To say Brooklyn was still mad at Malia would be an understatement.
Brooklyn wasn't being an asshole about it. She was still helping Malia with anything she needed and wanted but she brushed off casual hangouts with her. She was almost never with Malia alone now and Malia was seeing more of Desmond than she was of Brook.
"Thanks for breakfast, boo." KK thanked Malia, giving her a big hug. "Hope you stay in a good state of mind."
Malia tilted her head side to side. "I'm doing a lot better. I never said thank you for the gift. I appreciate that so much."
"Girl. Don't thank me." KK waved her off. "Thank you for taking Kaari to her dad."
"I wanted to." Malia said. "I missed her, a lot. Haven't seen her much because there's a lot going on."
"I understand." KK picked Kaari up, kissing her cheek. "Mommy will see you next week, okay? Be good."
After buying Kaari chicken nuggets from 2 different places, Malia took Kaari to Ja's place. It was early in the morning so Ja was still asleep but he was gonna have to wake up soon.
The group consisting of: all Grizzlies players, Malia, Brooklyn, and Kaari would be attending a Grizzlies summer league basketball game. They were playing against the Pistons at the Fedex Forum, where Malia had only been probably once.
"Honey." Malia spoke softly, rubbing his back as he slept. "Kaari's here."
The guard woke up after a moment, eyes settling on Malia. "Whea' she at?"
"She was still tired so I put her back down to sleep."
"Aight." Without warning, Ja pulled Malia into his embrace. "We ca' go back ta' sleep."
Malia shook her head. "No, Temetrius. Don't forget we're meeting everyone for lunch before the game."
"What time is it?"
"Around 10." She pulled out her phone to look at the time. "Quarter after 10."
"Too early."
Malia decided to relax in his arms and let him fall back to sleep. It didn't take long considering he was halfway there to begin with so before Malia knew it, his gentle snoring sounded in her ear.
She decided to go on Instagram for the first time in a month and look through her feed. Nothing interesting was on there so she watched TikTok and laid there for an hour before going to check on Kaari.
The toddler was asleep with her iPad on, so Malia turned it off and placed it on the charger. When she got across the hall to Ja's bedroom, he was sitting up in bed, stretching his long arms.
"She still sleep?"
"Mhm." Malia rounded the bed, holding Ja's chin in her hands. "You okay?"
The guard tugged her closer waist band of her pants. "I'm straight. Finna start getting ready."
"Alright. Same."
"What's wrong wit' what you wearin'?"
Malia looked down at her Nike sweatsuit. "Babe, there's so much wrong with it. I don't even know where to start. My hairs not even done."
Ja looked over Malia's outfit again, wondering what was wrong with it. He wore Nike Tech's to games more often that not, so he thought her outfit was dope. Her hair was also down so Ja didn't know what else she needed to do to it.
"I guess..." The guard mumbled. "You gon' ride wit' me today?"
Malia shook her head. "I can drive myself."
