Swish

Timeout - Eli

The girl plastered to my chest started giggling when my back pocket wouldn't stop vibrating, but whereas her sigh when I answered it was from impatience and annoyance, mine was out of relief that I could drop the charade that I was actually into what we were doing. 

"Hello?"

"Eli?  This is Mike Bruins.  I was wondering if you had a second to talk?"

Holy shit.  Either his daughter had spoken to him to let him know that I had been a total ass when I first met her, or he was calling to tell me that he had finally agreed to be my coach. 

"Yeah, of course sir."

I prayed he didn't hear the tremble in my voice. 

"I was calling to ask if you were busy this afternoon and if you wanted to stay for dinner?  We can talk about your future, and I'd love for you to meet my family.  Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

"Yes absolutely!  Thank you so much!"

Was it sad that I was more excited about going over to eat dinner at a grown man's house than I was to have a nearly topless woman in my lap, grinding herself upon me while trying to distract me from my phone-call?  Most likely, but I wasn't going to question it too much.  

"I'll text you the address.  Once you get the family approval, I'm sure we'll be a great fit.  See you at four o'clock, Shepherd."

"Yes sir, can't wait."

The phone hung up and I was faced with a new problem.  I needed to talk to Virginia before she had a chance to do the same with her father. 

"Hey, I'm really sorry but something came up with basketball," I told Mia, who had since donned her sheer black shirt paired with a revealing tank top to go underneath it. 

"That's cool.  We can meet up later tonight?"

I scrunched up my face and hers fell upon seeing my reaction. 

"I'm sorry.  I know we said we'd 'keep the tab open' or whatever, but honestly, I'm going to be so focused on basketball and school and this extra coaching...I have really enjoyed our time together but I just haven't been feeling it lately.  I'm sorry, Mia."

One dark eyebrow raised in amusement and a half smirk on her lips, and I was officially confused. 

"What's her name?"

"What?"

"The girl.  The one who's got you all tied up in knots?  It'd be cute if it wasn't so painfully obvious."

"There's no girl," I tried to explain but Mia wasn't having any of it as she pushed a lock of black hair off of her shoulder. 

"Eli, it's okay.  I'm not mad.  We're both consenting adults, we knew this was just a little bit of fun and nothing serious.  If you want something more, a deeper connection or something, then you deserve that.  You're a really good guy, and she's a very lucky girl."

I hung my head and didn't respond, because what could I say to that?  'There's technically two girls that I haven't been able to get off my mind, except one I've never seen before in person and the other is my soon-to-be coach's daughter, so she's totally off limits'.  Yeah, that wouldn't sound completely out there at all.  So, I kept my mouth shut about her, or rather, them. 

"Thank you for being so cool about this, Mia."

"Don't worry about it," she said flippantly while grabbing her bag from my desk chair, stopping to look back only once before making it to my dorm room door.