by Layne Harper
I flash Colin a “saved by the bell” look and he just sheepishly shrugs. I’ll get the story from him one day.
Chapter Two
WE ARRIVE at our hotel a little after five in the evening. I’m exhausted after a night of not sleeping, three surgeries, and an afternoon of surprises. I need a nap if I’m going to be any fun this evening.
Colin looks at me with knowing eyes and wraps his arm around me as we exit the elevator onto the floor that we’re staying on. “Baby, I have some phone calls to return when we get to the room. Why don’t you take a hot bath and have a nap? I need you well rested for what I’ve got in mind for tonight,” he says winking at me. When Colin turned his phone on after we landed in New Orleans, it went off like crazy. Someone or someones were desperately trying to reach him. When he saw all his messages, he got a look of disgust on his face and shoved his phone in his pocket.
“Okay,” I agree. “As long as you don’t let me sleep too long.”
“Deal!”
Of course, Colin rented us a suite. I appreciate the thought, but I’m still not comfortable with throwing money away. Then, I walk into the bathroom and see the giant two person shower and a bathtub that’s so large it could be a small hot tub. Maybe upgrading to a suite isn’t such a bad idea.
Colin sets up shop at the dining room table and is on the phone having a heated conversation with someone when I emerge from the bathroom in nothing but the hotel offered bathrobe. I’d hoped to entice him into a little foreplay before my nap, but I can read his body language and tell that he doesn’t want to be disturbed.
When he notices me, he holds up one finger telling me to wait. He says to whomever he’s speaking to, “Hold that thought for one second.”
Then, he gets up from the dining room table and walks to me pulling me into a tight embrace. “Take a nap, beautiful girl. I’m going to be awhile.”
He kisses me to soften the blow of my dismissal, and I walk back into the bedroom dropping my robe on the floor. I crawl naked into the very comfortable bed. I’m a bit sad that he isn’t joining me, but I understand work rearing its ugly head.
I fall asleep wondering what he has planned for us this weekend.
* * *
From somewhere in my sleep drenched mind, I hear, “This is bullshit, Mark.”
I roll over and look up at the ceiling. Colin is really upset about something, and he’s yelling at his agent who has been with Colin since he declared himself for the draft. I’d feel very sorry for the guy that has had to put up with Colin for so many years, but I know that Colin pays him a fortune so I guess it’s like hazard pay.
“What the fuck do you want me to say? The answer is no. Not no, but hell no! Would you like for me to make the phone call?” Colin yells.
I get out of bed and slip the hotel bathrobe back on and walk into the living room of the suite. Colin’s back is to me and he’s staring out the hotel window at the Mississippi River. He must sense my presence because he turns around and walks toward me, grabbing my shoulder with his left hand and squeezing it. This’s the universal sign that Colin's upset. The degree that my shoulders are squeezed is a direct correlation to how upset he is. By the way that he’s gripping my shoulder, this is really bad.
“Fucking forget it Mark. I’ll have Aiden call and deal with it. Maybe he can make some head way,” he says disgustedly. There’s a long pause and then Colin says more calmly, “Yes. I understand what you’re saying. I’ll let you know what’s going on.”
He ends the call and pulls me into his arms. “I’m sorry that I woke you, baby. I didn’t mean to yell so loudly.”
I reach up and rub my hands up and down his back. He has taken off his leather sports coat and is just in his slacks and green T-shirt that’s now untucked.
“Anything that you want to talk about?” I ask.
“I don’t want to taint you with this bullshit,” he says kissing my forehead. “I’m going to go to the lobby and call Aiden. Why don’t you start getting dressed? We’ve got dinner reservations at eight o’clock.”
I’m not letting him off the hook that easily. I know that we just got back together, but he has to let me into all aspects of his life. Colin has a knack for compartmentalizing. When we dated previously, he did a great job of keeping me uninformed about anything that he thought might upset me. I’m not willing to have another relationship like that. I grab his hand and gently lead him to the sofa. He follows behind me and sits down next to me. I crawl into his lap, straddle him, and wrap my arms around his neck hugging him tightly. He reaches up and puts his arms around my back squeezing me to him. We stay like this for a long while. Finally, I lean back and look into his beautiful green eyes. “Colin, tell me what’s going on. I can’t be supportive of you and your career if you don’t share with me.”
He looks away from me and whispers, “Please don’t ask me to tell you. I don’t want anything to ruin our weekend together.” My stomach drops and heart aches for him.
“I’m going to do nothing but worry about what’s going on. Then, my mind will start churning up possibilities. Whatever it is, please tell me. It has to be better than what I’m imagining,” I reason with him. I have a feeling that this has to do with Sasha.
Colin tries to stand up, but I shift my weight so he knows that I don’t want him to stand. If he really wanted me off of him he could easily move me, but I’m not making it easy for him to run away.
We sit in silence while I watch his face pass through a variety of emotions. I’m preparing myself to sit like this all night when his eyes cut to the side and look down, “Please just let me go call Aiden. Then, I’ll come talk to you.”
I know that this is the best that I’m going to get so I stand up and walk into the bedroom. I holler over my shoulder, “I’ll close the bedroom door so you don’t have to go to the lobby.”
I shut the door quickly enough that I don’t hear his response. I’m upset. No. That isn’t the right word for it. I’m in turmoil. If this was about football, he would’ve told me. This is something having to do with his personal life which ultimately means me too. Why is he calling Aiden? What does Aiden have to do with this? I’m assuming that it’s the Aiden that I know that dated Rachael, but then again there are other Aiden’s in this world.
I walk into the bathroom and start fixing my hair. I take my frustrations out on the knots that I have because I didn’t bother to brush it after my earlier shower. Finally, I give up and decide that the only hope I have without my detangler is conditioner.
I turn on the shower and let the warm water wash over my body. I grab my bottle of conditioner that Brad packed for me and start working it into my hair. Then, I take my fingers and use them like a comb to make sure that the conditioner gets worked into the tangles. I know that I’m taking my frustrations with Colin out on my poor hair. As I step back under the running water, Colin comes into the bathroom.
Even though my eyes are closed, I can sense his presence. It’s almost as if instead of five senses, I have six. It’s the Colin sense and sometimes it’s the most annoying sense of them all. My body recognizes and gravitates to his aura which just further frustrates me. Why does my body have to be so traitorous sometimes?
I ignore him, and he doesn’t say anything to me. I allow him to watch me for as long as he wants. I reach behind me and turn off the shower. Colin walks towards me and hands me a white fluffy towel for my body and one for my hair. After all these years, he still remembers that I use two towels.
“God, you’re so fucking beautiful,” he coos.
I ignore him. He should know better than anyone that flattery will get him nowhere with me.
I wrap my hair in a turban and wrap the towel around my body and walk to the sink to start working on the tangles in my matted hair. They slip out much easier now that the conditioner has done its job.
I see him in the mirror and I swear that he’s aged ten years. The lines around his eyes that I thought were knowing are now deep and worry lines c
rease his forehead. He sits on the edge of the bathtub in the pose that I hate. He places his big forearms on his knees and leans forward dropping his head.
I want to run over and grasp him in my arms, telling him that everything will be okay, but I don’t know that it will be. He has secrets that he’s obviously uncomfortable with sharing. I need to know them even if it kills him to tell me.
Once I’ve successfully worked the knots out of my hair, I grab the hotel provided blow dryer and start working on styling my hair. Hell! At this point, I don’t know if we’re still going out, but I need something to do to distract me from my sullen Colin.
I turn the blow dryer off and decide to just give up on my hair. It might be a pony tail kind of night. I grab my toothbrush and start brushing my teeth. I can see in the mirror that he’s watching every move I make. I continue to ignore him.
“I hate when you’re upset with me. It makes me fucking crazy.”
I ignore him and continue brushing my teeth.
“When we landed in New Orleans, I had a text that there was a rumor going around that Sasha was doing an interview about me with Talk Magazine. Mark confirmed the rumor and has been able to get a copy of the reporter’s notes. The focus is on all of her failed relationships and why she thinks that she’s constantly being cheated on. The article will focus mainly on her and me and how I cheated on her with my old girlfriend, breaking her heart.” He drops his head even more and whispers, “I’ve read the notes. They’re really, really bad.”
I spit the toothpaste out of my mouth, gargle water, and wash my toothbrush. It gives me a chance to gain my composure before I have to talk about this. I put my toothbrush back in the travel case, and then, I walk over to Colin sitting next to him on the bathtub edge.
I rest my head against his shoulder and put my arms around him hugging him from the side. I know that his confession was very difficult. Colin is a fixer. It’s what a quarterback does. Colin finds a way to thread a football through an impossibly small chasm of air while allowing his teammate to catch the ball and keeping it away from the other team. I’ve watched enough tape with Colin to know that what he does is virtually impossible. However, I’m a fixer too. I repair broken bones and torn ligaments for a living. I want to fix this for Colin.
We stay like this until he barely whispers, “I’m so fuckin’ sorry. I had no clue that she’d do something like this, or that Sasha even felt that strongly about me for that matter.”
“Is there anything that Mark or Aiden can do?”
“Mark has a relationship with the magazine so he’s seeing what he can do on that end. Aiden and Sasha are friends. Aiden’s hoping that he can compel her to either retract the story or ask the writer to soften it.”
“Is this the Aiden that I know?”
Colin looks at me with a smirk. “Yeah! He’s my business attorney.”
“Oh,” is all I can think to reply. I have a ton of questions about Aiden, but now’s probably not a good time to do some digging for Rachael. “Why don’t you tell me what happened with Sasha.”
He shakes his head and replies, “She went bat shit crazy, Charlie. Sasha shredded my clothes that I’d left in her house and put it all in a black garbage bag. She was fucking crazy angry at me. Here’s the best part,” he says with a rueful laugh. “She kept calling me David Beckham and herself Posh Spice.”
I know that David Beckham is a famous soccer player. I have no clue who Posh Spice is. Next time I’m alone I’ll have to Google her.
“It made me see that she liked the idea of me more than me. Sasha never said that she’d miss me or anything. It was all about how she was going to look in the media getting dumped again.”
Ouch! I can’t imagine what it would feel like to realize that someone was using you for your job or social status. It’s got to hurt Colin more than he’s letting on. “Colin, Sasha’s not a good person. She didn’t care about you and now, it’s over. Can I read the reporter’s notes?” I ask holding my breath. I can’t make him let me read them, but I need to know what Sasha’s version of their relationship was for my own morbid curiosity. Plus, I want to know that the notes specifically say about me.
Colin looks at me with a horror stricken look on his face. “You don’t want to read that shit.”
“Yes. I do,” I reply. “It involves me. I should have the right to read them. Whatever she says, it doesn’t change how I feel about you.” I’ve got to make him understand that I’m not going to leave him because of Sasha. What I said in Los Angeles is true. I’m his for infinity... I hope. Damn those “what ifs.” “She has a right to be angry, Colin. You slept with me when she believed that you two were a couple.”
He tries to correct me, but I stop him. “I don’t care what you thought. Sasha’s a woman scorned. Whatever she says is her version of the truth. Thankfully, y’all weren’t married and there are no kids involved. I’m sure that she makes you look like an asshole. All we can do is put on a strong, united front and make sure that the media doesn’t have an opportunity to see any cracks in our relationship. Pretty soon, Sasha’s love life, and ours, will be old news.”
I’m being brave for him. This is what years of therapy have bought me. What I want to do is hide under the blankets and cry or run ten miles. The last thing that I was prepared for when I reconnected with Colin was to be branded as a tramp in the media. Part of me is furious at him for putting me in this position. The other part of me wants to kick my own ass. I should’ve known better. I should’ve asked Colin if he was seeing anyone before I slept with him. I know that how I handle this huge media hurdle is going to dictate whether or not Colin and I have a chance of making it as a couple. I somewhere find inner strength that I didn’t know that I have and put a determined look on my face.
Colin stands up and begins pacing the bathroom. “I was just hoping that we could’ve had some privacy before we had to go public with us.”
“Well, we can’t,” I reply very proud of myself for being strong. “Now let me read the notes while you get dressed for dinner.”
“I’ve lost my fuckin’ appetite.”
“That’s bullshit Colin. You put away an obscene amount of groceries. Go get dressed and let me read them.”
“Fine,” he says walking into the living room to get his iPad. I need to read the reporter’s notes, and he just has to get over it. I’m not a delicate flower who will wilt under the public spotlight. Maybe Colin and I both need a reminder that it wasn’t the media attention that bothered me last time. It was the whole mobbed in public thing that frightened me.
I sit down on the bed and wait for him to bring me his iPad. He walks into the room and hands it to me with great reluctance. “I love you, and I’m sorry to do this to you,” he reassures me.
“I love you to. Now, go get dressed while I read the latest Hollywood dish,” I tease trying to lighten his dark mood.
He gives me a halfhearted smile and walks into the bathroom.
I make myself comfortable and prepare to be shocked.
* * *
He’s leaning against the bathroom door waiting for my reaction. I do my best to keep my face as bland as possible. When I’m finished reading them, I hold up a finger and caution him away. “Give me a few minutes to process this, and then I want to read the notes again.”
He turns and walks back into the bathroom. I finally hear the shower water start to fall.
Damn. I knew it was bad, but I wasn’t prepared for just how ugly it was going to be. The highlights of the notes include Sasha accusing Colin of cheating on her the entire six-months of their relationship. I’m definitely identified as the other woman. She says that I stalked Colin and threw myself at him. The part that I find the most intriguing is that she believes that I’ve had some sort of hold over him that she could never get past. Sasha actually says that at some point you just have to know when you’ve lost the battle for a man’s heart. That actually makes me smile.
However, the best gem of the notes are when sh
e accuses me of already cheating on Colin with JT Reynolds the football player that I met at the Clay South event. Then, she drops the bombshell that Colin’s secretly bought a home for a girl that he got pregnant in high school, and he ruined her life also. I know that Jenna’s the girl mentioned. I met her many years ago at Jennifer and Quinn’s home when she was making one last play for Colin. Colin didn’t get Jenna pregnant, but because he got his family and her family involved, she held him responsible for being forced to have the baby and giving it up for adoption.
I read the notes again and Colin has every right to be upset. His all American, good ol’ boy image is about to get dragged through the mud. Never mind the fact that I’m a home wrecker and slut.
I slide a beautiful green multi-print dress on and walk into the bathroom to finish my makeup. Colin steps out of the shower, and I take a long look admiring him in the mirror. The man’s devastatingly handsome.
He wraps a towel around his waist and walks up behind me placing a chaste kiss on my collarbone. “I’ll take the fact that you’re still here as a good sign.”
I look into his eyes in the mirror. “I told you that I wouldn’t leave you, and I’m not. Thank you for letting me read them. I’m sorry that Jenna was brought into this mess. Even though she’s not mentioned by name, have you warned her?”
He throws his head back laughing, “You mean you’re concerned about Jenna’s welfare after reading that crap?”
I turn around and grab his face directing his green eyes into my violet. “If you’re providing some financial assistance for Jenna, I think that’s very admirable. I think the article is going to be bitter, hateful, and petty. Actually, I’m most concerned about you because I love you. We’ve got each other. We can get through this together because we know the truth. We made a mistake by sleeping with each other before you officially ended it with Sasha. This’s our test to see if we can survive the media scrutiny, and I believe that we’ll pass with flying colors.”