Blake waits for me in my living room as I get ready for our bowling night. He doesn't really tell me who is all going to be there, so, kind of nervous for that. "Hey did you see that article on that gossip site about us?" I yell from my bathroom. "Yeah, asshole paparazzi." Blake chuckles. Even though he can't see me, I shake my head. "You almost ready up there? We're gonna be late." Blake warns me. Shit. I straighten the last of my hair. I put a tight white v neck on. My cleavage kind of shows, which bothers me a bit. Oh well. I throw on some light colored jeans and some white Jordan flights. I walk downstairs and I notice Blake watching me. He looks away. He nervously rubs the top of his head and dusts off his jeans. "Ahem, you ready now?" He asks as he stands. "Yes. I just need to grab my purse and we can go." I walk over to the kitchen counter and grab my purse. I walk over to the door, Blake opens it for me. I type in the pass code to my security system and all the doors locked automatically. "Sheesh." Blake jokes. "Could never be too sure." I say as we walk out. "We taking my car or yours?" I ask. "Mine." He says. He opens the passenger door for me and I get in. He jumps in the driver's seat and we're on our way. I receive text from Nicki and Desi. We're always group texting. I sent them a selfie of my outfit for the night to get their opinions.
Nicki: Yesss
Desi: Your outfit compliments your voluptuous body.
Nicki: What she said. Big booty Ally!
I can't help but to laugh at their texts. Blake looks at me and smiles. "What?" He asks. "Nothing. My friends are just being stupid as usual." I tell him. "My friends are stupid too." He laughs a little.
We arrive at the bowling alley, which looks to have been emptied out. Besides the employees that work there. I see a group of people standing around talking in one spot. The first one I see is Deandre. He has his arm around some lady. As we get closer to the group I see Chris Paul and I'm guessing his wife. I see another couple that I don't really know. We walk up and Blake gives each of them a bro handshake. "Who is this?" Chris asks. "This is Aaliyah." Blake introduces me. "Nice to meet you, I'm Chris Paul, you probably already know that." He jokes. We laugh. "Of course." I smile. "This is my wife Jada." I shake her hand. "Nice to meet you." Her voice is soft. "You already know DJ." Blake says. "This is his girlfriend Amber. She's pretty cool." I shake her hand. "This is the first time we ever did an all couples date with Blake. You must be special." She tells me. Wow. That's nice to know. Blake just laughs nervously. "Ahem, this is my brother Taylor." He gives me a firm shake. "What she said." Taylor jokes as he references to Amber's earlier comment. "This is his wife, my sister in law, Marieka." She smiles at me as she shakes my hand. "Hi, so nice to meet you." Her smile is warm. "Alright let the bowling commence." Blake says. "Teams? See which couple gets the most points?" Deandre suggests. "Yes." Blake agrees. "Why does it always got to be competition between you two?" Chris complains. "Competition is always fun." Blake says. DJ nods in agreement. "Alright whatever." Chris gives in. We all laugh. We start bowling. I thought I'd be rusty but I'm pretty decent, for not having played in years. Blake talks to the others as I take my turn. I get a strike. "Yess!" Blake yells. DJ shakes his head. "We got this bro. Already got it." DJ says. "Bet on it bro. $500 and loser has to pay for dinner for the rest of us." Blake says. They shake on it. DJ gets up to take his turn. "We played 1 on 1 the other night right? First to ten. She tells me she never really played basketball, so I was like 'alright well this should be easy.' We betted that whoever lost had to get pushed in the pool by the winner. Guess who goes in the pool?" Blake tells the others at the table. "Who?" Marieka asks curiously. "Me." They all burst into laughter. "What? Foreal?" Chris says. "Yeah bro. She lied to me about having never really played ball." I just look at him. "Whatever. I did not lie. I just didn't really go into specifics. I did tell you I played." I argue. "Bro she comes out of nowhere with some sick handles." Blake laughs. "Did my boy dirty huh?" Chris laughs. "So, I hear you're in the marines." Taylor chimes in. He's been talking about me to his family? "Yeah, I just put in for my second term. I moved here like two weeks ago." I tell him. "That's awesome. Thanks for your service." He thanks me. Everybody follows suit. I don't really no what to say but "you're welcome." I give them a smile. "Have you been deployed out yet?" One of them asks. "Yeah, twice. My first time I went to Russia and the second time I went to Afghanistan. Really didn't do much, just held down the base and all that good stuff." I say sarcastically. "Well its still pretty cool what you do." Marieka says. "Thanks." We all talk and continue to bowl. Us girls all sit together and chat a little while the guys are standing over in a group drinking beers. I hear one of the guys praising Blake. "You really did good with this one bro. I mean I know you're still trying to make it official but try harder bro. Before she slips away." They all talk over each other in agreement. I look over to see Blake's expression. He just looks all cheesey. Oh my gosh. He's too cute. But they're right. He does need to try harder. The girls want to see pictures of me in my uniform. I show them. "Aww you're so beautiful." They compliment me. I thank them. "So how'd you and Blake meet?" Jada asks. "Uh, we actually met in the club. We didn't really talk much. Just got introduced to each other but that was it. He was trying to talk to me but he was with some young lady. So I wasn't really trying to talk to him then. And I usually don't go for someone I met in the club. Anyway the next day I was assigned a task to help donate school supplies to kids and him and DJ just so happened to be there. Struggling to get a table open. I walked over and helped them and we talked for a bit before I had to get back and help the other marines. After it was over they asked if I wanted to have lunch with them and we just hit it off after that." I tell them. "I always try to get after Blake when he messes with them little hussies." Marieka says. We laugh at her choice of words. "Hussies?" Amber laughs. "Yes. But I'm glad he finally met someone with the utmost respect." She compliments me. I thank her again. The guys walk over. "We won. Yay." Blake quietly cheers. I give him a smile. "Alright, everybody get what you want at the restaurant. Everything is on DJ." He jokes. "Noo, waters and fries for everybody. That's it." DJ protests. We all head to our cars and make way to the restaurant. Blake opens the passenger door for me. He gets in the driver's side. "I had fun. Did you?" He asks. "Yeah, surprised myself. Didn't think I had it in me." I laugh. "Yeah you had like 3rd most strikes next to me and DJ. We're a good team." He looks at me and smiles. "Ahem. Aaliyah..." I look at him. "I was thinking we could make this official. Would you want to?" He asks. I smile. I feel my face get red. "I mean.. Yeah. I just ask for honesty, faithfulness, trust. All that good stuff." I look at him, he looks back. "Of course." He smiles. We get to the restaurant. We see the others getting out of their cars at the same time. Blake interlaces his fingers in mine as we walk. I get butterflies. "Oooh." DJ says. We look over and see him and Amber smiling at us. "Everything is on DJ guys remember that." Blake reminds everybody. We all laugh. Blake's hands are warm. And way bigger than mine. We have a good dinner, full of conversation and laughter. Blake puts his arm around me every now and then. His cologne smells good as heck.
He drives me home. We joke the whole way, we laugh about DJ having to pay. He pulls up to my house and walks me to my door. "I had fun. Thanks." I say to him. "You're welcome. I'll see you later." He gives me a kiss on the cheek. "I'll text you." He tells me before he leaves. I get inside, lock the door, run up to my room, get undressed and call Nicki and Desi. "Me and Blake are official!" I say as they answer. Nicki screams in excitement. "Well if your happy then I'm happy for you too." Desi says. I tell them about our night. I get a text from Blake as we're talking on the phone. I talk to the girls for another hour before I reply to his text. It just reads good night with a big smiley face. I go to bed. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.
The workday goes by slow. I didn't hear from Blake all day. He must be busy. I'm not gonna bother him. I drive home and take a long nap. My phone is blowing up but I'm too damn tired to answer it. It starts getting annoying so I get up to see who it is. I have 2 texts from Blake and 15 missed calls from Desi. Something is up. I call her. She answers on the first ring. "Where were you? I've been calling all evening." She says. "Sorry I was napping. Whats going on?" I ask. She's quiet. "Desi?" She starts crying. "Whats wrong?" I ask. "Me and my mom got into it. She kicked me out." She tells me. "Where are you now?" I ask. "I'm at your house. Your mom said I could stay as long as I needed."
"You might as well come move out here with me. Three bedrooms and I'm all alone in this big city. I don't have any friends aside from my boyfriend and his friends. And my shitty marine family. But he's obviously busy. They're all too busy for me." I joke. She laughs a little. "When can I come?" She asks. "You can come tomorrow if you want."
"If she's leaving me then I'm coming too!" Nicki yells into the phone.
"What the fuck? Is Nicki with you?"
Desi laughs.
"Yeah, we're both here."
"You guys are weirdos. You're at my house when I haven't been home in years." I laugh.
"Yeah, well we miss you. We come looking for your musty smell."
I laugh hard.
"Fuck you. My room probably smells like the old perfumes I used to wear."
"It does actually. How'd you know?"
"Because that's how it smelled the last time I went home. Anyway, I'll get your plane tickets right now and text you the info and all that."
"Okay. We love you. Good night. Or good morning. Whatever."
"I love you girls too. See you tomorrow."
I go to check my texts from Blake.
BG: I hope you had a good day today. Sorry I didn't text or anything. I have my son tonight.
BG: Good night Aaliyah.
Me: Its Ok. I totally understand. You guys have fun. Good night Blake.
I set my phone down and immediately receive a text back.
BG: Down for that rematch tomorrow?
Me: Yezzir.
BG: see you then.
I know he's really gonna bring his A game tomorrow. I hope he don't dunk on me. Fuck. I stay up the rest of the night and binge watch Breaking Bad. I fall asleep and stay asleep until noon the next day. I set an alarm the night before so I don't sleep in too long. I have to pick my girls up at the airport at 3. I take a shower. Put my hair in a simple bun. I wear a sports bra with just a black cut off over it. I wear dark grey ball shorts. I drive to the airport and wait a half an hour before the girls arrive. I take them back to my place and help them get settled in. We leave to get a bite to eat. Blake texts and asks when I'm coming over. I tell him that I'm having lunch with my friends first then I'll be over. I tell them I'm going to Blake's after lunch. They complain saying I'm ditching them. "I'm not. I didn't see him at all yesterday. I just want to hang out with him for a bit then I'll be back home." I reassure them. They eventually give in and let me go. I pull up to Blake's. As I walk up to his door I can hear his dog barking. He opens the door. "Hey." He smiles. "Hey." I smile back. "Come in."
