I finally typed back:
What kind of date?
A moment passed. Then:
There’s a fundraiser dinner in Holland. Black tie. Press will be there. Could be good for the “protective boyfriend” angle. You know, soften his image post-Theo blowup.
I felt myself go cold, even as my hands stayed steady.
Right. The blowup. The locker room story everyone pretended not to know but couldn’t stop whispering about. That stupid video floating around of Theo flinching when Kieren got in his face. We were barely holding the narrative together as it was.
And now I was supposed to sell the fantasy again.
I swallowed the knot forming in my throat and typed back:
Sure.
I stared at the message for a long second before exiting out.
Then I looked at my reflection in the black screen—just a blur of tired eyes, pale skin, lips chewed raw.
This was the job. I’d chosen it. I’d signed the contract. This was the brand.
I whispered the lie I needed to believe:
“It’s not real. It’s work. I can do work.”
And I threw myself back into it—because it was the only thing that didn’t feel like it might break me.
I didn’t mean to open Twitter.
It started as an innocent lunch scroll—thirty seconds to decompress while I waited for the microwave to finish whirring my sad little leftover pasta.
But then I saw it.
Trending: #KakashiToStorm
My thumb froze mid-scroll. I blinked. Refreshed the page. The hashtag was real. Climbing fast.
I clicked.
And immediately fell into the rabbit hole.
One fan posted a Photoshopped image of Kakashi in a SWM Storm jersey, grinning like it was already official. Another shared a blurry shot of him at an airport—our airport, apparently—captioned: “?? Stevensville? Why else would he be here??”
A sports journalist I half-follow posted: Sources say Kakashi will be in Michigan next week. Could a meeting with SWM Storm’s front office be on the horizon?
I nearly choked on my lukewarm pasta.
Kakashi Hayashi.
THE Kakashi Hayashi.
Five-time Ballon d’Or winner. Olympic gold medalist. A living legend. And possibly the most marketable athlete in the world.
I dropped the plastic fork into the Tupperware, completely forgotten now. My fingers moved fast, collecting screenshots, opening Slack, flipping between tabs.
If this was true—if he was seriously considering joining the Storm—it could be the biggest acquisition in franchise history.
