The story then cuts away to me sitting on a couch in the PR office. "Rowen!" my mother screeches. "I can't believe you wore that horrible cap on TV!"My dad snickers. "You know I hate my hair, Mam.""Your hair is your trademark!""No, it's Da's trademark. That's why I wear my beanie."She rolls her eyes and stops talking so she can keep listening.The reporter talks about our family and shows some old clips of my dad playing. There's even a couple of pictures of us in one of the European stadiums when I was a kid."Aw," my mom whispers. "I remember that day." She looks almost misty-eyed seeing my dad in his glory days, me a little bitty squirt.And then the story shifts to present day and some of the interview I did yesterday."Mid-fielder," the reporter says to me."Yeah," I answer with a nod."I think a lot of people would assume you would be a striker like your dad.""Yeah, I get that a lot.""So why such a different position?""I think at first I was trying to distance myself from
I love it when Steve is on vacation. Because I, the lowly associate producer, get to be the producer for the night.There's nothing like the feeling of writing the entire sports segment, making sure all the graphics are correct, ensuring all the editing is done, and sitting in the production booth producing my five minute block of a news cast. I smile as I think about the five o'clock show and how smooth it ran. Mannie, our main sports anchor, delivered everything smoothly. The videos rolled on queue. The way I had stacked the stories flowed seamlessly. I'm really proud of myself. And I hope Rowen was watching. He knows how excited I've been about Steve taking a few days off. I hope he's proud of me, too."News Four Sports, this is Tiffany," I say into the phone absentmindedly as I pick up the phone that just rang. I'm scrolling through the sports wires seeing if there are any updated scores on some of the college games we've been following."Fucking groupie whore," the voice on the
Rowen. The thought of his humiliation brings tears to my eyes. He's been so good to me since our fight, despite his reservations about my reputation. But this, this is going to be too much. I remember he sent me a text. CALL ME!That's all it says. I don't know if that means "Call me because I'm worried," or "Call me so I can break up with you". I'm not sure I want to know.I look up as Amy, the news director, Ron, the general manager and Paul, the executive producer all walk into my office. Some lady from HR follows behind them and closes the door behind her. I wedge my hands between my thighs, trying to get as small as possible without crawling under my desk.Caleb is sent back downstairs with explicit instructions to not transfer any calls up here. The phone is turned off and they grab random seats around the room. Amy looks at me with sympathy. "You know we have to run the story, right Tiffany?"I look down and nod. I'm not surprised. The picture and caption have been viewed milli
I head down the stairs into the newsroom. There aren't many people around. Most of the photogs and reporters are still out in the field. But there are a few. I refuse to look any of them in the eye as I walk by. But I also keep my chin up. If I have to go through this humiliation, I will do it with as much dignity as I can muster. Even when all conversation stops as I walk by. Even as I hear some snickers. Even as I am dying of humiliation inside.Making my way into the studio to drop off Mannie's last minute scripts, I overhear the conversation between two of the camera operators."Did you see that picture, though? No way the team isn't hitting that.""Well, I would. I knew she was pretty, but I had no idea her body was so bangin'.""I know what my screensaver is going to be now." They start laughing and I want to die."You're all a bunch of douchebags," the lone woman female camera operator in the group says. "That's your co-worker. Your friend. And this is how you treat her when som
I finally feel like I can breath now that she's in my arms. It's been one hell of a day.So far, I've been called into a meeting with my coach, HR and the PR department. I've talked to mother twice. I've disabled all of my social media accounts. I've avoided almost all calls to my cell. And I've ignored lots of derogatory remarks about my girlfriend from random people on the street who seem to think this whole thing is funny.But worse than any of it has been my worry over her. I can't even imagine the betrayal she feels right now. Listening to her sobs confirms to me that my girl who is usually so confident and self assured has been broken. It breaks my heart."It's okay," I murmur into her hair as I rub her back and kiss the top of her head. "We're gonna get through this.""I can't believe you're not breaking up with me." She sounds muffled with her face in my chest, but I hear her words loud and clear."Why would I break up with you over this?" I genuinely don't know how she came to
She groans. "Oh god. I can't take Geni right now. Please tell me she's not going to be there.""I doubt it. I was with Daniel with the news broke. He had to talk me down from beating anyone in the gym that saw it. So I'm pretty sure he knows how volatile the situation is right now. With me, anyway.""Where are we going to stay, though? I thought she only had a two bedroom. We can't stay in the baby's room.""They're going to Daniel's.""With the baby?""Yeah, he said he has some sort of portable playpen thing Chance can sleep in.""Okay," she finally says. "We really need to swing by my place first though. I don't have anything with me.""Already been there, babe," I say as we change lanes. "I packed a few things for you. That's how I know you don't need to go home."I can feel her looking at me like she knows I'm hiding something. "Did people knock on my door, too?"I sniff and try to take a moment to think. I don't want to tell her the truth but don't see any way around it. "Just one
I know I should turn my phone on in case Rowen calls, but I can't. I just can't. The one time I looked at it last night, I had eight-seven missed phone calls, a hundred and four text messages and I don't even know how many voice messages. After the eighth or ninth text saying something derogatory about my breasts, Rowen took the phone away and wouldn't give it back.The only reason he left it with me this morning is in case of an emergency while he's at practice.An emergency. That's a laugh. What kind of an emergency could happen when I've been curled up in this bed all day? I only got up once to use the restroom and I felt too vulnerable without the comfort of the covers on me, so I came right back to bed.I want desperately to fall asleep so I can have a few hours of reprieve from this nightmare. But sleep doesn't help. Instead, I just fall into a never ending cycle of dreams. And in these dreams I see myself naked and touching myself. I'm really into it, into making Rowen hot for m
"Thanks for waiting for me.""No problem," Daniel says as he checks his blind spot and changes lanes. "I wasn't sure how many cameras would try to follow you out of practice so I figured this would be better.""I don't think they're going to be following us anymore. They've all already got what they wanted -- a sensational picture and some emotional video of us walking out to my car. I just wish they'd stop calling for interviews.""You gonna do one?""Hell, no. We're gonna lay low, let it die down and wait for everyone to forget.""I'm surprised you aren't taking any legal action. If it was Quincy, damn man." He shakes his head. "I would be all over getting an attorney involved."I sigh. "We talked about it last night. There's not a lot we can do.""Really? It seems like this should be illegal somehow, ya know?""We looked into some weird law, some voyeurism act that's supposed to protect people.""And?""And, we could spend thousands of dollars in attorney fees just so we could go to