Page 6 of Solace in Seven
I kissed my teeth as my posture immediately stiffened and heartrate quickened.This cannot be fucking happening, I thought to myself. My eyes were so busy staring daggers into the back of her head that I didn’t even notice Hendrix take his place beside me at the counter.
“Well, well, well—we meet again.”
I looked up just as he paraded that stupid fuckin’ breathtaking smile in my direction. His overwhelming body stature didn’t help either. My five-foot-four physique was completely swallowed up in his shadow. He was like a tree I suddenly wanted to climb. This nigga was justtoo finefor his own good. His presence had taken the wind out of my sails for sure. Instead of returning the friendly gesture or offering up a reply, I turned my attention back to the attendant who’d seemingly left me hanging.
“Sir, I can take you over here,” another attendant called out to him.
He sucked his teeth and shot me a final glance. “Guess I’ll see your rude ass around.”
three
. . .
Hendrix
Cassidy Stokes was araging bitch.
There, I said it.
She was the last person I expected to run into, and by the way she’d been rolling her neck at me since the plane ride, I could tell she felt the same. First, she zoomed off the plane in a huff, then the second I pulled up to the resort, I saw her ass fussing. I didn’t know who the hell put that big ass chip on her shoulder, but that shit was off-putting as hell. I wasn’t going to feed into her bullshit when I had my own shit to deal with. Not only was I recovering from a knee injury that took me out for the rest of the finals, but I’d also been dealing with the embarrassment and shame of being traded to one of the worst teams in the whole fuckin’ league.
I’d always had dreams of shooting hoops. People started callin’ me The Tomb Raider my freshman year in high school. I was the only freshman on the varsity team, and it didn’t take long for niggas to realize I was the reason the stands were packed every Friday night. I got busy on that fuckin’ court, and everybody knew it. How I’d gonefrom an NBA all-star making over 40,000,000 dollars a year to being thrown away like I was a piece of trash had my head all the way fucked-up. To me, it was the equivalent to getting picked last for kickball teams on the playground. I came to St. Martin to lick my wounds in peace and put the focus back on my career, not go blow-for-blow with a chick from high school.
Growing up, her cousin, Mark, was my best friend, so I would see her whenever I went over to his house. I’d always thought she was bad, and out of all the girls that were on my dick back then, I could honestly say Cassidy wasn’t one of them. From the moment I met Cassidy, she’d always had a wall up. Even after me and my mom moved into her neighborhood, she never gave me anything but attitude, so I masked my feelings for her and was an asshole in return. As a kid in the spotlight, I didn’t have the time nor the know how to break it down. And from the looks of it, the shit had only gotten tougher over the years.
As soon as I handed the attendant my I.D., the attendant that had been helping Cassidy walked over. “I’m sorry, sir. But um, there’s been a mix-up in the system.”
“What kind of mix-up?” I asked for clarity as I looked down at my phone.
I’d been trying to get in contact with my agent for the last two days, yet it seemed like every time my phone vibrated, there was a different sports headline with my name in it. Whether it was TMZ, ESPN, or some other annoyin’ ass paparazzi with a camera in my face or gossip blog with my name in their mouths, I could feel the heat on me. Throughout life, I’d been used to being able to write my own ticket, whether it was because of who my father was or how good I was at ball. Without ball, I would be nothing.
“Well, it seems your villa has been double booked with another guest. Her, actually,” she said, pointing to Cassidy.
“Cassidy?”I asked, my neck shooting up as my forehead wrinkled in disbelief.
Her brows snapped together as soon as she heard me call her name. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Can’t you just put her somewhere else?” I asked.
She put her hands on her hips. “No, they can move you! I was here first!”
“Move me?”
“Yes, move you! You can go anywhere, Hendrix. Why do you have to stay here? All I am trying to do is have a nice fucking relaxing ass vacationalone, that’s it!”
“I’m trying to do the same shit, so why don’t we just split it? Your little ass don’t need all that space anyway.”
She smacked her juicy, watermelon pink lips. “And you do? Just because I’m not a fuckin’ celebrity like you don’t mean I don’t make my own money. I’m allowed to ball out and enjoy the fruits of my labor just like you are. You’re not the only one with bread, here.”
“Um, ma’am, if you agree to that, we will refund you both fifty-percent of what you paid for your stay,” one of the attendants chimed in.
Cassidy huffed before pulling her eyes up to mine. “Fine, but just because we’re practically being forced to share the same space for the next few days doesn’t mean I have to like it, when I could just easily pretend like you don’t exist.”
“Okay, we’ll um, go ahead and process the refunds for both of you and call your car around to have your driver take you to your villa. We are so sorry for the mix-up, and we hope you enjoy your stay.”
“Um, no. I want my own car. I’m not sharing with him,” she demanded.
I scoffed. If she couldn’t stand sitting next to me for a ten-minute ride, I didn’t know how we were going to make it through the week.
