“I did want to ask, how old is you guys’ little one?”
“He’s one,” Bentley says.
“Going on thirty,” I add.
“Oh, they are so sweet at this age. Bless you guys.”
“Thanks for checking in, JoAnn.”
“Anytime, guys. You have a fan in me. Good luck, Bent. My household is rooting for you.”
“We have Haydon and Litia calling in as a couple,” Erica says.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” Bentley says.
“Hey there. This is so cute. I wanted to say thank you, Bentley. Haydon and I have gotten things signed by you a few times and a few pics. You were so kind each time,” Litia says.
“Man, Coswell. You got a pretty little thing there. Do you guys work out together as a couple?”
Bentley scoffs, trying and almost failing to school his face. I run my finger down my nose, giving him the signal we came up with to let the other know to be patient.
“Nah, I get my workout in at the facility. Zah has her own routine.”
“Yeah, it’s called running after a one-year-old,” I laugh.
“I hear you there, honey,” Litia says. “You guys said your trip will be the little guy’s first trip out of the country. Does that mean he goes with Daddy to away games?”
Bentley looks at me apologetically. I think we said too much. We both agreed not to mention Aaron’s real name or reveal any images of him.
We also want to limit the information we share about him. Those are our hard limits for this. I guess we both got a little too comfortable talking to each other.
I wink at Bentley to let him know I’m okay. We’ll just have to be more careful in the future. Bentley nods and returns the wink.
“Right now, he’s still so young and gets fussy when we travel. Going with Bent to away games is a huge challenge. His dad is usually focused on the game and doing his job anyway.
“Besides, he loves watching the game from home with his aunts and uncles. He doesn’t quite understand what all the excitement is about, but he loves being a part of it,” I reply.
Bentley mouthsthank you. I smile and we finish the call with Haydon and Litia. Bentley signals to Erica that we’ll take one more call.
“We have GM,” she says as she queues the next call.
“Hey, GM,” I say and make a face at Bentley.
He shrugs his shoulders and sits back in his chair. I grab my water bottle to take a sip as we wait for GM to reply. I’m not expecting the voice that comes through.
“Zah, Coswell. I find your little podcast to be so funny. Aren’t you a cute little family now. Why not tell your new listeners and viewers all about how you two just got back together since Zah was already engaged to another man last year?”
Bentley holds his hand up as I go to reply. My nostrils flare as I feel like steam is coming out of my ears. I can’t believe Gilbert is doing this.
“Ah, Gilbert. I thought you were smarter than this. Do you really want to have this out over a recorded medium?”
“I only want the truth to be out there.”
“The truth? Whose truth? The actual truth or your delusion. I’m only asking so I know where we’re going here? I want to make sure my lawyers hit you for the right offense.”
“You can’t come for me for the truth. Zahirah was engaged. In fact, you showed up the day before her wedding and crashed her wedding rehearsal dinner.”
“Bro, you trapped her into a fake engagement to help you secure your inheritance. She thought she was helping a friend,” Bentley explodes.
