“— we’ll be volunteering with some pro bono immigration lawyers to help with translations and whatever we can do.”
“And if we find an owner willing to donate some extra funds …” Ricci trails off, holding up his hand in a money-rubbing gesture.
“Don’t be crass, man,” Gallagher says with a small smack.
“Guys!” Christenson calls off screen.
The camera moves to …
A Risk
Kodi
“I’ve rethought some things,” I told Kean as I edited the last bit of footage from our promo shoot.
“What things?” Olli asked from the bathroom. Despite him being benched prior to the game, he still had to go and literally sit on the bench. So he was getting ready for the game by … I don’t know, brushing his teeth or some shit.
“Being Brooker’s PA. No matter how temporary it’d be. It’d be like wrangling a child high on sugar twenty-four seven. And imagine having to manage his messages? Did you see the woman he handed his number to at the park? She wassofucking hot and I donotwant to see whatever dirty texts she sends him.”
“That’s …” Olli peered out of the bathroom to look at me. “A scary thought. But also, if you can last for a week and get himto … I don’t know,notflirt with every woman he sees, that’d be nice.”
“What? You want me to train him like a dog? Spray him with water every time he looks at a woman?”
Olli tilted his head like he was considering it, so I threw a Styrofoam cup at him.
“I’m not doing that.” I turned back to the computer screen, where all the content was split and captioned and ready to go. I technically shouldn’t have the team’s login information for all these accounts, but Christenson was able to get it from the team photographer. But now that I’d gotten everything set up, I was having second thoughts. Like maybe all the fans would hate this campaign and Olli and I would get fired and he’d be blacklisted from all the leagues in the US.
“Kodi, do you believe this is a good campaign?” Olli asked, stepping behind me and rubbing my shoulders.
“Yes, it’s great. It shows the worldexactlywho y’all are as a team and as people. It might ruffle some feathers, but the people who get it will come inhardto support y’all. It’ll definitely attract not white men owners. It’s just …”
“Hit post and let’s go.” Olli kissed my forehead then plopped a Dastards hat on my head.
“You’re not atallworried about the repercussions?”
“No. I, and the whole team, trust you. We like the campaign you made, we like the agencyyougave us. And since we trusted you, it’d mean a lot if you come to this game.”
“I feel like you’re trying to distract me from being scared by a scary thing,” I huffed and crossed my arms. “You can’t solve my very reasonable anxiety by being cute.”
“Sometimes you need to do things anxious.” He leaned over me, hand outstretched to my mouse pad. Then he looked at my screen and hesitated. “I actually have no clue what button to push.”
“Move,” I grumbled, smacking his hand away so I could set everything up to post right before the game. “There. My beautiful and unsanctioned campaign is set to be out in the world at three o'clock.”
“Amazing, baby. Let’s go … watch a game.”
“Mmm, you sound so excited.”
“Soexcited. But I gotta show up for the team.”
“You meanourteam?” I teased, a little hesitant to call myself a part of the team after all the trouble I’d caused. But Olli pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead.
“Yeah, our team.”
I did my best not to check the team’s socials during the game by actuallywatchingthe game. But it … wasn’t the greatest. The Harlots were a pretty solid team, especially in terms of defense. Forty minutes in and the game was still 0-0, most of the action happening center field, and I couldn’t see much from where I was seated behind the team.
So I caved and looked at Instagram.
The numbers were insane, but I’d expected that much. Doing anything different in the public eye would draw numbers, it was a matter of what thecommentssaid.
