I don’t deserve her forgiveness. I know that. I don’t even deserve to be in the same room as her. But if she’s willing to work on my knee, even if it’s just for the money, even if she spends every session imagining new ways to murder me, then I’ll take it.
Having nothing left to lose makes you brave. Or maybe just stupid. The line between the two has always been pretty thin for me.
The move here is to fix my knee. That will save my career. Then I’ll have half a chance at making things right with the only woman I’ve ever loved.
CHAPTER 4
DELILAH
@MagnoliaLandingSocialite 58.1K Followers
Transcript of Viral Video
SOUTHERN CHARM MEETS SOUTHERN SCORN: DISGRACED QB GRIFFIN CALLAHAN GETS ICE-COLD WELCOME HOME
Y’all. Y’ALL. Drop whatever you’re doing because I have TEA and it is SCALDING.
The prodigal son has returned to Magnolia Landing, and honey, not everyone is rolling out the welcome mat.
You know Griffin Callahan, former golden boy of the Southern Knights, former face of four protein powder brands, former owner of that jawline that made me fail my senior year biology exam.
Well, he made his triumphant return yesterday morning. And by “triumphant,” I mean he walked into Bluemoon Coffee looking like a man who lost a fight with life itself and walkedout wearing twenty ounces of cold brew courtesy of Dr.Jessica Hartwell.
The video has over three million views. I’ve watched it forty-seven times. My therapist says this is “concerning.” I say it’s research.
For those who weren’t living in the Lowcountry five years ago, allow me to fill in the blanks.
Griffin Callahan crawled out of some backwoods logging town called Lumberjack Lagoon. Yes, that’s real. He showed up in Charleston as a first-round draft pick with a smile that could melt panties at fifty yards. The man was six-foot-four of pure audacity wrapped in Under Armour. I personally witnessed a waiter drop an entire tray of shrimp and grits at Husk because Griffin smiled at him.
But somewhere between signing his rookie contract and becoming the starting quarterback, our golden boy fell head over cleats for a curvy barista at Bluemoon Coffee.
Jessica Hartwell was a grad student working on her doctorate while slinging lattes and apparently casting spells, because Griffin Callahan was obsessed. Three years of brunches at Poogan’s Porch. Sunset walks on Folly Beach. He bought her a Pomeranian named Biscuit. That’s a man down bad.
And then? He vanished.
One random Tuesday, Jessica woke up in their luxury condo. Griffin was gone. His truck, his clothes, his protein powder collection, straight up gone. All he left behind was a Post-it note with three sentences. One sentence for each year they spent together.
I don’t know what those three sentences said, but I’ve been workshopping theories:
“Sorry babe. Football calls. You’ll get over it.”
OR my personal favorite:
“Left the Pomeranian. Took the roids. Be right back in a few years.”
He popped back up in Nevada a few weeks later, traded to the Desert Lightning. Rumor has it there was an incident involving a hot tub, a rookie’s girlfriend, and several bottles of tequila. I cannot confirm this, but it shook me because he didn’t seem like the type.
Then came three mediocre seasons out west. Sports people used words like “solid” and “serviceable,” which is football-speak for “meh.” Then came the injury, you know the video of him screaming on the field. And THEN news broke that his financial manager had been embezzling millions.
Destroyed knee plus stolen fortune plus mediocre football equals one humbled man crawling back to the town he abandoned.
Which brings us to yesterday at Bluemoon.
My friend Taylor was there. She said Callahan walked in looking “rough” and “like he’d been crying in his truck.” He saw Jessica, who by the way, is now Dr.Jessica Hartwell, founder of Hartwell Sports Medicine with the highest-rated ACL recovery program in five states.
“He said her name like he was seeing a ghost,” Taylor reported. “And she just... froze. You could literally see years of rage loading on her face.”
She looked at him. She looked at her coffee. She looked back at him. And then she let him have it. All of it. Ice and everything.
