Chapter 38
Francesca
For the next few days after the announcement, I was fielding lots of phone calls. I was thrown headfirst into chaos and all I wanted to do was hide. Hide my broken heart. I know my emotions are written all over my face. There is no hiding this level of heartbreak.
The worst calls come after a press release from Goldman PR.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT HAS LEFT MANY QUESTIONS AS TO THE STATUS OF GAGE AND GIRLFRIEND, FRANCESCA CASANOVA.
IF YOU RECALL, CASANOVA WAS FIRED FROM GOLDMAN PR AND SIGNED AS GAGES PR.
WAS GAGE USING CASANOVA TO GET INTO GOLDMAN PR?
WHO WILL BE GAGES NEW REP? WE HEAR AVA BELINSKY HAS MOVED UP THE RANKS TO BECOME A WELL SOUGHT-AFTER REP.
SEEMS EVERYONE IS REACHING FOR THE STARS.
Every rag magazine you can imagine has called and tried to infiltrate our small town. All of them want the latest scoop and to see if they can catch Gage and myself together, see if we’re still together. And since I’ve been hiding, no one’s gotten a look at me. Including Gage.
Not that he’s tried.
I’m hoping this will die down and the focus will be on the upcoming semifinal games this weekend.
Day four brings more of the same pain. No shower, blankets tangled around me on the couch.
I won’t go to my bedroom, there are too many memories of us in there.
I’m exhausted from the lack of sleep since my mind won’t let me get any rest. It’s constant thinking about what I could have done differently.
What we could have done differently and what I’m supposed to do now.
Add in ignoring my friends and family, and I’ve officially hit rock bottom.
But like any good best friends, they won’t leave me alone for long. Britt walks into my house like she owns it.
“Enough! I will not watch you do this to yourself again.”
“Nooo,” I whine. “Just leave me alone. Just a few more days, I promise, then I’ll get up.”
“No way. You stink, Chess. Seriously! When did you shower last?”
“How long ago was the parade?”
“Oh, fuck that. Nope. Up. Now.” She attempts to drag my lifeless body off the couch, and I hit the ground hard. “Ow!” Rubbing my hip. “Just let me die in peace.”
“Girl. I didn’t want to do this, but I’m going to.” She takes out her phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“Backup,” she replies and walks into my kitchen. I groan and roll into a ball on the floor. I don’t even care who she’s calling. I’m so drained emotionally after all the press releases, phone calls, TMZ videos. I don’t have it in me to fight anymore.
A little while later I hear Billy and Farrah talking with Britt in the kitchen. I must have fallen asleep because I never even heard them enter the house.
“Ah, sleeping beauty, or should I say Shrek. Jesus, Chessy, all this over fucking Gage?” Billy says.
I flip him the bird.
“How charming. Come on, let’s go.” He pulls me up off the floor and marches me towards the bathroom pushing me inside.
“I’m giving you ten minutes,” he pauses.
“I’m giving you twenty minutes because you really fucking stink, to shower and come back to life.
If after twenty minutes, you do not emerge from this bathroom in at least a bra and underwear, I will come in with my phone and start taking pictures to post on social media.
Then you’ll have a new PR mess to figure out. ”
I turn to look at him. “Got it?” he says. Again, I answer with a flip of the bird and slam the door in his face.
Huffing out an angry breath, I turn on the shower, strip off my clothes and step under the water.
I take a minute to just stand and let it pour over me.
Then I take another minute to let myself feel.
To hurt. To cry. My tears mix with the water, and I let it all go down the drain.
“Gage, don’t leave me,” I whisper to myself.
“I don’t want you to go.” The words I long to speak to him, but I’m not selfish enough to do so.
I let him go once. I have to do it again.
A few minutes later there is banging on the door. “You got four minutes Chessy! Don’t test me on this!”
Grumbling to myself about what an overbearing, asshole brother I have, I turn off the water, wrap in a towel and wipe the steam from the mirror.
I don’t recognize the woman staring back at me.
The content, well-loved woman I thought I knew is long gone and in her place is a grieving crushed soul.
Is that dramatic? Yes. But that’s how I feel.
I’m grieving the loss of the life I’ve always wanted, a life I didn’t even know I had already stepped into, until it was taken from me.
I step away from the mirror and open the door to head to my bedroom. I’m greeted by Billy. “Oh Chessy, you’re lucky.” He waves his phone around.” I was just coming in.”
“Fuck off Billy, I’m getting dressed now.”
He gasps, hand to the chest, dramatic. “Nasty! Chessy, you weren’t like this when you broke up with Nick. How did Gage get under your skin so fast?”
“Because I didn’t give a shit about Nick! It’s been Jackson since I was twelve years old!” I burst out and then fall onto my bed, big old fat tears rolling down my cheeks. I hear Farrah and Britt come running in.
“What is going on? Billy, I thought you said she was getting dressed.”
“Oh, Chess.” Both girls come running to my side on the bed and Billy drops down in front of me. “I’m so sorry.”
“Has he even called me? A text?” I look at Britt. She shakes her head no.
“I mean, I guess he wouldn’t. I guess it’s done.
I saw him after the parade, in the locker room.
He was distraught! But I convinced him this is what he wanted, what we were trying to do together for him.
He already signed. He was talking to the team and then, he’ll go.
I just thought... I just… thought it was real.
He said he wasn’t faking, even before we started faking, he said it was real. ” Tears cloud my eyes again.
“Neither of you were faking. This was real, Francesca,” Britt says. “This is real.”
“Then where is he? Why am I left alone to weather this storm? I don’t know how to do it alone. I only know him.”
Billy says, “I think Gage is going through some shit of his own right now. We were all there when he saw Tony and Nick. It was a shit show. If we weren’t there, he would have been arrested.”
“Wait. You were there, too? He told me Tony and Nick were at the Almost Christmas event. Why?”
“I’m assuming to ruin your life?” Billy snaps.
Farrah smacks the back of his head. “From what Tommy and Adam said, they were hanging in the back, waiting for the announcement by the MC. They leaked it to him and asked him to make the big announcement, that everyone would be happy to hear it. Not sure what their end game is except to make you miserable.”
It’s all starting to make sense. “No, Jackson told me Nick said he wouldn’t press charges if he was signed with Goldman, it’s about money.
Tony has been stealing from Jacksons contracts for years.
I found it when he asked me to look everything over.
Eastern never contacted me directly, they went through Tony.
I don’t know how, since everyone knew I was his PR.
I have feelers out and was getting good feedback, I was close to getting a preliminary contract with Texas Town College. ”
‘You’re kidding! That’s great!” Farrah says, “Then Jackson can stay right here, and you guys can be together.”
“It would have been great, but I don’t know what he signed with Tony. Jackson said it was a contract and an NDA giving him full access to put the announcement out. But they lied about that so I can only imagine what he actually signed.”
I sigh, defeated, again. We were so close.
“Even if there’s a way for him to back out of the contract, I don’t think he will,” Billy says. “I heard his team did him dirty. Turned their backs on him at practice, which is a pretty savage thing to do,” he laughs, and I scowl at him. “I wouldn’t want to stick around after that.”
Farrah gives Billy another smack upside the head. “Don’t listen to him, girl. We all saw what was going on.”
Yeah we all saw it. But me? I was a fool once again, thinking he’d stay. Jackson has always wanted out. Why did I believe it would change this time?
THERE HAS BEEN LIMITED RESPONSE FROM GAGES CAMP AND NO ONE CAN GET A RETURN COMMENT FROM CASANOVA. ARE THEY CALLING IT QUITS? OR CAN A LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP WORK?