Page 22 of High Baller

I prefer my flights with Sky on them, the attendants we had on the way back to LA were up their own asses.

“Yeah, next weekend,” I reply as I send Sky a message to let her know that I've landed. She's probably in the air on her way to Seattle now.

“Okay, I'll get the party planner to do something like the last one. You have a meeting with the team in the morning, then you’re training for most of the week—”

"You think I can get a day to go see Sky in Seattle?" I ask, cutting him off. The season hasn't started yet, so for the next eight weeks, I plan on seeing her as much as I can.

“You can fly out Thursday night. You have nothing until Monday when you'll be training in the week again.”

I turn to face him. “Do you want to come, or are you staying to spend time with Ariel?”

"Staying here. You do know that you and Sky are going to find it hard,” Derek says, pointing out what I already know. “At least when you have home games I'll get to see Ariel. But you, if she's flying, you might not even see her for a month.”

“You think that Sky and I won’t make it?” I'd prefer him to just give me a straight answer.

He shakes his head. “I didn't say that—I like her. I think she won't take your shit or let you fuck up anything, either,” he says. “You need a girl that'll tell you to fuck off when you need to, and she'll say it. All I'm saying is, your games, her flights, it might be hard."

I like that about Sky. All the girls I usually meet are easy. Anything I want, I get. anything I tell them, they do. But Sky, I don’t see that happening with her. She’ll say no, and I get a feeling I won’t fight her on it.

"I'll figure out a way that I can go to London to see her, then get a flight back to LA early the next morning," I tell him.

“I'll talk to her when the time comes, to see how that'd work.” Derek starts tapping on his phone as I check if Sky has seen my message or not.

Now I have to work out when I want to tell Ma. I'm surprised that Derek hasn't mentioned it himself, yet. I'm thinking of inviting Jade and Sean to the pool party, but if I invite them, I'll have to invite the other two, too. If anyone is going to be a bitch about it, it's going to be Madison. Jade won’t like it at first, but once she sees how happy Sky makes me, I know that she'll be good. Tracy wouldn't care. Then there's coach. I'll have to have dinner with him and his wife so that he can meet Sky, too. He never used to, but after a few players having a shit relationship and it affecting how we play, if we have a new girl, we take her to dinner, no ifs or buts.

“You going over to your moms?” Derek asks.

“Not today. I plan on sleeping to get back to California time,” I say. “I might go tomorrow night and see if Jade wants to come to the party,” I’m hoping he'll just nod and leave it like that, but I also know him well enough to know he won’t.

I see him smiling from the side. “Good choice. She’ll be the easier one to win over.” Derek turns his head to face me. “I can see she makes you happy, so will Jade. Don’t worry about them.”

As the car stops, I get out and tell the driver to take Derek wherever it is that he wants to go.

As I get to my bedroom, I place my suitcase to the side for the housekeeper in the morning. I don’t even bother with having a shower. I just take off my t-shirt and sweat pants, and get in bed with only one girl on my mind; the only girl I need to dream about.

Sky.

***

I woke up to a message from Sky to let me know that she got to the hotel safe, and she'll call me once she wakes up, which will be about lunch time. I spent all morning with the team as we went through some plays, our training, meals, and how things will be going to happen this year. I’m building myself up to talk to coach about Sky, but I want to wait until he's alone.

I shoot some hoops as I wait. I could easily stay here all day and do just that if I could.

“You shoot like that this season, you might even break your own record,” coach says from behind me.

“That’s the plan,” I reply, throwing the ball to him. “I was wondering if we could talk.”

"What's her name?" he asks with a sigh, and I shake my head. How the hell did he know? “Trey, I've known you since you were fifteen, brought you to this team and never let you go, and not once have you asked to talk to me about anything privately. So, I can only assume this is about a girl." He smiles.

“Sky Foster. She's a flight attendant from England.” I stop as coach throws the ball back to me. “Before you say anything, I already know it’s going to be hard, but I’m going to make this work. I'll fly out there for a night to see her, and if I give her the season games, she can get her flights to go there. if—”

He starts laughing. “Stop.” Coach never laughs at us. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this. When is she in LA next?”

“Friday night, I think, but I'll double check,” I reply. “I’m going to Seattle on Thursday to surprise her for the night."

“Bring her over for Saturday for lunch. If she has you smiling like that just talking about her, I want to meet her.” Coach starts walking away from me. “Trey.”

"Yes, coach." I turn to face him, and throw the ball to him.