LOVE and SECRETS

JANESSA FROM P.R.

Bodhi got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He wiped the steam off the mirror to look at his reflection. Practice was a bitch today. He was still trying to get used to the way the games in the BBL were played. The court was smaller, and the games were shorter. You played harder and faster. The Eagles were number one in scoring in the league. There were also a lot less games played. The NBA has thirty teams playing eighty-two games during the regular season. There is literally a game going on every single night. The BBL has considerably fewer teams and plays fewer games. The games are on Fridays and Saturdays, and they practice four days a week. He hated England. He hated the food, he hated the weather, and he really hated that he was here and Perri was not. His teammates have taken him out several times and have done their best to get him to hook up with a "Ball Bunny," but the thought just doesn't interest him.

All he wanted to do was drink too much beer, eat some of the food Holden had shipped to him, and watch The Legend of Billy Jean. He and Perri used to watch it all the time when they were younger. Afterward, he tried to look like Christian Slater because Perri had mentioned how cute she thought she was. 

He heard a knock on the door. If there is a God, Perri will be on the other side of that door when I open it. Still in only a towel, he opened the door. Nope, not Perri. It was Janessa. She was his PR representative. The one who told him not to cut his hair. He looked up at the ceiling and rolled his eyes.

"What do you want, Janessa?" he asked, turning around and walking back into the apartment.

"Nice to see you too, Bodhizafa," she said, closing the door behind her.

"I have asked you not to call me that."

"Why? It's your name, isn't it?" She sat down on his couch.

He went to the fridge and got himself a beer. He had developed a fondness for Newcastle Brown Ale, which is made right down the road from where he stays. Plus, the company hands out free cases to all the players. They hope that when they are out, they like the beer enough to order it, and the more people who see them drinking it, the better. It's a free celebrity endorsement.

"Why are you here?"

"Nice to see you, too." She looked at him like he was a glass of water and she was a woman standing in the desert. His skin was still wet from the shower, and his hair was slicked back. She desperately wanted to see what was under that towel. "You forgot, didn't you?"

"Forgot what?" He drank half the beer. 

"The meeting tonight."

He looked at her, confused.

She put her hands on her hips. "With Oliver. The three of us are going out to dinner."

"Oh." He finished the beer and got another one. "I guess I forgot. It just didn't care to remember."

"Look, Bodhi, I get it. You miss home and your friends, but you are here and need to make the best of it. You are the biggest thing to hit the BBL in years. Do you know our ticket sales for the female demographic are up twenty-two percent?"

"Yeah, you mentioned it a few times." 

"Go get dressed. The car is downstairs. You have ten minutes. Dress nice."

"Come on, Janessa, I really am not in the mood."

"Go. Get. Dressed. NOW." 

He rolled his eyes and walked off down the hall. She peered around the corner and saw him whip the towel off and throw it in the bathroom on the way to his room. She saw his perfectly toned ass. His back muscles flexed as he walked.