"Ok, well go ahead and take them off so I can win." He shook his head,
"No, it's not fair anyway. I'll be naked and not even have a 'E' yet. It's not fair, I only had four things you have more clothes." She shrugged,
"Hey, you wanted to play this game, you should have thought about that." He shook his head,
"Let's go to your house and I'll do it there, or in the car if you really want me to but not here come on." She shook her head,
"You were more than ready for me to do it out here when you thought you were going to win Mr. Ego." He shook his head and looked at her sadly,
"No, I wasn't going to make you, I swear Sydney, I swear." She was always nicer than she wanted to be and finally nodded her head,
"Ok, you don't have to." He smiled and wrapped her in his arms,
"Thanks Syd." She rolled her eyes and grabbed her clothes,
"Come on, let's get out of here." He sat on the blacktop and put on his shoes, not bothering with the socks,
"Hey, you got that ball for me?" She nodded,
"Yeah, you can follow me home and get it." She promised him she would get a signed Kobe Bryant basketball when she did a short piece on him for the NBA. Nick was building a game room next door to his house, complete with arcade games, a huge TV, his pooltable, darts, the works that way he could entertain his rowdy friends there and not worry about his house getting trashed all the time. He wanted to display all his signed balls, jerseys and helmets in the room.
They made it into her condo and he smiled as he looked around,
"You got new furniture. Nice." She smiled,
"Yeah, time for something new. Have a seat, I'll get your ball." She came back out to see him stripped down to nothing with a pillow in his hand,
"Oh my God." She turned her head and laughed nervously,
"What are you doing?" He smiled and put the pillow in front of him,
"You won." She laughed and screamed out,
"Eww, not on my pillow Nick." He laughed and dropped the pillow and began to walk towards her,
"Don't come near me." She realized he wasn't stopping,
"Nick, what are you doing? He placed his hands on her shoulders,
"Sydney." He leaned into her and just as he was about to kiss her she pulled back,
"No, seriously. What's going on?" He walked over and pulled on his shorts and sat on the couch,
"We should date." He saw the look on her face and nodded as he held up his hands,
"Listen for a minute. Everyone thinks so. My dad, my sisters, my brother." She frowned,
"When did you start thinking like this?" He licked his lips nervously,
"When we were at the All-Star game and seeing all those athletes and movie stars hit on you. I looked at you differently. Seeing you flirt and stuff, I was kind of jealous. Maybe we can try, if you want." She smiled,
"Are you sure you're ready to turn down all those other girls, not hang out with the fans like you do now. It may seem crazy but I couldn't handle that. Those girls would do anything to get with you." He nodded,
"I understand that." She sat down beside him,
"I've seen you in action, I've heard about you. Some of that stuff you've done in the past month, you're not ready Nick. Like you said, you were just jealous. I don't want to mess this up, we're such good friends." He leaned into her and held her face as he kissed her, she fought it at first but her mouth finally gave way to his tongue and he smiled inwardly as she moaned. His hands ran slowly down to her neck and she finally pulled away from him,
"Nick, you can't start a relationship with sex." He stood up,
"We know each other, we hang out, we have fun, I know you like cookie dough ice cream, you don't like broccoli, you like to surf and you didn't lose your virginity until you were 20 because you were scared it was going to mess up your game." She laughed at that last part, she was so naive and scared about having sex and what effect it would have on her body,
"But you don't know what type of person I am in relationship." He looked at her intensely until she couldn't look at him anymore,
"You like white roses, you like when the guys sends you a little 99 cent card just to let you know he was thinking of you, you like spoiling the guy you're with, you like doing things together." She sighed,
"Guess you were listening when we would have those late night talks." He nodded, he also called her friend Tina and asked her everything he could about Sydney. He walked towards her and she shook her head as she bypassed him,
"Nick, just let me think about this. I have expectations. I expect you to never cheat on me. Can you do that? Have you ever been completely faithful to someone? Do not lie to me." He sighed and held his head down,
"No." He sat down and put on the rest of his clothes in silence, when he stood up she followed him to the door,
"I just don't want things to get messed up and uncomfortable Nick." He smiled wryly and shook his head,
"They already have." Despair spread over her face as she looked at his back as he walked away. Maybe she should give a try if for nothing more than things being ok between them. She called out,
"Call me so we can go out before you leave town." All she got in response was a wave of his hand as he kept walking.
Stories
Playing for Keeps