I'm So Into You

One of a Kind

"Okay, you really wanna know this stuff?!" Josiah asked, giving Brett a slight side eye.

"You're a big deal in this town, Josiah! Even if I don't quite get what everyone is so crazy about," Brett fired back with a smile and an eyeroll that told Josiah she was joking.

Josiah had been thumbing through the pages of notes from Deane and he was a little shocked by the pure volume of the questions. The way his publicist had pitched this article to him, it was as a half-page feature. This definitely read more like one of the magazine's five-page profiles. He'd always played a supporting role on his teams and he was used to not standing in the spotlight. Josiah liked being underrated and was a consistent scorer and rebounder — not a showboater. He was happy to let his teammates egg on the crowd, talk their shit on Twitter, date the models, do the interviews, or go for the big dunk. Between the cameras greeting him when he touched down in New York a week ago, the big contract his agent told him he could score this summer, and now this feature? Things were changing.

"Okay, so let's start at the top I guess? Chop chop, let's go!"

"Well if I'm putting in all this work, I want a little something back," he challenged, with a playfully demanding edge to his voice.

"Josiah! We've already been driving for 15 minutes and we don't have that much longer until we get to the Upper East Side!"

"So what you're saying is that the faster you promise me that you'll do me a favour, the more you get to ask — right?"

"Okay, I surrender! Anything for you," Brett said, sarcastically drawing out her words to show she was merely a hostage acquiescing and not a willing participant.

"That's what I like to hear!" Josiah said enthusiastically "Okay, every two questions that I ask myself, I get to ask you one."

"That's not how this works, Jojo," Brett laughed. Josiah's stomach lurched hearing her nickname tumble so casually out of her mouth. It sounded like she'd been saying it her whole life. It sounded good when she said it. Was this quick show of intimacy a journalist trick to make him feel at ease or was she genuinely just tossing around nicknames for him now?

"Well, I think that I'm calling the shots here and I say that it is. So...," Josiah trailed off, lifting both of his hands in a shrug.

"Fine!" Brett said. "Just go already!"

"Okay, first question: is there any city you, I mean, I wish I had stayed longer in?" He paused thoughtfully, biting his lip and looking up. Brett loved that he took her questions seriously and gave them real consideration. It would have been so easy to discount her or grill her on her basketball knowledge before deciding not to take her seriously.

"So, obviously Miami is amazing and the culture — and Cuban food — there are incredible. There's nothing like spending your winter where everyone else takes their vacations. I keep a condo there, you know. I'm renting it out now, but I want the option to go back some day when I can't play anymore. Detroit is on a whole different vibe, though," he said. The corners of his mouth melted into a smile.

"Sports bring people together and everyone's rooting for you. The Raptors fans come down from Toronto and the energy is so fun to play in. It feels like family there, too. It felt like home."

Brett could tell Josiah was gone for a minute when he talked about Detroit feeling like home. She saw him retreat a bit and a faint smile crossed his lips. She wondered where that thought had taken him to, who he was thinking of. He licked his lips, bringing him back into his body and Brett felt like she'd been caught staring, admonishing herself to keep her eyes on the road. Josiah turned to her.

"What?" Josiah asked gently, tilting his head and smiling. The harder, goofier tone they'd struck earlier had dissipated. His gaze had softened and he looked at her, inviting her question rather than jovially challenging her.

"What made Detroit feel like home? You went somewhere, you were in a moment — what was it? Where does 'home' take you?"

Josiah gulped and nodded slowly. "Can this part of the answer be off the record? I don't know how to stop your recorder thing and I don't want to mess up the interview. I'm gonna leave it on, but I don't want you to use this and I want to be honest with you." Brett nodded. "Sure, I can appreciate that."

"It was mine and Eve — my ex — it was our first real home. Like a house with a driveway and a garage for both of our cars and no one living above us or below us or beside us. I got traded just before Christmas and was feeling stressed about making the move during such a busy time and making her start over, after she finally started to feel at home in Miami and just everything that comes with this life. I was on the road for Christmas Day, but when I got home, she'd brought my whole family together. My brothers and sisters came from college, my parents and granny were there," Josiah smiled like he could see it. "Somehow, they had managed to unpack the whole place and went all out on decorating. There were garlands everywhere," he chuckled, shaking his head and pressing his hands to his face.

"She got the vegan soul food restaurant in town to put together a ridiculous spread and managed to make my only two days off in a row a bubble of family, food, movies, and games. I had wanted us to go on a quick little trip to Jamaica or go back to Miami for a few days — something special to say "Thanks For Moving To The Canadian Border One Week Before Christmas". Somehow she made staying at home in our pyjamas the best thing. That house was always kind of magical for me after that, always filled with good memories, you know?"

Brett nodded, affirmatively. She paused thoughtfully before she asked her next question. It made her uncomfortable and she didn't want Josiah to think it was just another question to her. She could tell it wouldn't be to him.

"So you guys are done done?" she asked, verging on hesitant. She didn't want to push him after he'd opened up and been honest. She knew it was risky to ask more on what was obviously still a very tender subject. She didn't want him to think she had ulterior motives. There were questions coming up further down the list about what he was looking for in a girl and what it was like to be single in New York, so at the very least she could just make sure they weren't off-base.

"Yeah," he answered, exhaling and running his hands over his head. "There are absolutely no hard feelings. I miss her, but I don't begrudge her doing what she has to do and she understands why I'm doing what I gotta do. We loved each other a whole lot and grew so much together and that's why I think we knew when it was time to call it."

Brett and Josiah both looked ahead at the road. Brett wanted to reach out and put her hand over his to comfort him or give his shoulder a little squeeze. She understood. Before she could decide whether or not that was taking it too far, he shook his arms and exhaled briskly, breaking the moment.

"The answer you can use," Josiah said, leaning into her recorder's mouthpiece, "by the way, is that everyone pitches together in Detroit and that feeling of community is everywhere. Whether you're watching folks pull up to Detroit Vegan Soul just to say hi or volunteering with one of the organizations doing amazing work to increase literacy, get kids school supplies, put on camps, whatever, you feel a part of something there." Josiah grinned at Brett almost smugly. "My media training was expensive."

Brett threw her head back in a laugh and then gave it a shake, sending her curls bouncing. "Josiah Smythe, you are one of a kind."