A/N: Fiction. All of this is fiction and has no basis in fact whatsoever, and I am not profiting in any way from any of this unless you count your souls…. But eh who can put monetary value on that….
Chapter 328: Tangers XXX—A Touch of Love
A dream, I lay stuck in a dream, the only rational explanation for smelling her sweet perfume and hearing her wispy voice. I sat up and cried out her name, and I could see that Joe was gone and she kneeled next to my bed.
“Alex,” she whispered. “Forgive me for running from you, but I didn’t know if I could face you again with self control.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Self control, I had none last time we met, and I didn’t want to make a scene…. Because…..”
I gulped. The first time we had been together, I had not thought to consequences or reality, and now she was here next to me. What could I say? “Where… where is Tom?”
“Oh pshaw!” Penelope snorted. “He is at parties, too many parties, too much drink and sex and smoke, I did not want to go tonight.”
“Why?” I asked. I could see the outlines of her in the blue darkness; I could imagine her large eyes, her dark skin. I wanted to reach out and grab her and drag her into this bed. “Where’s Joe?”
“The gypsy?” Penelope replied. I could hear a haughty snip in her voice that completely charmed me. “He is gone he is not here I do not care where he is.” I could see the gesture of her thin hand as it cut through the air.
“But he’s my captain?” I then tried to imagine where Joe could be. Had Penelope tossed him out of the room? Had she locked him out? At that point I remembered something about Joe grumbling that if the door was for me…. I gulped. How much would I pay for this in the morning?
“What is that to me?” She reached to me and her little fingers went through my hair and my entire body shot through with adoration, excitement and well you know the mechanics of a touch of love from an angel. “I just want to see you. Is he your papa?”
I frowned. “Well… no… but he could…”
“Could do what?” Penelope asked. “I want to be with you!”
“Oof!” I gasped when she pounced on me without warning. Her lips first on mine, her hands cupped my cheeks and her wiry, slim thighs squeezed me around the waist. Oh sweet heavens above what blessing was this? I kissed her back, I savored her, and I held her fragile body in my arms and sat up. “Penelope are you sure?”
She sighed. “Do not speak; let us just worship each other!”
I gulped. “Um… okay!”
I mean how much encouragement did a healthy young man need? With what I suppose was a lusty growl, I pressed her onto the bed and kissed her and I felt her hands on my back and then in the top of my… Almost as if I had been electrocuted I jumped off her and gasped. Yes I understand if you are ready to throw me into the insane asylum for that.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Are you still worried about your captain?”
“No… it’s just…”
“What?”
Oh I’m crazy! I thought. Footer was right, I am completely insane. “It’s not right, Penelope. It just isn’t.”
“How could it not be? We love each other?”
I put my face in my hands. “Do we?” Why oh why did I have to be so sensible and full of morals and justice? “How could we say we’re in love, we hardly know each other.”
“It is just something we know,” Penelope replied easily. “Now get back over here, si?”
“But how would Tom feel?” I thought about that one, how I would feel if my girlfriend were out seducing another man. I had to think about these things.
“Oh stop it,” she snapped. “Becoming tiresome already! Tom does what he pleases, or have you forgotten how he treated your friend?”
I thought of Danny trembling and nauseated over a drink. “Oh yeah.”
Click. I
blinked as Penelope turned on the light. I squinted at her and felt self
conscious about myself just sitting there in boxers. How luminous she looked,
how vibrant and radiant and… well and here I sat, winter pale and my nose
sunburned from too much
She smiled and then slowly began to pull off her top and she dropped it on the floor, and then she crawled towards me with a smirk. “Have I become unattractive to you suddenly?”
“No… you’re beautiful…”
Her hands cupped my cheeks. “Oh you’re so pinchable!” she giggled.
“Um…”
She kissed me softly.
“Wait!” I exclaimed. “Penelope I can’t!”
This time I
saw her eyes flash with anger and she sat back, crossing her arms over her
little breasts. “Aye
I sighed and looked at my hands before I looked into her big, beautiful, dewy black eyes. “Penelope I just can’t sleep with another man’s girlfriend, I can’t. It isn’t right. And if I slept with you now, it would just be, well it wouldn’t be fair to you because it only means that I wouldn’t be showing you the proper respect a lady deserves. It would make me no better than the brutish behavior my teammates have sometimes.”
She blinked.
“I know that it’s old fashioned and maybe you think it’s somehow insulting but… but it’s only because I respect…”
“So you don’t want to make love?” she whispered.
I swallowed. “I do but… but it wouldn’t be right.”
The smile on her face surprised me. I thought she would be mad. “You’re a beautiful man!” She kissed my cheeks and putting her shirt back on, she left the hotel room. I couldn’t bear to watch her as she left my life again forever, a second time.
I melted inside. She called me a man, not Sport or Tiger or Kid or Tangs or Puppy, a man! “But I love you,” I whispered. Oh if one could talk to their dreams forever. I glanced at Joe’s bed, half expecting to see him there sleeping as I awoke muttering, with tears in my eyes about something that never happened….
I woke up a little late. I wrinkled my nose and realized that when I saw the clock. Joe hadn’t woken me up like he usually did. And then I remembered. Had it really happened? Had I been given my second chance with Penelope and ruined it? I groaned and fell on my back and clamped my pillow over my face. “You idiot!”
When I came into the locker room everyone had smiles upon their faces, they roared congratulations to me and winked knowingly. I rolled my eyes. “Cool it guys, we didn’t do anything.” Insert disbelieving groans here……
Footer dropped his face into his hands. “Why God I beg you why do you do this to us! WHY! The kid wasted a night with Penelope Cruz!”
“What happened?” Drury asked in a deadpan tone, his eyebrows straightened and lowered. “I thought she really liked you or something.”
I crossed my arms. “She’s dating another man I have principles!”
I looked at Joe to gauge his reaction and he nodded. “Good kid.”
“Well at least you blessed us with some leftovers,” Keaner grinned.
I felt my mouth drop open. I remembered the keys, all of those keys. I had dropped them and forgotten all about them. “Keaner… what?!”
“Ha that model took one look at that mug and ran screaming,” Derek Morris laughed. “I’ve never seen a girl run so fast.”
“Hey those girls just don’t know how to appreciate a good….”
“Hey Footer got those twins didn’t he?” Patty laughed.
Ooo my ears I didn’t want to hear about the guys cheating on their wives again, did they learn nothing from my example? If I were a captain I’d show them some manners! I really would.
“Naw not twins, but they were sisters. Hotel heiresses too…”
“This Hilton sisters, you banged the Hilton sisters?”
Footer grimaced. “Well… we didn’t get too far; one of them had an angry agent I had to beat up…”
“Alright that’s enough,” Joe barked. “I don’t want to hear it. Let’s just get ready for this game!”
I sighed and sat on the bench and that’s when I saw Robbie. I frowned. “You’re still carrying around that bowling ball?”
Blake grinned and picked it up making sure the picture side faced me. “Hee it’s The Brandi and don’t you forget it.”
“I like it,” Patty offered. “I think it boosts his performance.”
“Says the man with the Smittens….” Scott Parker scoffed.
Patty winked.
He lifted the Smittens and twirled them on one finger by the yarn string. I
don’t know how those things stayed soft and fresh but I could whiff a trace of
their perfume. They seemed to have fallen from the
Joe leaned back and he said in a serious voice. He had that look on his face, the fatherly look that made me comfortable and proud to call him my Captain. “There’s something to it, I mean Robbie… you…you’ve been offensively brilliant in the past two games. And Patty, well, in your recent games you’ve been amazing.”
Patty blushed and Robbie grinned. “Yeah, Brandi inspires me, at this rate I’ll get the Rocket Richard trophy when alls done.”
I smiled and imagined Blakie with that trophy. He’d probably be grinning dorky and vapid in the photograph…..
“Speaking of Richard,” Joe said standing up and stretching. “Dru did you realize you’re the league’s leading goal scorer this season?”
I raised my eyebrows. From the exclamations of surprise that everyone else expressed I could guess they didn’t know that either. Drury widened his eyes and then squinted. “You’re shitting me?”
Joe shook his head. “Naw, I saw the stats in the paper this morning, kid you’re leading the league. Keep it up.”
Drury scowled. “Ain’t that some shit…” he half grinned. “What the hell is wrong with me?”
“Something on your mind?” I said, “Maybe it’s your girlfriend or something inspiring you?”
“Could be…” Drury said quietly. “Maybe….” He smiled, a rare full mouthed, sparkling eyed Dru smile. “Yeah, I’m inspired. Sure… I have had something in mind lately, something to shoot at.”
“What is it?” Danny asked. “Share your secret!”
Drury laughed. “Eh, you’ve got the same monkey on your back Dan I bet, it just affects us different ways.”
I frowned. I wondered what that could be….