by Bridget Lang
Just keep breathing, stay still, don’t fight back, don’t talk. Don’t make this last longer than it has to. You’ll get past this. I wince when I feel his kicks on my back, legs, and stomach, but I just curl into a ball with my arms over my face.
$623.52.
As the kicks continue, sharp painful blows with his boot, I just keep reminding myself of the $623.52 that I have stashed under the false bottom of my sock drawer. Soon I’ll have enough to get away from this psycho-asshole, to go somewhere else, start a new life, become a new person.
I just need a little more money.
I am suddenly aware of another male voice, and the kicks abruptly cease. I peek out from beneath my arms. A heavily-muscled man with dark blonde hair has Aaron by the shirt collar. He delivers a vicious punch to Aaron’s stomach.
“The fuck is wrong with you?” the guy bellows, his voice is deep and smooth but I detect an underlying tremor of rage. “Think you’re such a big man, beating up on a little woman, you piece of shit? That make you feel strong?” The larger man throws Aaron against the hood of my car. “Come on, man, show me how tough you are now!”
Aaron doubles over, coughing, and I almost feel like laughing. Aaron is an intimidating presence, but this guy is huge. His back is to me but from the way it looks, he is solid muscle. I don’t think of myself as a particularly vengeful person, but knowing Aaron will have bruises tomorrow too feels unbelievably satisfying. Unfortunately, it will also mean he’ll become more enraged, and more rage means more taking his anger out on me.
With Aaron reduced to a groaning pile on the gravel parking lot, the big guy turns and reaches out a hand to help me up.
“Hey, lady, are you oka- ” He freezes mid-sentence, and when our eyes meet, I know why.
Jett Lang.
Jett fucking Lang… Lord, this can’t be happening to me!
“Claire?... Claire Donnelly?... Is that you?” he asks.
I groan. Of course, the one guy who so honorably comes to my rescue has to be Jett Lang, who used to be the biggest fucking douchebag college football player, and is now the more famous, better-paid fucking douchebag NFL player. Also known as the asshole who made my college days a living hell.
When will I catch a break?
“Yes, it’s me,” Using the hand he offers, I pull myself to my feet, and dust off my jeans. “Hey, Jett.”
“Holy shit, I can’t believe it’s you.” He motions with his thumb at my mess of a boyfriend. “Who the fuck is that guy?”
“My boyfriend,” I sigh. “And if you’re done playing white knight, I have to get him home. Thanks, though.”
“What?... Oh, hell no. No, no, no. Don’t you tell me you’re driving him home?” Jett was never the sharpest tool in the shed.
“Well, we do live together and I do have to deal with him sooner or later.”
Jett is standing in front of me shaking his head. His eyes scan my body from head to toes, and I feel myself shrink. Then, he grabs my arm and starts pulling me towards a nearby Lexus.
“That dick can take a cab.”
“Wha-- Were are we going? Where are you taking me?”
“We’re getting dinner.”
“Says who?” I snap. I realize the guy just saved me from getting a worse beat-down, but I’ve had about all the arrogant control freaks I can stand tonight, thank you very much.
“Says me,” he snaps back, and then his voice softens, “Think about it - do you really want to deal with that idiot right now?”
I don’t answer, but when he turns and continues toward the Lexus, I follow, mostly because my jaw stings like a mother, my body aches, I’m exhausted, and he’s right; I need to regroup for a few before dealing with Aaron again.
We don’t speak the whole way there. Jett looks over at me a couple times, but doesn’t say anything, and I pretend to be interested in what’s outside of the car window.
I’m grateful when Jett pulls into a small hole-in-the-wall diner in the middle of nowhere. In college, Jett craved the limelight, loved to make himself look good. Always the arrogant center of attention. Now that he is one of the biggest players in the NFL, I half-expected him to take me to some five-star bistro to show me off as his new charity case. That would totally be something he’d do.
It’s not until after a waitress with bright orange hair wearing a polyester uniform and orthopedic shoes takes our burger orders and saunters away that Jett breaks the silence between us.
“So, that asshat was your boyfriend?”
“Yep.”
“But, why?”
Oh, here it comes. I roll my eyes.
“Well, Jett, when he first asked me out, he told me he planned to beat the crap out of me on a regular basis, and I said ‘well, you sound like my kinda guy,’ so now here we are three years later, just as planned.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Jett mumbles. He leans forward and I catch a whiff of his cologne, the same kind he wore in college. For a moment, I’m back in the tutoring center explaining physics to Jett while he plays with his pencil and stares into space. He hasn’t even changed cologne. What a narcissist.
“I’m not trying to sound like a dick,” Jett continues, “I’m just confused.”
“You? Confused? What a surprise.” I know I’m being a grade A bitch, and maybe he doesn’t deserve it. He did just come to my aid back in the parking lot, something none of the other patrons standing around were willing to do. I gaze over at his tousled, dirty-blonde hair, straight nose, chiseled jawline. Still hot as hell, maybe even hotter. Besides, people can change. Maybe Jett deserves a chance to be absolved of past deeds and given a fresh start. I ponder this a second.
Nope, still hate him.
He ignores my comment. “I just don’t understand why you’re still with that guy. I know we didn’t know each other all that well in college, but I knew you well enough to know that you’re really smart, and you’re pretty talented. You could do a helluva lot better than that asscrack. What makes you stay with him?”
I take a sip of my water. I haven’t heard that question since I had friends, something that Aaron ensured ended completely at least a year and a half ago, back when he’d tried to convinced me I didn’t need anyone but him. I never agreed with him, I just got tired of the hassles and arguments.
“A lot of reasons,” I finally say. “At first it was because I hoped he’d change, and I still loved him. Now… well, I’m trying to leave now, but it’s a lot harder than people think.”
“How?” In Jett’s eyes, I see a genuine question. He isn’t being sarcastic or condescending, he really seems to want to know.
“Well, first, I need money. I’ve started salting away a little here and there without him noticing, but he controls our bank account and without money, there’s not much I can do. Right now I have a little over $600 in my sock drawer.” I take another sip of water, trying to figure out how to phrase the next part. “Plus, it’s not like he’s just going to let me go, just let me walk out. With someone like him, it’s not over just because I say it’s over. He’ll come after me, try to find me and probably keep trying to hurt me, even after I’m gone…” my voice trails off.
Jett just sits there silently watching me. I expect him to say something but he appears lost in thought. The silence kind of makes me nervous, so I continue, “I need enough money to completely disappear, and that’s hard to do since all of my paychecks are direct-deposited into our joint account.”
Again silence.
“Are you gonna say something?” I finally ask.
“I could give you some money.”
That was not what I expected him to say. At all.
“No,” I say flatly. “I don’t want your charity.”
A wicked smirk crosses his face. “It wouldn’t be charity,” he leans forward, his elbows resting on the formica tabletop. “I’d need you to do something for me, too.”
Oh, here we go. Of course.
“I am NOT going to sleep with you for money
,” I snap, sitting up straight and glaring at him, as if drawing myself up to my full, miniscule height will intimidate him. “I do have some self-respect left, you know.”
He tilts his head back and laughs as though I’ve just said the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. “God, relax, would you? You’re always so uptight. It has nothing to do with sex.” He pauses, and then his gaze sweeps over me. “Unless you want it to.”
“I don’t.” I cross my arms in front of my chest. “What would I need to do?”
“Marry me.”
Chapter 2 JETT
“I’m not the marrying type,” I tell my agent.
“Yeah, I know,” Larry says, “That’s the problem.”
I almost feel bad for Larry. He is kind of a nag, but he isn’t totally wrong. Even I know my less than tarnish-free image isn’t working really well for me anymore. Larry usually has to take the heat for letting me “get away” with my antics. He’s only thirty-eight, but in the six years I’ve been playing football, he’s already gone almost entirely gray.
“Being your agent is like being the president,” he once told me after picking me up from a club at five in the morning. “It ages you twenty years.” It’s starting to look like he’s right.
“I don’t see the point,” I argue anyway. “So what if I get married? It’s not like it’s gonna change anything about me.”
“You’re not the thing that needs to change,” he explains. “Your image is. Lately, everything you touch turns to shit. It doesn’t matter how great you are at throwing a ball if everyone thinks you’re a total dick.”
“But I am a total dick,” I joke.
Larry is entirely straight-faced. “I know,” he says. “Trust me, if the public knows that, you’re going to lose your job. The team doesn’t want someone everybody hates on the payroll. It’s bad for ticket sales. Plus, you’re losing endorsements left and right, and I don’t think I have to tell you how bad that is for your bank account.”
I shrug as though I don’t care, but I know he’s right. At first, my behavior just added to my image. I was the “bad boy” of football, something that a lot of men found exhilarating; they liked to live vicariously through me. And the women, day-um, I couldn’t keep the women away. Over time, though, fans seemed to enjoy it less and less. My sponsorships are starting to fall away like poor Larry’s hair, and my coach is starting to lose patience with me. I can hear his words in my head. “Your girlfriends aren’t doing anyone any good, and it looks like you’re not helping them much either.”
They aren’t my girlfriends, but it is true that neither of us are benefitting a whole lot from our exchanges. The chicks are hot, and they are great lays - don’t get me wrong about that - but they are also complete disasters. There’s Delilah Rose, the porn star best known for flashing the cameras when exiting high-end night clubs. Then there’s a lunatic-turned-model, Amber Ferndale, who overdosed on pain pills three times in as many months and showed up at my house naked, crying and asking why we weren’t married yet. The list goes on and gets worse as it does.
“So what do you want me to do?” I ask. “Find some mousy little kindergarten teacher and propose to her on the spot? No one will buy that.”
“Well we can’t go that far, obviously. But we need to find someone. Someone pretty and wholesome, who looks good on your arm but can still keep her panties on for more than an hour. We’ll say that you’ve been keeping your relationship quiet because you didn’t want to deal with the press.”
“I’m not sure about this,” I say.
“Well, I am,” Larry bristles. “Listen, Jett, I love you like a brother, but if you don’t start listening to me, we’re going to have to… go down a different path.”
I stare at him for a second. “Are you fucking kidding me? You’d seriously drop me?”
“You’re not giving me a choice, Jett!” Larry argues, running a hand through his hair. “Do you know how much time I sink into trying to make you look good and keep your career afloat? I can’t do it anymore! I missed my twins’ fifth birthday for you, and I still haven’t gone to a single one of my son’s little league games!”
I frown. “You have kids?”
“Oh my God.” He puts his head in his hands, looking totally defeated. “Listen to me for once, okay? This isn’t optional this time. Either you find somebody who’s willing to put up with you, or you and I are done. Understood?”
Two hours later, I see uptight little Claire Donnelly getting pounded into the pavement by her dickweed boyfriend.
I’m not thinking about Larry when it happens. I’m not even really thinking about Claire. I’m not exactly hero material, and not too bothered by other people’s problems as a general rule.
No, in that moment, I’m back in the shitty-ass singlewide I’d grown up in, huddled helplessly by the bedroom door with my two brothers, trying unsuccessfully to block out the sound of our drunken dirtbag of a father knocking the shit out of our mom, her sobs barely audible under his screaming.
The difference is that this time, I’m not helpless. There’s something I can do. So I do it.
It’s not until I’m sitting across from Claire in the diner, watching her sip daintily at her water and give me her speech about why she can’t leave, that I realize I can kill two birds with one stone.
Maybe it does pay to do a good deed once in a while.
Chapter 3 CLAIRE
“Okay, explain this to me again,” I say, munching on my fries and watching Jett inhale his burger, grease dribbling out the corner of this mouth. Disgusting. “Because from the way it sounds, you want me to marry you because you’re such a jerk that you can’t find a decent girl. Is that it?”
“Pretty much.”
“I’ve already got a jerk. Why would I want another one?”
Jett actually looks hurt for a second. “Because this jerk won’t beat the shit out of you,” his tone gets serious sounding and he sits his burger down. “Plus, this jerk has a bunch of money, a huge house, and a security team that will make sure the other jerk won’t dare to come near you.”
“I’m not completely destitute,” I tell him defensively. I hate that this is actually starting to sound like a viable option. “I don’t need you to support me. I have a pretty good job.”
“A job that gives you money you don’t have access to,” Jett clarifies. “And I’m not saying you need me to support you. I’m just saying that, if you agreed to marry me, you could basically have whatever you wanted as part of the deal. All you’d have to do was occasionally go to press events with me and come to some of my games. You like football, don’t you?”
“It’s okay, I guess.” Am I actually considering this?
“Well, as my wife, you’d get the best seats, completely free. You’d have money, clothes, jewelry, whatever the hell you want. And Aaron wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near you. Doesn’t that seem better than trying to scrape together enough money to support yourself before your boyfriend kills you?”
“Aaron wouldn’t kill me,” I say, but my heart lurches in my chest. I know it’s a possibility, I’ve known it for a while. I spend a lot of time in denial, but Jett is right. I can’t trust Aaron with anything at this point, and if this is the first and best chance I have to get away from the dickhead, I’d be a fool not to take it. Even if it means tying myself to another dickhead. At least he’s a total-gorgeous-hot-babe dickhead. And he won’t kill me.
“Please.” Jett grabs my hand, and I jump, startled. His hand is warm and calloused, but his touch is tender. “I need help, okay? I need help. And it seems like you could use some too.”
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and sigh. “Tell me what I’d have to do.”
Jett’s face lights up. He looks like a kid on Christmas morning. “It’s easy. I buy you a ring, we go down to Vegas to get a quickie wedding, we stay married for a year. You live with all the comforts and security that come with being my wife, and then we file for a divorce and you go on your merry w
ay.”
“And what do I say when people ask me why we’re suddenly married?”
“I’m sure your friends and family will back you up if you explain things to them.”
I nibble on my fry, but it suddenly becomes tasteless. “I don’t really have any friends or family. I was talking about the press.”
“Press is easy. We tell them we were keeping our relationship quiet because you don’t like being in the spotlight, and when we get a divorce, we just cite ‘irreconcilable differences’ and ask them to ‘respect our privacy.’” Jett takes a small, careful bite of his burger, his eyes never leaving my face. “I thought you were pretty close with your mom in college. Wouldn’t she need to know about this?”
“We were very close.” My throat starts to constrict, and I try to breathe through it. Even after two years, it’s still hard to talk about. “She passed away from cancer right after I started dating Aaron.”
“Shit,” Jett murmurs.
“Yeah.” I push back the lock of hair that always seems to fall into my eyes. “I was living with her to take care of her, and when she died, I’d spent a lot of my savings on her medical bills. I ended up selling her place and moving in with Aaron. Which - well, you can see how that worked out for me.”
Jett shakes his head. “Sorry. That’s rough.” He fiddles with his fork. “My mom passed away just before college. That’s not an easy experience.”
“No,” I agree. “It’s definitely not.” I’m surprised. I didn’t know Jett’s lost his mom.
To be fair, I was never exactly bosom buddies with the guy. He was a senior when I was a freshman, and we were in entirely different majors, me in chemical engineering, him in exercise science, so we never had any classes together. We never would have met at all if I hadn’t been assigned to tutor him.
As I watch him scarf down the rest of his fries, I analyze the situation. He needs to look like a decent, relatable guy, so he chooses me, someone who seems desperate, and extra points for getting a girl who isn’t pretty enough to hang off his arm in any other situation. Me being dowdy with my waist-length, limp reddish brown hair, small breasts, and big hips, makes him look like more of a hero for deigning to choose me. Once people see us, they’ll be shocked. I can already hear it. “He must really love her. She must have a great personality.”