For Christmas I got some of my cousins and uncle tickets to   Mathew’s game in Chicago. I got some for my parents and Mathew’s as well. My sisters didn’t care to go to a game. They’re middle school girls right now and they don’t care about sports yet at least. Mathew helped with getting them courtside. Mathew’s parents had gone to one game already. I wanted mine and his to experience a game without getting a lot of attention so I decided not to fly in. They enjoyed the game and Mathew’s team won.

During one of Mathew’s last interviews in the session this year he was getting interviewed by a Mexican journalist. When it was their turn to ask him a question he saw the name and recognized it. 

“Hello Mr.Conners,” Mathew smiled and the crowd all laughed. “Umm,” the reporter stopped and looked around. 

“Si?” Mathew asked. 

“¿Hablas español?” 

“Poquito. Tome clases en la prepa y universidad. También lo hablo con la familia de mi pareja.” His teammate next to him looked over at him in shock. “No es perfecto pero…” he shakes his hand signaling it’s okay.

“Siendo tú primero año como jugador, ¿qué es algo que quieres cambiar para el próximo ahora que ya se va a terminar?

“Pues um, una cosa que quiero cambiar es el teamwork entre mis compañeros. Es el primer año y no estamos acostumbrados a jugar juntos. Por mi parte es algo que I think would help us out to perform better.”

“Gracias, te esperamos en México.” The journalist joked. 

Mathew laughed and they let someone else ask. Another reporter from a Spanish company asked a question.

“In Spanish or English?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Mathew grinned and the crowd laughed. 

“What other languages do you secretly know?” His teammate asked and the crowd laughed again.

The interviews went on and from then on they would interview him in Spanish. 

***

After that I went to one of Matthew’s games and sat courtside watching him. Before the game he came over and was talking to me and the people by me. “I’m going to shoot a three for you, just watch.” He told me and they laughed. They had no idea he meant it and he did. He did his signature kiss and point that usually means nothing but because I’m here he pointed at me. Oblivious to everyone else just looked like his normal thing he always did. I always liked seeing him play in person. This would be the least hectic game I would ever attend. This and prior ones it wasn’t even mentioned if I was there. Unless you went online on “pop culture accounts that post who’s at games you wouldn’t know. With Mathew saying he spoke Spanish with his partner’s , people took it as a confirmation that they were dating. Comments:

“See this confirms it!!”, “OMG they really are dating.”, “I wonder when they will go public? We all know they're dating anyway.”, “it’s probably just pr.”

***

Nina wrapped up filming for her movie and wanted to take us on a trip for our birthdays. We went to Cancun for a week. She got a suite with two rooms. We spent most of the time there drinking at the bar and clubs and the beach. Pictures came out of the three of us there. People online kept asking why I was there third wheeling all the time. That I shouldn’t even be on the trip. Especially some pictures of me putting sunscreen on his back really made them upset. That I shouldn’t be doing that to someone else’s boyfriend. I could care less if Nina was to do it to Mathew. They would also get mad when I would help her with hers. The reason we stayed was to try and get more privacy.

One day Mathew and I were at the pool while Nina was up in her room. We messed around while not getting in peoples way. I tried drowning him a couple of times but he wouldn’t let me do it easily. He came under me and threw me up in the air like nothing. We laid on our elbows at the edge of the pool after a few minutes of swimming. Just staring at each other. He playfully splashed water at me, flicking the water. 

“Do you want to go walk on the beach?” I asked him. 

He nodded and stood up. We weren’t at the very end but close to it so I had to swim. I started getting out and he helped by pushing my butt up. He jumped out and joined me. His body drenched looking like a marbled god. He grabbed his wallets and our phones. We walked off towards the beach as we talked. We walked dripping water in our slides down to the beach. After leaving the pavement the sand felt warm and soft between my toes once I took off my sandals. We went into the water. I always wondered why you would build pools next to the ocean right there. It’s way better than a pool. I guess for safety if you have kids. You might want to avoid waves and easier to keep track of. 

We swam for a little bit, enjoying the ocean. I texted Nina we left the pool just in case she came down. We left our phones and Mathew’s wallet under his slides hoping no one would take it. I planned to just take a walk. After getting out after a few minutes we made a little pyramid that was knocked over by the water. I tried burying Mathew but got tired at his knees. He busted out the sand and went into the water to clean it off.  He turned around and walked backwards deeper into the water. 

He held out his hands. He didn’t have to say a word. Grin on his face and I knew what he wanted me to do. ‘Come to me’ he was telling me. I started walking towards him as he got deeper. The water was at his chest. I started getting closer. He swam backwards going in more. I swam up to him and held on to his shorts as he swam back moving us both. Holding on to the waist of his front shorts. Our faces two feet away. Once far enough from the shore he stopped. He swam in place. I held the waist holding myself up pushing it into him while kicking me feet. 

“If you keep your hands there and I keep looking at you I’m going to get hard.” The waves hitting the back of his head. I shrugged, taking in his beautiful face the sound of the ocean behind us. I felt like it was only us in the world in this quiet moment with distant sounds of kids playing on the beach. The waves smashing down over and over. “Your eyes look beautiful in the sunlight.” I looked away smiling. I could feel myself blushing. “Don’t look away…” he leaned in to go for a kiss but a bigger wave hit us. I moved away a bit and he told me to wrap my legs around him. I did and he laid back holding me up. “Do you like riding me?”

I playfully hit his abs. “You’re dumb.” I chuckled. 

The waves came again bigger.

“Let’s head back. They’re going to get stronger.” I got off him and we started swimming back. Mathew made me swim in front of him so I wouldn’t get pulled back. I wasn’t swimming as fast so he told me to get on his back. I grabbed his neck and he swam us both in. I saw the beauty mark on his left shoulder as his arms went over and over. His hair smelled like salt water now but I still held my face to his head. When we got in closer the waves were hitting harder and bigger. No wonder there wasn’t that many people here. The waves must hit here the hardest. 

“I can get off now.” I told him when we weren’t that far from shore. I let go and swam. He came up under me and put me on his shoulders. "Aren't you tired?” 

“It’s fine.” He kissed my thigh as he walked into the shore. I played with his hair moving it out of the way. I looked around and saw a camera pointed at us. I wonder how long they’ve been there. Unless they were on a boat I doubt they could see us in the water. I got off his shoulders and we grabbed our stuff. I pointed the guy out to Mathew and he turned around trying to see.  We walked along the beach, moving away from them.

“I love it here.” I told him as we walked along the shore line. Slides in hand. 

“Would you want to live here?” He looked down trying to reach my gaze.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I think here like a beach town it’s better to vacation due to hurricanes and stuff but it would be a dream to live by the ocean. At least a year. Would you?” Even though we live technically close enough to the ocean we aren’t close to the shore at all. I couldn’t walk there if I wanted to.

“We could if you want.” 

“Our families would be farther though.”

“Yeah… I don’t know if I would start a  here. I would want to be closer to our  if we were to have kids.I would need to look into it. I’m not too knowledgeable on the school system here. Or how anything works to raise a  you know?”

He caught me off guard. “?” I looked over at him.

“Yeah, one day right?” His eye brows were raised seeing what I would say. 

“Yeah.” We’ve never had in-depth conversations about having a family  together. I just know he does want one day. 

He put his arm around my shoulder and we kept walking. We saw a lady with a fruit cart and walked over towards the edge of the beach. The crowds were more dense here. The sun was coming down a bit more.

“Hola, ¿Les gustará un vaso de fruta?” She asked.

“Hola buenos días.” We both said.

“Si por favor.” I told her. 

“What do you want?” I asked Mathew. 

“Me da uno con todo por favor.” Mathew told her.

The lady looked surprised. She was already looking flustered with him being shirtless. 

“A mi uno de sandía y melón por favor.” I told her. 

“Si claro. No más me sorprendo.” She told us. 

Mathew laughed and a kid came out from behind her. “Ama es Mathew Conners el jugador de basketball! Es mi jugador favorito.” 

“Hola.” Mathew smiled and waved. 

“¿Me puedo tomar una foto?” He asked. 

“Claro.” Mathew told him, holding out his arm.

He got close to Mathew and I took the picture for him. 

“Dónde está la camisa que siempre tienes? Que te la firme.” The mom told him. The boy started looking for it in his bag and couldn’t find it. He saw Mathew was in Mexico and had been carrying it just in case he saw him. He left it at home. He wanted to run back and get it. He lived a couple blocks away. Mathew told him it’s no problem, we can just get a taxi there so he doesn’t have to run there and back if his mother agrees. Mathew told the boy to get a taxi for us as we waited for the fruit. He ran off a few feet away to get one of the drivers. She handed Mathew his fruit of different kinds with lime and chili on it. Some more people noticed him and started asking for pictures. She asked if I wanted anything on mine and said no. I ate my fruit as they took pictures with him. The boy came back and we got in the taxi with him. He took us to his house. Talking Mathew’s ear off. I doubt he understood everything but he entertained him. 

When we got there I told the taxi driver to wait. He didn’t mind since he would be paid for the time too obviously. He kept looking at Mathew till he asked him if he was famous or something and Mathew told him he played basketball. He also wanted something signed so he signed his wallet once the kid came back with a marker and his jersey. I guess since Mathew’s interviews are in Spanish they are watched more and he’s more popular. When we got back there were more people there. 

This was the first time I had seen it in person. I see the crowds outside the games but I’m never there. On the court they also control to make sure no big crowds rush the players. He took a few more pictures with the crowd before we got back to the lady who thanked us. 

“Me da otro por favor?” Mathew asked. 

“We should get one for Nina too.”

“Order anything she likes.” Mathew told me. 

I ordered her the same as Mathew. She gave us our cups. I signaled Mathew for his wallet to pay. She didn’t want us to but I couldn’t let her not let us pay. I looked at the sign and added it up. I tried giving it to her but she wouldn’t take it so I gave it to the son. She grabbed it and tried giving it back.

“Por favor” Mathew told her.

“No está bien. Se lo agradezco que le fue a firmar la camiseta a mi niño.” She told us. 

I got her to take the money and made her keep the change. Mathew saw a group of kids around and told me to pay her so they all could get some. We walked back to the hotel sharing his fruit. When we got back I gave Nina her fruit cup. 

“What did you do?” I asked her. We left her alone for a couple of hours.

“Nothing, just tanning at the pool and reading a book.” 

“Why didn’t you text us to come back?”

“I wanted you guys to spend time alone.” We both looked at each other and smiled. 

It would come out later that while we were there unaware of what people were saying. People were digging up the past to try and see if they could find anything on Nina and Mathew. Also if they could find anything on me trying to break them up. 

After we came back for the trip Mathew and I went out to eat at a sushi restaurant. We’ve been going out more on dates now that he’s been more free. We sat at a high top side part of the restaurant. We sat down and they gave us our menu. Mathew grabbed my chair and pulled it closer to him between his legs. He sat facing me leaning on the counter. We ordered our food and waited till they brought it out. We ate our food between the both of us. He ordered two different kinds of suchi rolls for himself and I ordered one for myself. He held his arm extended behind me holding the side of my chair opposite of him. 

My suchi kept falling out of my chopsticks before I could reach my mouth and he would smile trying to hold back from laughing. 

“It’s not funny.” I smiled as I tried picking it up again. 

“Here.” He did it with his left hand moving it to my mouth.

I chewed it down. “It’s not fair. How can you do it with both hands?” He leaned in and gave me a peck. I cleaned my face to make sure it was clean and sipped my drink. He gave me another peck and gave me another roll. We finished our date and ended the night at our place. 

A took a few minutes for the pictures capturing us kissing to light the match the the nuke that would come. With the Cancun pictures of us already out. There were already rumors of us now being hinted at. “Looking a little closer than friends”, “best friend? How would you feel if your boyfriend did this?” Pictures of us at the beach came out. Just us playing on the beach in the water and the sand. Some of me was on his back once we were closer to shore and me on his shoulders. But it wasn’t taken seriously. Only on the right wing channels. But it was talked about online as being a backstabber. 

The sushi date made it go on the front page everywhere. It was on all the sports channels, all drama channels, anyone that talked about pop culture was talking about it. At least it was finally out. We didn’t see it until the next morning because we watched a movie together before falling asleep. Mathew’s phone, more than mine, was blown up non-stop. Texts and calls, multiple voice mails from his team, the teams pr and random people in media that were able to get his number and mine.