CHAPTER 44
GRAYDON
“How do you feel?” Hutton asks as we set the weights back on the racks.
“Good, ready. How about you?”
“Flexible.”
I eye him, causing him to laugh. “Scarlett has been taking me to her Pilates classes this off-season, and at first, I thought it was stupid, as if I needed to go to a class like that, but my man, I’ve never been more humbled in my entire life.
My body was shaking uncontrollably. It was humiliating, but I stayed consistent, and now, I feel more ready than ever for the season to start. ”
“You’re telling me that you’ve been keeping it a secret this entire summer that you’ve been taking Pilates classes?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“So I could have this moment with you right now, while you watch me attempt to do the splits right in front of you.” He starts spreading his legs and lowering his body to the ground.
“What the actual fuck,” I say in shock, watching my friend slide closer to the ground, only for him to stop about a foot and a half away and then topple over to the floor. “Uh…that wasn’t the splits.”
“No, but I was close.”
“Not really.”
“Pretty close.”
“You were closer to the ceiling than the floor.”
“Oh fuck off, I was close.” He stands. “Watch this.” He kicks his leg up toward the ceiling. “Look at that flexibility. Never thought you would see that from me, did you?”
“Honestly, I couldn’t have predicted this entire conversation. Consider me surprised.”
“You’re welcome for keeping things lively in your life.”
When I pick up my water bottle and phone and head over to the mats to stretch out, I spot a text on my phone.
OC: Uh…was the plan to announce that you were in a PR relationship with Maple this entire time? [Link]
“What the fuck?” I say as I click on the link, which brings me to an article about Maple and me and how our entire relationship was a fabrication for the media.
“What’s going on?” Hutton asks as he comes up behind me.
“Someone let it leak that Maple and I were in a PR relationship.”
“Shit, really?”
I pull up my search engine and type in my name and Maple’s. When I hit enter, a bunch of articles come up about our fake relationship.
“Fuck.” I push my hand through my hair, then quickly dial Gretchen’s number.
I pace the weight room as the phone rings.
“I’m handling it,” she answers.
“How? Because it’s being spread like fucking wildfire.”
“I’m well aware, Graydon.”
“Who was it?”
“Don’t know, but we are looking into it.”
I continue pacing the weight room. “This could hurt her. You know that, right? I told her that I would protect her, and this…this is putting a target on her back.”
“I know, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t hurt her, but you have to let me do my work,” Gretchen says.
I can hear her typing on the other end of the phone.
“We are working on a statement to dispel the rumor. Because right now, it just says a source close to you let the news out.”
“A source close to me?” I ask as I glance over at Hutton. He shakes his head vehemently. “Who the hell is close to me that would give out this information?”
“Who have you told?”
“Hutton, OC, Bennett…those are the only people other than Maple who I talk to. And they wouldn’t have said anything. If anyone, it would have been OC, but he was the one who broke this news to me, so it wouldn’t have been him.”
“Okay, well, I’m going to look into—” She pauses, and then I can hear her swear under her breath.
“What?” I ask.
“My friend over at one of the gossip sites just let me know that the news came from your dad’s team.”
“What?” I nearly yell, my entire body going stiff with anger. “It was my dad?”
“Looks like it. Someone on his team.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, this source is reliable.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Wait, Graydon,” Gretchen says in a panic. “Don’t. Don’t talk to him.”
“The fuck I’m not.”
“I’m serious. We need to handle this properly.”
“Yeah, and that’s with my fist buried in his face.”
“No!” she yells. “No, you can’t do that. Given the tumultuous relationship you already have with him, there is no doubt in my mind that if you harm him physically, he will take it to the press, and you don’t need that right now. Just let me do my work and clear the air. Okay?”
My jaw clenches tight as I fight the need to teach my dad a lesson.
“Graydon, tell me you’re not going to go see him.”
After a few seconds, I say, “I’m not.”
“Thank you. Now does Maple know?”
“Probably not. I can go tell her, though. She’s at work, but I can rush over there.”
“You know what? Wait. I’m headed over to the facility now. Welcott just messaged me asking what’s going on. I think we can nip this quickly if we have a chat with him. See you in twenty in his office.”
Then the phone goes dead.
“Fuck,” I say as I place my phone on a shelf and then push both hands through my hair.
“It was your dad?” Hutton asks.
“Yeah. Fucking imagine being that vindictive against your son.” I shake my head. “Fuck, I am itching to confront him.”
“I’m guessing Gretchen thought that was a bad idea.”
“You think?” I pace some more, my energy bouncing through me. “She’s headed over here, and we’re going to talk to Welcott.”
“Jesus, maybe you should check in on Maple and see how she’s doing.”
He’s right. I pick up my phone and dial her number. It rings a few times and then goes to voice mail.
So I dial again.
And again.
And again, until finally she picks up.
But instead of her voice, it’s a man’s.
And not just any voice, but Slutty Little Glasses’ voice.
“She is in a meeting right now.”
“Well, can you get her? It’s important.”
“Is it about the article? Because she knows, it’s why she’s in a meeting, because there is press here at the zoo hounding her.”
Fuck…
“First of all, this is none of your goddamn business, and second of all, bring her phone to her…now.”
“Can’t. She’s in a meeting, but I’ll be sure to let her know the guy who is trying to disrupt her peaceful life is attempting to contact her.”
“You motherfuck—”
But he hangs up.
And if you thought I was angry before, hell has now burned into my bones as a side of fury no one has ever seen takes over.
“Uh…Graydon, I think you might break your phone if you keep squeezing it that hard.”
“I’m going to rip him apart.”
Hutton clears his throat just as I chuck my phone against the wall, letting it shatter to the floor.
“And here I was worried about your hand breaking it.”
I growl, turning on my friend, who now holds his hands up in the air.
“Okay, listen, I know it feels like things are spiraling and that you are losing all control, but I think it’s important that we remember—”
“Fuck off,” I say as I turn away from him and head up to Welcott’s office.
“Yup, saw that coming.”
I pace the front office, waiting for Gretchen to show up, the image of Slutty Little Glasses answering my girl’s phone playing over and over in my head. Was he just waiting for me to call, planning this whole goddamn thing out, laughing ’cause he knew I fucked up?
Probably.
He was probably waiting for the moment to roll in where he could show Maple just how much of a douche he is.
“Stop pacing,” Gretchen’s voice sounds off as she walks up to me. “I need you calm and collected when we go into that office, or else what I have planned is not going to work.”
I pause in my pacing. “What do you have planned?”
“Well, for one, your father and coach are headed this way.”
My hands tighten into fists. “Great, can’t wait to greet him properly.”
Gretchen points her finger at me. “You will not touch him. You will not say a word to him. Do you hear me? I swear to God, Graydon, if you want this to work out in your favor and get your father out of this building and far away from you, then you need to listen to every word I say. Understood?”
The seriousness in her tone snaps me out of my murderous thoughts. “What are you going to do?”
“Just follow my lead.” She walks up to Welcott’s door and knocks on it.
“Come in,” he calls out.
Gretchen looks me in the eyes and takes a deep breath, gesturing at me to do so as well, so I do. And then we release our breaths together. Satisfied, she opens the door, and we both walk in, my dad and Coach Keenan already in Welcott’s office.
When my eyes fall on my father, the tension I just released immediately coils at the base of my spine and nearly propels me forward, my fist leading the way, but Gretchen’s warning rests firmly at the forefront of my brain, preventing me from making a mistake.
Instead, I take a seat on the couch in Welcott’s office, as far away from my father as possible.
“I can’t possibly see why we needed to call a meeting,” Coach Keenan says. “This PR nonsense is starting to get in the way of my coaching.”
“I’m glad you see it as nonsense,” Gretchen says as she takes a seat as well. “Good morning, Mr. Welcott. Thank you for meeting on such short notice.”
He nods. “Make it quick.”
“Of course.” Gretchen pulls a piece of paper out of the folder she carried into the office and places it on Welcott’s desk.
“As you know, the PR relationship has been exposed despite Graydon and Maple being in a real relationship now. The news is damaging but not unfixable. I dug into some of my contacts and came back with this. It’s a memo from one of my sources stating that they got the tip from Troy St. John. ”
My dad stands up, fury raging in his eyes.
“That’s preposterous. Why would I ever do that?”