He'd gone beyond his player ways for her.
She'd grown beyond her traumatic past for him.
Together, their love was beyond.
Until one fatal accident.
__________
When she loses the love of her life in a car crash, Althea has nothing left in California...
'And I've been waiting for this time to come around
But, baby, runnin' after you is like chasin' the clouds.'
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*ASHER'S POV*
October 27, 2023.
"I want a good luck kiss 'fore I finish that g-game."
The breathless words fell from my lips like a bomb, my ticking heart halting its course with them, and their impact on Althea's features drowning every sound between the concrete walls of the large court, even the loud voices of the players a few feet away as I tried to read the millions of emotions bursting through her wide eyes.
Shock? Fear? Horror? Triumph? Want?
Not that it mattered when I already expected her to tell me it wasn't 'within reasonable limits'.
Matter of perspective, because in comparison with the billion other ideas crossing my mind, it was the most reasonable, and I couldn't think of anything I wanted more as her tongue slipped out to wet her peachy lips.
"Okay."
"O-kay?" I choked, my breath blown out because if my words were a bomb, these two syllables were a fucking big bang.
"Okay," she repeated, this time with nods like to set it down into reality, surely more for herself though, as my heart was already too far gone into the infinite dust of the universe.
I'd dreamed so much of this moment.
Maybe I still was. But fuck, I didn't try pinching myself as I turned to the players—whose sweaty and still unfamiliar faces appeared quite real if we were in a dream.
"Guys, give us five minutes be-fore next quarter."
"Five minutes?" Althea's wide eyes snapped towards mine like it had finally hit her what she'd agreed to. Though she didn't let out the words, glancing anxiously between the players around and me, as I hummed and pointed my chin towards the closest door.
The five minutes including the round trip to a quieter room, might as well make it the shortest possible and keep my breath for the rest, even if a locker room wasn't the most romantic, nor the heady smell of bleach.
At least, it didn't reek of sweat and old socks, and the shower stalls, the yellow slippery-floor signs, and the mirrors brought back some memories. And not only for me as I crossed her wide gaze.
"It's only one kiss I've agreed to."
"One true good luck kiss." I tried to make each syllable as clear as possible while my jaw was already tensing under her dubious stare.
