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"I'm surprised I even got you on the phone," My mama complained with a slight laugh. It was approaching the evening and instead of being on the way home to the comfort of my house, here I was sitting in the sauna after practice. The gym was empty—everyone had left and went home directly after practice but not me. No, instead I decided to stay after and run some drills. With playoffs quickly approaching, majority of my time was spent perfecting my craft. If I wasn't going hard at practice, I was staying after to work with coaches or by myself. This was the closest I've gotten to getting a ring in all five years of my professional basketball career and I'd be damned if I let lack of skill be the thing that stopped me.
With all the excess time I've been spending in the gym, I hadn't really had the time to talk to my mother. I always made it my duty to answer all her calls. Her living so far away didn't really start taking a toll on me until she got sick. In the beginning, every time I got a call from my mom or Tanisha, paranoia would get the best of me and I'd intially think the worse. Gratefully, none of the calls I got were scarring enough to make me want to pack up and move back to DC. However, my mom knew that I felt obligated to answer her calls regardless of the situation and she definitely used it to her advantage. Lately, she's been calling me to gossip about adult business that she was dealing with with her siblings, complaining about how Dominic refuses to put the toilet seat down, bragging about how much Katya looked like her, or inquring me on my relationship with Yasmin. Nonetheless, she was my mom so I was going to talk to her. Even if that meant spending a bit more time in the sauna than I would like.
"Mama, you know I've been busy lately. I haven't missed a call yet, though." I boasted. We had made a bet to see how long it'd be before I started missing her calls. So far, it's been two weeks and I hadn't missed one yet. It was getting tricky, especially now that she decided that calling at strange times of the day was her new plan. However, I always kept my ringer on (even during the middle of the night which was bothersome to Yasmin) and I was not going to get caught lacking.
"Busy? I hope you're busy trying to mend your relationship." My mother chastised. I never liked complaining about Yasmin to my mom, or quite frankly, anyone in my family because the last thing I wanted them to do was look at Yasmin in a different light. However, when Yasmin took the initative to bring up the Sage incident to Tanisha, she should've known that she was opening up a can of worms. It didn't take long for Tanisha to report the issue back to our mom. Surprisingly enough, Mama Towers was very understanding of me. I expected her to hop on Yasmin's side because one, they were both women and they shared a bond that I wouldn't be able to understand, and two, my mom hated to appear as if she was picking favorites. Nonetheless, for once, she took my side. This was encouragement enough for me to go deeper into the complaints and before I knew it, ranting about the Sage Incident had turned into me confiding in my mom about the Not-Engagement Incident.
"Yeah, we've been pretty good lately. Dare I say, back to normal?" It was Tuesday now, and Yasmin and I seemed to have completely moved past the issue. I was curious to see how long this was going to last because we didn't really talk anything through. Sure, Yasmin reiterated yet again why she walked out of the dinner and I reiterated yet again that she should've trusted me, but that was as deep as the conversation got. Yasmin even went as far as to canceling her trip to Oregon so she could stay in the house with me.
