Chapter One
MORGAN
“If there’s one thing in life I excel at, it’s attracting assholes,” I say with a sigh.
Across from me, Alessandra Jones lifts one of her perfectly arched dark eyebrows, her full lips tilting up into a soft smile. “Please don’t tell me this is about Carter.”
I groan, leaning back in my seat as I cover my face with both hands and shake my head.
“You didn’t give him another chance, did you?” she asks. I can hear the well-deserved judgment in her voice. AJ is the general manager of the Boston Rebels, the first female GM in the NHL, and an all-around badass who would never let anyone treat her the way I somehow keep letting guys treat me.
My hands fall from my face. “He was so apologetic and insisted that he really wanted to make things work this time.” I hear how ridiculousthis timesounds as it rolls off my tongue. How many times do I need to let him walk all over me before I finally learn my lesson?
I probably shouldn’t be gossiping about my love life with my boss, but she’s become a good friend over the past few months and I needsomeoneto talk to about the text I just received.
She rests her elbows on her desk and folds her arms over each other as she leans in. “All right, what happened this time?”
“He’s been texting me about how much he misses me, how he was wrong to let me go, and how he now knows we were so good together...” I pause, swallowing through the thick lump in my throat as I think about how honest his lies sounded. He told me exactly what I wanted to hear, and I was so desperately gullible that I believed him. “So last week I went to dinner with him, and I ended up spending the night at his place. He left for a weeklong business trip and just got back today. And about two minutes ago, I got a text from him saying that he thinks we’re better off keeping things casual.”
“Morgan.” Her voice is sympathetic but chiding. It’s the tone you’d use when you’re telling someone they should have known better. Which is fair, because I absolutely should have.
“I know. It’s like a repeat of June all over again.” I met Carter earlier this summer, and he’d love-bombed me to the extreme. He wanted to see me almost every night, flew me to Miami while he was there on business because he couldn’t be apart from me, bought me gifts—and then, with no warning and no provocation, he ended things.
This time he didn’t end it, he just doesn’t want a relationship. I’m good enough to sleep with, but not good enough to be his girlfriend, I guess.
“You deserve so much better than to be some guy’s booty call,” AJ says.
“How am I supposed to know when a guy doesn’t mean any of the things he says, though? There were no red flags. He just came off as this really great guy, who was really into me...”
“Until he wasn’t?” AJ offers up the truth I don’t want to admit.
“Yeah. But then his apology was so sincere and his interest seemed so genuine.”
“Sometimes it can be really hard to tell,” AJ says with a small shake of her head. I know her first marriage wasn’t a good one, and her ex-husband ended up being the douchiest of douches. “But when someone shows you who they are,believe them.”
“Yeah, maybe my issue is that I’m too willing to give people second chances.” I shake my head, a little sad about the thought of people being unable to redeem themselves. “I can’t help but want to see the good in people.”
“I’m not saying you should never give someone a second chance. Look at me and McCabe. If we hadn’t given each other a second chance, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
I smile as I think about our team captain and our general manager, who last season seemed to hate each other over something that had happened years before when they were both with a different team. Now AJ, McCabe, and his baby girl, Abby, are the perfect little family.
“What I am saying, though, is that if someonerepeatedlyshows you they’re not trustworthy, you need to let them go. No matter how good it seems when you’re together. No matter how good itcouldbe.” She pauses, shakes her head as she looks at me, and says, “You are so good at giving other people excellent advice in similar situations. Maybe you just need to stop and ask yourself, ‘What would I tell a friend in this instance?’”
I huff out a laugh. “None of my friends are single anymore, so I wouldn’t need to give that kind of advice. But I know what you mean, and I’ll try that next time.” I push down any lingering emotions I have about what I thought Carter and I could have together, determined not to be some guy’s doormat again. From now on, I’m going to embrace my inner badass like AJ. “Okay, sorry. We’re not meeting to discuss my love life. What’s up, Boss?”
AJ cringes a tad at my use of the term, as if she doesn’t like thinking of herself as everyone’s boss. That might be part of whyshe excels in her role. She never tries to throw her weight around—she just leads quietly and confidently, and everyone from the team’s owner to the players respect the hell out of her for it.
“I’ll wait until Patrick gets here to jump into the nitty gritty of it, but before that, I wanted to say how thankful I am you’re stepping into this role. I know you have your own clients and your own PR company, and that this is just temporary, but Ireallyappreciate you stepping in for Tatum while she’s on medical leave.”
“Well, the Rebels just officially became my biggest client.”
I’d helped AJ and the Boston Rebels with a PR situation toward the end of last season. Then I’d agreed to come on part time to help revamp their social media vision and put a plan into place for executing it.
When their social media manager, Tatum, found out she needed to have back surgery and would have a long recovery, I agreed to fit this into my already busy schedule.
Behind me, there’s a knock on the door and I turn as Patrick Patrona, the VP of Marketing and Public Relations, walks in. On his heels is a young woman with pale blonde hair and big brown eyes.
“Morgan, this is Natalie. She’s doing one of her co-ops for Northeastern and will be our social media intern for the rest of this year.”
