“You got it, Coach,” Jensen replies, sounding less than enthused about the task.
“Good.” Coach claps his hands. “Great work today, guys. Enjoy the weekend.”
With that, he turns and strolls out of the room. There’s a beat of silence after he’s gone before the team explodes into wild chatter.
“ICON?” someone exclaims. “Holy shit!”
“They just did a feature on the Titans Quarterback!”
“They really want one of us to be the bachelor of the year?”
“Sucks to be Jensen, Carson, and Scott.”
“Oh, yeah, because having a beautiful woman in love with you is such a burden. Grow up.”
Jensen sighs and jumps up on a bench. He sticks his fingers in his mouth and lets out a loud whistle to get everyone’s attention. The talking stops and everyone looks up at him.
“All right, listen up,” he says in his authoritative Captain voice. “I know Coach suggested we vote or something, but I actually have an idea of who should take the single feature.” To my surprise, he looks down at me. “Zander should get it.”
I blink up at him, surprised. “What? Why me?”
Jensen grins and addresses the whole team. “It’s only fair. Zander scored the winning goal in the championship and he’s not in the spotlight as much as he deserves. Let’s give him his fifteen minutes of fame, yeah? What do you say guys?”
There’s a moment of silence as everyone murmurs to each other, as if debating the suggestion.
I shake my head and chuckle at the ludicrous thought - Me? Bachelor of the Year? - but then Wilder calls out, “I agree with Jensen. Give it to Zander.”
Jayce shouts, “Hell yeah!”
“Zander! Zander! Zander!” Carson starts chanting and pumping his arms and soon enough, the entire team is shouting my name.
What the fuck is happening right now?
“Seems we’re all in agreement, then!” Jensen exclaims. “Zander is our Bachelor of the Year.”
The guys all cheer and some of the guys grab my shoulders and shake me like I’ve just won the Cup again. I’m so confused… why me?
“Drinks are on Zander tonight!” Wilder shouts, which only makes the team cheer louder.
Shit.
“I don’t know about this whole magazine feature, guys. I think you should have it, Jensen. You’re the captain, after all.”
I’m sitting at a table in the Night Hawk bar, our favorite haunt, with Jensen, Owen, Carson, Wilder, and Jayce while the rest of the team takes up much of the space around us. It’s been a couple of hours since they all picked me for the article, and the more and more I think about it, the more I’m certain I’m not the right choice.
Jensen points at me with his beer bottle and shakes his head. “No way, man. I’m happily married and don’t want that kind of attention.”
I look around the table and suggest, “Okay, what about Carson?”
Carson looks up from the basket of fries he’s been mowing down and furrows his brow.
“No way,” he says.
I turn to Owen, but he’s already shaking his head. “Nope, not a chance in hell.”
“Wilder?” I sigh. “Jayce?”
They both throw their heads back and laugh. Okay… I’ll take that as a no for each of them.
