28. Josh
JOSH
“One more day,” Schultz muttered next to me as we stepped into the press hall for the final time. At least we were the winners and didn’t have to be reminded of our loss and make a comment a hundred times over.
I glanced at the East players and cringed; poor guys.
“Do you want to go with us to Arlington tomorrow?” Schultz asked, but I was too focused on trying to find Victoria in the masses. I couldn’t see her or Cambrie.
I took a few steps to see the other side of the room, but they were absent.
“What’s wrong?” Schultz nudged me.
“I can’t find Victoria."
He looked around and his smile dropped. “Huh.”
My gut told me something was wrong. I hadn’t heard from her this morning, but I hadn’t expected to.
I kept searching until I saw a face I recognized. Joe Banks. What was he doing here? Miles was with him, so I told Schultz I’d be right back and hurried over to him while there was a short break.
“Hey,” I said once I was close enough.
Miles looked up and smiled. “Oh, hey.”
“Are you. . .” I hesitated, remembering that the women were also being interviewed today, so it wasn’t all that weird that he was here. I figured he was standing in for Cambrie, but that didn’t make sense. “Do you know where Victoria and Cambrie are?”
His eyes flickered to Joe before answering. “I’m really not sure. We got a call early this morning that we needed to cover both the men and women today.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Yeah.”
I went back to Schultz and pulled out my phone.
“Did he know where they were?”
“No, he said they were told to cover both the men and women today.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
I called Victoria, but she didn’t answer. I sent her a text asking where she was before trying Cambrie next, but she didn't pick up either.
Where were they?
I had no choice but to go through the motions and face the dozens of cameras. I tried to focus and express my gratitude for the opportunity, my coaches, teammates, and the fans, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake the worry.
Hartman found me around one, with five hours still to go, and handed me an energy drink. “I just got a text from Madi. She said all the girls are together.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t sure why he was telling me. Madi, Kendall, and Amelia had made plans to take the train to Baltimore for the day.
“With Victoria and Cambrie,” he clarified.
I stopped with my drink halfway to my mouth and lowered it. "They’re together? In Baltimore? Why? Why aren’t they here?”
“She said they ended up not going. They’re all fine and will meet up with us after the team dinner.”
I rubbed my face with my free hand. “Okay.”
Why didn’t she text or call me back? Madi said they were fine, but that wasn’t reassuring.
“Next.” We were called forward for another interview, so I had to wait to find out.
It was another hour and a half before I had a long enough break to check my phone. There was a message.
Victoria: I’ll explain later. Don’t worry. X
Don’t worry? That was the single worst thing to tell someone when you couldn’t tell them the whole story. Of course, I was going to worry. This was a huge day for her, professionally, and she wasn’t here.
“Come on,” Hartman pulled me forward, and I had to put my phone back in my pocket.
With zero downtime between interviews and the team dinner, I didn’t have much of a chance to think about what might have happened. I focused on celebrating with my teammates, soaking in the last moments of our bond before the week was over and we went our separate ways to our home teams.
But my knees were bouncing with anticipation as we pulled up in front of our hotel.
“They’re up in our room,” Derek explained as he pressed the elevator button.
“They’ve been up to something all day,” Hartman warned. “Hopefully, it doesn’t require us to do anything too crazy this time.”
“Like waxing our eyebrows?” Schultz offered.
“Or wearing green morph suits and running around downtown?” I cringed at the memory.
“Or trimming cats’ claws at the shelter,” Derek shivered.
“Yeah, like those.” Hartman stepped out of the elevator first, and we headed down the hall. Derek tapped his key card, and we filed in to find all the women in fluffy hotel robes surrounded by dozens of room service trays and a romcom playing quietly on the TV.
This seemed like a good sign until I noticed how red and puffy Victoria’s eyes were. The moment they found mine, they glistened. I hurried over to her, wrapping her in a tight hug and kissing the top of her head.
“What is it?” I whispered as everyone seemed to focus on us.
She pulled away enough to look up at me. “I got fired.”
Of all the things I imagined, this hadn’t crossed my mind once.
I let out a breath and sat next to her on the end of the bed. “What happened?”
She leaned into me, resting her temple on my shoulder.
“I was getting ready this morning and got a call from my boss, Chris. He and his higher-ups were told about my content and how popular it got over the last few days. He demanded that I delete everything and have no further contact with any of the athletes as a representative of Sports Now. So my press credentials are no longer valid.”
“They would have let you in,” I argued. “They all know you.”
“Well, I sort of had a breakdown because he told me I had to delete all my content because everything we filmed technically belonged to the company since we were using their equipment."
Oh no. All the work she put in––
“But I’m a genius.” Cambrie jumped in. “I thought ahead. From the very first prank, I used my personal cameras for everything we did.” She winked. “I only used the network's equipment for the standard interview questions.”
“I did wonder why your camera bag was so large compared to the others,” Schultz mentioned.
“I’ve run into this before with different assignments. I learned from my mentors to always record with my own equipment if there was ever content I wanted to use personally, just in case.”
“Beautiful genius,” Victoria smiled at her.
“Okay, so it’s not a problem?” I asked.
“I can keep up my accounts, but I still don’t have a job.”
“So it wasn’t about the videos?”
“It was,” she sighed against me. “The higher-ups were pissed I wasn’t using that content for the company’s posts. When I pointed out that Chris had rejected them, they ignored that. Apparently, he hadn’t told them about that part, but it’s too late.”
“We can talk to them. Go directly to the top and let them know that you proposed the ideas to Chris, and he denied them,” I suggested, looking at the Pride for support. This was exactly the kind of thing they got behind.
“I could try that,” Victoria agreed. “But I’m not going to.”
“Why not?” I searched her face, trying to understand. “Your contract renewal and the new assignment. That’s everything you’ve been working toward.”
“It was,” she gave me a small smile. “But things have changed.”
“They have?” How could her dreams just switch over a few days?
She looked over to Madi and nodded. “I never thought a week could completely change a person, but it has. I’ve realized, thanks to you,” she held my gaze for a moment before looking around the room, “and your friends, and Cambrie, what a full life looks like. What being happy looks like. What I can have if I allow myself to want it.”
My heart was pounding in my chest. There were a million directions this could go in, and I felt like I was holding on as we took corners going a hundred miles an hour.
I didn’t know if the next thing would be her declaration that she was moving to Africa with Cambrie to do a documentary on safari animals, or that she wanted to go back to school to completely change her career.
“I’ve had a taste of what I want, but have been hiding behind my fears and excuses to keep from having to take a risk.”
“And what do you want?” I was terrified of the answer.
“This,” she gestured around the room.
“A hotel room?” Did she mean a vacation? I mean, that did sound nice now that the tournament was done. We could go somewhere. Relax and unwind.
“Good grief,” Kendall muttered.
I looked at her, but Victoria quickly continued. “I want a community. I want friends I see more than once every few months. I don’t want to keep doing life on my own.”
I sucked in a breath, still too scared to let myself believe what I was hearing. Did she mean she wanted this community? Me and the guys and the Pride? Or just something similar?
“We’ve spent all day talking and planning,” she directed her attention to Madi, who smiled.
“We might have been able to convince her that Salt Lake is a great location for a home base.”
Kendall joined in. “Yup, we have a big airport and four professional sports teams.”
“One of which is women’s,” Amelia winked.
“The cost of living is way lower than New Jersey,” Madi continued. “And she can do her job from anywhere.”
“What job?” I asked, still trying to catch up.
“Well, we looked at my accounts, the number of followers and views and comments,” Victoria began, but Madi interrupted.
“Her private messages and emails. The demand for someone, a person who is friends with the athletes and comfortable asking them questions the fans want to know, is incredible. She has enough requests to build out content for a year.”
“And that pays?” I asked.
Kendall shook her head. “You silly man.”
“When you have enough followers, you get put into the creator fund that pays out based on views and interactions,” Victoria explained. “I’ve had enough followers for years, but these past few days it’s been crazy.”
“Meaning?”
“She can make a living doing this,” Madi simplified for me. “She doesn’t need to work for a network or a big company. She can interview whomever she wants, whenever she wants, about whatever she wants.”
“As long as I have the connection," Victoria reminded her. “I don’t know a lot of NFL players, so that might get tricky.”
“But you also don’t care about football. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to anymore,” Kendall reminded her.
“True,” Victoria conceded with a grin. “And the format we were discussing doesn’t require me to be there.”
I held up a hand. “What format?”
“A podcast,” she replied. “I know everyone and their dog has one, but I have a unique perspective and direction I want to take it.”
“Former athletes interviewing athletes is the most successful setup, but add in her experience reporting, and the relationships she has,” Madi beamed, “it has the makings of a one-of-a-kind show.”
“Especially as someone who isn’t necessarily famous,” Kendall added. “Victoria has her name and credibility, but it’s not a celebrity chit-chatting with another celebrity.”
“Exactly,” Cambrie agreed.
“Are you going to be a part of this?” I asked her.
“At least at the beginning,” she smiled at Victoria.
“Did you get fired too?” I couldn’t believe I hadn’t asked before.
“No, but I can take a step back from accepting assignments and do this and some freelance work for a while.”
“Wow,” Hartman shook his head. “You figured all of this out in one day?”
“All the individual pieces were there,” Madi explained. “Scattered around, just waiting to be picked up and organized to build this new life.”
Victoria reached for my hand. “This is a lot to throw at you, especially considering we were expecting not to see each other much after this weekend, but how would you feel about me moving closer?”
I blinked, not quite believing where this conversation had gone. "Victoria, I’m...stunned. I’ve wanted you to be happy, so I was supporting you going for the all-women’s assignment, but I’d love nothing more than for you to move to Salt Lake.”
“You’re sure it’s not too much too soon?”
“You’re not moving in with him,” Madi pointed out. “You’ll each have space and privacy to adjust.”
“Date without a timer hanging over your head,” Kendall agreed.
Victoria was watching me, and I leaned in and kissed her briefly. “I can’t believe it. I didn’t want to even think about it because I could never ask you to give up your life.”
“You didn’t ask. This is what I want. Getting fired was the permission I needed to make it happen.”
“This is amazing.”
“Better than winning the Cup?”
“A thousand times,” I promised.