Austin is already waiting for Nicki. He greets her with a kiss and a rub on her not yet growing belly. "You want us to wait with you?" Nicki asks. "Ohh, Blake is waiting outside for you." Austin tells me. We walk out the doors where I hear a honk and see the all black suburban with tinted windows parked at the curb. To think the horde of people I see around me pouring in and out of the airport, some of which are sporting Clippers attire, are totally oblivious as to who awaits in the blacked out car. The driver gets out and helps me put my bags in the trunk. I get in the backseat where Blake is sitting. "Hey baby." He greets me. I scoot up close to him and rest my head on his shoulder. "You okay?" He asks as he wraps his arm around me. "Yeah, I'm just not ready for work. And everything else." I tell him. He snickers at my response. "Will In and Out burgers make you feel better?"
"No, but I'll have some anyway."
"Ok." He tells the driver to make a stop at In and Out. "How was your flight?"
"It was alright. I ran into an old friend before I left town."
"Really? And how did that make you feel?" He asks as if he were a therapist.
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"No, I'm serious." He snickers.
"You're an ass." I laugh.
"No, I'm for real though. How'd that go? Who was it?"
"His name is Roman, he was one of the guys who I played ball with. It was kind of random. I didn't really want to see anyone from school when I went back. But I should've expected it, I guess. Someone told him that I was back and that we were dating which lead him to ask me to ask you for play off tickets then he was trying to give me a flirty compliment. I just shut that shit down and left."
He just laughs and shakes his head. "That's funny. Does he usually play in that tournament you were telling me about?"
"Yeah."
"Good. I can't wait."
"Aww, are you getting mad?"
"No." He smiles. We stop at In and Out and get some burgers before we head over to Blake's house.
"C'mon I want you to see something." He says as we get out of the car and walk inside. He leads me upstairs to his bedroom. I sit down on the bed to wait and see what he has to show me. "No." He says telling me to get back up. "In here." He gestures toward his big ass closet. What? I walk in the closet and see he switched some stuff around. He cleared out a spot that he filled with women's clothing and some cubby holes filled with shoes and hand bags. "What is this?" I ask. "Its all yours. Everything. I originally just had this for you." He grabs a hoverboard, still in its box, out from a corner of the closet room. "But, after you said you'd only take whatever I had waiting for you, and nothing more. I texted my assistant and we worked on putting this together." He tells me as he picks up a small basketball laying on the floor. I look at some of the stuff. Balmain, Givenchy, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, are some of the designer names I find in the closet space. Of course the clothes are beautiful. There's mini dresses, dresses, crop tops with matching skirts and leggings, everything. The shoes range from red bottoms to Yeezys. I read a price tag hanging off of a piece of the clothing. "$4,795?!" I say in disbelief. Holy fuck. "Blake." I look at him as he tosses the ball back and forth between his hands. He just shrugs as if it's nothing. Well to him it probably is, but damn. "I think you'd better just take this stuff back." I say. "My assistant had to fly out of the country for some of that." He tells me. "And there's no return policy on any of that. And you should probably try some of it on so that if it doesn't fit we can take it to get altered to fit you. And we can take down your sizes for future reference." He adds. "No, no, and no." I laugh. "Oh, and there's this." He walks over to a newly added dresser I failed to notice. He opens a drawer. The first thing I see is Nike clothing. "For your lazy days when you want to be comfortable or when you want to work out. Either or." He tells me. "This is crazy, I can't take any of this." I pace the room back and forth. "Yeah. So, now you can take your target dresses over to goodwill." He jokes. I stop midpace and turn towards him with a blank stare. "Forget you." I laugh. "They're not from target!" I shout before I wrestle him down to the ground where I accidentally make him hit his head on the hoverboard box. "Ouch." He rubs his head. We sit upright as he grabs the box. "Do you know how to ride it?" I ask.
"Ha, that's what she said."
"Shuttup." I push him.
"No, I got mine the same day I got yours."
"Ohh."
"Shall we test it?"
"That's what she said!"
He laughs. "Touche'. C'mon." He helps me up from the ground. We go out to his customized basketball court. I just notice his initials are on the court, they look more like a logo. It's pretty cool. Those times we played games and I'm just now seeing it. He helps me open the box to mine and then does his. We turn them on and test them out. We laugh at each other as we both struggle to get the hang of it. It isn't all that hard, before I know it I'm cruising around on Blake's basketball court. I see him just getting a feel for it when I race up to him all fast. It scares him which results in him jumping off the board. I don't know how to stop myself quick enough, I jump off before crashing into the abondoned board and run into Blake knocking us both to the ground. We lay there in pain laughing hysterically at the ordeal. "Fuck. You knee'd me in my side." I writhe in pain. "I'm sorry." He sits up and pulls me in his lap. "Well that was some bullshit." He laughs. "Round two?" I look up at him. "Yep." He simply replies. We get up from the ground and get back on the boards. It's pretty easy this time. We play follow the leader on the court. Chaney is chasing us around. "Get on mine with me." He says. "I'm scared." I admit. "Just come on. It'll be fine. Come on." He reassures me. I step off mine and cautiously step onto his. Success. I wrap my arms around him as we cruise. I get out my phone and record our little ride together on snapchat. I make it so that we're both in the video. "Getchu one." He says to the camera while kissing me on the forehead. I post it and save the video so I can put it on instagram later. His phone rings in his pocket. He reaches to grab it, all I see is DJ's big face on the screen. "Oh, you riding them bro?" DJ asks. "Yeah, we're just cruising around the court." Blake chuckles. "We should play horse on those." DJ suggests. "Ah, man. I never thought of that. When do you want to do it?" He asks. "Asap." I get off the board and sit on the sofa on the deck while they facetime.
"You ready for bed?" He ask as he walks over to me after his chat with DJ. "Yeah." I get up from the couch and stretch out. He grabs my hand leading the way into the house. He locks the doors when we get inside. "You have to get up early for work tomorrow?" He asks. "Yes, you already know." I reply. "The keys to the Range Rover are right here." He shows me where they're hanging up at. "Are you sure?" I ask. He nods. When we get up to the room he puts the hoverboards away in the closet. We wash our faces and brush our teeth before climbing in bed together. We wear our usual bedtime attire. He sleeps shirtless with just ball shorts on. I'm down to my sports bra and some ball shorts, in my comfort zone. I put a headphone in and turn some music on to help me sleep. "Whatchu listening to?" He asks. "Aaliyah." I tell him. "What?" He says surprised. "I told you I listen to Aaliyah." I laugh. "Play it on the speakers." He requests. I plug my phone into the speakers on the nightstand and press play. "Are you that somebody" plays. He lays his head on my chest. I receive a snap from Desi asking me what I'm doing. I record Blake and I laying down as I lip sync the words to the song playing "sometimes I'm goody goody, right now I'm naughty naughty." Blake snickers as I wink at the end of the video. I send it to her and post it to my story. She replies with a picture of her raising an eyebrow and a caption that reads "TMI." I show Blake, we both crack up at her response. I post both videos from snapchat to my instagram and tag Blake putting a heart emoji by his name. "Do you like the clothes I bought you?" He asks in a tired, raspy voice. "Of course, I thought they were to die for. I'm not sure I can accept them. But I have no choice but to, since you can't return them."
"Mhm. Enjoy." He smiles. I roll my eyes. "Ahem, there's something I wanted to let you know."
"What's that?"
"You're welcome here at my house whenever. Even if I'm not here. You already know that. But here's a key, just to set it in stone." He reaches over and grabs a spare key from the nightstand drawer. He hands it to me. "I know this is alot all in one day. I just want you to know I love you. I don't just want to say it, I want to show you. Because actions speak louder than words, right?" He smiles. We kiss, a kiss turns into touching, touching turns into lovemaking. That night I fall asleep in the arms of the man that I prayed for. I never fathomed that man would be Blake Griffin. The media makes him out to be this douche bag play boy who objectifies women when in real life he's kind hearted, caring, full of laughter, comedian, a human being who makes mistakes and gets angry. And just like the rest of us, looks for love. I'm happy to be the one to provide him that.
