A Time For Love (A Time For Love Series-Book 1)

We Meet Again

STEF POV

"LOSER! How could you miss that shot? I practically gave it to you! What are you turning blind or old Foster?" I tease Mike as he shakes his head and wipes the sweat off his forehead and brow with the towel he has around his neck. It was pretty typical of us to shoot some hoops on our days off, and I always found it as a good way to relieve some stress and always had.

My friendship with Mike went way back to elementary schools when his parents fostered me after my father lost custody when I was 11. They had been one of the nicest homes I ever lived in, any other than that Mike had welcomed me from day one even if he was three years older. We pretty much hit it off instantly and he taught me all I needed to know about basketball, football, track, volleyball and I fucking loved it. Yes I was a tomboy the biggest and after two years with the Fosters they were looking to adopt me.

But like many things in my childhood it didn't work out, and I was placed in the care of my fathers sister since he told CPS and my social worker that he did not want me anywhere near the Fosters ever again in life. He was pissed they wanted to adopt me, furious, and I never understood why. It wasn't as if he was father of the year because he surely was not and never had been.

That pissed me off to no end and losing the Fosters had been hard, and devastating because for the fist time in my life I had a family that consisted of a mother and a father and brother. But, that was all taken away from me and my life turned upside down once again but Mike and I had remained close. He continued to practice basketball with me every chance we got despite the fact that I was living in the Bronx and he was in Brooklyn.

Truth was I had alot of freedom and I was often either with Mike or with Tess up in Harlem since my aunt Leslie was always working. She wasn't the worst but I felt she never paid much attention to me if any and most days I wasn't even sure if she knew I was there or if I wasn't there.

 She wasn't mean, she never called me any names or smacked me around but I never knew how she felt about me at that time. Occasionally she'd take me to Alexandria's or Kmart to get a new shirt but that was only when we would go visit my father in Riker's and she'd treat me for a creme soda's after.  But most days she smoked like a chain smoker, made us TV dinners and passed out on the couch in our Bronx apartment when she got home late from work.

Looking back Aunt Leslie tried her best and worked three jobs seven days a week to provide for the two of us. Sadly she died when I was 16 of emphysema and it was then I found out she set up a bank account for me and had deposited all the checks she had gotten to take of me into it.

She didn't have to do that at all and I felt terrible not being able to tell her thank you because with that money I was able to use it towards my first apartment at 18 once I aged out of foster care. 

But of course I never went homeless because Mike had been there the entire time and had his own apartment  where he let me stay when the group homes got out of control.

Once I aged out of foster care I'd occasionally stay with Mikes parents who still welcomed me with open arms and treated me like their own daughter. I had always been grateful for them and the first chance I got I legally changed my last name to Foster. Sadly Marie and Irving Foster passed away when I was twenty and that had been a hard pill for Mike and I to swallow and still was 17 years later.

In my eyes I owed Mike a great deal and at times I didn't know how I'd ever repay him. Infact I owed my career to him because he had been the one who encouraged me to become a police officer to begin with, and once I made the choice I never looked back and knew it was what I was meant to do in life.

 "I'm the loser? You're more like the sore loser! Always have been!" He teases tossing the ball at me as I roll my eyes. "Remember that finals game back at Ben Franklin High? How you missed that 3 point shot that would have taken you to the Championship rounds?"