Fair Catch (Love and Sports Series) (8 page)

They grabbed their name cards and took their seats at one of the table
s that was in the front of the room, right next to the podium. Jake must be extremely VIP to have one of the nicest seats in the place. They sat down at their table that was also occupied by people she had never even seen before. All the women were practically perfect in their appearance and the men reveled in the arm candy they brought with them.

Was this what the real world was like? At least in the
“celebrity” world was this what it was like? Practically perfect women sitting next to their distinguished men, it was all too weird for Lexi to process. The whole picture just seemed so fake to her. This was so not the world she wanted to be a part of. Yes, they were rich and they were an exclusive gaggle of people but that didn’t matter to her, they seemed boring as hell, stingy little bastards.

The night was incredibly awkward for her. The tension between her and Jake was
unmistakable. All she wanted to do was go home, even though he was putting in an effort to be interested in her when they had a chance to talk, it wasn’t enough for her. Almost every five minutes someone came up to their table and shook hands with Jake. It was nauseating listening to all the people sucking up to him. He threw a damn sphere around a grassy field and everyone treated him as if he just took a fresh pile of shit and turned it into a new cure for cancer.

She studied her nails while Jake talked to some software
billionaire that just donated enough money to the school to have his own wing in the lecture hall. He donated an obscene amount of money to have his name plastered on the side of the building, how ridiculous was that?

Lexi’s thoughts were interrupted when the
billionaire spoke. “Jake you must meet my gorgeous daughter.” Lexi’s eye shot up from examining her nails and made eye contact with a leggy blonde. The blonde gave Lexi a menacing grin and then extended her hand out to Jake who took it in his. “This is Jessica, Jessica this is Jake.”

Lexi watched the whole interaction play out in front of her as if she was watching some sort of television show.

“Jessica, it’s very nice to meet you. You must get your good looks from your mother because you didn’t get anything from this old man.” Jake said while patting the billionaire on the arm and they all laughed together, except Lexi who was still staring in amazement at what was unfolding in front of her.

“That you are right, her mother was an angel.”

“Was?” Jake asked.

“Yes, we l
ost my dear Clarice when Jessica was a wee little one, I raised her myself.” Lexi watched Jessica look Jake up and down and lick her lips. Good Lord she was playing up the “I lost my mother when I was young” role. Jessica stuck out her bottom lip and pouted. Good grief.

“Jake would you mind taking my daughter for a spin out on the dance floor?”

Jake didn’t even hesitate, or look at Lexi. “I would be honored, sir.”

Sir?
Who was he kidding? Could Jake’s head go any further up the billionaire’s ass? Lexi watched Jake place his hand at Jessica’s lower back and escort her to the dance floor where they wrapped their limbs around each other and slow danced to some song Lexi thought she remembered from one of those popular vampire movies, not that she watched them or anything.

Absolutely in shock,
Lexi just stared at them and thought about how ridiculous this night turned out to be. What an ass! Jake was a giant, self-absorbed, unfortunately good looking, devil of an ass. She pulled her lip gloss out of her clutch, not knowing what else to do, and reapplied a sticky layer to her lips.

A lady from acros
s the table tisked at Lexi. “Looks like you just lost your man.”

Lexi looked at the lady’s
judgmental eyes and was about to respond with a snarky comment about her husband’s poor choice of a toupee when Darren came up behind her and whispered in her ear.

“Care for a dance?”

“I thought you would never ask.”

L
exi put her hand in Darren’s as they swayed onto the dance floor. Darren was good looking but nothing ever really transpired between them, just like Parker, Darren and she were friends.

“So what is with you and Jake?”

Lexi knew that question was coming especially since Jake was currently dancing with someone other than the girl he brought to the stupid dinner. Not that she should really care. Jake wasn’t hers to claim but there were moral standards people should live up to, she thought. If a man brings a date to a dinner, that means he dances with his date and pays attention to his date, not go off with another woman without even consulting with his date first. It was like once Jessica, the leggy blonde, came along, Lexi vanished from Jake’s thoughts.

Lexi answered Darren’s question.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing.”

“Didn’t seem like nothing in the parking lot.” Darren spun her so she got a glimpse of Jake and his dancing partner
, who was practically drooling all over him and rubbing her body up and down his.

“It’s nothing, trust me. I’
m just another mountain for Jake to conquer. The only reason I’m here is because I lost a bet, frankly I would rather be home in sweats eating some frozen yogurt.”

“Well,
let’s go then. My treat.”

Lexi looked at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yea, why not? Jake clearly is occupied and I said my hellos with people I needed to say hello to. I’m ready to go, are you?”

Lexi eyed the happy “couple” again, she watched them laugh in unison and decided right then that, yes,
she did want to leave.

“Let me just grab my bag and we can be out of here.”

“Perfect.”

Lexi
spent the rest of the evening in her fancy dress at the frozen yogurt store, playing Hangman with Darren on napkins and laughing harder than she had laughed in a while. Darren helped her forget the crappy night she started out with. Relief washed over her from knowing that the crazy, uncomfortable dance she had been doing with Jake the past couple of days was finally over. He found someone new to try to land in his bed and she was free to go back to her stress free life.

                                          ***

Jake sat on a bench that was in front of Lexi’s villa. It had been an hour since he left the stupid dinner and he figured since she left two hours ago, without a good bye, she would be home by now. Margo wasn’t home either. She was probably out with a guy, like she always was.

He
couldn’t believe the nerve of Lexi to just leave him stranded at the dinner to fend for himself, especially after everyone noticed his date disappeared, it was embarrassing. He figured her disappearance had to do with the Jessica interruption. That was a whole other frustrating situation. The billionaire, as he was known around campus, got in contact with Jake weeks ago and mentioned how he would be bringing his daughter to the dinner and hoped they would be able to meet. Jake completely forgot about the planned meeting until Jessica came up to him. He didn’t want to piss the billionaire off since he was a very influential person, so he went with the flow. Lexi had to understand that, right?

Jake ran a hand over his face and thought about the look of displeasure on Lexi’s face when he turned around at one point
as he was dancing with Jessica. She was not happy at all.

Shit
, he blew it big time. He ended up dancing with Jessica for three songs until he was able to peel himself away, claiming he had to talk to other people in the room before the night was over. She didn’t keep her intentions of their meeting a secret though when she slipped her number into his pocket.

Finally
a car pulled up to the front of the building which Jake recognized as Darren’s. What the hell? Lexi slipped out with a huge smile on her face and walked arm and arm with Darren to her door. It wasn’t until Jake made himself seen when her smile faded into a frown.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She asked, hatred falling from her mouth. Jake watched Darren look at both of the
m like he previously did when they were in the parking lot earlier. Luckily for Darren, he backed off but not before he placed a kiss on Lexi’s cheek.

“T
hanks for a great time Lex, I’ll see you later.”

“Thank you Darren.” Darren walked away and Lexi blew past Jake and headed straight to her door without saying another word to him.

He stopped her before she was able to unlock the door. “Were you with him this entire time?”

Lexi faced him and looked him dead in the eyes. “You have some fucking nerve coming here, you know that?”

Wow, she was pissed. He knew she might not be happy but she had fire spitting from her eyes and looked like she could do some real damage if given the opportunity.

“Listen, I know the night was less
than ideal…”

“Less than ideal?
The best part of my night was when I left that dinner. Just leave me alone Jake.”

“You don’t have to be jealous. I had to dance with Jessica, I didn’t have a choice.”

“I’m not jealous, I’m humiliated. The minute that leggy blonde came in and said hello to you, you practically spent the rest of the night drooling all over her. I could care less if you dance with someone else but when you completely ignore me, it’s insulting especially since you dragged me to this stupid thing in the first place. Was that your intention the whole time? To make a fool of me? Well congratulations Jake, you did it. You got what you wanted so just leave me the fuck alone.”

She unlocked her door with precision, slipped inside and shut the door on his face before he was even able to reply to her rant.

By no means did he bring her to the dinner to humiliate her, in fact he actually wanted to get to know her better. He wanted to spend time with her. Never in his life did he actually want to get to know a woman.

Shaking his head in disgust, he knew
he blew it big time. He banged on her door and called for her to open up. He continued to get louder and louder with his pounding and shouting, knowing that she would open the door just to shut him up.

Almost exactly on c
ue, she flew the door open. “Will you please stop that, you’re going to cause a scene.”

“Let me explain.”

“What is there to explain, Jake? What you did tonight mortified me, there is no explaining it.”

He saw the pain in her eyes and his stomach dropped
to his shoes. His intention for tonight was to woo her, to make her see him for who he wanted to be. Instead, he gave her the impression that he was still the old Jake, the ladies’ man Jake. Someone who he despised.

“Lexi, I’m sorry. Please just let me in and we can talk about this.”

“No Jake, this is over and if you don’t leave I’m going to call the cops and we all know what that would do to your precious little reputation.”

He was about to open his mouth to protest when she slammed the door on his face.

Damn.

Chapter 5

              Jake met up with Mason the next morning at an hour Jake didn’t even know existed but if he wanted to change, he needed to start changing his habits now, which meant no partying at all hours of the night and sleeping till noon. He enjoyed the morning workouts he and Mason did since the weight room didn’t have anyone in it to bother him and the field house was completely empty. It was actually relaxing and peaceful. He wished he woke up early all four years instead of just his last year of college. He wondered if just maybe he had worked even a tad bit harder throughout his college years maybe he would have been even better than he was now. That thought was something he couldn’t focus on. He was never a “what if” kind of guy and he didn’t want to start now.

             
Jake and Mason went through a series of sprints in the field house, ladder workouts and footwork exercises. Jake threw a couple of passes to Mason but saved his arm for practice. He could already feel his footwork starting to improve which would help him when he is struggling to find an open receiver in the pocket during the games.

             
Jake threw a long ball to Mason who dove and caught it in the end zone. Mason stood up and performed his signature wobbly leg touchdown dance. That was one thing Jake was going to miss, his best friend and go to receiver. He knew the reality of Mason and Jake ending up on the same NFL team was slim to none and their days of hanging out together every day were numbered. He tried not to concentrate too much on saying goodbye to Mason since it was depressing as hell.

             
Jake and Mason went through practically everything together, from being scared freshmen their first hell week, to meeting girls, throwing parties and going through hardships that only a true brother would understand. Jake was getting nostalgic and he needed to snap out of it because it was only going to bring him anxiety and depression which was something he didn’t need going into his senior year.