Wardell Stephen Curry.
Oakland, CA.
"Alright, boys. I'm about to head out." I announced to Andre, Klay, Kevin and Dray as we finished watching the Raptors vs 76ers game.
"I call the Raps to win this series." Klay said as he too fixed to leave.
"Same bro." KD agrees. "I know Kawhi would love to beat us in the finals." K added.
"He can try. He won't be winning shit with Serge and Lowry." Draymond said, making the guys crack up.
"Dray, don't jinx us. Let's see who wins the series before we start talking shit." I warned.
"Okay, Pastor Wardell." He waved me off while I mugged him.
These nicknames they be giving are crazy.
"Alright, not too much on my mans now." Klay interjected, defending me.
I said my final goodbyes to the team before making my exit with Klay following closely behind me.
"Steph, can I ask you something?" Klay said.
I nodded waiting for him to continue.
"It's about your friend, Alani."
Oh shit, here we go. I immediately become tense as soon as someone mentions her.
"What about her?"
"Is the news about her being divorced true?"
Why in the hell would he be asking me that?
"I honestly don't know, bro." I replied.
"Oh, I was just wondering." He nodded and dapped me up before leaving.
Weird.
I got into my car and Alani immediately took over my thoughts once again. She was on my mind a lot lately, like, to the point where I'm even dreaming about her.
It wasn't that late so I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I pulled up on her. You know, to have our talk. As friends.
I need to see her. I need to make sure she's okay. That we're okay.
After contemplating for a while, I decided to just call her.
'Marie 🧸' I stared at the screen waiting for her to answer, while focusing on the road at the same time.
"Hey, Wardell." She answered.
For some reason, she always makes me nervous. Plus, I don't know if she's even up to seeing me right now. Let's hope I don't get rejected.
"Wassup, Ally. Are you busy?" I asked.
"No, why?" Alani asked, sounding a bit skeptical.
"I want us to meet, if that's okay with you?"
"Are you sure you wanna meet right now? It's kinda late and I don't wanna drive." She said, making me frown slightly.
"I can pick you up." I negotiated. "We can go for a drive or something. Like old times."
We used to do that a lot in college. It was like our thing.
"Okay. I'll send you my address." She says and I excitedly dance in my seat. We say our goodbyes and I put her address in my GPS and made my way over there.
She lives only 10 minutes from Andre's house which means she's lives 20 minutes away from mine.
How convenient.
At Alani's House.
I was sitting in her drive way for a good 5 minutes just trying to get my thoughts together.
I know I probably shouldn't be here this late, without my wife knowing but as usual, Alani has this hold on me that I can't wrap my head around.
After a while, I decided to stop being a bitch and go knock on the door. A few seconds later, the door swung open.
"Hey, you finally decided to knock. You were out there for a while." She eyes me.
I scan over her simple, but cute outfit. She never has to do too much. And she was wearing her glasses. Those always look cute on her.
"I was kinda nervous." I admitted, while rubbing my now sweaty hands against the front of my pants.
"I get it. We haven't had an actual conversation in 10 years."
I nodded. "Are you ready to go?"
She nodded. I led us to my white Range Rover and open the door for her.
"Thank you." She smiled.
"You're welcome."
I closed her door then jogged over to my side.
"I got you something. I've been meaning to give it to you for a while." I reached over to the back seat to pull out a small teddy bear.
"This is cute. You didn't have to." She smiles while checking the bear out.
"I saw it at the store and thought of you. Do you remember the nickname I had for you back in the day?" I asked while holding my laughter.
"Oh gosh, no." She cringes and covers her face.
"Bear!" I poked her sides making her giggle.
The name Bear just stems from the fact that her eyes are kind of shaped the same as a teddy bear. And she used to sleep with like 8 stuffed animals on her bed at the age of 20. Like, who does that?
"I hated that name because you always used to make fun of my stuffed animals."
"You were too grown for all that, Ally." I chuckled.
"I needed something to cuddle when you weren't around." She says and I notice the change in her expression.
"I'm really sorry for what happened in New York. I didn't want things to end like that." I turned to Alani who was now clinching the bear to her chest.
"Things would've been way different if you actually went after what you want, Wardell. Who knows, we would be celebrating our 15 year anniversary right now instead of apologising for the past." She turns to face me with hurt all in her eyes. I truly hate to see her like this, especially since I'm the cause of it.
"You know everything happens for a reason. I mean, we did find our way back to each other, didn't we?" I raise and eyebrow and turned my attention back to the road.
"You know it's not the same. You're married with 3 kids and I'm-" She takes a long pause and stares out the window. "I'm divorced."
"So it's true?" I ask and she nodded.
"I'm so sorry, babygirl." I rubbed her knee to somewhat comfort her. Touch is her love language after all. "I'm here for whatever you need. You know that right?"
"I know." She half smiled and placed her hand on top of mine.
"Your mom is probably celebrating the fact that my marriage failed."
"Don't say that."
"It's true. She hates me. That woman has been praying on my downfall since the day she found out you paid for my abortion." Alani shakes her head. "If I hadn't been so boy crazy, we would still be together. I wouldn't have gotten pregnant by that asshole and Sonya wouldn't hate me. I always find a way to fuck shit up."
I noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks and opted to park in an empty parking lot.
"Hey, look at me." I grabbed her chin to face me. "We all make mistakes, Ally. That's part of being human, part of growing. But I forgave you for that years ago, okay." I wiped the tears that fell down her face.
"I know." She pouted. "But you still ended up with Ayesha after you told me you didn't like her. You still chose her."
"Alani, you know I didn't have a choice."
She scoffs. "You always have a choice, Wardell. You just choose the safe option every time. No matter how much it hurts you."
"I just didn't want to disappoint my parents! My intentions were never to hurt you. I was just doing what I thought was best for my future." I explained.
"Yeah, but I did get hurt. I had to go back to Davidson and see your face all over the gym walls, all over the television. I had to watch you kiss Ayesha the night you got drafted. I had to watch her wear your jersey to games. I had to watch you get your first All-Star selection, your first MVP, your first championship knowing I should be celebrating those accomplishments with you. I had to watch you build our dream life with someone else and you won't ever know that pain." She expresses and yanks her hand away from mine.
"As if it wasn't hard for me to let you go either? You think you were the only one who was hurt by the circumstances?" I asked. "I was going through the same thing, Ally. I was there the day you graduated. I saw you feature in Chris Brown's music video. I bought your first magazine cover issue. Hell, i even called your mom on a daily basis to check up on what you were doing." I said, making Alani's facial expressions soften a bit.
"I didn't know that."
"I stopped checking up on you after your mom told me you and Wesley were getting serious. You moved on. You were happy and that was all I ever wanted for you."
"This is hard." She chuckled.
"I know."
"Can we start over? Like be friends again." She asked.
"I would love to! I'll be damned if I spend another 10 years of my life without you."
Alani squeals and engulfs me in a tight hug.
"Thank you." Her soft voice echoed.
"Your welcome, bestie." I say in a girly voice.
"Ew, don't ever say that again!" Alani cracks up.
I tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as I admired her beauty. She really hasn't aged one bit.
"Wardell," she stared at me with those brown eyes and once again I was falling victim to them.
My eyes stared from her eyes to her lips back to her eyes again. For moment, it felt like we were the only two people in the world.
I grabbed her chin and slowly leaned in as she did the same. Our lips gently brushed again each other before Alani pulled away.
"Wardell, don't do something you'll regret." Alani said, almost sounding like she was pleading.
"I'd never regret any moment I spend with you." I reconnected our lips and this time she didn't pull away.
This felt a little too right for it to be wrong.
Authors note.
Double update. Finally. It's time to stir things up. Not Pastor Wardell sinning *side eye*. Are you happy with the book so far? Lmk. Don't forget to vote and comment. 💕💕