“Of course not, asshole. I don’t want her hooking up with an athlete anyway.”
“Alright. Just so we’re on the same page. What’s her name?”
“Tessa.” Coach looks around before stepping closer to me. “Listen. Don’t let her drink. She has, on occasion, gotten a little wild when she’s been under the influence.”
“Dude, I am not babysitting your niece. Tell her not to drink, or I’m leaving her ass there alone.”
His eyes widen as his nostrils flare. “I don’t appreciate a threat, Jameson. Watch your fucking tone. I’m still your coach, and you better show me some respect.”
“Then show me the same respect!” I hiss, anger coursing over me in palpable waves. “You pulled the owner card. That’s so messed up. I literallyjuststarted talking to a woman, and now it’s going to look like I’m taking someone else out to a fancy event.”
Coach steps back as he studies me. “Really? You’ve got a girl? Honestly wondered if you were gay, not gonna lie.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re a funny guy while asking for a favor. Not gay. Just very selective.” I begin to walk away from him, wanting to get as far from this conversation as possible. I feel my anxiety rising, and if I don’t get out of here, it could spiral into a full-blown panic attack.
“She know you’re autistic?” he asks, and I stop dead in my tracks.
“What?” I growl, still facing away from him.
Coach walks around me, lowering his voice. “Does she know you’re autistic? And what to expect when you’re spiraling? Or when you’re overstimulated?”
My body shakes as I struggle to maintain my composure. “As I said, I just started talking to her. So no, my mental health and medical diagnoses have not come up in conversation yet. At this moment, I’m a little more concerned with the fact that you just spewed that out in the middle of the facility, when you know I keep that shit private.”
Coach puts up his hands in a defensive stance, his eyes darting around. My gaze follows his, and I should be relieved there’s no one around, but I’m not. His eyes are full of pleading, and he scratches at his beard as he leans toward me. “I know. I didn’t mean to upset you. I know there are only a few people within the organization who know. I’dneverblast that out. When you’re ready to tell her, we can sit down to work out a plan.”
I bleakly nod, suddenly so overcome with fatigue and emotional exhaustion. “It’s not cool to announce that shit.”
“I apologize. You’re absolutely right. I’m sorry, man. I just don’t want you to get in over your head with this girl. You’re the first genuine person who welcomed me in Denver, and I want to be sure you’re surrounded by people who value you like I do.” I can hear the sincerity in his voice, but I’m still ticked.
“She’s different. I can feel it. If I need your help working out a strategy, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, keep my personal business to yourself. You want me blurting out your private business, old man?”
“Noted. But if you call me an old man again, I’ll force you to run suicides against me next practice,” he calls out as he walks away. “We’ll see who the old man really is then.”
I’m not dumb. He’s in excellent shape, and would beat me by a mile.
I felt drained and out-of-sorts all week. Mentally preparing for this stupid gala with Coach’s niece has me stressed and tense, while attempting to maintain composure and not blurt everything out to Audrey is exhausting the hell out of me. How do I explain to someone that I’m escorting a woman I don’t want to be with to an event that I don’t want to go to? It might sound easy, but I have an unfortunate habit of rambling when I’m extra nervous. It’s why I plan responses for everything. I know what reporters will ask. What they’ll focus on. I have no idea what Audrey might say, and that scares the hell out of me.
I was close to showing up at her townhouse and confessing, but Maddox talked me out of it. Everything he said was fact. I’m not dating Audrey. We haven’t had any discussions about interest on either side. Furthermore, according to Maddox, if we were only dating, I still wouldn’t owe her any information unless we’d discussed being exclusive. Besides, he said, it’s only one event. I’m definitely not interested in Coach’s niece, so I can do my team duty and move on.
But as I’m in the car with Tessa while she talks animatedly about how all her friends are ‘so jealous’ she’s on this ‘date’ with me, I feel like my head is going to explode.
“This isn’t a date,” I snap for the third time.
“Hmm?”
“Tessa. This isn’t a date. I’m helping your uncle out, and that’s it.” My driver, Tony, looks back at me through the rearview mirror with a questioning look. I’ve used him for the last five years for any event where I might have a drink or two. In this instance, I think keeping Tessa out of any of my vehicles is also a good idea. She seems like the type to either memorize my license plate, or put a tracker in my car somewhere.
She lays her hand on my knee, making me recoil. “Jameson, it’s fine. I won’t tell my uncle we hooked up if you won’t.”
“Remove your hand,” I say quietly through clenched teeth. Her eyes widen, but she does what I’ve asked. “You will keep your hands to yourself tonight, or I will talk to Coach about how disrespectful you were. This is not a date. There will be no hooking up. Are we clear?”
“Jeez, fine. God,” she grumbles. “Would have been nice if he’d asked a player without a giant stick up his ass, but okay.”
As we pull up to the venue, I turn to her. “I don’t have a stick up my ass. You don’t know anything about me. I just prefer to have consent when interacting with a woman. If I touched you when you didn’t expect it, or didn’t want it, I’d be crucified. Same should be true for me, right?”
“Oh, come on. You’re being ridiculous,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes. “No professional athlete says no to a hot girl. Not even the married ones.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I say, as I open the door. “I don’t know any married athletes that would say yes to another woman.”
