Page 44 of Kobalt

Kobalt grabbed me and pulled me to him. I looped my arms around him, and we bounced, jumped, and flipped like big kids. He picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around him. He bounced us from the front to the back, and we climbed the blow-up ladder inside that led to a slide. We took the slide to the other part of the bouncy house and jumped and bounced some more.

“Did you ever think when we were kids, you’d get to do something like this?” I asked.

“I never imagined it, especially not sharing it with you all to myself.”

We slowed our bouncing momentarily to share a kiss, but then we fell over with me sprawled on top of him. It wasn’t long before he bounced me off him, and we kept having fun for the next three minutes before we finally climbed out.

I stood to the side while Kobalt captured a quick video with the security guard, talking about how cool the man was, and how he had not only made his day, but my day as well. When he finished, we stopped by another booth to get a butterfly painted on my face and a fist painted on his.

After that, we made a couple more stops at booths that sold paintings and jewelry. Everything that I said was pretty or that I liked, Kobalt wasted no time buying it. The vendors were excited about it, and I thought it was sweet that he invested in their businesses the way he had.

I was thankful that he made what was important to me a priority today. Tomorrow, I had a surprise in store for him that I hoped he appreciated as much as I appreciated what he’d done for me today.

THE NEXT DAY

Kaimera went home with me after the autumn festival. She insisted she had to go home for the night to work on a project for a major client, but when I told her I was still hungry, and I hadn’t had my dessert yet, she folded like a pile of fresh laundry hot out the dryer.

She surprised me by taking me to the Cherokee Springs Jaguars versus Chicago Lions football game. She knew that I loved sports, and I always had. I was a huge football fan, but that wasn’t my talent. The fact that she remembered that about me had a man like me kind of choked up.

We didn’t just go to the game, but she was able to get us seats in the club level between the thirty- and fifty-yard lines. That shit was sweet. I was accustomed to going to games like that where we received premium food, private restrooms, specialized craft cocktails, and large TV screens to see other games. I loved having access to the climate-controlled lounges and larger, comfortably padded seats as opposed to regular seats. Yet, I hadn’t expected her to have snagged those tickets.

“Aye, yo, Kobe! What’s up?” a familiar voice called out.

I spun around, and a bright grin took over my face.

“Wassup, my guy. Hello, beautiful. You went into hiding and disappeared on everybody, didn’t you?” I asked as I greeted my former MMA teammate, Reighvyn Bloom and his wife, Dove Flowers-Bloom, when they stepped into the VIP club section.

“Dove, this is my former teammate, Kobalt, and this is Kaimera, an old friend of mine,” he stated, looking at her with a tenderness in his eyes.

“Hey, Reigh.” They exchanged hugs before she stepped back and greeted his wife with a hug as well.

“Yeah, you pulled a David Copperfield on the world,” I proclaimed, getting back to my previous comment.

“I wasn’t the only one,” he replied, laughing.

“Yeah, but I came back to the land of the living. You went incognito forever before your last fight and again after it.”

“Man, that shit was bananas. I didn’t need all the media hype. Heard you been in retirement too.”

“Yeah, after my last one. I’ve been just floating around trying to get my head on right and working on some projects.”

“Coach Tank mentioned that you were starting a training camp up in North Georgia,” Reighvyn stated.

“Yeah. You interested in getting some work in?”

“I might be. We’ll have to touch bases with each other. It might be good to bring some of my athletes up there for a week or two,” he replied.

“Let’s do that. Your number still the same?” I asked.

“Ain’t nothing changed except my status. Married with a little one.”

“Word? I heard that y’all had a baby.”

“A little girl, Lark,” Reighvyn stated.

“Congratulations,” Kaimera remarked.

“That’s wassup. Congrats, y’all,” I proclaimed.