Lovestruck

2. Theo

CHAPTER 2

Theo

“You want to do what now?” my best friend, quarterback Spencer Green, said to me. He stood in front of his locker in nothing but a towel, having just finished his workout and shower.

I had just come back from leaving Allie’s dressing room, and I couldn’t quite channel my emotions about the whole thing into a box. Never in my life did I think I’d ever see that woman face to face, much less have an entire conversation with her.

“Stay and watch Allie Witt in concert tonight from my box.” I had the idea and now I couldn’t talk myself out of it. I had to see her perform.

He furrowed his brow. “I mean, I get that she’s hot, but why? Her music isn’t really our vibe, T.”

I definitely wasn’t telling him the real reason, that I had caught her in the hallway today and then listened to her cry over some douchebag guy that didn’t deserve her. Or that I’d been crushing on her forever. Or even that I thought her music was amazing and she knew how to write lyrics.

“It’ll be fun! She’s talented. It’s her opening night and it’s in our stadium! You got something better to do?”

Spencer pulled a shirt over his head and crossed his arms in front of his chest. My friend since college days, Spencer knew me as well as anyone did. Being an only child, he was the brother I never got.

“Why do I feel like there’s more to this story?”

I shrugged. “Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t.”

Spencer studied me. There was no getting away with shit with him. “Are you crushing on her?”

Flashes of her body shuddering with tears as I rubbed her back made me look away from him. The pain on her face, the anguish in her voice, the way she thought it was her who was the problem made my gut clench.

“Definitely not.”

Spencer punched me in the arm. “Shut up. You’re lying. You are crushing on Allie Witt, the pop superstar, one of the most recognizable people on the planet? Isn’t she in a serious relationship?”

I almost laughed because he claimed not to be a fan of hers but sure knew info about her.

I wouldn’t give him the details I knew—I promised her that. Plus, it wasn’t his business. When I didn’t answer, Spencer held up his hands.

“Okay, shit. Let’s do this. Let’s go eat first because I’m fucking starving. Then you can tell me how I missed that you have a crush on the biggest pop star in the world.”

The lights pulsed around her and she danced like she was born to do it. I couldn’t stop the grin on my face as her fans echoed back a part of the song they obviously knew was their part.

I put my phone back in my pocket after recording another snippet of her performance. Allie was amazing. The crowd—all eighty-five thousand of them—screamed every lyric with her and danced along like they were in their own living room. Her guitar hung from her neck, and she strummed it while belting the lyrics out and dancing. Her band and backup dancers moved around her like a well-orchestrated machine. Happiness radiated from her, and I smiled. She did it. She put that idiot in the box where he belonged and gave the audience a show of a lifetime.

We’d been watching her about an hour now, and she’d already changed outfits three times. She went from a glittery pop princess to a sexy vixen to now a beautiful queen. I knew some of her most popular songs, but not all of them. Despite that, it was still an experience to watch her. No one but me and her publicist Zoey would even know that her heart was broken under all that beautiful exterior. Thinking of it made my chest twinge. I hated that she felt the way she did about herself, but I also didn’t blame her. The insecurities this guy just gave her were unacceptable.

Spencer walked in and handed me a second beer. “You still drooling over her?”

Over dinner, I told Spencer I ran into Allie after practice. I did not give him any information about our encounter, just that I saw her face to face and we had a brief conversation. He still reminded me that she was a taken woman, and I still denied anything more than just wanting to see her perform. I also attempted to dissuade him from the years-long crush I had on her, which I never told him about because it was just an innocent schoolboy crush. I never thought I’d meet her in a million years. But when I came out of the locker room on my way out and saw her stand up and run off the stage, obviously upset, there wasn’t a single part of myself that could stop me from helping her.

As evidenced by his comment, he still didn’t believe me one little bit. The truth of the matter was, Allie became popular when I was in college, and I thought she was hot as hell, like most guys did. I wasn’t the type who had posters of women on my dorm wall, but if I had, she would’ve been front and center. Now that I was in my early thirties, I noticed when I saw a story about her and I followed how successful she’d been over the last several years, but it wasn’t like our social circles intermingled. Unfortunately for her, most of her news stories revolved around which guy she was dating, breaking up with, or whom her next album was about.

A quick Google search earlier told me that she had more awards than any other artist in history, yet that wasn’t the top news story. It angered me for her, thinking about her saying that the media was going to go wild with this story once they found out about her breakup. Josiah. What a putz. I looked up information about him, too. It wasn’t hard to find since he was connected to her. Josiah Abbott. Apparently he was an entertainment lawyer and that was how they met. You’d think someone in that line of work would be even more understanding, but instead, he crushed her.

The media wouldn’t highlight any of the amazing things she did for those in need, the way she loved her fans, the gatherings she did for the Allie-Cats (her fans’ name for themselves), or the families she sponsored every holiday season. No. It was all about her being unmarried and a man-eater at the age of twenty-nine. Shit, it was a damn good thing no one had cataloged the number of girls I’d been with since high school. The double standard was unreal. It was expected from us, the professional athletes, but she was judged for it.

“Spence,” I said in warning. I turned my attention back to the show as the colors changed and Allie reappeared on the stage to earsplitting screams.

“She’s good,” he said, stepping up to the window with his phone. “Lacey loves her and hates me a little bit right now for being here without her.” Lacey was Spencer’s fiancée and a sportscast journalist who was out of town, or she’d be here with all her Allie garb on. When Spencer had called her at dinner to tell her we were going to see her, the squeal from the phone caused everyone in the restaurant to turn and look at us. “She wants me to FaceTime her during a song where she wears a black-sequined bodysuit. Apparently that’s her favorite.”

“She is good,” I agreed, my brain whirling. How could I talk to her again? I needed to make sure she was okay and that she didn’t believe that idiot who said she wasn’t enough. This girl was the entire package—drop-dead gorgeous, talented, full of charisma, and with a genuine love for her career. I should’ve put my number in her phone, given it to Zoey, something.

I’d lost my chance. I’d never get to her now.

Spencer waved his hand in front of my face. “Earth to Theo. Are you going to be for real and tell me what’s going on with you?”

A thought came to me. “Do you think George is still around?”

“George? Security George?”

George was our buddy and often came over to shoot the shit and have a drink or two.

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure. Maybe he’s working the event. You have his number. Why don’t you text him? What is going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Do you think our George would have access to Allie’s security?”

“Theo Nolan. Tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“I just—” How did I explain this without sounding like I’d lost my mind? “I need to get something to Allie.”

“You. Need to get something. To Allie Witt.” Spencer laughed. “You and everyone else here, man.”

“But everyone else here is not Theo Nolan.”

Spencer laughed again. “That is true. You are one of the most recognizable faces in the entire league. Something about you being hot and the number-one eligible bachelor in the league or something.” He crinkled his nose, and we both laughed. “Did she know who you were when you ‘ran into her’ earlier?”

“No. She doesn’t follow football.”

Spencer laughed at my expense once again. “This shit is gold. A female that doesn’t know who Theo Nolan is, and Theo Nolan himself is losing his shit over her.”

“I am not losing my shit.” I tapped a text to George to see if he was here and stared at the screen, waiting to see the bubbles appear.

“Am I watching you become an Allie-Cat? Should I record this for history?”

Spencer directed his phone at me, and I flipped him off without looking at him. I heard the camera click as he took a photo of me giving him the vulgar gesture.

“And tell me, Spence, how do you know what an Allie-Cat is?” I looked up from waiting for George’s response to see the incredulous look on Spencer’s face.

“Lacey.”

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“But you also knew what they were,” Spencer argued.

I shook my head, not dignifying that with a response.

Pyrotechnics went off, and our good old-fashioned ribbing stopped. Allie appeared from under the stage in the famed black-sequined bodysuit, and Spencer’s attention was immediately on his phone as he attempted to quickly call Lacey.

George responded moments later, and I smiled at the screen. A plan formulated in my head—I just had to make it happen. I texted him back and waited for the response.

When the song ended, Spencer turned back to me. “Uh-oh. I know that look.”

“What look?”

“What are you planning? It’s your scheming look.”

“George is here. I’ll be right back.” I didn’t give Spencer a chance to comment before I hightailed it out of the suite.

I stopped as the music pulsed and I heard Allie sing some ridiculously high and powerful notes, the crowd screaming at the top of their lungs. This was why this girl was so popular. Her voice was killer. I made my way back to the locker room and pulled out a pad of paper and a Sharpie. The door opened and George stepped into the room.

“You got it?”

George, a mid-sixties man who had worked for the Blaze his entire career and was one of the best guys I’d ever known, grinned at me. “Sure did.” He held out the oversized women’s jersey he got from the team store with my name and number on the back.

“Perfect.” I took it from him, and he watched in silence as I wrote the note. I carefully opened the plastic the jersey was wrapped in and pulled it out. I signed the number with my scrawled signature and nickname on the back and then slid the note inside the fold. I put it in the plastic and handed it to George. “You can take care of this?”

“Have I ever let you down before?” George looked at the note just peeking out. All you could see was Mallorie .

“Never. Just don’t let this be the time.” I slapped him on the back, and we walked out of the locker room together.

“I made friends with her head bodyguard this afternoon. Juan’s a good guy. We bonded over his love of the Blaze. Should be no problem to get it to him. I have heard she doesn’t do any meets after the show, though, so don’t ask me to get that for you.”

I stopped. “Wait. Why didn’t you say that? Let’s go get him a signed jersey, too. I want him to have a reason to give this to her.”

George smiled. “I like seeing this side of you, Theo.”

“What side is that?” We walked side by side back to the locked team store. The music was so loud it was hard to hear, so he didn’t answer until we were inside the store and the music was muffled.

“You’re the best guy I’ve ever known, and I’ve known a lot of guys. You have such love for everyone around you, and you use your influence for good. Plus, you’re hilarious and a kick-ass dancer. It’s just nice to see the side that still acts like a boy with a crush. I know Beth did a number on you, so I’m glad to see you putting yourself out there again.”

I groaned at the mention of Beth’s name. She was a cheerleader for our team, and we’d been together for three years when I found out she was cheating on me. We hadn’t been together in over a year now, but it had wrecked me at the time. I’d thought she was the one for me. We met when I was in my first year at Blaze, and we were casual for about a year before we got serious. I thought she was going to be my wife and even had a ring bought. But fate saved me from making a terrible decision. I guessed that was one of the reasons I understood Allie’s situation—she was blindsided in the worst of ways. I found out Beth was cheating on me right before one of our biggest games of the season, seeing if we would qualify for the playoffs. Much like Allie, I used that anger and heartbreak to go play the best game of my career. It was obvious that Allie was great at using her feelings to lay it all out on the stage because this woman was incredible.

“You could say I understand some things about Allie,” I said.

George indicated the note. “Mallorie?”

“Her real name,” I explained. He nodded and took both jerseys as we headed out of the room. He didn’t ask how I knew that or why I cared so much about getting this jersey to her. What he couldn’t see, and I hoped no one else looked at other than her, was what I wrote on the note. Nothing that could be misunderstood, but enough for her to get my meaning.

“Let me know,” I said as we parted ways. He waved and I headed back to my box to watch the rest of the show.

“Hey, T,” Spence said. I turned and he was stopped in front of Allie’s life-size cutout, a shit-eating grin on his face.

She wore her colorful sequined outfit from her opening set, her long hair curled around her face, beaming with a brilliant smile. I looked into those big blue eyes and immediately remembered the tears filling them. I forced myself to focus back on the stunning picture in front of me.

Across the top, ALLIE WITT—LOVESTRUCK TOUR announced who she was like she wasn’t one of the most recognizable people in the world. The identical posters were everywhere around the stadium and around our entire city as they dedicated this as her “hometown opener” and named the city hers for the weekend. I’d never seen anything like it. “Want a pic with it? You can point at the lovestruck word in it since you’ve got it bad.”

I laughed, despite him trying to continuously give me shit. This is what we did. When he met Lacey, I was just as bad. However, I just met the girl and she had her heart broken. I had a little crush flaring up at the worst possible time, which was just typical of my luck. No one was marrying us off. I just wanted to make sure she was okay. That really was it. Mostly. Well, I could try to convince myself of that.

People moved all around us as they filed out of the concert. Some fans sang together, some of them wiped tears from their eyes, and many smiled like it was the best night of their life. This was the Allie effect. It was so neat to see in person, and I wondered whether she ever got to see this part anymore. I snapped a couple pictures of them as they moved around us, thinking maybe someday I’d get to show her. All of a sudden, cheers erupted from whoever was left inside the stadium. People around us stopped, and I watched them. What was happening?

I heard people talking about Allie coming out from behind the stage to leave, and I found myself wishing I was still in the stadium so I could spot her again. Maybe she would’ve seen me.

“Go ahead,” I said, posing in front of her cutout. I wrapped my arm around the life-size Allie and pretended to kiss her cheek. Spencer took several pictures, ribbing me the entire time. I had no shame. “You get in here with me, you idiot. Make Lacey happy and send it to her.” We took a selfie, both of us making a foolish face.

“What’s this?” Spencer asked, picking up a heart from behind the cutout.

“No idea,” I said, taking it from his hand. It was a hot-pink felt heart with the Lovestruck logo on it. “Maybe someone dropped it.”

“You should keep it,” Spencer said. “To remind yourself of the night you told your best friend you had a massive crush on the biggest pop star in the world.”

“Shut up,” I said, but I slid the heart in my pocket anyway. It was cute and would remind me of meeting her today.

After a few moments, people around us started to notice us, and while the majority kept walking, a few lingered as they put together who we were. I heard our names as I saw a few snapping pictures, so I turned to Spence.

“Let’s go.” I was probably too late to keep those off social media. But hey, I was just a fan taking a picture like every other person here. It wasn’t like they got the real pictures of me sitting next to Allie as she sobbed. Those images were just burned into my brain.