Rules of her Game: A Contemporary Sports Romance

by Karley Campbell

  Strangely this pleased him, “Hey, we’re dating. I like that.”

  “See you at six.”

  She went online and found the story easily enough, laughing as she read it through quickly. It was clearly Birgetta under a pseudonym. Only one hack in London carried around this much venom, if there were more they’d probably eat each other.

  She read it again, slow this time.

  THE FINAL MAXWELL REVEALLED.

  Reporter: Mai Tai.

  Daddy’s little girl is growing up. The most boring member of England’s head rugby coach, Jacob Maxwell’s clan appears to be tired of hiding in the shadows of her famous family and has reunited with her disgraceful ex-boyfriend. Or perhaps daddy handpicked this one for his princess and refused to let it go. Dani Maxwell has been seen around town with none other than rugby bad boy and controversial scrum coach, Cooper Graves. There were many questions unanswered regarding the new coach, perhaps now we know what the final requirement to the job was? Glad to see Jacob Maxwell cherry-picked someone even uglier than himself for his baby girl and that she likes men even more unfaithful than her father. I wonder how long before Cooper reveals his world-renowned violent streak and pretty Princess Dani ends up in hospital. All hail the Maxwell’s as the country’s most dysfunctional family.

  It was ridiculous and Dani had no doubt her father would be calling in the lawyers. Birgetta was slipping.

  She texted Cooper: I’M A PRINCESS YOU THUG.

  Cooper soon replied: GLAD YOU FOUND IT FUNNY C U AT 6.

  Dani scanned the situations vacant websites and sent her CV off to a few schools, wondering if she was sabotaging herself by not putting her family links. Everyone else dropped names, why not her? Job hunting was a drag. She would continue personal training to fill in the time, she was still poor and wanted to get out of her apartment, it was in an overpriced student high-rise and she was sick of the noise, felt far too old for it.

  Avoiding clock watching until she could get back to Cooper, she called Marcus, glad when Stacey answered. They talked for several minutes about babies and Stacey’s constant exhaustion, Dani becoming increasingly concerned.

  “They lie.” Stacey hissed, “They tell you it’s easy and you’ll love the baby, but when you haven’t slept in days and you have stitches in your vagina and your nipples are falling off, it’s impossible to remember the kids name let alone love it.”

  “Stace, didn’t you go through this last time then by three months everyone was sleeping and you were preaching it as the greatest thing you had ever done?”

  “Did I say that?” Stacey wailed, “I’m sorry, I lied too! I’ve promoted this campaign against women and our right to pelvic floor muscles. Whatever I said before, forget it. I’m telling you the truth now.”

  “Can you get Marcus, I want to ask him something?”

  “He coos at the kid like it’s sweet. Wait until we have sex again, he won’t think it’s so sweet when he realizes what that big kid did to me.”

  “I’ll come over soon and give you a rest. Or we’ll take the kids for a walk.”

  “A walk.” She said wistfully, like Dani had just said, an all-expenses paid holiday around the world.

  Then Marcus was on the phone, gruffer than usual. Perhaps lack of sleep was getting to Marcus too. “What? I’m busy.” He snapped.

  “Your wife is flipping out.”

  “She’s fine. Kid was up all night. I’ll take them for a drive soon and she’ll get a snooze and forget she’s been talking crazy. What do you want?”

  “Did you see the story about the dysfunctional Maxwell’s?”

  “You Maxwell’s are dysfunctional.”

  “We are not, we’re a normal family.”

  “Whatever. Yeah I saw it, so what?”

  “Have I mentioned lately that you’re a miserable git? It was Birgetta Growler going under some pathetic pseudonym.”

  “I doubt it. I can’t even believe it could be posted. Someone was pulling some heavy-duty strings. It’s an embarrassment to all reporters.”

  “I’m telling you it was Birgetta. Mai Tai is a drink. Come on, you’re smart.”

  After a long pause he sighed deeply, “Sorry I’m so moody. I’ve been stewing over Birgetta fucking Growler for days and just can’t get a handle on her. She has money coming in from everywhere and going out in all directions. It makes no sense and I fucking hate her having one over me. I’ll look into this Mai Tai thing.”

  “Thanks, Marcus. Do you want me to come over and give you a break?”

  “Honestly, once Stacey’s slept everything will be fine. She did this last time, she’ll go back to nagging you into having kids again soon.”

  “No chance.” Dani was thinking of last night’s disaster.

  “Is this Cooper we’re snotty about? Want to talk about it?”

  “Yes, I really want to discuss my relationship with an English coach to a sports reporter. You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

  “With the morals of a feral cat. So you are in a relationship with Cooper?” He was teasing her now, much more familiar ground.

  “No comment. Will you let me know about this Mai Tai?” Dani asked, closing the conversation down.

  “I’m going to hound her into the ground. If I could get some good info on Birgetta I could really start stirring her up or have some leverage.”

  “Like what?” Dani asked quietly. “Does it have to be factual?”

  “What do you know?”

  “Is this just between us until I say otherwise?”

  “Of course.” He said quickly, she knew he was lying.

  “Look forget it, I’m probably wrong. Actually, I know I’m right but . . .”

  “Tell me.”

  “Birgetta Growler is a junkie, either that or she slips stuff into drinks when she wants her shitty gossip or nasty pictures.”

  A long silence, “Are you sure?”

  “I got a peek in her handbag, and a young girl overheard our conversation and ran for her life. I’ve worked in bars for years, you get a second sense of individuals. I imagine she invites people out with the promise of a feature in her trashy section, and I guarantee they wake up worse for wear. Think of all the awful photo’s she published over the last few years. I don’t know how she picks which ones to target but they invariably end up being famous for all the wrong reasons. If you traced it back, most of them probably got their big break from Birgetta or someone just like her, before they went on to do celebrity reality shows. Those shows are a beacon for the hopeless.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “She spikes their drinks. We try hard to stamp it out, telling girls to take their glasses to the bathroom or warning them if someone messed with their drink while they weren’t looking but it’s impossible to be everywhere at once and sometimes people get caught out and hurt. Who would ever guess it was the Growler, not to mention if anything was said against her she would make their lives a living misery?”

  “Jesus.” Was all Marcus had to say.

  “Exactly. Let me know if you find anything.” Marcus didn’t reply.

  ◆◆◆

  Marcus stared into space for a long time, the house phone clasped in his hand. He was mentally working through Birgetta’s in and outgoings from a whole new angle until Stacey demanded he take his devil spawn out of her sight for the rest of her life, and if he was too long she would kill him. He pecked her on the cheek and wrote this down in his diary. He would let her read it on the baby’s first birthday. Stacey would tell him he had made it all up, then she would feel guilty for what she had put him through and would be wonderful in all things for a blissfully long time. God, he loved his wife, even mean and lactating he found her hot.

  ◆◆◆

  Jacob and Andrew had left for the afternoon training session. Trisha found the hidden newspaper to reread the Mai Tai article again, imagining what people would think. She then buried her head in her hands at the kitchen table and wondered if the past would
ever truly be laid to rest. Would Jacob ever be redeemed after what had happened and would Trisha ever forgive herself?

  The doorbell rang and Trisha wiped her eyes, surprised to find her daughter.

  “Why didn’t you use your key?” Trisha hoped none of her sorrow showed.

  “I left my key here. You and Dad don’t want me busting in every time you have a quickie on the couch.”

  Her mother was suitably mortified which Dani enjoyed. The girl had always taken her parent’s love life head-on, declaring she was an immaculate conception.

  “Did you see the article? Is that why you’re upset?”

  Trisha was so surprised her daughter had noticed an emotion she didn’t speak for a whole minute. When she tried a strangled whine emerged.

  Never one to back off from a stressful situation, Dani said, “You didn’t want what Dad did shoved in your face again. And just for the record, I am a princess but we are not dysfunctional. Andrew is far too egotistical to be simply dysfunctional.”

  Trisha tried to smile, knowing this is what Dani expected, instead she shocked them both by bursting into tears. Trisha decided it was time to explain what had happened all those years ago, when Dani and Andrew were no more than babies and their parent’s immaturity had threatened to rip the family apart.

  Dani hugged her mother, awkward with her seated position. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault, if I wasn’t involved with Cooper none of this would have come up.”

  Trisha rubbed her daughter’s arm, her usual calm returning.

  “Thank you, Dani but this has nothing to do with you or Cooper.”

  Dani grinned, “Are you going to kick Dad’s ass again?”

  It was clear to Trisha that Dani was trying to keep the tone light, to avoid the awful old shame of Jacob being so publicly ousted in an affair.

  “Why would I do that?” Trisha surprised her by saying, staring at her daughter until she began squirming. “You’re an adult now, it’s time you heard the truth.”

  “I don’t want to know the truth. It’s between you and Dad.”

  “You think your father did something wrong?”

  Panicking now, Dani said, “He did have an affair. Didn’t he?”

  “I suppose so. But what few people realized was that I had the affair first.”

  Dani gasped and sat down hard. “Jesus, Mum.” She studied her mother, adding, “As you say, I’m an adult and this really isn’t my business.”

  “I want to tell you. Your father betrayed me but what I did to him was worse.” She licked her dry lips, uncertain if this was the right thing to do but exhausted from the burden of it. “I had an affair with one of his teammates.”

  “Holy crap!” Dani said, eyes wide with surprise, “Which one?”

  Trisha smirked in distaste, “Now that, I’m not telling because it doesn’t matter. At the time my father was still very well known in rugby circles and Jacob was playing. I was young and stuck at home with little children while he went on tour after tour. I hardly saw him and when I did he was so full of himself I began hating him.” She smiled, close to revealing a name, “When someone else gave me attention I enjoyed it, when he pushed it further I let him, and when he told Jacob I admitted it for the one-off mistake it had been.

  “Thankfully you were too young to remember this but your father left. I was upset, mainly embarrassed but it was nice being out of the limelight. I didn’t have to attend those stuffy events and smile while old men tried to feel me up. I think Jacob was shocked at how well I coped without him. Your father soon shifted in with a new woman. The media was nowhere like today but when it came out they made it sound like he had some strange double life, a wife and kids and his girlfriend. No one ever asked me for the truth, I doubt they asked your father either.

  “I filed for divorce, only because I thought he would want to get on with his life and forget me, but he turned up at the house . . .” Trisha looked at the ground, sad all over again. “He was a mess, a total mess. I had never seen him so vulnerable. He had tried so hard to be everything he thought I wanted, just like my father and my grandfather. I realized how much I had missed him, not Jacob Maxwell the rugby thug, but Jacob my husband, the sweet boy I had married.”

  Stunned, Dani covered her eyes. “Mum, what a disaster.”

  “Completely.” Trisha was relieved her daughter wasn’t angry about this long-held shame. “It taught us how to be adults. Jacob missed you and Andrew like crazy and through therapy we learnt how to trust each other again. I love your father more now than when we were silly children playing adults, believing our own hype. Jacob quit playing that year, he wouldn’t be swayed on the matter.”

  “His career was cut short like Cooper’s?”

  Her mother smiled that Dani understood, “Yes, I think that’s why he wanted Cooper. Your father survived and came out a better man for it. Cooper will too. Don’t try to fix him, it’s not your job. Just like fixing your father wasn’t mine. I may have had the affair but that’s not what broke our marriage, we were falling apart long before Bra . . .” She groaned, “Long before some swaggering he-man came along.”

  “Thank you for telling me.” Dani leaned down to kiss her mother’s cheek. “It’s weirdly comforting that my parents had to fight to stay together.”

  Tapping the paper, Trisha said, “I’m not sure how your father will feel about this. I hid it this morning and he called the delivery company to complain. I’m hoping they don’t send another copy.”

  “He must be over it by now? It happened when dinosaurs roamed the earth.”

  “A long time ago for you, Dani. Not so long for me and Jacob. Your father got himself into plenty of trouble trying to upset me.” She shook it away. “But that’s your father’s story, not mine.”

  “I suppose in a way I should thank the Growler. I know life isn’t black and white. I’m not judging you but it’s nice to know my poor old dad’s not the cheating bastard I always thought he was.”

  “No, he’s a good man, and what we went through made us stronger.” She studied Dani hard, “The good ones are worth the struggle.”

  “You mean Cooper?”

  Her mother shrugged, “It’s none of my business but if you want my opinion I think he’s a decent young man, if built like a toilet block.”

  “He thinks he’s a rapist.” Dani bluntly stated, trying to gauge her mother’s reaction to this most public and abhorrent claim.

  “And what do you think?” When Dani didn’t reply Trisha continued, “You know how people behave around rugby players. Christ, they even fawn over your father and if he weren’t so scared of me he would admit to loving every second of it. Now, I’m not saying anyone deserves to be assaulted but I do believe there are different levels of the word.”

  “Explain?” Dani asked.

  “We have degrees of murder but not of sexual assault. Should a person who knowingly goes home with players for consensual sex cry rape when it’s later discovered she has an STD as a memento and wants her medical bills covered?”

  Dani gasped, “Has that happened?”

  “What hasn’t happened? There’s a big difference between drunken uncertainty and some poor abused kid, someone attacked while jogging, or someone who is woken in the middle of the night with a stranger in their bedroom. Don’t you think?”

  “I suppose?” Dani said, “I’ve never thought of it that way.”

  “In a rugby context these are young men, highly charged and adored for their masculinity. We expect them to be Gladiators during a game then saints for the rest of their lives. They are paid to be aggressive yet when that rears its ugly head off the field we don’t know what to do. I don’t have the answers and I’m certainly not defending them, they have PR companies for that now, I’m just saying that young women flock around young, aggressive men and things happen, most of the time everyone walks away unharmed but sometimes people do get hurt.”

  “Do you think the girl who claims Cooper raped her was hurt or did she just ch
ange her mind?” Dani had her own opinion but valued her mother’s too.

  Trisha shrugged, “I don’t know.” At Dani’s ongoing uncertainty, she added, “If you really want to know the truth get Marcus to talk to her. It was a few years ago and she has probably changed. Get Marcus to ask her exactly what happened. You might find out the truth and Marcus might get a great story.”

  “Can he do that?”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “We can talk to her, we were an awesome team last time.”

  Trisha thought for a moment, “It happened in New Zealand. I’m not going back that way again until the next tour. And after what happened with Fisher . . .”

  “You are so melodramatic. As if anything like that would happen again.”

  ◆◆◆

  Birgetta had just sat down with a pizza, it had everything on it and she was salivating at the smell. Most of the time she was diligent with maintaining her figure but she knew it was important to take time out for treats too. Digging in she sounded like an animal or someone having an intense sexual experience, although her grunts of joy and relief would have scared any lover away.

  She was only one slice down when her landline rang. This was the worst possible timing, cold pizza was disgusting and her experience would be ruined but so few people had this number she snatched it up on a breathless hello. She hadn’t heard from Michelle in days and was getting desperate, she didn’t want to play this game anymore. She needed that evidence back soon, things were changing in America and it was more imperative than ever that what Michelle had was erased.

  “Hi, Birgetta, this is Dani Maxwell. I want to know why you wrote that article about me and my family and I want to know why you hate us so much?”

  There was a long moment of surprise before Birgetta snarled, “As if I would waste my time on you and your family, you mean nothing to me.”

  “Then leave us alone. I’m warning you.”

  “You puffed up princess. You don’t scare me.”

  “You should be scared, I can hurt you in ways you never dreamed possible.”