Every Kind of Way

40.

Mike gave him a nod with an frustrated sigh.

"I'm just tryna remain professional, Coach." Sanchez lifted his hands now done with the conversation. "I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for your time."

Sanchez didn't waste another minute at the table or in that room. He didn't go straight home. He made a stop at the gas station where he racked up on chips and chewy candy for the night. He had plans of skipping out on his teammates and going home to rent a movie in his small theater room. He needed a night of calm energy and no thoughts.

"Yo, Dal! You tryna catch a movie with me? I'm thinking maybe Home Front or Borne Identity." he locked the door behind him and threw his duffle bag under the foyer table.

"Um, Home Front will do." Dallas responded with an underlying tone of amusement in her voice.

"What's funny?" he followed her voice toward the kitchen and suddenly began to smell food. Instantly, he frowned because Dallas wasn't one to cook and if she did it was a grilled cheese. "Bruh what you in here doing?"

Dallas sat at the kitchen island with a frozen drink, "I'm not doing anything. How'd the meeting go?"

"Man," Sanchez sucked his teeth. "I don't know what that man has going on but by time week 10 come I'll play my other cards to see what it is. The man is tripping."

He inched over to the oven and pulled it down to a large pan of food cooking. It smelled good but it was covered with foil. The aroma alone told him it wasn't Dallas' doing at all.

"Who you got in my house?" he pushed it closed and turned to her expectedly.

"Nobody. I found the recipe and decided to give it a try. It's smells good huh? Beginner's luck."

Rue slowly walked into the kitchen, rubbing against his legs with light purrs for him to pick her up. He scooped her in his arm but kept his eyes on Dallas, "You'll never get me to believe nothing about you cooking is luck."

"Well, believe it. Can you grab an extra ticket and pass for the game? Asha said she wants to come." she hid her smirk by taking a sip of her drink.

"She told you that?"

"Mhm."

"You secured a flight for her yet?"

"Yes." she slurped more of her drink, still smiling.

"She coming back with us or no?" he let Rue down.

"That...she didn't say. I should've asked because she told me it would be a while before she came back. What you went down there and did?" she gave him a knowing look.

He laughed, "Nah, nah. Nothing like that cuzzo. She's still holding out on me. I'm not too bothered by it though. People need time."

He knew all about needing time to process emotions and figure out what's wanted from a situation. It was where he'd been when it was revealed that she had feelings for him back in the day. He had no intentions of forcing anything or rushing her to decide what she wanted from him. He had a hard time when it was done to him, so he wasn't going to put her in the same place. He believed it played a majority in their inability to sustain a relationship at the time. Right person, wrong time.

Back then he had many things to learn about himself and recover from. It wasn't too much he could give whether people thought his mistakes were common sense. It was his journey. Now, she was in the middle of trauma she had to recover from and possibly relearn some things. He could see everything for what it was right now.

"I like her but you aren't gonna wait around are you? I'd hate for you to expect something and it never come."

"I can't say I would or wouldn't." he admitted with a shrug. "I'm not tryna be old and rusty with somebody and thinking about somebody else. That's crazy."