Preseason Love (28 page)

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I was a spaced-out wreck after my meeting with HR. I tried to maintain a composed exterior, but it was challenging. Around midday my desk line rang and I answered, although it was an unidentified number. “Scottie speaking.”

“Scottie, stop acting childish!”

It was Byron. I slammed down the phone. I had already been called into a meeting with HR and legal first thing in the morning on account of my stupidity for messing with his trifling ass. They wouldn't tell me who tipped them off, but I suspected Britney the bitch.

“Hey, girl,” Lydia said, interrupting my thoughts as she sauntered up to my desk with a chipper smile. “How was your weekend?”

“It was cool…low-key,” I lied, fighting every temptation to disclose the sheer trickery that I had been a party to.

My phone rang again. I looked at the caller ID. “I have to take this.”

“All right, I'll holler. Let's catch up and do happy hour after work if you're free.”

“Sounds good,” I responded to Lydia's back as she walked away.

“Hello?”

“Scottie, can you meet me in twelve B?” Joel asked.

“Sure.”

“Five minutes ago, Dean called an impromptu meeting. Something about a star player and his concerns about his image.”

“I'm on my way.”

The last time Dean called an impromptu meeting, we were thrown into a last-minute situation which resulted in my meeting Byron. I wasn't sure that I was ready for another impromptu Dean meeting.

As I approached the conference room, I noticed that the door was closed. I had no clue what I was walking into, but I figured that they had started without me. I gave a slight double tap on the door before twisting the handle.

“Scottie, come on in,” Dean said, with so much enthusiasm in
her voice that it instantly made me uncomfortable. “I was just introducing Byron Stalling to the group.”

Maybe I should slap myself. This has to be a bad dream. She couldn't be introducing me to the slimy, sex orgy-having motherfucker that I just left in a Chicago restaurant with his little freak nasty chick one day ago! No, this cannot be happening!

Shit just got real.

I nervously turned to my left, in the direction that Dean motioned toward. I tried to internally prepare myself for what I was about to see. Get my emotions in check to face a recent former lover who was now toying with my career. A lump the size of a boulder constricted the vocal cords in my throat and my voice was barely recognizable as I tried to drag out the words, “Hello, Byron.”

At that moment, I realized that I had been playing a game that I was not prepared to win. If I could have turned and made a lightning speed exit to the nearest door, I would have done so. I felt like the room was closing in on me and my hand trembled with fear and anger when I was forced to extend it and shake the hand of the man that I now upgraded to the level of dangerous and insane.

“Hello Scottie, pleasure to see you again,” Byron said, his raspy voice reminding me of Darth Vader. “We have met before, correct?”

“Uh-um, yes…I think so.”

“Scottie?” Dean called my name.

“Yes.” I snapped back into reality. This was happening and now I had to deal with it.

“Are you all right?” Dean questioned with judgmental eyes.

“I'm…I'm…fine. Thank you.”

“Great. I wanted the team to meet Byron as he has come to us
with some great projects that he will be working on in the future, and you all may be called in to assist at some point.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Thanks for dropping in,” Dean said.

“It was my pleasure,” I replied with a smile. I managed to make my face tell the same lie as my words.

The conference room door closed and my feet carried me as fast as they could to the women's restroom down the hall.

Was this a set-up?

I pressed my back up against the cold gray steel of the bathroom stall grasping for air. Tears of stress and fear filled my eyes. That was one of the toughest acting roles in the made-for-TV drama that was my life. I had to sit there in Byron's face—in front of my department head—and act like I vaguely remembered him knowing that we had been sleeping together. I wanted to slap the taste out of his crazy-ass mouth for coming to my office and putting me in such a compromising position.

Sitting at my desk, I couldn't stop staring at the digital numbers counting down the seconds to 6 o'clock. It was like a buzzer. As soon as the clock struck six, I dashed out the door on a mission. Predictable Byron was probably staying at his usual hotel under the same alias, so that was my destination.

The front desk clerk called up to his room and before I knew it, I was on the elevator. I rehearsed what I would say all day leading up to this point, but now my thoughts were blank. I didn't have a script so I would let my anger be my guide.

The door opened as I raised my hand to knock. Before he could part his smug lips to let a peep come out, I went in.

“What kind of deranged idiot are you?”

He opened his mouth as if to respond.

“No, you let me finish. You think the world revolves around
your arrogant ass, but not this chick's world. And furthermore, I thought I made it pretty clear that I'm done with you. D-O-N-E. You keep calling my job, then you show up in a meeting with my boss like a crazy-ass stalker. What the fuck is up with that?”

I held my hand up to interrupt his attempt to speak again and he looked shocked.

“Contrary to popular belief, you can't buy everything that you want. The only way that I better ever see your face again is if it's on TV. And if I do, I'm turning that shit off.”

I spun on my heels to walk away, but I could feel Byron's eyes piercing my back. Before I could put enough distance between us, his beastly hand yanked my left shoulder causing me to stumble backward and almost hit the ground.

“You crazy motherfucker!” I hollered out as I tried to get up, hoping that someone would hear my yelling before this scene got any worse.

“No, you're crazy for trying to play me and leave me!” Byron yelled.

I could feel the spit from his rage raining down on my face. I had to think quickly.

I remained crouched low as a protection stance. When I felt him hovering over my back, I gripped my purse handle until my nails dug deeply into the leather and I swung my arm in the air with all of my might aiming straight for his head. When I heard the thump, I knew that it was time to run. I couldn't wait around for a reaction. I was happy that the bottle of vino that I'd picked up around the corner from the office had come in handy. I took off running as fast as I could.

I heard a plea in the distance. “Scot…Scottie, wait…I have your things…your suitcase!”

He was pitiful in his one last, high-pitched cry for attention.
“Do you want it?” was the last thing I heard him call out as I fled.

I rounded the corner toward the elevator like a track star and let my silence do the talking. I pounded on the buttons as hard and as fast as I could. It didn't matter which elevator came first, up or down. I was shaking and my adrenaline was rushing. I needed to get off his floor.

I
was wallowing in the sorrow of my horrible choices in men and my phone started vibrating like crazy. It was Kari. “Hey, Kari! I'm glad you called. Before you say anything…I want to admit that I've been acting silly and careless lately, but I miss you. I miss having you as my constant, my person, and my friend.”

“Damn. I wasn't expecting that.” He sounded miserable.

“Why do you sound like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like someone died.” Realizing what I'd just said, I hoped that wasn't the reason for his call. I resolved to shut up and listen.

“I have something to tell you and I don't even know where to start or how to say it.”

“Say it, babe. You're scaring me.” Now I knew that whatever he was calling to say could not be good.

“You should come over,” I continued. “Maybe it's best to talk face-to-face about whatever it is that's got you so upset.”

“All right, but is Dev there?”

“No, I haven't seen much of her lately. It's fine. Just come.”

“Okay, I'll be there shortly.”

I paced around for an hour with my stomach in knots. I heard the buzzer and I knew that the showdown was about to begin. I opened the door for Kari, but my emotions had a vise grip on my tongue.

He started spilling his guts immediately. “I had sex with someone.”

I suppressed every urge to interject and ask if he had come over to tell me that he was moving on to the next chick.

He took a big breath and kept going. “It was after I figured out that you lied to me when you went out of town. I went out, got drunk and I slept with someone. I was so wasted that I didn't even remember what happened. But now she's telling me that she is pregnant.”

Kari took a step back and let the words linger in the air for fear of my reaction.

I was too stunned to speak.

“Scottie, listen to this tape of my conversation with her. It will likely answer all of your questions.” He hit “play” on his cell phone and I listened intently:

“Pregnant?” Kari said.

“Yes.”

The dead air on either side of the line was eerie, and so was the woman's voice.

“What…do you…how can that be?”

“Kari, don't do this.”

“We barely had sex from what I can remember, and quite frankly I was so wasted that for all I know, we didn't even have sex at all.”

“You can't be serious! I was wasted too. Hell, you kept pushing drink after drink on me. You were the one that said you needed to talk and I was trying to keep you company while you drowned in your sorrows like a bitch over Scottie!”

“What-the-fuck-ever!”
Listening to their exchange, I could hear that Kari was starting to get upset.
“We can't do this. This is just wrong.”

“Well, that sure didn't stop you from sleeping with me unprotected, now did it?”

“Look, Dev. Let's calm down and talk about this in a civilized manner.”

Kari made his best effort to change his tone. Dev willingly provided every single detail that she remembered from that night and as I continued to listen to her voice on the recording, my body felt weak.

I thought I was going to be sick.

I couldn't believe that my whole world was slowly unraveling day-by-day. First, The League lawyers and HR interrogated me, then Byron ambushed me at my office, and now this. As I stared deep into Kari's eyes, the hurt that I felt formed a lump in my throat so big that it was impossible to swallow. I turned my back on him and walked into the living room.

“Please, say something to me,” he pleaded. “This calm demeanor is freaking me out.”

My skin felt hot and I saw red. I picked up the glass vase holding the fresh-picked, yellow tulips that I loved so much, and I hurled it at his head. I didn't throw it fast enough because he managed to duck. I charged him and started screaming profanities and throwing blows to his body. He held his hands up in defense before finally managing a grip to restrain my arms after what seemed like twenty minutes of tussling. He pinned me down on the couch with what felt like his entire body weight on top of me.

“Calm down, Scottie! Calm down and I'll let you go!” Kari yelled.

I continued to try to resist until I couldn't anymore. My body was weak and worn. My arms hurt and my throat was strained. I fell silent. I was in a daze. I felt like I was in the
Twilight Zone.

Kari called out to me, “Scottie? Scottie?”

He finally let me go and I stood and walked to the window. I glared out into the streets.

I managed to project strength in my voice while suppressing
tears. “Kari, what do you want me to do? Or say?” My outer appearance was now cool, but inside I was destroyed.

“Something, baby. Anything.”

“What? To make you feel better?”

Kari shook his head in despair. “No, not at all.”

I sat in silence, thinking. So many questions were running through my head. I started firing at him.

“Were you guys cheating the whole time we were together?”

“No,” he responded, with shame in his voice. “It was the one time and it was after you and I took our break.”

“Who came on to who?”

“We got drunk together after we left Slate. I needed someone to talk to. I was pissed at you. And I guess it just happened. Honest to God, I don't remember everything.”

“You were mad at me so you fucked one of my best friends.” I could feel my outer cool slowly slipping away. “That's pretty fucking low,” I continued. “This is classic!” I was infuriated, once again unable to contain my anger. “ ‘Communicate with me and give me the same respect that I try to give you.' That's what you said to me, right?!” I screamed through pained vocal cords. “Isn't that what you asked of me?”

I didn't give him a chance to respond. “Getting the next bitch pregnant, that's a whole lot of respect right there.” I had to fight every urge not to crack off the edge of a wine bottle and slice his ass up. “You know what? Fuck you and the whore that crawled up on your sick dick. Good luck with your bastard child!”

Kari's brown skin was pale. His eyes were low and filled with looming tears. He looked like a broken man.

In a low, somber tone, he spoke. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. By the time I figured out what Dev and I had done, it was too late. Everything was already out of control.”

Glaring at Kari from across the room with my arms folded and my body stiff, I felt emotionless. I stared off out the window contemplating my next move.