the media for a moment. It was only when he was starting to sit up that the questions started again. Tinaya waited for him to go off like he had so many times before, but instead he just turned and walked away. She almost would have been happier with his anger, than the look of disappointment in his eyes.
The whole room was abuzz, many starting their reports to their respective channels. Tinaya had the cameraman take a few shots of the room and then he had already gotten the video of the few questions that he had answered. While he had made a couple shots at her for her question, she knew that he had handled it a lot better than he had in the past. She was proud of him for that. But there was still the sinking feeling of what was going to happen between the two of them.
Chapter 7
“Tinaya, what are you doing back here?”
“I got the shots and the video. I thought Jeffrey turned it into you an hour ago.”
“He did, but you should be there covering the practice. They are looking good this year and with the first game coming up, it would be good to get some shots of the practice game tonight.”