Clutch Endgame

by Tarrah Anders

  Sometimes, the media will do whatever they can to get a headline; unfortunately, these sources are incorrect in their assumptions, and I want to call them up to correct them, but the fact that the source was anonymous, means that they likely won’t be able to do anything about it.

  I click back over to the other article and now that I know who the woman is as all the other details return to me. She had asked for a photo for her son when we met with her the following day after viewing the house. We stood outside of a cafe, and I took the photo of them. Afterwards, Gunnar gave her a hug and she was taken aback by that which is likely the cause of the awkwardness in the photo.

  The second photo is from a meeting that Gunnar had with her that I couldn’t make because I was meeting with Dwayne in regards to my new position with the Gila Monsters Organization.

  A tap on the door of my office startles me. I look up to see Rachael standing in my doorway. She looks nervous and slightly terrified.

  “Everything okay?” I ask her.

  “Your… um… boyfriend is here,” she says in a whisper.

  “Oooookay?” I wait for her to continue. Gunnar usually just acts as if he owns the office and walks in on his own rather than waiting up front, the comes in here.

  “There’s a trail of reporters outside that seemed to follow him here and Mr. Lyons looks annoyed.”

  Déjà vu. I stand up from my desk, smooth the front of my shirt as I round my desk and walk towards her.

  “Where’s Gunnar?” I ask looking around, not seeing him.

  “Mr. Lyons called him into his office when he was on his way back here. I think it’s so cool that he comes and visits you at work,” she gushes trying to keep up with my fast moving pace.

  I smile. “How are the color swatches on the new branding for Kit and Kaboodle? Did the art department color match or ruin it?” I turn the conversation around and away from my personal life.

  She stands ramrod straight. “They mocked up something that was completely wrong and I have them re-doing it right now. They’re supposed to get back to me within the hour. I also did a quick write up based on your notes and my initial meeting with them. I think I want to change their website wording a little to reflect a less passive voice.”

  “Excellent. Since they are new-ish and created this website out of their asses without consulting us, their freaking marketing group - they need all the help you can give them. Nice work. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go save Gunnar from Mr. Lyons before he talks us out of moving.”

  I walk over to Mr. Lyons office and see that Gunnar is sitting in the chair across from him. The two men are laughing about something just as I walk inside the office space and sit beside Gunnar. He looks over to smile at me reaching out his hand to me. I take it and he squeezes.

  “Hey babe,” he says lightly as I return his smile.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask.

  “Gunnar here brought with him a flock of reporters; it’s almost like a deja vu of when you first started working here. We were shooting the shit, since this is likely the last time that I’ll get a chance to.” Mr. Lyons cuts in. “I haven’t had a chance to ask her, so, who is the blonde?”

  I groan and lean my head back as Gunnar laughs and responds. “That’s our realtor. I like my women brunette with the name of Sawyer. That one is likely a clinger, I feel bad for her husband.”

  “It’s a shame that Sawyer here no longer works with the Hornets, I haven’t seen them put out anything regarding your trade or these articles that came in this morning. But I guess it’s a good thing that Arizona swooped her up and put her on payroll.”

  “Media relations and marketing are two different wheel-houses. This time, she’ll have to explain the reason for the players doing something, rather than reshaping us and making up look better than we are.” Gunnar responds with another squeeze to my hand.

  “Am I even in the room? Hello guys.” I say with a roll of my eyes.

  “Well, I’ll let you two chat. I have fires to put out of my own. Sawyer, Rachael is up to date on what her tasks are, correct?” Mr. Lyons directs to me.

  “Yes sir. I checked in with her before coming over here. She’s on the up and up, quick on the uptake of information and will do well with her new accounts.”

  “Very well. Let us discuss later your final days here, and make sure that I’m up to date on everything, just in case. I know that you’ve trained her adequately, but I probably should have a handle on what my staff are doing, I assume.” Mr. Lyons jokes.

  Gunnar and I leave the confines of Mr. Lyons office and I turn to him.

  “Well, what are you doing here?

  “I came because more articles are publishing. Someone in Arizona is selling some bullshit about me playing house with Julia. There were preliminary photos that the team saw that are obvious with you being Photoshopped out, because you were there, but it just shows Julia and I walking in and out of the house.”

  “Oh goody.”

  SIXTEEN

  GUNNAR

  I PULL out my phone and open up the email that the Hornets new media person sent everyone in an email blast, about an hour ago. When the articles were published this morning, I laughed at the ridiculousness of them. Someone went as far to Photoshop Sawyer out of photos that she was clearly in for the sake of an attempt to create a story of lies.

  I handed my phone over to Sawyer, she scrolled through the email, and the photos attached. She enlarged the images and then handed the phone back over to me with a laugh.

  “Whoever took the photos knew that they were lying, but are greedy as fuck to have done something like this. Has it hit national or is it just local?” she asks.

  “I’ve been in touch with Dwayne over in Arizona and they got word of it too. It appears to be someone looking to tarnish the trade for their own leg up. There is really no point in acknowledging the accusations because that would be feeding into the vultures, so I guess we just have to be united with it. Are you okay with that? With not saying anything?” I ask her.

  “I agree. Acknowledging the rumor would be exactly what the person who took the photos want. I’ll have to call Dwayne today and see if they need any information from us regarding it. It would be shitty having to do damage control before I even started working for the Gila Monsters and having to retract footsteps for the public,” she responds writing down a note on her notepad.

  “I’m sorry babe.” I apologize.

  “Why?” She looks up to me in confusion.

  “That shit like this happened in the past, is happening and may likely happen again in the future.” I shrug.

  “That’s what I get for falling for the player,” she returns with a playful smirk and a small lift of her shoulder.

  THERE WERE MORE photos that came out and they were blasted all over the gossip columns and across multiple platforms. My social media was blowing up and all I wanted to do was to refute all the slander that was occurring, but I knew that I should remain quiet until we had better instructions from the Arizona team. In a few days, something else will capture the attention of people and these blatant lies will be forgotten. At least that is the hope.

  We had a game tonight, so I did what I could to focus on that rather than the bullshit. I can control the game. I can kick ass against Denver here at home, but I cannot control the lies that someone decides to tell. I learned that the first time around with Sawyer.

  We won tonight’s game, which brought our rankings in the National league all that much closer to being in the playoffs or at least getting a chance at the wild card. We’re not likely to play into October, but now that we’ve had four solid W’s, the Skipper is much more optimistic than he was when we were in Denver, which brings the Hornets up in the standings.

  This may put a snag on our plans to move at the beginning of October, but that would mean I would have more chances to win the pennant with the Hornets.

  I’m exhausted and dragging ass as I wait for the elevator to open up onto
my floor where our condo is. I unlock the door and step inside, it’s almost eleven at night and even though it’s late, I smell the richness of Sawyer’s homemade pasta sauce wafting through the space.

  My woman is standing at the stove, stirring the sauce dressed simply in a white t-shirt and a pair of my boxer shorts. Her hair is in a sleek ponytail and she’s humming quietly to herself, lost in the song and unaware that I’ve come home.

  Fuck, she’s a vision, a sight to be seen.

  I want this woman by my side every day, for the rest of my life. I want her to finally say yes to my proposals and I want my name shared with her for real and not just when she wears my team jersey. I’ve never loved anyone as deeply as I love Sawyer Rotham, and I never will. She is everything that a man could ever want and she’s mine.

  Mine.

  I circle my arms around her from behind, and breathe her in. Her body leans back and relaxes into me.

  “Hey you.” She whispers, turning her head with her lips seeking mine.

  “Hey.” I reply.

  I need her.

  “You hungry?” She asks.

  “For you, yeah.” I reply roughly playfully nipping at her neck.

  She places the spoon down on the plate beside the stove and turns off the burner. She places the lid over the pot and turns in my arms.

  “I don’t want the house to burn down.” she explains when I smile at her motions.

  My body is alert as her hands roam from my chest down to my hips and cups my cock. She squeezes gently and then moves to my waistband and tugs down, exposing my fully erect cock -jutted toward her, dripping with pre-cum on the crown. I take the moment as she licks her lips staring down at my cock before she pulls her shirt off, baring her breasts to me. My palm grazes over the tips of her nipples, hardening at my touch. Her own palm circles my shaft and she pumps me from base to tip, with my hips automatically reflexing with her movements. I lean down, move my mouth greedily over hers, and suck her tongue into my mouth.

  I turn her, lift her hips, and seat her on the island, our lips never leaving one another. I pull on the waistband of the boxers she’s wearing and soon her bare ass is on the granite. My hand moves between our bodies and in between her legs. I pull her to the edge of the counter and fist my cock to direct it to her entrance. Our mouths pull away and we both watch as my cock enters her, spreading her pussy lips to fit my cock into her body, a body that was made for me.

  I pull back and roughly thrust into her repeatedly. I have a raw need to fuck her with everything that I have.

  Mine.

  Her fingertips dig into my shoulder as she holds onto me as my cock drives into her. Her gaze holds mine as breathy moans escape her lips. I take her mouth with mine, swallowing her moans.

  Those are mine too.

  I’m not sure what’s come over me, the desire to mark her, claim her and fuck her senseless takes over my body that I pull out, pull her down from the counter and position her so her ass is facing me. She drapes her arms over the counter top, spreads her legs and playfully shakes her ass.

  I squeeze her globes and with my finger, I trace my fingers down the crease of her crack and sink two fingers into her drenched pussy with a sigh emanating from her lips.

  Fuck.

  I direct my cock back to her and drive into her again.

  “Marry me?” I plead with my hips pushing deeper into her. Groaning at the pleasure her body is giving me.

  She moans as I thrust into her, my hips hitting her ass with my hands gripping her hips.

  I throw my head back as pleasure raises up my spine. With wave and wave of pleasure releasing from my body, I feel her pussy clench my cock as her channel strokes me from within.

  She’ll marry me one day.

  SEVENTEEN

  SAWYER

  LAST NIGHT, Gunnar was different.

  He was quiet and determined. Rough, yet still sweet. And raw.

  He fucked me last night as if he owned me, as if he was trying to make a point, to prove to me that he wanted me. To prove to me that those news articles are false in all the ways, in every way.

  I know that he loves me. I know that he wants me. And I damn well know that he needs me. He’s asked me to marry him over and over again, but never in the tone that he did last night, never when we were having sex. Sure, afterwards it, in the bliss of an orgasm, but last night – he was more determined.

  So, I’m not sure what he was trying to prove last night, but I know that I liked it.

  I stretch as a cat stretches after laying around all day, from head to toe. My body is sore in all the right places, my inner thighs are tender, my arms feel weak. I roll over onto my stomach and my arm brushes against Gunnar’s side.

  He makes a soft noise and rolls to his side to face me. With a lazy smile and one eye open, he drapes his arm around my body, pulls me to him and buries his head into my shoulder.

  “It’s so early, go back to sleep,” he groans.

  “I can’t. I need to get ready for work.” I mumble.

  “Call in, you don’t need to really be there, you’re done there anyways. Take the rest of the time we’re here in San Diego and just hang out,”

  “I have so much to do, there’s a lot of information that lives up here.” I say pointing to my head. “And I need to give it to Rachael before we leave.”

  You’re too good of an employee,” he says.

  “I was thinking, a way to go about squashing all this stuff that’s in the gossip rags and whatnot.”

  He props his head on his hand and waits for me to continue.

  “I was thinking that we make a trip to Arizona and do some photo ops with Julia. One that is staged and planned, where we’re obviously there together and very obviously purchasing a home. Also, I’m hoping that if any of this reaches her, that we squash that immediately. I would hate for rumors to ruin her business or to reach her family.”

  “So, a passively aggressive way to say fuck off to whoever the idiot was that Photoshopped those photos and whatever?”

  “Kind of. Also, a way to show that we’re still going strong and that the person who sold those photos is a fraud. I also had another idea.” I let this last bit linger and saved it for last on purpose.

  “Yeah, what’s that babe?” he asks with his eyes closed.

  “What if we did all these publicity type planned photos, with an engagement ring?”

  Gunnar’s eyes open wide and he jumps out of bed. He says nothing as he walks with determination across the bedroom stumbling over his own feet and into our walk in closet. A moment later, he walks out; unfazed that he is completely naked and lowers himself to one knee beside my side of the bed.

  He holds out a black and gold velvet box with his hand visibly shaking.

  “I’m not going to give you some cheesy line, but you know that I fucking love you. I want to share my world, all of my days and my nights with you. Will you finally freaking marry me?”

  A LARGE ROCK weighs my left hand as I pose for a photo in front of Julia’s real estate office. When we called her, she was all too eager to eliminate any potential rumors before they got out of hand for her locally in Arizona and began to affect her business if anyone recognized her from the images.

  We also intended to use the new publicity for a few features that I managed to discuss with Dwayne as well pertaining to their trades and giving the region a chance to get to know the new players as well. It was my first official task with the organization, something that I was proud of thinking up on the cuff. I had retrieved some reporter contact information for the Sun Valley Times in Phoenix and they set me up with a few opportunities to get them to run a feature and to give off a hint of where the new Gila monster catcher will be, to purposely find us. Dwayne coordinated a photographer from the department to also be on hand as well.

  As an added bonus for being in Arizona, we planned to get the inside scoop on interior designers for the new house and had that arranged for distance photographs as well. Gunn
ar and I always had one arm wrapped around the other or we were holding hands with very little space in between us. Granted, a skilled person can still Photoshop me out of the photo, but we were doing what we could to make it difficult, just in case. One of my hands was also on his back or front at all times, we weren’t taking any chances.

  After a daylong of purposeful marketing, Gunnar and I settled into our hotel room and with a lingering kiss good night, we fell asleep with our bodies wrapped around another.

  I woke up the next morning, my body feeling exhausted from the previous day, and Gunnar was already awake, sitting up in bed with his back against the bed frame while reading something on his phone.

  “News is out,” he says as I move around in bed to get comfortable enough to fall back asleep.

  “Yeah? Which news?” I ask.

  “That my long-time girlfriend finally agreed to marry me,” he replies with a smile.

  “If I’m asked how the proposal was, can I say that you did it while we were naked?” I mumble against the sheets with a lazy smile. I open my eyes and see him shooting daggers at me. I hold up my hand and look at the ring on my finger.

  “I’m not sure why we waited so long, I look good with this on my finger.” I smile.

  EIGHTEEN

  GUNNAR

  THE PLANNED PHOTOS only brought out more vultures. The media caught onto the engagement ring that I’ve had sitting in my dresser drawer for the past few years that was perfectly placed on Sawyer’s ring finger last week, the media ate it all up and hopefully changed their tune on me cheating on her.

  As I continued to read the various sources reporting about the engagement and our recent trip to Arizona, there was a mixture of news of excitement over the engagement and then a little bit of news saying that I was cheating on my now fiancée, or that the engagement is something that is simply a ploy to make Sawyer happy.