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“Whatever.” I say, swiping my hand at her dismissively. “I have a strict must know you before I sleep with you policy. I hardly classify working for him, knowing him. Therefore, he will be getting no where near any of this.” I say, gesturing to my body.
“Uh huh. You say that now.” She says, shaking her head back and forth at me. Pulling her laptop onto her lap, she peers back up at me. “What did you say his name was again?” She asks.
“Bentley Reed.” I say, unable to contain my smile as his name falls off my lips. Quickly trying to recover, I shake my head and turn my focus back to Andrea. “Why?”
“Because....” She says, typing something into her computer before looking back up at me. “He has information on you. Which puts him at an unfair advantage. We need to find out more about him. Even the playing field if you will.” She laughs.
“There is no playing field. I've worked there for five months and never seen the man, I hardly doubt his presence is going to become a regular occurrence. Hell, he's probably already long gone.”
“Well. Well. Well.” She says, tisking as she shakes her head back and forth. “Is this our dear Mr. Reed?” She asks, turning the screen just enough so that I can see the photo displayed across it.
I don't even have to look hard to know immediately that it's him. “That's him.” I say, surprised that she was able to find him at all.Allureis such a secretive place. I doubt you could find anything about it on the internet even if you tried.
“Bentley Reed, 32. Professional soccer player turned business mogul.” She says, peeking my curiosity to the point that I have to get up and join her on her bed so that I can see what she's looking at.
There are several articles about his time with the U.S. Open Cup winning soccer team, Chicago Fire, but very little that I can see after the fact. And there is no mention ofAllure,only that following his soccer career, he became a successful business owner of a chain of private clubs, yet there's no additional information. Clicking on one of the links, Andrea begins to read aloud an article written seven years ago.
“Bentley Reed, key player for the Chicago Fire, sustained a career ending injury during last months game against Columbus Crew. A collision with a member of the opposing team, broke Reed's leg so severely that members of the team reported you could see the bone sticking through his skin as medical workers carried him from the field. A team spokesperson confirmed today that Reed, 25, will not be returning to the field after medical professionals confirmed that he will not be able to return to the game of soccer. Reed has yet to comment publicly, however many of his teammates have reported that he seems to be optimistic about his diagnosis. Going as far as to say that he will be back next season if he has anything to say about it. While this is a huge loss for Chicago Fire, they are still hopeful that they will be taking home their fourth U.S. Cup win this season.”
Before she is even finished with the article, I can feel nothing but sadness for this man. My heart breaks for anyone who has ever had their dream ripped away from them in the blink of an eye. It's exactly what happened to me after I blew out my knee. I remember feeling like my reason for existing was gone.
Dance was all I ever knew. My grandma signed me up for classes shortly after I arrived in Chicago. I know it was her way of trying to distract me, give me something to focus on. She probably never expected for me to fall in love with it the way I did.
“That's awful.” I say, shaking my head as I stand.
“Yeah. But look at him now.” Andrea says, snapping her laptop closed and tossing it to the side. “Clearly he's done well for himself.” She says on a shrug.
“Yeah. I guess. Whatever.” I say, pulling open my bag and emptying out the three large text books inside. “It doesn't matter anyways. It's not like I am planning on being his friend or anything. Besides, I have more important things to worry about.” I say, peeling open one of my text books. “Like how in the hell I am going to get through finals without pulling all my hair out.”
