Chapter 5
OFF HIS CHEST
What hell did he just offer to Farrah? He could barely sort out his own life and yet he just suggested to watch a kid?
He turned his head when the door opened, thankful it was his doctor and not Farrah again, fearing he’d throw some other crazy suggestion out for a chance to see her again.
“Hi, Jayce. I’m Dr. Reyes. What brings you into the office today?”
He was never so thankful he got in with a doctor in his parents’ practice rather than Farrah when he called last week for an appointment.
He’d said it wasn’t an emergency but something he’d like to get checked out and was back in the area. If he had to go to urgent care, he would have, but would rather not. He could even drive back to Charlotte to his primary there, but that would be a pain in the butt.
“I’ve been having pain in my stomach and chest. I thought it was stress related. I’ve recently left my job and hoped it’d get better.”
“What are your symptoms?” Dr. Reyes asked.
“After I eat I get this burning pain right here.” He put his hand on his upper abdomen. “When my stomach is empty it happens too. It feels as if it’s a no-win situation.”
“How are you treating it?” Dr. Reyes asked.
“Lots of antacids. They work for the short term. I’ve tried changing foods I eat, not much is making a difference.”
“Lie back on the table,” Dr. Reyes said. His stomach was pressed on, Jayce jumping at a tender spot, but only once. The rest of the exam was finished and he sat up. “It says here you had frequent headaches, what are you taking for them?”
“Ibuprofen. Lots of it. Though since I’ve been home, that’s stopped mostly.”
“That’s good about the headaches, but it’s possible you’ve got an ulcer from overuse of NSAIDs. I’m going to schedule you for an upper GI and we’ll have a better idea from there. Until then I’m going to put you on a PPI, which will help reduce stomach acid. No headaches at all now?”
“Not really, or not enough for me to feel I have to take anything,” he said.
At least that much helped since he’d been home. There wasn’t the stress of his job and everything else with the team weighing on him. But if a hole had been eaten in his gut, he didn’t think it’d heal on its own as much as he wanted it to.
“Take nothing other than acetaminophen for a headache if you have to. Once we get the results from your test, we’ll have a better idea. I’ll have them call and see if they can get it scheduled tomorrow or Thursday at the latest.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“You can get dressed if you want,” Dr. Reyes said, typing notes into his computer while he did that. Jayce sat back down before the doctor was done typing. “Come on down with me and we’ll have them call and set this up now.”
Damn, that was more efficient than he thought it’d be. He figured he’d be at home waiting for it.
“Can I get your name?” the woman asked when he approached her.
“Jayce McCarthy.”
There was clicking on the keyboard. “You need an upper GI scheduled. Any particular day work for you?”
“I’m flexible with times and days.”
The woman picked up the phone, made the call and he was walking out the door ten minutes later scheduled for tomorrow at ten.
The last person he expected to see when he walked into the house was his mother.
“Hi, Jayce.”
“What are you doing home? Don’t you work anymore?”
“I work all the time,” his mother said. “But I wanted to talk to you.”
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“It’s fine with me, but I’m wondering when you were going to talk and let us know what is going on. I know my children. I know when one is having a problem. Even when they don’t feel well.”
Pushing food around or wincing after he ate might not have helped much. Or the fact that his parents had been eyeing him eating Tums as if they were M&M’s.
“I’m fine. I really am. Nothing to worry about.”
“There is always something to worry about when my child has a problem. You quit your job without another in place. You came home and I know you’re sick. Or not feeling well. What is going on?”
It was probably time to get it off his chest.
“I quit my job,” he said. “I told you that.”
“But it was sudden,” his mother said. “To the point that you had nothing else lined up. Did you get fired and don’t want to tell us? Or were you let go?”
“No,” he said. “Nothing like that. They didn’t want me to leave. Didn’t even want to take my resignation and gave me a few more days to think it over. But I had to do this.”
“Are you going to get mad if I ask for more of an explanation? You know you’re welcome here as long as you want, but your father and I are worried. He wanted to give you more time. I wanted to ask you last week.”
He laughed. “Guess you compromised.”
Something he remembered a lot in this household.
“We did. Have a seat. Do you want something to eat?”
“No,” he said. “Not yet.”
His mother looked him over. He’d seen the concerned face before. “You’re having stomach issues, aren’t you? Do you think you’ve got an ulcer? Your father’s side of the family is prone to them. Dad had one years ago.”
His shoulders dropped. He wished he’d known that.
“Really?”
“Yes. Especially when your father is stressed. It’s not been as bad as it used to be, but he has his moments and he takes medication now to help reduce the acid.”
“Seems like I’m taking after Dad.”
“Sit and tell me about it.”
“Work has been nuts. It always is. I didn’t mind it though. The traveling was great, the fast pace was right up my alley.”
“And you liked to brag about your job,” his mother said, smirking. “Who you knew and got to hang out with.”
He sighed. That was all ego and he played it up a lot. Made himself sound like he had it all and he did.
No one would think he was a failure, but he internally struggled to admit that maybe it wasn’t what he’d thought it’d be.
Or that he wasn’t strong enough to ride out what most would have.
Did he make a rash decision? Or had he truly had enough and it was a sign?
He’d like to believe it was the second, but he wasn’t sure what to believe about his life.
“I did. It’s not a secret. I made a lot of friends.
But budget cuts didn’t extend to the players, rather the office.
More was falling on my plate than before, so it was hard to get work done from the road.
I was still there doing promotions and setting up media, then I was doing paperwork that others used to do for me.
Next thing I know, the past six months, since I’m there, I’m a babysitter for some rookies to keep them out of trouble. ”
“That’s a joke. Entry level staff should do that, not you.”
“Exactly. But I took it on the chin because I’m a team player. Most of the rookies were good this year, or listened enough. Older players could step in and deal with it, but one was a bit of a handful.”
“Who, so I can hate him?”
He laughed. Since he could trust his mother, he told her. “Levi. He’s young. Twenty-one and just wants to party. Thinks I’m his personal assistant to get him what he wants. I squashed that misconception quickly enough.”
The first time Levi told him to order him food he laughed in his face and told him to do it himself.
Getting him a dancer for a party, not happening, and he even had to have the coach step in to end that stunt on the road.
“Good for you.”
“Things quieted down for a bit, but then Levi’s girlfriend was always around and causing issues. She was under the assumption I cared about her relationship with her boyfriend.”
“Did you piss her off?” his mother asked.
“No. I was nice to her and shouldn’t have been. I tried to stay out of it. I should have been a dick, but she took my friendliness of not telling her to get out of my face as a way to get back at her boyfriend.”
“Jayce, please don’t tell me you had a relationship with this woman.”
“God no,” he said, his face shrinking back in repulsion. “I’d never do that. Never be with someone who was with someone else and I sure the hell wouldn’t risk my career over it.”
He couldn’t believe his mother had asked him that.
“I’m sorry if you’re insulted, but I just wanted you to verify it.”
“Well, she told everyone we had a thing. One night, she came to my room looking for Levi. She showed up at an away game and knocked at my door. I told her I didn’t know where he was and I was busy, then shut the door.”
“So she lied?”
“She did. No one believed her but Levi.”
“Sounds like that is exactly what she wanted to happen.”
“Yep. He approached me in the hall, shoved me against the wall.”
“I would have reported him,” his mother said. “I know you, you’d never assault another employee, least of all a player.”
“I wouldn’t and I didn’t. I walked away from him and told him he was believing the wrong person. But what could I do to prove it?”
He’d actually been able to prove it to Henry, who didn’t believe the lie anyway. He showed Henry proof of his working in the hotel room from prior to when McKayla showed until she found Levi. Thank God for all those emails he was answering.
Henry showed that to Levi, but it didn’t make the rookie back down though. He knew there was pride there, but it wasn’t on him.
“So you just quit? You let him have the final word? That’s not like you.”
Which was why he didn’t want to say this part because his parents knew that in the past, he wouldn’t let that shit get to him, but he had.
“It was the final straw, Mom. You all saw how I was this past year. I barely talked to anyone and when I did I snapped. I shouldn’t have treated Chance the way I did, but I couldn’t take on one more crisis to fix.
Maybe it was enough for me to open my eyes to the person I became who was so different from who I used to be. ”
“No one said you had to fix your sister’s life. She can do it herself and has. That’s on you for thinking less of her. Be happy I won’t share that fact.”
He knew a verbal beatdown when he was getting it. “Thanks.”
“The stress of it was eating into your stomach?”
“I think it was the bottles of Motrin I went through a week with headaches and tension in my neck,” he said.
“Jayce!”
“I know. I didn’t have the best diet on top of it on the road. Not always, but I tried. I’d get on these kicks with the players and feel good, but it never helped the headaches.”
“I’m glad you left that job. I truly am. And I know you don’t want to hear this, but your father and brother, even Jocelyn would love to have you at the company. Me too.”
He knew this was going to come up. “I don’t need a pity job.”
His mother laughed. “Really, Jayce. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. No one pities you and they never have. If you decide to work for us, you’re going to work. Just ask Jocelyn. We don’t go light on anyone.”
“Mom, I’ve got a marketing and communication degree, not engineering like Gabe or Dad. Not construction either.”
“And we are lacking in the marketing for McCarthys. We’ve always been. I’m doing it and hate it.”
“Why haven’t you hired someone then?”
His mother smiled. “Because it’s been waiting for you. No pressure, but it’s there if you want it. There are a lot of things your father, brother, Jocelyn and I do that could come off our plates. With the arrival of Hunter, Gabe is taking some time. Dad and I would like some too.”
He held his hands up. “I got it. And Jocelyn is with Mav now outside of work.”
His sister’s boyfriend was a fireman and worked nights and weekends, with Jocelyn stepping up to help with the childcare.
“Think about it. That’s all we are asking.”
“It’s more than that,” he said. “But I will. Until then, I’ve got an upper GI scheduled in the morning. Maybe I’ll get some answers there too.”
“Let’s make a deal,” his mother said. “We’ll give you three weeks to think about it.
Even if you say yes, no work until then.
You haven’t had a vacation in years, and the first two weeks here, you’ve been stressing over not wanting us to know what is going on.
It’s off your chest. You’re getting the rest looked at.
Take the next three weeks for yourself with no worries about anything in life. ”
“Like a reset?”
His mother walked over and gave him a hug. “Exactly a reset. If anyone needs it, it’s you.”