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I gave him a small smile. “I came to drop off my things with the EM, and to tell you bye.”
Gardner leaned forward. “Where are you going?”
This was the whole reason I was here. I really did like Gardner, but I didn’t want to be a blubbering mess. “I’m leaving the team. My contract was bought out a few days ago. As of midnight, I’m a free agent.”
The man, who had coached me for the last four years and ninety-eight percent of the time been fair and understanding, looked like I punched him in the gut. Sure he’d tried to bench me in the semi-final, but I knew that was Cordero’s doing. I wouldn’t forget four years of friendship with Gardner for one moment. “I don’t understand. You had a year left with us. Are you that angry about the semi that you bought your contract out?”
He knew damn well I couldn’t afford to buy my contract out.
“I’m not leaving because of you, G. I swear.” I’d already decided not to tell him about Cordero trying to trade me because really, what was the point? It didn’t matter. “It’s just time for a change of pace. Cordero hates my guts more than ever and half the girls on the team…” The word robot bounced around in my head for a second before I thought of this new opportunity in my life with green-brown eyes. “It hasn’t been easy for a little while. I can’t stay when they don’t respect me.”
“Fuck, Sal.” His hands went to rest flat on his desk. “You’re not kidding?”
“Nope.”
It took him a long time to finally say something else. “Do you know what you’re going to do now?”
I would have loved to have told him I’d already gotten signed with another team. I really would have. The fact was I hadn’t. I had no solid clue what I was doing. “I’m not sure yet, but this isn’t the end. I just wanted to drop by and tell you thank you for everything. Keep in touch. Good luck. I’ve loved working with you, and I think you’re great.” I raised my shoulders up and let them drop. “Promise to email me even if it’s just to complain about the girls?”
Later on I’d realize that Gardner took it about as well as Marc had: plain shitty. That’s how well he took the news. He took it really shitty.
He promised to keep in touch and wished me the best as always. That was the last thing we said to each other before I left his office.
I made ten feet before a feminine voice called out, “Sal!” and Sheena came barreling out of the assistant coach’s office she’d been in a second before.
“Hey, Sheena,” I greeted her.
“Hey, hi. Sorry to come running out, but I wanted to talk to you before you left. You are leaving, right?” I nodded, unsure whether she was talking about leaving the team or leaving the office. “I won’t take your time then, but these pictures popped up last night of you and Mr. Kulti after the game. They aren’t good—“
“I’m sorry, Sheena. I don’t mean to cut you off but,” I gave her a tight grin, “it doesn’t matter. The pictures don’t matter.”
“They look bad, Sal. I know the league, and they’re going to be giving Cordero a call to complain pretty soon if they haven’t already,” she explained. “They’re more than likely going to want a statement from you apologizing—“
Apologizing? I shook my head. “No. I’m not doing it and they can’t make me.”
“But—“
“No.” Dear God, I sounded like Rey. “I’m not going to.” She’d find out soon enough why. In the meantime… “I have a question for you real quick. Whatever happened to that video of the press conference you were going to release? You never said anything to me about it again.”
From her facial expression, it looked like she wanted to keep going on about the pictures of Rey and I, but decided to answer my question instead. “We didn’t release it. Mr. Kulti had final approval and he demanded we shelve it. He said we would be humiliating you and he didn’t want to do that. I thought you knew? He bought the footage from the news stations so no one could do anything with them.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Snippetof the Transcript of the Press Conference
[Back in April]
……
KCNB REPORTER: Miss Casillas, how do you feel about having a player like Reiner Kulti coaching your team this season?
CASILLAS: I think it’s great. He’s the best soccer player in the world. His ball handling is fantastic, his on-the-spot playmaking is unbelievable, the power behind his striking is incomparable and he’s a great penetrator. We have a lot of girls on the team that could… did I just use the word penetrator?
KSXN REPORTER: You did.
CASILLAS: [silence] Is that even allowed on television? That word? Can I say that?
KCNB REPORTER: I don’t believe we can use it.
