Page 27 of The Skeikh's Games


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He checked his phone, but still hadn’t heard from Maggie in a while. She was probably at home, settling back in. Bryan let himself let go a bit and have a good time with his team. They did just have a win after all, and hell, he’d found a girl he was actually happy with. If that wasn’t cause to celebrate, he didn’t know what was.

As the night wore on, things escalated rather quickly. Half the people there were already drunk before even getting to his room. The music was blaring, and a few people had taken up a corner of the table in the dining area for cocaine. They had the mirrors and little straws that looked like they’d seen their use. That kind of stuff had never appealed to Bryan. Messed with person’s emotions and body. He needed to be fit for the game.

A couple of the girls came up to him, both clearly drunk. “Hey,” the blonde one said, “you’re Bryan, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

They grinned at one another and pushed him back. He hadn’t realized he was so close to the chair, and when he stepped back to catch himself he hit the chair. Losing his balance he plopped into it.

Before he had a chance to get up, the girls climbed into his lap. They started laughing as he tried to push them off, but they were making a show of being clumsy. To be honest, it was kind of funny, and he was laughing at having lost his balance.

Then one of the women ducked her head down, bunching over herself as her friend reached over and tickled her, and that’s when Bryan saw Maggie. She stood there staring at him, a plastic shopping bag in her hand.

“Maggie,” he said, but the music drowned out his voice.

She knew he was talking though, and she just held up a hand and shook her head. Some guy came up to hit on her, and that was the final straw. She dropped the bag, turned, and ran.

Bryan pushed the girls off of him and checked the plastic bag to find ice-cream and a movie in it. She’d come to surprise him. Bryan sighed and looked at the door she’d left from. He couldn’t think of what he could say to fix it, and in that moment of indecision, he knew he’d lost her.

He tried calling her later that night, hopefully after she’d had a chance to calm down. No answer. He waited a day. Two days. No answer. Weeks went by. He still had to travel for games after that and wasn’t able to go and actually see her, make her talk to him.

When they finally did swing through her town, he stopped at his publicist’s office to find that she didn’t work there anymore. He thought she just hadn’t been answering her work phone, but no, it was much worse. He didn’t even know where she lived.

For the first time in his life, he’d never felt so lost and alone.

All Maggie could do was sit as she watched her life fall apart around her, and all without her even having to lift a finger. How could she have ever been so stupid as to get involved with that… person? He wasn’t even a man!

In all her life she’d never been more devastated by someone’s treatment of her, and as a larger woman, she’d had to endure quite a bit in her life. Like an idiot she’d believed him. She let herself get caught up in the promise and the joy of it all, only to have it crash down on her. One day. He couldn’t even have gone a single day with her gone before going right back to it. It was like she hadn’t even existed. Nothing had ever made her feel more useless, stupid, or unwanted in her life. He’d had her, and now he had to have two women just to, what? To get the taste out of his mouth, or something?

He kept calling her, and calling her, like that would fix anything. Women, drugs, drinking, it was clear the life he wanted. She didn’t fit in with that. What was there to say, really? She wasn’t about to be the type of woman to nag her man about his lifestyle. Let him live like that, let him have his parties and late nights. It was best he just did it away from her.

That became doubly true when she found out she was pregnant. There was no question in her mind about if it was his or not. She hadn’t been with anyone in two years before him, and she sure couldn’t bring herself to be with anyone else after that either. She debated telling him, but really, what good would it do? If he wasn’t going to change his life for her, he sure wouldn’t do it for a baby. Besides, even if he did, he’d just grow to resent her or – God forbid – their child for having to slow down his crazy party life. The thought of it all was just too painful.

When she went to her boss to ask that she no longer be asked to work with Bryan, her boss fired her. Right then and there. No questions, no why, no wanting to know more. She just railed at her saying it was unprofessional and that she couldn’t just pick and choose what work she did. She wasn’t even an actual agent, she was an assistant. That meant she had no leverage.

Trying to find a job after that was a ridiculous nightmare since her boss wasted no time at all tarnishing any sort of a reputation Maggie had built up for herself. Branded unprofessional, whiny, and lazy, no one wanted anything to do with her. It had been right at the end of the month, too, and when she couldn’t produce rent, her boss gave her 30 days to pay or get out. No job, no possibilities, she had no choice but to pack up. After their little blowout after Bryan, since apparently she’d had a crush on him for years, she and Stacy made up.

With nowhere to go, Stacy let her stay with her until she got things figured out. The idea of figuring things out, though, seemed by far the most impossible thing she could’ve tried to do.

It’d been a month when Bryan received a call from Stacy. Her number was still in his phone, which surprised him as much as seeing it pop up on his phone. He honestly couldn’t remember why he’d saved it. Had he anticipated needing to talk to her frequently?

When he answered it, the tone in Stacy’s voice when she said, “Can you talk?” let him know this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.

He’d been worried that she was going to go on and confess her love for him now that Maggie was out of the way, but it was so much worse. Stacy told him everything, about Maggie losing her job, the baby, and that she was staying with her now.

Bryan nearly lost his mind. So much so that he got her address from her, and got on the next plane out, abandoning the game that night. It was technically a breach of contract or something, he was pretty sure, but he couldn’t have cared less.

When he knocked on Stacy’s door, the look on Maggie’s face when she opened it was worth everything. She was quick to hide it, though. “What are you doing here?”

“Stacy told me. Everything.”

Maggie closed her eyes and took a breath. “Which must be why she left the house suddenly. Because she knew I’d kill her.”

“You’re pregnant?”

“Look, if that’s the only reason you’re here, you wasted your time.”

Bryan stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders. “It’s not. I came back for you. I’ve been trying to reach you.”

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