Page 24 of Full Court Love
Breathing a sigh of relief, she leads me up the walkway to her house. Now it’s my turn to laugh.
“I really hope what I just did doesn’t create some new problems for you.”
Shrugging, she turns to face me. “Can’t be any worse than what she’s already said about me.”
Then, standing up on her tiptoes, she whispers in my ear. “Regardless, it’s totally worth it.”
Her lips briefly brush my cheek before she opens the door and steps back inside.
CHAPTER 11
LUCY
Coffee shops might be the most peaceful places on earth.
It’s a bold sentiment, but I stand by it.
The quiet jazz music, the smell of ground coffee beans, the friendly baristas. I also love looking at random paintings of cows, which I recognize is not a universal feature in coffee shops, but it is the dominant art subject in my favorite one. It’s called the Cozy Cow Coffee Café, and it’s the best one in Maverick City.
I discovered this shop during my first week living here. Athletes had to be on campus all summer, but we only had workouts in the morning and then pretty much nothing the rest of the day. With all that time on my hands, I went exploring.
This place is located at the old abandoned end of Main Street. It doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic because there’s a coffee shop on campus, but I needed somewhere to sip and read and be alone.
So, I started coming here weekly.
Which eventually turned into daily.
Which is how I became friends with Angie and PeteWarner, the owners and sweetest little seventy-year-old couple on earth. They were both born and raised in this small town and never left. They fell in love as kids, bought this tiny shop, and refurbished the top floor into an apartment for their family.
I became a de facto grandchild of theirs because their own kids moved away. I’ve spent many holidays and birthdays with them and even brought my mom here so she could meet my family away from home.
When I first befriended the Warners, they didn’t know who I was and couldn’t have cared less about basketball. Now, they have season tickets and oftentimes know as much about the team as I do. I’m doing my best to repay their kindness.
I don’t love social media, but I started posting about this place when my follower count started growing. The Cozy Cow wasn’t struggling, but business was often slow. I was genuinely curious to see if just a little publicity would help.
It helped way more than I ever could have predicted.
This place blew up almost overnight.
The Cozy Cow became a hub. Now, you’re lucky if you can find an open table. The Warners love it. They chat with every single person who walks through their doors. They treat every college student like family–something a lot of us desperately need when we leave home.
Of course, they couldn’t let me do this for free, but I told them that family doesn’t pay and I meant it. So, we reached a compromise: I post about them from time to time, and they never make me pay for coffee. Which is, frankly, a massive money saver for me considering my level of coffee consumption. I’m saving hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
Thus, here I find myself on this chilly Thursday afternoon. It’s been a few weeks since our Friendsgiving celebration. Jordan and I have texted every single day since then. Withour insanely busy practice, weight lifting, games, and travel schedules, it’s tough to find time to hang out.
That doesn’t mean we haven’t, though. Almost every day, he’s waiting outside the locker room after workouts to walk me to class. In the evenings, he will happen to pick up extra food that he claims would be criminal to waste, and he’ll stop by our house to drop it off.
He’s making little moments for me.
It’s really sweet, and I don’t exactly know how to handle it.
I do know that I want more than just these scattered moments. It seems like he does too, but I sense he’s holding back. His caution surrounding any real vulnerability is palpable. Whenever I bring up his family or how he got here, he changes the subject so quickly, I get whiplash.
But I’m willing to wait it out. I can honestly say that I want to. I’ve never experienced that feeling before. I want to fill my free moments with more of him. However, I don’t love operating in this gray area, where we aren’t dating but we’re something in that arena.
Pretty soon, I’m going to need him to step up to the plate. I desperately want him to be up to the task of actually pursuing me–and by that I mean, asking me out on a date, making our relationship official, etc. I refuse to settle for someone who won’t go all-in.
I know I’d be willing to go all-in with Jordan.