The PreGame Ritual (Lynstone University Book 1) (10 page)

ava.

I couldn’t believe I was down to the last three games of my collegiate career.

And only one of them was guaranteed.

We had to make it through two more rounds of the tournament to get to the championship game and though our chances were pretty good, my nerves remained frazzled. I was pretty sure I would have a professional basketball career but that was hardly my focus.

I wanted a championship.

The big trophy.

And I was gonna do everything in my power to get it even if that meant later, longer hours in the gym. The gym had practically been my second home since high school so I was more than comfortable in it. What I wasn’t exactly comfortable with was the idea of Miles and I both getting in deep with hardly any chance of an actual future together. I mean, I’d be graduating soon and going off to who knows where to play pro ball while he’d only be approaching his second year of college. The whole
long-distance
thing didn’t even sound appealing and with as much temptation that would be surrounding Miles on a daily, there was no way I was gonna set myself up to get my heart broken.

My heart.

How the hell had my heart managed to get involved in any of this?

I was supposed to just be having fun, enjoying the company, but instead I had fallen in love with the only guy who actually embraced my bad ass attitude. The only guy who had ever managed to kiss me into a stupor. The only guy who could turn me on just as much with clothes on as he did without them. And the only guy who understood my heavy commitment to basketball because he had the exact same one.

Everything about us screamed perfect.

Well everything except our age difference and that key detail had finally come back to haunt me.

The crazy part about it was, even though I knew all of this, I called myself being selfish and not breaking things off with him just yet. I could’ve very well called it quits early and given him a chance to find something new, but
we
were still new, still fresh, still exciting. I wasn’t ready to let go but I knew I’d have to eventually.

For his sake.

←&
→

Miles had officially gone off his rocker. Not that I was ashamed of a little public action but his latest quest had taken things to the next level.

“Sex in the equipment room? Are you crazy? There’s gotta be all types of cameras in there.” I was hanging out by the locker rooms with Miles for a bit before he got ready for his game and of course that was what he had managed to come up with.

“We’ll keep the lights off. Come on, ma. I need you. PreGame Ritual.”

“No, PreGame Ritual is at a place with a bed, or at least a couch.”

Hell, I’d even settle for a carpeted floor.

“I’ll make it quick, ma. I promise. I just...this is a big game. I need all odds in my favor, including this and your fine ass in the stands cheering me on.” I could see the nerves in his eyes but I still couldn’t put myself in such a compromising situation. It would be just my luck that my coach walks in, or a teammate, or even somebody like Parker.

“I got you on one out of two, Miles”

“
Ava
…. please.”

Where the hell did these cute ass puppy dog eyes come from?

“Miles, we…”

“
Please
, ma.” he said, with a little kiss and nibble to my collarbone. Combine that with the begging, and the puppy dog eyes and suddenly I was easily convinced.

“Fine, Miles. But if we get caught, I’m….”

He cut me off. “We won’t get caught as long as you’re quiet, ma. Now let’s go.” I let out a nervous breath as he guided me down the hall before looking both ways and damn near shoving us into the equipment room. Since it was completely dark, I ran right into a rack of basketballs causing them to tip over.

“Shit! I told you, you gotta be quiet, Ava,” Miles said with a whisper as he awkwardly used his hands to find me. “Listen. If you take a few steps back, the Dr. Dish shooting machine should be right there.” He held my hand as I did what he said and sure enough, my ass bumped right into it. Once Miles heard the bump, he gave a little laugh before grabbing me by my hips and hoisting me on top of the machine. He slid in between my legs and began kissing me with an urgency that practically made me forget where we were.

I mean, my eyes were closed in ecstasy anyway.

Miles had one hand under my shirt, caressing my nipple through my bra while the other one worked to take off my leggings. I balanced myself long enough to give a little lift while he yanked them down my legs to my ankles so I could kick them off. Simultaneous with my leggings hitting the floor, I heard the distinct rip of a condom being opened.

“Oh, so you just knew I was gonna say yes, huh?”

“No. I just knew I wanted to be prepared in the event that you actually did,” he said with a sexy little laugh that went straight to my exposed lower half. I leaned back against the shooting machine to give him better access.

Leave it to me to be on top of the machine that I practically use daily bustin’ it wide open.

His mouth was hot as he kissed from my toes, to my calf, and down my thigh before he found what he was looking for. There was a hesitance to his moves and I could assume that even in the dark, he was searching for my eyes to make sure I was okay. He was courteous like that, always making sure I was comfortable with whatever we were doing before we did it.

But to make things very clear, I grabbed the back of his head and gently guided it to its intended destination.

miles.

One more game.

We had to win one more game to solidify our spot in the championship. Since I was only a freshman and would have a few cracks at it, it really wasn’t a huge deal if we didn’t accomplish the ultimate goal.

Hell, I was just happy to have made it as far as we did.

Ava, on the other hand, had trouble thinking about anything other than the championship. It made sense considering she was a Senior so this was ultimately her last shot at it, but I wished she would just calm her ass down and recognize that it was out of her hands. She had already done everything she could control, now she just had to wait and see how God would play it out.

With both of our teams in the Final Four, ESPN wanted to do a joint story about our respective programs. Since Ava was the star player on her team and I was pretty popular on the boy’s team, we got chosen to do the main interview. People who knew us as individuals pretty much knew we were together, but we hadn’t quite gone public with it by choice. The last thing we needed was the whole world in our business while we tried to figure things out for ourselves.

Well, while Ava tried to figure things out.

There was no confusion on my end from the first time I laid eyes on her.

Ava was everything; literally everything I could’ve dreamed about wanting in a girl.

I loved her.

And even though I hadn’t actually told her how I felt to that extent, there was certainly no denying it internally. Even watching her now, as she smiled for the cameras and answered the interviewer’s questions, my heart felt full as hell; fuller than it had ever felt before.

The cameras cut off and the interviewer invited me to the set to join Ava.

“Alright you two, so I’m gonna ask you guys a couple of questions about the boys versus girls rivalry here at Lynstone. Are you ready?” I turned to Ava, giving her a little wink just to fuck with her, before we both agreed to it. The cameraman signaled a countdown from five to one.

“Ava. Miles. The people want to know. Who would win in a girls versus boys matchup?”

Ava laughed, before answering, “We’d give them a run for their money, but I don’t think we have anything to combat their dunks. So the boys would probably win.
Unfortunately
.” I smiled, shaking my head in agreeance, surprised that she actually admitted the truth.

“What about you two one-on-one? No dunks allowed.”

“Oh that’s different! I’d kick his a...
butt
.”

The interviewer turned his attention to me and asked, “Miles, is that true?”

“What can I say? The girl is good. You’ve seen her play. She’s an assassin on the court.” Ava blushed at my little compliment probably more than she even realized. And of course, the cameras picked up everything.

“Wait a minute, you guys are sure being friendly about this. Is there something we don’t know about?”

I turned to Ava, giving her a smile and she started giggling as I said, “Ava, is there something the people don’t know about?”

“I don’t think so, Miles. What do you think?” She was playing right along, making the interviewer raise his eyebrow with skepticism.

“Nope. Don’t think so. Next question.”

“So you two aren’t dating?” I looked back at Ava, giving her the eye to take this one. I wasn’t exactly sure how she was gonna answer, but I was down to go along with whatever she came up with.

“Dating is such a relative term. Isn’t it, Miles?”

“Very relative, Ava.”

The interviewer looked between us with a giddy smile before asking the cameraman to cut the shot.

“This interview has my sweet tooth on fire! Who would’ve thought you two were dating?! I mean, how is it even possible that there’s not a blogger or journalist out there covering you two?”

Dude was way too excited, but I had no problem blowing his high.

“That’s because there’s nothing to cover. We aren’t some Lifetime movie or corny romance novel. We’re kickin’ it. And you’re gonna respect that. Got it?” I could see the wheels that had began turning in his head slow down but not completely.

“Absolutely. But we are certainly using the footage that we already have. And you do understand once this is out, people will speculate right?” In the age of social media and instant access to everyone’s life, I was sure people would do more than just speculate. They’d probably have memes of pictures from the interview with #relationshipgoals or some other bullshit.

“People can take it how they want to and we’ll handle that accordingly. But we were just having a little fun. I mean, you can only do so many of these things before you’re forced to make them interesting on your own.” The interviewer shook his head, completely understanding my stance.

“Good answer. Like you’ve been trained. Big bro been giving you some tips?”

I offered him a smile before I replied, “I can’t confirm or deny that. Now are we all done here?”

“Yep. Just let the photographer get a few promo shots and we’ll get you two lovebirds out of here.”

ava.

It blew up.

And though we were pretty sure that would happen -
had came up with a plan for when it happened
-, there was literally no preparing for the whirlwind that came along with the ESPN interview dropping. My phone had literally been ringing off the hook for two days straight from different media outlets asking the obvious question, with the latest coming in the form of a text message from an unknown number.

Are you and Miles dating?

Since I didn’t know the number, I really wasn’t obligated to reply. But I did anyway with a simple,
Tune in to support the Lynstone Tigers in our semi-finals games this week. :)

According to Miles’s big brother Bryson, you were supposed to always divert the attention to something else. Give something without giving anything. But as I clicked on the link to an article Miles had sent me earlier in the day, I realized that that particular strategy certainly wasn’t working.

Can you say
Love & Basketball?

We literally...like
literally
thought these sorts of things only happened in movies but boy were we wrong. I mean, how cute is Bryson’s little brother? And ya’ll know how much we love Bryson around here. But anyway, these two gave us all the puppy love vibes during their interview for ESPN (linked below).

The commentary was followed up with a little gallery of pictures that I had scolded Miles about sharing on plenty of occasions.

“But they’re on Snapchat. People can only see them once, then they’re erased.”

Yeah right.

I scrolled through the pictures as if I had never seen them before, and there was no denying how adorable we looked.

I mean, the one of him kissing my cheek and me all giggly faced was like...sickening cute.

And the one of us after one of my games with him looking all proud.

And then the one of his lips against my basketball tattoo that was actually the screensaver on my phone.

They were mostly private little moments; shit we probably should’ve kept to ourselves but didn’t. And now we were paying the price for it.

I mean, how was I supposed to focus on the task of a championship when that was now the last thing on people’s mind when they thought of me?

Now I was just the basketball chick who dated Bryson’s little brother and looked cute doing it.

Hopefully we were already on the 14th minute of 15.

←&
→

“Ma, you’re practically famous now. You do know that right?”

The disguises Miles and I were wearing while we shared dinner at our favorite little Mexican spot was surely the first clue that something related to fame was happening. That and the fact that the owner gave us access to a private little booth at the very back of the restaurant reserved for special guests.

“You’re saying that as if I haven’t always been famous. People know me, Miles.” I had surely experienced my share of the spotlight, but being the top story across various blog sites was taking things to a whole new level.

“No, they
think
they know you. I know you.”

I took a bite of the cheesy rice and beans I’d be paying for later before I asked, “So tell me then, what do you know about me?”

“I know you have a semi-unhealthy addiction to peanut butter, you never match the polish on your nails with the polish on your toes, you talk in your sleep, and your killer crossover stole my heart.” That last little note made me laugh.

“Stole your heart huh? One little basketball move was all it took?”

“Well not exactly….” he said, with the most mischievous grin.

“Anyway! Did you hear the latest headline about us? How I apparently gave you a tour of campus and much more, convincing you to come here?” There had been so many headlines about Miles and I, but that one certainly took the cake.

“Hell, I
wish
that was true. Do I need to clear the air or are you okay?” I could appreciate Miles’s willingness to diffuse the situation, but I knew very well that statements made from those involved hardly ever stopped the speculation. In fact, the media had a way of twisting what the person involved did actually say in a way to fit whatever headline they wanted.

“I actually thought that one was kind of funny. Let them think what they wanna think. The less we invest in their ideas, the quicker they’re forced to stop talking about us; right?”

“Yeah. I guess I’m just...I’m tired of doing this low-key shit. I wanna be with my girl all the way, show her off, grab her ass and kiss her in public without having to worry about paparazzi and all that other shit.” I knew exactly what Miles meant, but I also knew it was practically impossible at the moment.

“Me and you both, Miles. But for now, we have to play this the right way so we don’t get distracted. It’s hard enough already.”

“No, hard is looking at you with this fake ass stage-worthy brown wig when I’m use to your red. Hard is wanting to be front row at your game but purposely laying low so the media doesn’t get their couple sighting fix. Hard is being forced into strategy in regards to my damn relationship. I just wanna be...
normal
. I mean, it’s not like people don’t know.”

I quickly corrected him, “They
think
they know.”

“No. They know. And if they don’t, I’m gonna let ‘em know.”

“Miles, I thought we agreed to lay low at least until after the championship games?”

“Fuck all that.”

There was no hiding my attitude as I responded, “Oh, so now you’re just gonna be reckless with it?”
              “What’s so reckless about letting the world know I’m in love with the girl of my dreams who just so happens to be one of the coldest, if not the coldest, women’s basketball player on the planet?” His confession stunned me. I mean, of course we were having fun, and I felt
something
for him too
.
But he was actually in love with me? I wore the shock on my face for so long that he continued on, “That’s right, Ava. I am in love with you. And I don’t really care what anyone has to say about it because guess what? This...between you and I...is real. Not the headlines, not the speculation, but this. Right here.” I felt every ounce of passion he was releasing. In fact, it landed so heavily, I had a hard time coming up with a response.

“Miles, I…”

“No, Ava. Don’t say anything. Just know that I meant what I said and not a single one of those bloggers is stoppin’ that.”