“I’d appreciate it if you gave my agent and me some privacy. Thanks,” I snapped at her. Leo was glaring at me like I was crazy. The girl rolled her eyes, offended, and then walked away.
“What is wrong with you, man? I made some good progress with that one!” Leo complained when I sat down beside him.
“I need a drink!” I declared, and I found a bartender to give my order to. I could sense Leo watching me closely.
“Something is going on, and as your agent and friend I deserve to know what,” he said.
I turned to him with my heavy-lidded eyes. Everywhere I turned, every woman’s face my gaze landed on, I would see Beth. It was unnerving, and it was beginning to annoy me.
“Nothing is fucking going on. I’m just thirsty!” I growled at him. Leo gritted his teeth and sucked in his gut.
“Fine. Then let’s talk about Beth Thomas,” he retorted.
“What about Beth Thomas?” I snapped. Just hearing the mention of her name made me feel jerky again.
“About the fact that she’s gone back to New York and made a few recommendations,” Leo continued. He seemed a bit more relaxed now, and that relaxed me. For a moment there, I thought he knew what was going on between Beth and me.
“What kind of recommendations?” I asked him. Leo shrugged his shoulders.
“She said we’re going to need a whole team of maybe three people, to look after the social media aspect for you and your brand. It’s more than a one person-job,” Leo explained.
“I don’t need a team,” I growled. My whiskey arrived, and I poured it down my throat in one quick chug.
“Vince, she knows what she’s talking about. She’s an expert at this stuff. If she thinks you need a team, then that is what we should do,” Leo continued.
I could see he was putting in a lot of effort into convincing me, but it wasn’t going to work this time.
“No. I don’t need a team of people hanging around me, and I don’t need my photographs and my private moments splashed all over social media. It’s over.”
Leo glared at me in disbelief.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he snapped, standing up from his chair with a jerk. “After all the progress we made this week? After all the work Beth put in!”
I shook my head and indicated for the bartender to get me another drink.
“Look, man, I appreciate all of your efforts. This was probably a good idea, but I don’t need this.”
“Yes, you do, Vince! You need to keep up with the times. You need the publicity.”
“I know what I need!”
“I’m your agent. This is my job. I’m supposed to look after all this. You just keep doing what you’re doing. Play your game. Let me handle the rest.”
I stood up from my chair as well. My drink arrived, and I gulped this one down too.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Leo. This is my life we’re talking about, and I’ve made my decision. If you want to stick around with me, then you’re going to stop talking about social media. I don’t need it. I’m not going to do it. Just fucking deal with it.”
My nostrils were flared. I could feel the surge of anger in my veins. I pulled my wallet out and stuck several dollar bills on the counter. Leo was glaring at me, trying to gulp back his words.
At the end of the day even though we were friendly, I was still his boss.
“Does this have something to do with Beth Thomas? Did she do or say something to change your mind?” he asked.
“Yeah, you’re right, Leo, she has everything to do with it,” I told him.
Then I turned and walked out of the bar. My hopes were dashed. Leo wasn’t a distraction at all. In fact, he made me think about her even more. The alcohol hadn’t helped either. I was just seeing her face everywhere.
I walked down the street and went into another bar. I needed to be by myself. I needed to get Beth out of my system, and the only way I knew how was by getting passed-out-drunk.
Chapter 19
Beth
Back in New York, now that I’d put some distance between Vince and myself, I felt like I’d made the right decision. I could get my life back in order again and begin to move on.
I knew Gia and Suzy desperately wanted to meet up with me, but I needed to head to the office first thing before I could see them.
The next morning, I woke up early, got dressed and ready to meet Nathan. I had a whole speech prepared, and I was hoping he would be pleased with the work I’d done for Vince.
When I got to the office, Nathan was already waiting to speak to me. I planted a bright smile on my face which was mostly a mask to cover how I was still physically in pain from the separation. Vince probably didn’t even remember my name anymore.
Nathan didn’t look as pleased to see me though. I interrupted a conversation he was having with someone else, and he seemed to roll his eyes before he finally made time to talk to me.
“Come to my office,” he commanded. There was a chip on his shoulder. I could sense that. He wasn’t even pretending to be friendly anymore, not even in front of the rest of the team.
I followed him in and shut the door behind us. Nathan went over to his desk and sat down.
“What happened out there, Beth?” he asked, with his brows crossed.
I was confused by his tone of voice.
“What do you mean? I don’t understand. I completed the one week trial run with Vince Woods. I’m sure you’ve been keeping track of the traction we’ve been getting online. He’s been doing very well,” I replied, sitting down in front of him.
Nathan squared his shoulders, and he had a look of disappointment in his eyes. What did he have to be disappointed about? He should have been proud of me! I did exactly what was expected of me. Did he find out about Vince?
“Sure, yes, his profiles have been doing well,” Nathan said. I waited for him to explain because I could sense there was something else in the works.
“But what else happened between you two?” Nathan continued.
My throat seemed to constrict. My worst fears were coming true. Somehow, Nathan had found out, and now everyone was going to know that I’d slept with a client.
“I don’t…” my voice was shaky, and he interrupted me.
“Vince Woods has canceled the contract. They do not want to work with us anymore,” Nathan said.
My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach.
“What?”
“You heard what I said. I received a call from Leo this morning. He said that Vince made it very clear he did not want to work with us, and it had something to do with you.”
I gulped, my throat had gone dry, I could feel beads of perspiration on my forehead. How could Vince do this? How could he do this to me?
“I don’t…” I tried, but Nathan wasn’t going to let me speak today.
“What did you do, Beth? You must have said or done something. Leo said he doesn’t know because Vince is a secretive person, but apparently, he seemed angry. You did something to piss him off!”
“No…I just…” I tried to defend myself, but Nathan jumped up from his chair.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You have cost us a client who could have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. How am I supposed to explain that to the guys? What am I supposed to say to them? And you! Of all people!”
Nathan continued to shout at me, and I sat there on the chair, just sinking into myself. This was too much.
I still didn’t feel like I had recovered from the fact I wouldn’t see Vince again and now Nathan was shouting at me. He was blaming me for everything that happened.
Vince had done this. He was the one who was vengeful because I left. What more did he want from me? How many more times did he want to fuck me before this was over?
“What did you do? What did you say, Beth?” Nathan continued to growl.
I stood up from my chair and stuck my chin up in the air.
“I quit,” I said, in a low voice. Nathan sto
pped mid-sentence and glared at me.
“What did you just say?”
“I’ve had enough, and I quit. I’ve spent too many years under your boot, Nathan. You have never given me my due credit even though we all know I’m the best on your team,” I snapped.
Nathan was taken aback by my outburst, and he remained standing there, glaring.
“Okay, you’re getting ahead of yourself there, Beth,” he tried.
I shook my head and stepped away from the chair.
“No, I’m going,” I replied and picked up the files on Vince that I had prepared. Nathan’s mouth dropped. He wasn’t expecting this. He thought I was going to be tied to him and this company forever.
“Now, hold on,” he said.
“I did my best with Vince Woods. His social media presence is booming. Whatever personal reasons he had to drop us, or whatever he had against me, I’m sorry that it happened, but I can’t help you anymore, Nathan,” I said.
Once again, in a span of one day, I was the one walking away.
Nathan, unlike Vince, tried to stop me. He chased after me as I walked out of the office building. He said that he was willing to review the Vince Woods case and figure out what went wrong and what I could do to improve my work.
I knew I didn’t need any improvisation. I had done excellent work, and nobody could have done it better.
But now I was free. I was free of the company and Nathan and Vince. It was time for a fresh start.
Chapter 20
Vince
Another win and the crowd went wild. I congratulated my teammates and shook hands with our opponents and waved at the crowd and headed back to the lockers.
Basically, my life went on in its usual routine way and technically, I shouldn’t have been complaining. I had it pretty good. I had fame and fortune and my best friends.
It had been over two weeks since Beth was gone, and her absence felt like the most significant factor in my life. Nothing else seemed to matter. When I played football, I was doing it mechanically. I had no idea how we were still winning. I was hardly paying attention.
We were in New Orleans for this game, and the team wanted to celebrate our latest victory. An after-party had been organized for us at a nightclub.
I showed up there, straight out of the shower in a pair of old faded jeans and a plaid shirt. These were the only clothes I’d seemingly packed for myself. It was like I was walking through a daze and none of this was real.
“That’s a good look on you, man,” one of the guys said, thumping my back. I grinned and ordered my whiskeys.
While the rest of the team, including their agents and other associates, partied hard, I remained sitting at the back, drinking my whiskey and waiting to get drunk so I could forget Beth’s face.
I couldn’t even deny it to myself anymore. I was in love with her. I never got a chance to say it to her, and she was better off not hearing it, but this was the first time I felt this strongly about a woman, and now she was gone.
I couldn’t help but feel like this was some sort of payback, a ploy by the Universe for all the women I’d let down in my life. It was payback for those women who were left heartbroken because I wasn’t ready or interested in committing.
Now, I was in love with a woman who didn’t want me and who had literally run away from me.
I forgot about Leo. He was watching me from across the club, and I caught sight of him as he weaved around the crowds of people and made his way towards me.
“Enjoying the party?” he asked, sitting himself down in front of me.
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I grunted and threw my head back to drink the remaining whiskey in my glass.
He was watching me curiously. For the past two weeks, since Beth left, Leo was keeping an eye on me. He knew something was going on, but I wasn’t about to tell him.
My best friends knew, but that was as far I was willing to share.
“Did you know these are ideal moments to share with your fans?” he asked, and I rolled my eyes.
“How many times do I have to tell you, man? That social media experiment is now over. Can we just move on? Winning games isn’t enough for you anymore?” I growled. I was beginning to lose my patience with Leo now, even though I knew he meant well.
“All right, all right!” Leo backed off, grinning because he was also a little bit drunk. “What did she do, anyway?” he added.
I looked up at him with a snap.
“Who are you talking about?”
“Beth Thomas,” Vince said as I clenched my jaw.
“Nothing. She didn’t do anything. Why would you ask that?”
Leo shrugged.
“That night when she left Boston, we met up, remember? You said you needed a drink. Then before you left, I asked if Beth had done or said anything to change your mind about the social media campaign. You said yes, it was completely her fault.”
I had my eyes narrowed and my forehead crinkled in confusion. What the fuck was Leo talking about?
“You kidding me?” I snapped, and Leo shook his head.
“You don’t remember this?” he asked. I racked my brain. I was so fucked up that night after Beth left that whole night was just one drunken blur. I couldn’t pinpoint a single moment or a single conversation.
“No, I don’t remember, but whatever I said, you shouldn’t have taken it seriously.”
Leo didn’t seem impressed.
“I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. I heard she quit her job. Maybe that’s why you got a bad vibe from her. Maybe she didn’t want to do this anymore.”
Everything Leo said was confusing me even more.
“Bad vibe? No. I didn’t get any bad vibes from her.”
“You said, she was the reason why you changed your mind.”
“I just told you to disregard everything I said that night for fuck’s sake, Leo!”
I stood up from the chair. I had enough of this conversation. I was frustrated and angry. I didn’t want to talk about Beth anymore.
“Who told you she quit the job?” I asked him. Leo looked up at me, I could see he was quite drunk already.
“Heard it on the grapevine. Apparently, she got back from Boston and had a big showdown with her boss and quit. Whatever happened here, between the two of you, seems to have had adverse effects on you both,” he replied with a small smirk.
I was watching Leo as he drank the rest of his beer, then staggered as he stood up.
“It doesn’t matter anymore, does it? You won’t tell me what happened, so I can’t help you. If I didn’t know you as well as I do, I would have guessed you were in love with her or something,” he continued, and now he was laughing. I stood there, glaring at him, hoping he would just shut up.
“But we both know that is impossible. So I guess it will just have to remain a mystery!” he added.
Chapter 21
Beth
It was three weeks later, and I still couldn’t sleep well at night. I tossed and turned in bed. There was too much on my mind. I couldn’t catch a break.
Now, not only did I have Vince to miss but I was also unemployed. I had purposefully walked out of that office that day, feeling jubilant because I was finally able to tell Nathan off. But the truth was, I didn’t have a real purpose.
I could have looked for other jobs. I knew other social media agencies would have pounced at the opportunity to hire me. I could have moved to Silicon Valley, and put my technical skills and knowledge to use, branched out in a more cut-throat industry. The options were limitless. I was qualified, experienced and successful but I had just lost the drive.
Every morning I woke up, and I thought I would finally find a reasonable next-step, but I couldn’t. All I did every day since I quit the job, was look up recipes online and cook fancy dishes. Most of which were eaten by me alone, or sometimes Suzy and Gia when they had the time to come over and give me company.
I’d barely gotten out of my pajamas.
It was a Sunday morning, an
d I woke with my head feeling heavy. It was the result of tossing and turning in bed, without being able to fall asleep. When I looked at the clock, I saw it was a quarter past ten already. Even a month ago, I couldn’t stay in bed past eight! Now, look at me!
I was a completely different person.
When I swung my legs off the side of the bed, I heard voices in the kitchen. For a moment I thought I imagined it. When I left my room, the voices became clear. Gia and Suzy were in my kitchen.
They were frying bacon and flipping pancakes.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Gia said when I walked in.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.
“We decided we’re going to do something fun today!” Suzy declared.
“Get you out of those pajamas and get you out of this apartment!” Gia added.
But before I could respond to them, I could feel a nauseousness rising in me. It was like suddenly, I hated the smell of frying bacon. Who hates the smell of bacon?
“Gia…no…turn it off…” I mumbled, clutching my stomach.
“What?” she was confused, as she stood there with frying tongs in hand.
My knees felt wobbly. I could feel it rising up in my throat.
“Oh my God!” I shouted and ran back to my room, hoping I’d make it to the bathroom in time…
“Beth!” I could hear the girls screaming behind me as I slammed the bathroom door shut after me.
I got sick in the toilet. Because of bacon? That was very hard for me to believe.
* * *
When I came out of the bathroom, Gia and Suzy were sitting on my bed.
“How are you feeling, hun?” Suzy asked and helped me to bed.
“I’m okay, I think. I don’t know what got into me. The smell of bacon set it off,” I said. Then I caught the two of them exchanging looks.
I knew what they were thinking because I was thinking the same thing.
“Beth, I’m sure it’s nothing. You’re probably just a little under the weather, but do you think, just to stay on the safe side…” Gia said. I interrupted her.
Daddy Player: A BILLIONAIRE SPORTS BABY ROMANCE Page 7