Christian nodded. “Yes, Mama. I know it will. I’ll be okay and Simone will be, too.”
Olivia hugged him. She struggled to swallow past the painful lump in her throat to hold back the tears until she could be alone in her car. “Thank you, baby. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay, Mama. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Olivia squeezed him tighter and kissed the top of his head before letting him go.
After Christian sulked to his room, Malcolm and Olivia stared at each other in spent disbelief. Olivia’s emotions emptied from her core and left her speechless. Malcolm broke the silence.
“I didn’t think it would turn out like this,” Malcolm stated.
“You didn’t think. Period. You didn’t consider what this means to them in an already difficult time. I had to be away from them for thirty days while locked up in jail. Now, you are ripping them from me and their world in the only city they’ve ever known. Did you even consider the distance?” Olivia spat her words in anger.
“Look, I don’t want your opinion.”
“No. You’re going to listen to me.” Olivia slammed her palm on the table. “You are a sorry excuse for a father.”
“Olivia, I’m a good father,” Malcolm said.
“How do you expect us to fly the kids back and forth to visit? Huh? Oh, wait. Let me guess. Your plan includes me buying airline tickets every time. Correct?”
“Keep your voice down, Olivia. The kids hear you,” Malcolm warned.
“I’ll do you one better. I’m leaving. I can’t stand being around you. This right here is a major fail on your part. You’d better pray our kids will recover from this trauma you’ve caused.”
Olivia didn’t wait for Malcolm’s response. She darted to the door and exited without another word.
FOURTEEN
Savvy
“Watch your back, Christian.” Savvy cupped her hands and yelled from the stands. She and Olivia stood along with other basketball parents in the Sportsplex.
“Oh, come on, Ref. You know it’s a foul,” Olivia bellowed and slapped her hands on her jeans. “We see that with our eyes closed.” Half of the crowd moaned along with Olivia in disbelief and others cheered.
“Get up, Christian. Keep moving. You’ve got this,” Savvy coached.
Christian scrambled from the floor. He caught up with the other players in time to receive a pass from the point guard.
“You have an open shot, Christian. Take it and make it,” Olivia hollered and clapped her hands. She jumped on the wooden bleachers in nervous anticipation.
The ball flew from Christian’s hands and hit the backboard. Time stood still as the ball bounced onto the rim and circled three times. Olivia and Savvy held their breaths along with the crowd anticipating what would happen.
The home team erupted into a joyful cheer after the ball dropped through the hoop for the point right before the halftime buzzer sounded.
“Yes,” Savvy and Olivia yelled in unison and high-fived.
Savvy shouted, “Awesome job, Christian. Way to go Armadillos.”
Olivia raised two-thumbs-up when Christian scanned the crowd to make sure they hadn’t missed seeing his shot. His face beamed with happiness as he sprinted to the locker room with his team.
“Alright. Whew,” Olivia said as she and Savvy sat on the bleacher. “I didn’t know if the ball would go in or not.”
“I know, right. He’s doing great in this game.” Savvy readjusted her scrunchy, which held her braids back into a ponytail.
“Thank God. After everything we’ve dealt with following the disastrous discussion with the kids about moving to Miami, I’m glad Christian is handling things well. I wish the same could be said about Simone.”
“What’s happened since you visited them last weekend?” Savvy asked.
Olivia greeted one of the basketball Moms. “Hi, Bonnie. Gavin is playing an awesome game tonight.” She turned back to Savvy. “Well, for starters, not only is she not talking to me, now she isn’t speaking to Malcolm either. She keeps saying she is going to run away.”
“Oh, no. I remember you telling me how traumatized she is about having to move.”
“Malcolm took her to an appointment with Dr. Hennings tonight. He requested the court’s permission for me to pick up Christian for the game. That’s why they aren’t here,” Olivia
said. “If it were up to me, we would have her see the therapist daily. Christian told me she gets out of school and stays in her room until time to eat dinner.”
“I hope her visit with Dr. Hennings will be good for her. She has a lot of anger to work out.”
“Like mother, like daughter.” Olivia wrung her hands. Her eyebrows drew together adding years to her face.
“Come on. Let’s discuss something else right now. You don’t want Christian to come out of the locker room and see your pitiful face.” Savvy patted Olivia’s shoulder. She whipped out her phone. “Hey. Let’s take a selfie.”
“Good idea. Does my hair look okay?” Olivia ran her hand across the back of her head.
“Fabulous.” Savvy removed the scrunchy from her ponytail and spread her braids across her shoulder. “Here, you hold the phone. Your arms are longer.”
“Okay.” Olivia extended the phone in front of them as they positioned their faces cheek to cheek. “Alright. We look cute. On three. One, two, three.” The two of them giggled and maneuvered into glam poses for several shots.
“Here. I’ll post it on my social media page. I’ll add the pictures we have of Christian playing too.” Savvy retrieved the phone from Olivia and loaded the pictures onto her timeline.
“Cool.” Olivia noticed one of the player’s parents sitting a few rows ahead of them looking in her direction. She stood and waved, calling out, “Hey, Bill and Dianne.”
They gazed at her with a blank stare before turning around without returning the gesture. Olivia frowned and lowered her hand as she sat on the bleacher. She turned to Savvy. “Did you see what the Olzacks did to me?”
“No. What happened?
