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The long answer is a bit more complicated.
And I’m going to tell it, now.
I turn towards the podium and Colt gives me some space.
“AJ,” I say into the microphone. “You want to sit down for a second? Julianna gave you guys chairs for a reason?”
There’s a wave of nervous laughter that goes through the entire room. Christ, AJ has them riled up and ready to fucking tar and feather someone. And I think I know who.
“Let me start by saying something real slow, and I’ll repeat it if you need me to, because you know, it might take multiple times,” I say and the room quiets down.
“I Ethan Blake, love Julianna Heaton.”
And the crowd goes wild. They begin taking pictures and all of a sudden they have a more delicious twist to the story than they could have imagined. This is turning into one crazy sex scandal, isn’t it?
God, I feel so good. I haven’t felt this good in years. There’s something about letting go and being a bit more like Colt that does wonders for the disposition.
“But I’m not done, yet,” I say
into the microphone and people quiet down, wondering what’s going to come next. They’ve stopped normal television programming by now and cut into it with the news conference. We must be great ratings.
“I also love Colt Stackford,” I say and leave it at that because this time the room goes absolutely batshit crazy. Reporters are scrambling. Some of the older ones might end up having heart attacks.
Only AJ is sitting there with a darkening scowl on his face. Christ, I’m going to have to face him sooner or later.
It’s not like I missed what was happening. I tuned in at the very beginning of the press conference. I watched Julianna stay strong and defend the honor of the team.
I mean, it’s not something that's hard to understand – she got to the point where she couldn't just take the media trashing our names anymore. And she realized that the longer our names were out there, getting dragged through the mud, the closer and closer we came to both having to depart her lives forever.
She didn't want that. And neither do I.
My dad was a fucking idiot. I still love him, but he never understood me. And I’ve been letting his prejudice affect since childhood. It’s colored everything in my approach to life. It’s colored how I’ve treated women. And it’s colored how I’ve treated Colt.
My concern over what other people thought of me have gotten me to the point where I didn’t realize how great a thing I had, until it was almost ready to go away.
My bias is what led me to sit back and listen to Larry Summers hatch AJ’s plan, not realizing that I was hurting those that I loved by my absence.
But I know that. It’s time the world knows that. And its time I defeat the forces that stand against us.
It’s just like football, in a way.
AJ stands up, “Ethan, thank you for that. I’m sure it’s heartfelt and all, but I still maintain that you were coerced…”
I cut him off before he can say anything more. This man is a cancer poisoning American football. And I’m going to cut him out of it.
“AJ,” I say and pause and people move their heads back and forth to see what the latest matchup will bring. “AJ you’re basing your statements here today on the words of Larry Summers, who worked for me for a grand total of one day,” I say out loud and there are murmurs. “And he was working for me at your behest,” I finish.
Now there are more murmurs and I smile.
All of a sudden, AJ looks sick.
“I know this, because Larry Summers told me point blank that you would be running with what he told you, and that he’d be telling you the sexual assault and coercion story. In fact, that you’re the one that came up with it yourself, back when the first tape came out of Julianna and I.”
AJ is frozen. People are starting to take his picture now. “He told me how you’ve had a stick up your ass about the first woman owner in the NFL since the day Julianna bought the damn team,” I continue. “And I’ve checked. Since Julianna bought the team, you’ve never had a good word to say about the Nailers – even when they’ve won. Now that’s ironic for newspaper based in the same city as the team, don't you think?”
AJ is shaking in his shoes at this point. Even from where I’m standing I can see beads of sweat start to form on his brow. I press on, “Larry Summers also told me that all I needed to do was go along with the story he was concocting with you about this and I’d have a spot on the Nailers forever, that none of this scandal would tarnish me, that people would keep me on long past after I’m done being the best.”
“Th-That’s a lie,” AJ tries to fight back and all of a sudden the tables are turned. As Colt would like to say, ‘the tables have fucking turned’.
