Paying no heed to the eyes on us, he knocks on the door to the conference room. I take a deep breath and, with determined steps, enter what today feels like a battlefield.
A kaleidoscope of emotions flickers on everyone’s face, ranging from surprise to annoyance. God! It’s gonna be a long day.
Ezra and I take our seats. He clasps our hands and places them on his thigh. Every pair of eyes zeroes in on the small but significant moment. It’s a declaration, claim, and offense all in one.
I spy Stacy biting back a smile, and her reaction eases a knot in my gut. Hers is the only opinion that matters to me. She has been guiding, supporting, and encouraging me since the day Istepped foot in these halls.
She has been a constant pillar and a reliable friend. So, I’m happy that she doesn’t seem to have any reservations about us. Though the same can’t be said for the others in the room.
Samuel Jensen, the General Manager of the Boston Bandits, the man who can end my career with the flick of his wrist, clears his throat. I wait for him to speak with bated breath, as Ezra squeezes my hand.
“How long has this been going on?” he asks, scratching his bearded jaw.
“A few months,” Ezra answers, unnerved, while my vein might pop at any second.
A few gasps ring out in the room. James McCoy, the coach, curses under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“You do know that a relationship is forbidden between a player and a staff member, don’t you?” Samuel arches an eyebrow, his gaze swinging between us.
“We do,” Ezra announces, leaning back in his chair. I nod timidly.
“That’s all I needed to know.” Samuel taps the table and nods at Zareen, the HR head.
My heart lurches wildly at the cryptic words, asI feel sweat dripping down my spine.
Picking up the file in front of her and sliding her glasses on her nose, Zareen begins, staring directly at me, “In compliance with your contract, which you signed when you started working for the Boston Bandits, you’re fired, effective immediately.”
Her indifferent tone won’t let you feel that she’s ending someone’s career with those words. But I feel it when I see my world collapsing like a house of cards crumbing down with the lightest blow of wind.
She continues to state the legalities, but I’m unable to listen to a word, let alone comprehend it.
My breath gets stuck in my throat, the world fading away as I feel myself going numb. What will I do? How will I face the world? How will I face my family? How will I tell them that I left them to do something on my own and couldn’t even do that?
Then the realization settles in, burying me alive under a ton of bricks with no escape route. It’s over. Everything is ruined.
But that’s when a fissure starts forming in my grave, a beam of sunlight defiantly making itsway to me. I realize it’s Ezra, trying to reach me.
Erzaroars.
He roars at the room full of people, making a deadly silence fall over the room like a heavy, fast-approaching storm. The kind of storm that promises destruction and retribution.
Every eye in the room snaps to him, mine included, as the veil of uncertainty clears from my mind.
“You fire her, you lose me!” he growls.
“That’s not how it works,” Samuel shakes his head.
“You fireher, you loseme,” he repeats, the angry veins popping in his neck and forehead, his body coiled tight as his hand holds mine in a punishing grip.
“Think carefully what you’re saying, Ezra. You’d do that for her?” Coach jerks his head at me as if I’m not sitting right here in this room.
I instantly wish that the ground would open and swallow me whole. James is right, though. What is Ezra even thinking, making such claims for me? Is he out of his mind? He can’t put everything on the line for a fuck, damnit!
And I’m about to remind him just that, when he laughs, a humorless chuckle echoing in theroom as everyone looks at him, befuddled.
“Her?” He shakes his head before looking the coach right in the eyes. “There’s nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, I won’t do for her. It’s better you accept that now,” he growls, swinging his gaze to everyone to make a point.
“You know what our team policy is. We can’t allow this relationship,” Samuel iterates.
