Page 41 of Whatever It Takes
Sage’s whimperswere the first thing I heard when I opened the bedroom door. She was standing in her crib with tears streaming down her chubby cheeks. Her bottom lip was poked out, making her look exactly like her mother.
“What’s wrong, baby girl?” I asked, picking her up. She immediately snuggled against my body, laying her head on my shoulder.
“Ma,” She whined as I rubbed her back to soothe her.
“Aight, come on. Let’s find mommy.” I said, placing her on her feet and holding my hand out for her to grab. We left the room, heading down the hall to the kitchen. Blessing was standing at the stove, flipping pancakes while Serenity and Journey were seated in the dining room, working on some project for school.
“Mmm. Eat!” Sage squealed excitedly. I chuckled, lifting her into her high chair. After making sure she was secure in herhighchair, I made my way over to Blessing, nuzzling my face into her neck, inhaling her scent. Even though she was pissed, she still relaxed into my arms.GossipInTheCovehad been posting the clips of Mariah on live last night. That bitch had really lost her fucking mind.
“Mrs. Johnson scheduled a meeting with me tomorrow morning.” Blessing said, turning around to face me. Her eyes were red and glossy, like she’d been crying. Seeing her upset like this made my chest tight.
“Don’t even trip about this shit, Bless. Everything will work out how it’s supposed to. I know how much you loved working with her, but if she lets you go, it’s her loss. At the end of the day, it’s your name that brings her the biggest clients. You’re at the point in your career where your resume is extensive. You can open your own shit bae. I told you I got you. I can get my realtor on the phone right now. It’s whatever you want. Tell me what I can do to fix this.” I used my thumbs to wipe the tears that had fallen from her cheeks. “Don’t even worry about Mariah. Teagan is going to handle her. She should be receiving the cease-and-desist letter. If she doesn’t stop, she’ll be sued for deformation of character.”
“She better hope I don’t run into her. On my daughter, I’m going to beat her ass. She’s doing all this for what? She broke up with you. Then she brought up what happened when you fell. Yeah, she gotta see me.” Blessing said with a nod. I knew she wasn’t playing.
“I’m not even going to stop you. Do your biggest one too. I got bail money.” I slapped her on the ass and kissed her lips before taking a seat at the island.
“Moo!” I heard Sage’s tiny voice scream. We both burst into laughter. Sage recently learned my nickname, and she hasn’t stopped saying it since.
“My bad, princess. I won’t put my lips on your mama again.” I held my hand up in surrender. Blessing walked over, placing her breakfast in front of her, along with her sippy cup of milk. She wasted no time digging in.
“Dang little lady, you sure can put it away.” Journey joked as she and Serenity came to grab their plates of food before heading back into the dining room. My lady handed me my plate and protein shake, then took a seat next to me. We spent the rest of the morning under each other until it was time for her to head back to her house. I had a meeting with my publicist and then a workout scheduled with the team. I was excited to be back in the gym with them.
“I’m glad you were free to come in and see me today. I know these past two days have been crazy for you. But we need to get ahead of the narrative. Right now, most people are on her side because she’s playing the brokenhearted girl role. So, what do you think about going onStats & Soul?” Jamila, my publicist, asked.
Stats & Soulis a sports podcast with two retired black athletes. They talk about everything going on in the sports world. Rome went on last year while he was out due to his injury. I’ve seen most of their episodes and knew this was the perfect way to control the narrative. Stan and Greg were good people.
“I think that’s a great idea. I need it to happen soon, though. Blessing had to deactivate her account because of the trolls. I don’t need this shit fucking with my lady’s mental.”
Jamila smiled, “Your lady, huh? You must really like her. They actually reached out to Ashley to book you this morning. I know you’re traveling with the team this weekend for the game. We can get it done as soon as tomorrow, so it’ll drop Wednesday morning at 10.”
“That’s perfect. I’m ready to nip all this shit in the bud. Shit is bad for business. My lady is innocent in all of this. Nobody cheated. I pursued her. She tried to keep things professional until our sessions were finished, but shit, the heart wants what it wants, and mine wanted her.” I shrugged.
“Oop. I know that’s right, Moo.” Jamila snickered, “But I have to be real, moving on this fast does look kind of crazy. You were just posting Mariah last month. Now, I know you never cheated, but from the outside looking in, this looks bad.”
I sighed, tugging at my beard. “You’re right, but shit was never supposed to come out like this. At the end of the day, this is my life. I can’t let how outsiders feel dictate what we got goin’ on.”
She nodded, understanding. “Oh! Before I forget, the week before Christmas, you have to be at the cancer center to speak to the kids and hand out gifts. I’m sure you’re already handling the donation.” We spent a few more minutes talking before we ended the meeting.
The drive to the practice facility was only twenty minutes. I’d spent the entire drive on FaceTime with Blessing. I’d been up under her damn near every day since we’d started seeing each other. If we weren’t around each other, we were texting or talking on the phone. Shorty has me down bad for her.
After parking, I reached into the backseat to grab my duffel bag and headed inside the facility. I could hear loud chatter right outside the locker room.
“Look what the motherfuckin’ wind blew in!” I heard one of my teammates yell as soon as I stepped inside.
“Wassup y’all?” I greeted, going over to my designated locker. I sat down on the bench in front of it, glancing around the room.
“Glad to have you back, Simmons.” Coach Charles said, patting me on the back.
“Hell yeah nigga. We can’t wait to have you back on the field. Gone be out there running niggas over.” Rome joked, taking a seat next to me.
“You good though? I’ve seen what’s been going on. Man, I told you to leave that girl alone last year. You’re hardheaded as hell. We got your back, though. We know you didn’t cheat on her ass.” Coach shook his head, sipping from his water bottle.
“I know. I should’ve listened to everybody who warned me about her. My mama is pissed about that shit. I had to talk her out of pulling up on her.” I chuckled, changing into a pair of compression shorts and the matching long-sleeve shirt. They were fromAmourFit. I’d recently signed a collaboration deal with them for 1.7 million for the next 5 years. I had a photo and commercial shoot with them next week. I was excited as hell.
“How’s Blessing? I noticed she deactivated her social media accounts.” Coach asked.
“She’s straight. She’s just worried about her job.”
