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RAKE
“How did this happen,Vince? Tell me. Outside of my friends, only you and BJ knew the truth.”
I’m going to kill him. I really am. The old fury that’s gotten me into so much trouble in the past is bubbling up inside, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep it bottled up much longer. My teeth grind, as they have been nonstop since last night, when some weaselly sports reporter who hates our team anyway got his jollies out of revealing my marriage as a ruse.
But the worst of it is how it humiliated Petal. She doesn’t deserve that. I do, but she does not.
Vince raises his hands after BJ joins us on a Zoom call. “It was the locker room attendant, apparently. He overheard you talking and recorded it with his phone. So, there’s no denying it. He’s been fired.”
I pace his office, looking at the city below, with its noisy cable cars and traffic jams. I wish I was down there, sitting in some car going nowhere, just for the simplicity of it. I could clear my headand then when the traffic opened up, drive somewhere far away where no one could find me.
That’s how sick I am of shit right now.
It took me a moment to find Petal last night in the huge crowd, and when I did, I wrapped an arm around her waist. “Fuck that guy,” I whispered in her ear, even as the people around us backed away like we had some sort of catching disease.
Fucking hypocrites, all of them. They’re your best friends when you’re winning, when things are going well. First second things go sideways, they act like they don’t fucking know you.
“I… I don’t know what to do,” she mumbled in my ear.
I pulled her tighter to make sure she remained upright. “You did nothing wrong. Hold your head up,” I whispered.
I wanted to kill that reporter. He’s lucky he was on the stage clear across the room, because if I’d had any easy shot, I can’t say I would have been able to hold myself back. I know the man was right, and that my marriage was a publicity stunt. But the level of protectiveness I felt toward Petal was completely unexpected. I can take the shit that people dish out. I’m a public figure.
Petal is just a sweet, romance-loving girl who never bothered a goddamn fly.
I continue to glare at Vince. “I never should have listened to you. You either, BJ. You guys have fucked me with your brilliant idea of making the world think my marriage was anything more than a joke. Look what you’ve done.”
I look at BJ, his face distorted by Vince’s computer screen. My fucking agent, conspiring with a PR asshole to fuck up my career.
“Where is Petal now?” BJ asks.
“Up in Sonoma. At her mother’s cottage.”
When we finally got home last night, she jumped into her car and took off. She wasn’t going to tell me where she was goinguntil I stepped in front of her car and refused to move until she told me. I begged her to come in, just long enough to calm down, but she wasn’t having it.
And the look she gave me, it just about ripped me in two. Pure disappointment. And sadness.
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m not upset so much that some smart ass locker room boy thinks he figured out my deepest darkest secret, as I am about the fact that Petal now hates my guts.
Petal and I may have started out as a fake couple. But, speaking for myself, I have feelings for the woman.
Maybe it’s time to tell her that. After all, she’s not a fucking mind reader.
She might slam the door in my face, tell me to go to hell. Then again, she might not.
“Have you called her?” Vince asks.
“What am I going to say, Vince? Sorry you got thrown under the bus so I could boost my own career? That I couldn’t give a fuck that the last guy you were with cheated on you and you had to leave him at the altar? Please come back so I can fuck up your life a little more?”
BJ clears his throat. “Rake. Look at me. We will handle this. You handle Petal. I know this started out as a ruse, but I also know you well enough to see that you care about her. Go up to Sonoma. Talk to her.”
If only it was that easy. I’ve texted her no fewer than a dozen times. Radio silence.
“The league is not happy about this, not at all,” I say. “I’m due for a reprimand, and if I go down, you two will as well. You’re the ones who pushed Petal and me into this, and I’m not going to be the only one to pay.”
BJ nods. “We won’t leave you standing alone, Rake. We’ll own up to our part in this.”
I head back to the locker room, where half the guys are giving me skeptical looks and the other half are slapping me on the back and telling me not to worry.
