One Shots

christmas | jimmy butler

I held my seven year old's hand while we walked through Walmart. We were looking at toys he may have wanted for Christmas.

"Okay Jimmy, if I let you go, you will not run off or go with a stranger, right?" I bent down to his height and stared into his light brown eyes. He bit his lip while nodding.

"Yes mommy." He said. I let his hand go and he ran immediately to the action figure aisle. I followed after him and looked at all the wrestler action figures.

"Mommy I want this John Cena." He picked up an action figure and held it up to me. I took it from him and dropped it in the basket.

"Mama do they have Steph Curry toys?" I rolled my eyes. This boy wants everything Steph Curry. From the shoes to the jersey. I shrugged while he looked through the toys.

"I don't know about that baby. What if I get you a Steph Curry jersey? Number thirty right?" I asked before looking the infamous basketball player up on my phone. "Why don't you like the Bulls? That's where we live."

I looked up as soon as I heard the man's voice. "Mommy, look!" Jimmy pointed at the man. I furrowed my eyebrows. I didn't know who this man was and I didn't care. He didn't need to be talking to my son.

"Jimmy." He held his hand out to me while he smiled. I crossed my arms and stared at it. So he knows my son's name and he just wants me to act like it's okay.

"Mama that's Jimmy Butler!" Jimmy yelled while jumping up and down. I rubbed my face up and down while the man laughed. I felt rude for what I was thinking about him earlier.

"Jimmy Butler." He smiled and put his hand in his coat pocket. "I was just looking for something for my son. Can I ask your little man what he likes so I can get an idea about mine?"

I shrugged and watched his every move he made with my Jimmy. I smiled at how my little Jimmy interacted with the big Jimmy. I haven't seen him smile like that since he's seen his daddy a few years ago. I can't make him smile like that, only a man can. I hope his daddy comes to Christmas dinner this year.

"He likes Steph Curry. He's such a bloke." Jimmy stood up and shook his head. He sounds like a hater.

"You don't? I think he's cool." I picked up Jimmy because he looked tired. I sat him down in the basket by all his toys and action figures.

"Oh wait mama." He leaned against the basket, his back against Jimmy and his face towards me. "Can we invite other Jimmy over for Christmas dinner? Because cousin Dwayne coming over." He pouted.

I squinted my eyes, trying to see the correlation. "You can't just invite a stranger into our home. And what does cousin Dwayne have to do with anything?"

Jimmy stood by the toys, looking through the action figures for his son. "Because they're always saying I don't have a daddy." My heart broke in pieces for him. I bit my lip when I saw how serious he was. "But Jimmy isn't your daddy honey."

"I know mama, but he's my friend. And he's a boy. He can pretend to be my daddy." He said. I bit my fingernail and glanced over at big Jimmy then back at my baby.

"Well, ask him." I said. Jimmy shouted his name even though he was less than three feet away from us and probably heard our whole conversation.

"Wassup lil man?" He asked while coming to our basket. They smiled at each other.

"Can you come to my Christmas dinner?" Jimmy asked and big Jim's eyes lit up. He grinned the rubbed the back of his neck.

"Depends, can I bring someone?" He asked my son but looked at me. "Ooh yeah Jimmy bring Jeremiah! He seems like fun!"

I looked down at my son who was wide awake now. How did he know about this man's child? I shook the thought out of my head when I saw both Jimmy's staring at me.

"Well what do you say mama?" My Jimmy asked. Big Jimmy laughed. "Yeah, what do you say mama?"

"It's fine with me. As long as you help me cook, wrap presents, and don't have me in the middle of baby mama drama." He laughed and nodded.

"Of course. You go get wrapping paper while I find toys?" I nodded and pushed the basket to the wrapping paper section. I put the three long poles of wrapping paper in the basket, trying to not wake a sleeping Jimmy. I was gonna leave him at home but I didn't have a sitter. No one was gonna babysit for me at 3 am. They probably would've thought I was gonna leave him with them or something.

"Hey." Jimmy snuck up behind me with a handful of action figures. He placed them carefully in the basket.

"Alright." I picked up random Christmas card for my family and handed them to Jimmy. He grabbed them the crossed his arms.

We quickly got our stuff checked out with him paying since he offered. I walked back to my car and laid Jimmy down in the backseat.

Big Jimmy helped me put everything in the trunk, even his son's stuff. "Hey." Jimmy said once we finished putting all the stuff up.

"What's up?" I asked while closing the trunk. I leaned against it and waited for him to come back from pushing the basket back.

"I just wanna say thanks in advance. Jeremiah's mom hasn't been in his life for a while, and I know we don't know each other at all but I think you'll be a good influence on him. He'll really look up to you."

I grinned then nodded. "Here, let me give you my number." He handed me his phone and I quickly saved my number before getting in my car.

That Christmas ended up being the worst one ever. His baby mama tracked his phone and came over with her new boyfriend. My daddy had a heart attack. Jeremiah got ganged by Jimmy and his cousins because he kept bragging about how his daddy was a pro basketball player. And, he burned my Christmas tree because he put all those damn lights on it, so that burned all the presents.

Never bring an NBA player to your house for Christmas.