“…Brett Barker wants to see me?”
“You’re goddamn right he does.”
The phenomenally bad timing clicked in my head, and I groaned as my forehead braced against the window again. My view incorporated the enclosed glass stadium, the various gardens, and a river that ran across the estate… but my eyes focused on the stadium, cruelly mocking me.
“…Lex, are you there?”
“I’m here,” I sighed.
“You sound a lot less enthusiastic about this than you should be. I know that you’re beating yourself up over Riley, but c’mon. You’ve been waiting for this for ages.”
“Why does he want to see me now?”
Jess’s tone grew agitated. “Because it’s the only time I could work you in, unless you planned on waiting a week. By then, the decision would be made.”
“I don’t get it. I thought he was adamantly against offering me the sponsorship?”
“Well… it just so turns out that your little bar brawl was recorded. Joys of living in a time where everybody’s got a cellphone camera. And guess who showed up on camera taunting you?”
“Alistair!”
“It’s all over the tabloids. Alistair tries to get his own teammate arrested in the US. They have the whole thing on video. The guy attacking you, the way you tried to defend yourself, and Alistair acting like a damn fool. Barker won’t touch the guy with a ten-foot pole,” Jess said, laughing.
“That can’t be enough to entertain the thought of offering me the sponsorship.”
Jess grew hesitant. “…I might have gone a little further. There’s some rumors that you defended a young, vulnerable woman from a sexual attack…”
“I told you not to use Riley!” I shouted angrily.
“And I didn’t. The Patrovo Corporation asked me about it. Turns out somebody got their hands on a police report. That’ll be front page news tomorrow. What was I going to do, lie?”
“I told you under absolutely no circumstances were you to exploit Riley’s trauma to benefit me,” I said, my anger still bubbling to the surface.
“And I made that very clear as well, which seemed to impress Brett Barker. Look, you can hate me all you want, but I’ve bought you your shot. He’s willing to overlook the scandals and the attitude if you can convince him that you’re turning over a new leaf… and your single rival has been taken out of the picture. He’s left with you, or picking someone with half your personality and pop culture draw. All you have to do is come with me and meet him yourself.”
“I can’t go,” I told her definitively. “Because–”
“The hell you can’t,” Jess snapped. “I don’t give a bloody sod how mad you might be over this. I get it. You don’t want to exploit the girl’s trauma. Fine. But you’ve been working towards this for months. Everything you’ve done has been to secure this multi-million contract. I am handing it to you on a silver fucking platter. All you have to do is not fuck this up, yeah?”
“Jess.”
“Do not. I’ll be there in under an hour. We can be meeting Brett in two more. Just put on your best fucking suit and–”
“JESS!”
She instantly shut up, pausing to absorb the anger in my voice. While I composed myself briefly, a moment of tension crackled between us. “What?” She finally asked.
“I was on the phone with Riley when you were trying to call me earlier.”
“Yeah, and…?”
Her tone changed. “…Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh. Jess, we reconciled. She knows about the donation. Gloria Van Lark decided to take her in, but only if she moved to California and completely committed herself to the craft.”
“Oh! That’s the tits!”
“No, Jess,” I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. “She doesn’t want to do it. She wants to come back here – to England.”
“This girl has it bad for you Lex,” Jess laughed.
“Maybe. Point is, I just got done telling her I’m jumping on a plane. I want to be there before she has to make a decision with Gloria tomorrow…”
“Oh, fuck me sideways,” Jess groaned.
“Exactly.”
“Lex… there’s no way I can reschedule this thing with Brett and Patrovo Corp. It’s now or never. Can’t Riley wait, just a couple of hours? You’re already down a million this week on your little donation, and this is turning down an awful lot more… This is your dream!”
“I don’t care about the fucking money or the goddamn contract anymore, Jess.”