28. Support My Girlfriend
SUPPORT MY GIRLFRIEND
“ I ’m assuming you’ve seen all the comments online,” Mike said to him the minute he walked in the door on Tuesday morning.
“Some of them,” he said. “You know I don’t get sucked into that shit.”
Warren rarely wanted to see what was being said about him.
Half the time it wasn’t factual, and if it was, he didn’t care since he lived it.
If it was false, it reminded him of what Emma said to him months ago.
Fuck them. That’s what he thought of people judging him.
Not that he’d ever be able to say those words in this cancel culture society.
“I’m not talking about the game talk,” Mike said. “It’s about Emma.”
“I know,” he said. He hadn’t wanted to look at anything until after she left yesterday.
He didn’t see her enough as it was and the last thing he was doing was getting sucked into the black hole of the internet to see what people could drum up about his gameplay or personal life.
“Are you ready to make a statement on it?” Mike asked. “Word is out of her name.”
He hadn’t seen that part. “When?” he asked.
“I saw it about twenty minutes ago,” Mike said.
“I’m surprised it took this long. Let’s be real, there are a lot of pictures of you with her on the field.
The camera got a good shot of you kissing her before the game started.
Then they were zooming in on her in the suite with your mother and sisters. ”
He had realized none of that until Emma got home last night. She’d shut her phone off yesterday so they could have the day to themselves. When she was driving home, she hadn’t turned her phone on either so she wasn’t distracted.
It wasn’t until she was on the ferry that she saw all the messages from her family that had seen her on TV.
She told him she wasn’t taking notes during the game, that she was too busy watching it.
When she was waiting for him, she pulled the notes section up and just bypassed reading any texts other than his to not get sidetracked.
He had to admit he admired that about her. He couldn’t always ignore a text that he got unless it was someone he didn’t care to talk to.
“Emma and I talked yesterday. We knew her coming to the game would get noticed. I didn’t think they’d grab her last name this quickly.”
“She had a badge on her neck,” Mike reminded him. “Her full name and picture were on it. She was talking to some of the WAGs.”
He growled. “And you think that is how it slipped out?”
Mike shrugged. “It’s a free-for-all and you know it. Some don’t like that they aren’t being shown as much. Your guess is as good as mine. Does it matter how they got her name?”
“No,” he said. “I’m going to post something on social media. Emma and I aren’t following each other, but we are going to once I tell her it’s out. I’ll tag her and she’ll reply. Is that good enough?”
Mike’s head went back and forth. “I’m getting a lot of calls that I’m fending off.”
“I hate this shit, Mike. It’s my personal life and doesn’t need a team press release.”
“All I need to do is say we are confirming the relationship. Nothing more.”
“Then give me an hour,” he said. “Don’t you think it’d be better that way?”
“It would be,” Mike said. “With a picture of the two of you. Do you have one?”
He did. He’d taken one with Emma’s phone yesterday with them on the field, but they had a lot more of their time together.
Ones with them in his house or hers. He’d have to sort through to make sure there was no sign of where either of them lived.
“Give me an hour,” he said again and moved past Mike.
He texted Emma to see if she was around. Who the hell knew when she’d get back to him?
But she called him rather than replied.
“Oh my God,” she said. “I’ve never seen so much stuff about me online before. And it’s not about my books. Bummer.”
She was laughing at least.
“Sorry about that,” he said.
“It’s fine. It’s more speculation. I’m assuming you’re calling because you’re ready for what we’ve got planned?”
“I am,” he said. “Mike thinks I should post a picture of us.”
“I got thinking, you do that and then I’ll reply to yours and then post my own with a caption if you trust me. Do we use the same picture?”
“Yes,” he said. “That makes it easier. Do you want to pick one? I’m not good at this shit.”
He’d never done it before and she was used to posting on social media all the time. He just put small things out there related to football.
“I already have a picture I want to use,” she said. “If you’re good with it?”
“Send it to me,” he said.
His phone went off, which told him she was ready to go with it.
He opened it up and grinned. It was a picture of him cradling her in his arms while he was in the water up to his calves at her parents’ beach on the Fourth of July.
You only saw the water in the background, not a location.
It was a full shot of them in shorts and T-shirts laughing as he threatened to toss her in.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I think it’s a shot of me no one has ever seen before,” he said.
He was always more serious or cracking the barest of grins. Professional even, never this side of him in the press.
“That’s right,” she said. “Go big or go home. It shows you’re human and if I’m going to have half of the women in America hating me, I want to make sure they know you love me. I can see it in your eyes there.”
He smiled. “I can’t believe it took you so long to see it.”
“Now, now,” she said. “We won’t talk about that.”
“Let me get this done,” he said.
He wasn’t sure why his heart was racing so much putting himself out there like this. But he did love her. She loved him. They had a plan, and for someone who didn’t plan much, she was having a lot of fun with this.
“I’ll send you a friend request now,” she said. “Accept it first.”
She hung up on him before he could say anything else.
He was used to her doing those things.
He’d said she was quirky before and he was glad to know none of that had changed.
He got her request and accepted it.
He attached the picture of the two of them and typed. “Got my girl.” That was simple enough. If he was going to trust her to say something, then she’d have to trust him.
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, hit send, and waited.
Not even a minute went by and she replied, “Awwwww.” And nothing else.
Hmmm, he expected something better than that.
But then he got a notice that she posted something and tagged him.
It was the same picture with the caption, “Found my real-life hero.”
Shit.
Yeah, that was her.
She wouldn’t know he had mixed emotions to that statement.
That he wanted to be her hero, but was so tired of being that strong for everyone in life.
To be funny, he replied, “Awwwww,” right back.
He went to put his phone in his pocket, but it went off with a text and he saw it was Emma sending him a laughing emoji followed by a heart. He returned it and walked toward the classroom to go over plays from Sunday.
The minute he pushed the doors open, there was laughter and clapping.
“Dude. You’re a hero.”
Fuck.
“That was fast,” he said, trying not to have his face fill with heat.
“What’s that comment all about?” one of the rookies asked.
Most of the guys would know not to follow bullcrap on social media. They’d know he had a girlfriend by now but not much about her.
“Tiff said Emma is some romance writer or something,” DeMarcus said. “Is that true?”
There was no way DeMarcus would know that at this point unless it was Tiff who was talking on Sunday. Emma had told him she was one of the few who got close enough to see her tag. She’d turned it around afterward and no one asked her to flip it back.
“She is,” he said. “She writes romantic suspense. It’s more about thrillers and mysteries than romance, but it is in there.”
“And you’ve read them?” someone else shouted out.
He didn’t know who it was and didn’t care. “Of course I have. I support my girlfriend.”
“Settle down everyone,” Coach said, coming into the room. “We’ve got a lot to go over.”
He was glad to get that stopped so they could focus on what was important.
There were a lot of phones buzzing during their two-hour session, but no one was dumb enough to pull them out to look. It was more than normal and he wondered if it was messages about him.
When they were done and getting ready to change and get on the field, most everyone was pulling their phone out to look as they walked to the locker room.
Warren didn’t get out of the room before someone shouted, “Seriously, dude. Your girlfriend is a Bond?”
“You’re dating a Bond Girl?” someone asked.
He rolled his eyes. “Not a Bond Girl like in the movies,” he said.
“No,” DeMarcus said. “Tiff just said that Emma is a member of the Bond family. That her grandfather owns The Retreat and half of the rest of Amore Island and Boston.”
“Don’t believe everything you read,” he said. “It’s not half.”
He laughed and walked out. He wouldn’t engage with them, but knew that it was going to be a busy couple of weeks until things settled down.
For once he was almost happy the next two games were on the road and Emma wouldn’t be at them.