I pulled out my phone and held it between us so that we could both read.
Boone, fuck, man. Your girl is getting sued. By her old team. They’re mad that she ended her contract with them early. She still had two years. The suit is for loss of revenue and payment. They want sixteen million dollars from her or she’s expected back next season. The contract is iron-clad, usually. But there is a clause about pregnancy and ending the contract early for that and that alone. Though, they have a little nugget in there that says if you get pregnant and try to terminate the contract early, you have to pay back what’s left in your contract, as well as pay for damages caused by that athlete’s early departure. Nettie’s retained a lawyer who specializes in athletes. The lawyer’s a good one and is currently looking into everything, so I’m not too worried. But the concerning thing is that this owner is pissed as hell that they lost their star player. Like really pissed. Overly pissed. He’s bad-mouthing her to everyone he knows. Even Oregon FC, where she was going to go play. If Beau hadn’t offered her a contract, she would’ve been without a team next year. The owner, Kason Blaylock, has badmouthed her far and wide, saying she was an impossible team player and had a horrible attitude.
“This owner sounds like a complete dick.”
“Agreed,” Nettie hummed. “I don’t remember anything about him.”
The apartment was contractually supposed to be paid out for the rest of this year per her contract details. The early termination goes against her contract, and I’ve already forwarded all the information I could find to her lawyer. The apartment complex is also holding her things indefinitely because I sent them a strongly worded email with the contract terms and explained everything that happened. They’re very apologetic. So if you didn’t want to leave right now, you could wait.
“Too late for that,” Nettie mused.
“Yep,” I agreed.
If you do decide to go today, be aware of the other players and the team manager that live in the same complex. They’re all pretty hostile sounding in the emails that I read through last night. They’re not happy with her, and think she’s the reason behind their upcoming losing season.
“Geez,” Nettie said. “They sound like a lot of fun. I’m sure I really loved playing with them.”
I thought about all the comments she’d made over the years that I’d overheard, or she’d said directly to me.
“I think that you liked playing there,” I said. “But only because of the warm weather. You always complained to Eddy about having no friends there.”
“Hmm,” she murmured.
Lawyer’s name is at the bottom of this email. I summarized all emails from the lawyer, too, so y’all have something to go on. He’s expecting the call shortly, so he can update you on everything. Also, one last thing. I was looking through the contract and found a small insert at the end with an addendum that Nettie had inserted by her lawyer. It was in the contract that she signed. And not in the contract that the Miami FC signed second. All signed DocuSign, by the way. So I went ahead and sent that to the lawyer, too. He’s aware and already making plans. He’s hoping to settle all of this out of court so y’all don’t have to go to Miami again seeing as Nettie’s big pregnant. Still working on the rest, but if you need anything more, text me. Apollo.
“Seems like you forgot to tell me a lot,” I scolded her.
She looked up at me with those champagne eyes that I loved so much and admitted, “I kind of wish that I’d told you now. But if I was protecting you from this bullshit, after hearing about your mother…”
She had a point.
I’d had a lot on my plate.
“What a mess,” I sighed as I brought her hand up to my mouth to kiss. “We’ll figure it out, though.”
“Is the moving company there already, do you think?” she asked.
I’d called a twenty-four-hour moving company in Miami last night and given them the apartment manager’s information. I’d told them to meet us there later this afternoon after our flight landed.
“I wanted to get there first and get the lay of the land,” I said. “Plus, I’d think you would want to pick through some of your stuff and make sure that they weren’t touching any of your valuables.”
She pursed her lips. “I guess that’s true.”
It was really true when we got to her apartment seven hours later and found her collection of dildos.
One, in particular, caught my eye.
It was a direct replica of me.
I remembered very specifically when we’d done it.
I was seventeen and the thought of doing it had been so exciting that I hadn’t balked when she’d waved the kit in front of me a few days before she’d left for college.
I actually burst out laughing when I saw it in her nightstand drawer.
“Whoa,” she said as she picked it up. “Why are there four of the same one?”
I picked up the original and held it out with a huge grin on my face. “This is the one that I made when you went to college.”
