End Game

Twelve

"AH! Jackie, I need help!" Michael yells, laughing loudly as his fingers push buttons on the keyboard in front of him.

"Hold on, I'm coming." He hears through the headphones in his ears.

"Ah! Shit, I died." He comments, leaning back in Jo's bed, glancing around as he waits for a revival. Her room is simple, but the details she had put into it really show who she is. The walls decorated with photos of her team, her family, and friends. An Aces flag is tacked up over her desk, along with a couple Chicago Bulls posters, one of Michael Jordan that's even signed by the legend. The coolest part in Michael's mind though are the two shadow boxes sitting on the shelf, each holding a gold medal, one from Tokyo last summer and the other from the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

"Alright, well Michael and I actually need to get off, but it's been fun streaming with him today, we'll have to do it again sometime." He focuses back on the game they'd been playing for the last couple hours.

"Next time, stream with me when I'm at home and not playing on my laptop." Michael laughs.

"You're never home. You've been in my house more than your own in the last two months." She jests.

"I've been on tour!" He laughs back, "Next week or something, we can plan it, and I'll be more help."

"Alright, well I hope everyone has a great week, I'll post my schedule for the rest of the week over on my Instagram in a bit."

"Thanks for having me on today, Jackie." Michael comments back to her.

"Had to keep you occupied for a few hours." She laughs, "But we really should get going." She adds, "Bye, guys." She speaks to the people watching the stream before Michael's screen clears of her stream, closing out of his too.

"Michael! Let's get going." Jackie's voice rings through the house this time, sliding his laptop aside he climbs out of the bed, finding his shoes and slipping into them.

"Definitely don't want to be late to the game." Michael hurries into the kitchen to meet her.

"We won't, don't worry." Jackie laughs, grabbing her keys and leading him out to her car.

"Is it crazy that I feel like jumping with excitement to be going to one of her games in person?" Michael asks Jackie as they back out of the garage.

"No, it's cute actually. You guys have been flirting for a month and a half, Mike. It's obviously something to both of you, no one flirts online for a month and a half if they aren't feeling something real, not if it's not on a dating site at least. I know you decently from our years of gaming together, and I know Jordan better than anyone in the world, neither of you would waste the other's time if it wasn't something. So, no, I don't find it crazy that after just six weeks since meeting you're giddy about being able to support her in her passion in person like this."

"Thanks for rationalizing my crazy." Michael chuckles.

"For the record, she'd be at a concert a lot sooner than New York if she could swing it." Jackie smiles over at him quickly.

"She was talking about not playing in Turkey this off season. If she doesn't play, and things are as good as I'm hoping for between us, I might ask her to come tour Australia with me for a few weeks. She could see seven shows, and we could spend some real time together."

"I'm trying to convince her not to go back to Turkey, even just for a year. She needs the break and she deserves it. No one I know works as hard as Jordan does, but someone needs to teach her how to relax too. Basketball has been her whole life since she was five and Michael Jordan told her she could ball."