“So. We have the bye week coming up.”
I nodded. The bye week happened once per season and it meant we didn’t play a game that week. Was he going to make me stay in town and train? Because that shit wasn’t happening. I had a trip home to Tennessee planned to see my folks for an early Thanksgiving. Family comes even before football.
“I understand you’re going to see your parents, which is great. I appreciate you wanting to see them. But you have to take one of the social media team members with you to manage you while you’re out of town.”
That caught my attention. What the fuck? I was being given a babysitter?
“Are you serious? You’re sending me with a bodyguard? Why?”
Jeff’s already pink complexion flushed red. He rubbed his bald head back to front. “I don’t even have to answer that. You know exactly why. Fucking Twitter blowing up yesterday and not because we had a come-from-behind win.”
“It was a joke.” Based in a lot of truth. That reporter really did have a fuckable daughter. She’d dropped some pics of herself into my direct messages. Hell, I wouldn’t turn down his wife either.
Maybe both of them…
No, I didn’t do married women. That was my hard line.
I dragged my thoughts back from the gutter and stared down Jeff. “What do you think I’m going to do while I’m in Tennessee? I’m going to my parents’, not Vegas, for fuck’s sake.”
“You think I can predict what the shit you’re going to do? You could get in trouble at a damn funeral.”
Low blow from Dimarco. “Now that is not true. I respect the dead and the grieving process.” In fact, that pissed me the fuck off. Jeff knew my little brother passed when I was in high school.
Funerals are not something to joke about.
Contrition briefly passed over Jeff’s face, but he didn’t apologize. “Pick anyone you want on the social media staff to go with you. Then you’re handing your phone over to him. End of story. You may be an amazing quarterback but you’re also a liability.”
I barely heard a word after he said I got to pick. “Who the hell is on the social media staff?”
“Will, Jake, Arjun, Sandra, and Eloise.”
To be honest, I was impressed he knew their names right off the top of his head like that. Jeff was dedicated to the job, that was for damn sure. “Which one is Sandra?” I asked, curious.
Was that my Kitty? I didn’t know her real name, but I wouldn’t mind spending a few days with her trying to crack that nut. Always so literal. Always so shy, blushing at everything I said.
“She’s in her fifties, has blue hair. Not old-lady blue, but bright blue, like women do now.”
“Oh.” I was disappointed.
“Fifty-five is a little out of your range, even for an equal opportunity womanizer like you.” Jeff looked smug about that fact. “Don’t think I didn’t consider that before I gave you a choice.”
I wasn’t going to say fifty-five was out of my range. Why place rules and limits? I don’t have a range. I just like women. But I’d never really noticed Sandra because I was always focused on Kitty. Who clearly was Eloise. The name suited her. “And Eloise?” I asked, going for casual.
I was leaning way back in my chair, ankle over the opposite knee, hands shoved into the pockets of my hoodie.
“The girl with the glasses who dresses like she’s in Romper Room. Smart as hell, and great at her job, but man, those outfits.” Jeff shook his head. “She could share clothes with my granddaughter and Ava’s in kindergarten.”
Where did my thoughts go? I knew he meant the cats and the colors and style. But my thoughts jumped right to Kitty in clothes that didn’t fit. Too small, too tight, showing off tits and ass from every angle…
“Hmm,” I said, going for noncommittal. Disinterested. “I’ll take Arjun. That guy loves me. We talk stats all the time and he had me sign some merch for his girlfriend.”
“No Arjun.”
I tried not to grin. Like taking candy from a baby. I wanted Eloise, but I was going to make Jeff think one, it was his idea. Two, that I didn’t want Eloise. “But you said I could pick whoever I want.”
“I don’t need some guy with a man crush falling for your BS and handing you your phone back. No way. The guys are out. Sandra’s a good candidate, but her husband has MS, now that I think about it. I can’t ask her to go out of town. So take Eloise. She’s wound really tight and takes her job very seriously. I know I can trust her.”
I made a face, like Kitty was my last choice. “I have to have the little nerd girl as my gatekeeper? This is bullshit.”
I took theater classes in college, what can I say? Sometimes I just want to turn to a camera that isn’t there and wink.
“You’ll live.”
Yep. Living my best life. So I had to be “monitored” all weekend. So what? I got to see what Kitty was all about when she wasn’t at work wearing cat sweaters and massaging my words into media messages. What was so hot about Eloise was she didn’t know she was hot. My usual type of woman wore her sexuality right out there. Eloise hid it under sweater sets.
Did she have a little nerd boyfriend? I really hoped not. I may be a lot of things, but a cheater isn’t one of them.
“Fine,” I said. “Whatever. I’m a team player and I can admit when I made a mistake. I will try to restrain myself from speaking out without running it past Eloise first.”
“Perfect. Now be totally honest with me. Am I correct in thinking that there is no way you’d be interested in having sex with her? Because we don’t need that complication.”
I crossed my fingers behind my back and gave him a nod. “You are correct. She’s not my type.” She wasn’t. Didn’t mean I didn’t want to bang her like a porch door in a wind storm. “Besides, I’m going to my mom and dad’s house. What the hell do you think is going to happen there?”
I was serious about that. I don’t fuck girls in my parents’ house. Respect, man. You have to have it for the people who raised you.
“Forgive me if I have questions about your moral code,” Jeff said dryly. He hit the intercom to call his secretary. “Madeline, can you bring Eloise from social media into my office?”
We talked about the next game, casually, until a few minutes later the door opened.
I turned to see Kitty, looking terrified. Her eyes were huge behind her red glasses and she was wiping her palms down the front of her yellow skirt. I’d never seen her standing before. She was taller and curvier than I had realized. She had an hourglass shape. Big tits, narrow waist, full hips.
I’m not going to lie, my dick got a little hard.
“You asked to see me, Mr. Dimarco?” Her voice trembled a little.
“Yes. You have a special assignment because you’re such a valued member of our team. You’re going to travel to Tennessee with Mr. North here and make sure his social media messages are on point.”
“I’m sorry?” she asked, like she didn’t understand.
“Here, have a seat, Eloise,” I said, emphasizing her name to make it clear I knew it.
“Okay, thanks.” She sat next to me and looked back and forth between me and Jeff. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking of me.”