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“Tommy, you knew the terms of your contract when the Cougars signed you.” Monica’s attention changed to look at the man sitting across from her. The confident aura that Tommy had radiated the day before, both at practice and at the club, was long gone. He was slumped in his chair, looking like someone who had been told off by his mother. “The owner was less than happy to see these photos this morning, because as you know, your reputation from previous years drove ticket sales down at San Diego. That’s the last thing we need here. But the PR team and I see it as an opportunity.”
My heart was pounding. Could Monica get to the point already? This long, drawn-out talk seemed like a torture tactic, and if they didn’t cut me free in the next five minutes, I was considering turning in my resignation to put myself out of my own misery.
“Part of the terms of your contract were that you had to help us clean up your image, and that included no girls.” Monica gave me a pointed look, and I was back to wishing I could melt through the floors. I was being lumped into the same category as the ditsy blondes that Tommy had been photographed with one too many times. “However, Maggie isn’t just any girl.”
I’m not?
“She’s not outside the boundaries of the club. She’s a controllable factor.” The words now coming out of Monica’s mouth sounded like a foreign language. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Maggie is the perfect answer to help us rehabilitate your image,” Monica continued. “Social media is loving that picture. So, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity for the club to capitalize on. We had our team do a quick audit on Maggie’s social media pages. Her online presence is innocent and much more appealing to the wider audience of our fanbase than any of your previous”—Monica paused—“relationships. She’s more relatable to the everyday fan than any of the actresses or models you’ve been attached to in the past. She’s the perfect person to showcase stability.”
“What are you saying?” I asked, seeing the same confusion I was feeling mirrored on Tommy’s face. Monica looked like she had won the lottery the way she was glancing between me and Tommy.
“Maggie, you and Tommy will pretend to be a couple.” And there was the point I had been so desperately wanting, and now that I had it, part of me wished they’d fired me. “We haven’t nailed down the details yet. All you two would need to do is show up at the events we tell you to be at and be seen around Chicago a few times. That’s it. Strictly business.”
“I’m a professional athlete.” Tommy’s voice was deadly quiet. There was a venom there that sent chills down my spine. “I don’t need to be in some fake relationship.”
“Unfortunately, Tommy, you do. If you get caught in another compromising photo, no matter how innocent, the club has grounds to terminate your contract. And from what I understand, the Cougars were your last option of staying in the pros.” Monica leveled Tommy with a stare that would have frozen over a river in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
Tommy’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t deny Monica’s point. Then everyone’s eyes in the conference room moved to me. My own darted around the room, trying not to land on anyone for too long. I was sure everyone in the room was in on some joke that I had been conveniently left out of. Like at any moment, Ashton Kutcher would jump out of his hiding spot and tell me I’d been punked.
“Maggie, we know that we can’t ask you to do something like this,” Monica continued. “So we compiled a package for you. We feel like this would be a great option compared to the alternative of what could happen.”
I didn’t need a magnifying glass to read between the lines of what Monica was saying. Either I agreed to this contract or I’d be fired from my dream job. One of Monica’s assistants slid a manila folder over to me. I stared down at it, feeling like this was all some cruel trick and when I opened that file, it would be contracts terminating my employment with the Cougars.
Monica motioned for me to open it. Inside was indeed a contract. But there was no letter of termination. Instead, it was my amended contract with a staggering bonus attached at the bottom. My eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head. It was more money than I had ever seen in my entire life. I glanced up from the contract to find Tommy staring at me. His nostrils flared as he stared down at the folder in front of me, and there was a grim twist to his mouth.
“What do you say?” I tore my eyes away from Tommy’s to look back at Monica, who was like a shark that smelled blood in the water. She had trapped both of her prey with exactly what they needed and she knew it. “The only condition before either of you accept is that the only people who know about this relationship are in this room.”
Silence stretched on. Tommy still hadn’t stopped staring at the folder. It was like he was waiting to see what I would say before he would share his thoughts. I glanced back down at the contract, trying to decide if this was prostitution and if I was going to be okay with that. My mind flashed to my run-down apartment and the dreams I had of investing in myself and my career to take my skills to another level, and the ways this money could help me further my media skills.
Did I really want to sign a contract to be Tommy Mikals’s girlfriend? Not particularly, but I wasn’t sure I’d have another opportunity like this. Part of me also thought about what would happen if I said no. Would I lose my job then? I spun the ring on my middle finger that I never removed as my mind rushed through the thousands of questions I had, calculating my options.
After a few more silent moments, I finally nodded my head. Monica studied me and then Tommy, and he gave one curt nod, his mouth pressed into a firm line. Monica clapped her hands together excitedly, like this was the best news she had heard all year. Tommy and I stayed quiet because we knew the truth.
Our fate was sealed.
I tried to escape the conference room as quickly as I could. There was absolutely no way that I could look Tommy in the eyes after that meeting. Monica had practically been my madam selling me out to him to help solve his problems. But apparently the universe had every intention of making my day as terrible as possible, because before I had the chance to escape into the elevators and away from the mess that had ensued in the C-suite, Tommy slipped in right after me.
The two of us stood next to each other, staring straight ahead. Neither of us spoke a word until the elevator doors opened onto the main concourse. We stepped out together like we were emerging back into the normal world, still not a single word spoken between us. The silence that was stretching out felt like a weighted blanket over my face, and I worried that if I didn’t push it off, I’d suffocate.
“Listen, Maggie . . .” Tommy turned to me, one hand pushing through his hair and the other waving around in the air. He looked like he wanted to unload all of his apologies on me, and honestly, I didn’t want to hear whatever he had to say. If he apologized to me for getting us in this mess, I would have to acknowledge the guilt I had for feeling like this could have been the best thing that had happened to me in the past four years. It was like my luck was finally turning around. So I cut him off with the first thought that came to mind to stop him from being able to speak those words.
“What do you want to do on our first date?”
The look in Tommy’s eyes said that he wanted to give me some sort of out, and quite frankly, I actually didn’t think I wanted it. My mind flashed back to the contract and the amount of money written on it. There was no way in hell I was walking away from this deal. Tommy blinked at me like I had grown three heads.
“You’re telling me you really want to do this?”
“Is Tommy Mikals dismissing the opportunity to have a girl on his arm any time he wants?” I didn’t want to let him see how terrified I was of doing this, and in that moment, the only way to distance myself from the very real situation happening was to try to diminish the seriousness. He studied me like he was trying to figure out the answer to some complicated equation before he gave up.
“How about after the game?” he asked.
As if this day hadn’t been eventful enough, I still had a game to shoot.
“You know where to find me,” I told him before heading toward the tunnel where I knew Olivia would be waiting for me. I pushed open the door to the break room to see her with her feet propped up on the table I had left my gear on. She turned when she heard the door open.
“Did you lose your job?” she asked. I had texted her the moment I started following May toward the C-suite that I was probably going to lose my job but had left it at that. I’m sure she was practically bursting for an update at this point.
