I pulled a ginger chew out of my pocket and gave it to her. “Go see if she wants this.”
“Come with me, please?” She looked at David, her expression pleading. “She’s less likely to bite my head off if you’re there.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine, but only if we can stop by the cheese platter on our way.”
“Deal.”
They drifted away in time for me to spy Taylor sneaking in the side door, an all-access VIP badge hanging around his neck. While the team knew I had a boyfriend, they didn't know who that boyfriend was.
I’d thought about telling them a few times, if only to shift the conversation away from Wyatt’s bombshell, but had held off, not wanting the final days of the campaign to be overshadowed by my personal life any more than it already was.
Tonight was our official debut, though only within the small circle of people I trusted.
“How are you doing?” he asked, taking up his post beside me.
“Fine. Good. Worried.”
The truth was much more complicated than that.
If Kendra lost, every time my name was mentioned now, the implication would be that I’d only ever been as good as Wyatt Hastings had made me. And that was purely the professional assessment. It didn't even factor in the assumption that I’d fucked my way into the role.
“If it's any consolation, you don’t look worried. You look focused and driven. It’s very hot.” He winked at me, his expression falling when all I could offer in return was a small tilt of my lips.
Across the room, David caught my eye and held up four fingers to indicate that four percent of precincts were reporting.Then he added his thumb, letting me know Kendra was ahead by five points, which, unfortunately, meant nothing yet.
An hour later, I spotted Maya cutting through the room, making her way toward us, her hands fisted at her sides and a scowl on her face that would have been alarming if I didn’t know her well enough to recognize it for what it really was.
She stopped in front of us, looked Taylor up and down for a beat, then turned on me.
“Is there a reason you failed to mention your boyfriend isTaylor Fucking Morrison?” She smacked my arm. “How didyoupull such a baddie?”
Taylor rocked back on his heels. “Wait. You know who I am?” His tone was so fucking earnest.
“Is he fucking with me?”
Taylor had spent so long playing for teams that existed mainly to lose that he’d stopped registering what people actually saw when they looked at him. He was playing so well lately that Marauders fans had started chanting his name. He just couldn’t hear any of that over the voices in his head telling him he’d never lived up to his potential.Modest to a fucking fault.
“Not in the least.”
A waiter passed by carrying a full tray of drinks. She plucked two of them off it and handed him one. “Cheers to being the first professional athlete who doesn’t think he’s god’s gift to the universe.”
Taylor lifted his glass while I fought back a laugh.
“Uh, cheers,” he said dubiously, throwing back his drink in one swallow. He winced. “Oh god. What is that?”
“Amaretto sour,” Maya informed him, taking his empty glass and depositing it on the tray of a different passing waiter. “Kendra’s favorite.”
“It’s very … thick,” he replied, making a face that belied his attempt at neutrality.
"It is," she agreed. "And your boyfriend is quite the enigma. I thought I had him all figured out, and then he went and dropped the whole, by the way, I’m gay bit.Then, it turns out he’s Wyatt Hastings’s—” Maya immediately stopped speaking, her hand lifting to cover her mouth. “Oh shit. I’m sorry. That was?—”
“It’s fine, Maya.” I felt Taylor’s hand press against the small of my back over my jacket, just above my belt.
“It’s not.” She shook her head, her curls bouncing. “I shouldn’t have … it wasn’t my place to … fuck.” She blew out a long breath, her eyes filling with tears.
“It’s fine,” I stressed. “You’re not wrong. I was. I’m not anymore.”
The hardest part was that I wasn’t ashamed of my relationship with Wyatt or the years I’d spent with him. The only upsetting part was how I’d let that relationship define me. How I’d stayed in a toxic situation that I knew was bad for me. That I'd chosen his ambition over my happiness.
