Page 68 of You Found Me
Right before halftime starts, Mia and I go to the bathroom while the guys go to get more drinks and try to beat the rush. As we’re drying off our hands, I notice someone come in and then stand behind us. When I turn around, I see it’s Kari, aka the woman Chance was cheating on me with. I try to grab Mia and leave, but Kari has other plans.
“Emmaline, is that you?” Kari asks with a sickly-sweet voice.
After taking a cleansing breath, I turn back in her direction. “Hello, Kari.”
“You know, I wasn’t sure that was you. You’re looking a little rough. The split must have been hard on you, huh?”
I can’t even process the dig because I didn’t think I’d ever see her again. I feel myself start to panic and when I look at Mia, it clicks for her that this isthewoman.
She steps toward Kari. “You really want to talk about someone looking rough? Honey, you look like someone rode you hard and dragged you behind their car in the rain. A true haggard bitch.”
Kari gasps. “Excuse me? Who even are you?”
I tighten my grip on Mia’s arm and take a deep breath. “It’s fair to think I look ‘a littlerough,’ I mean being cheated on is never easy.” Taking a step in front of Mia, I pull my shoulders back. “While we’re on the topic of cheating, how did Grayson take the news that his girlfriend cheated on him with his new teammate?”
She makes a sound, brushing me off. “Grayson doesn’t matter anymore. I broke up with him after Chance called off your engagement. You need to leave Chance alone though. He’s mine now and I don’t appreciate you asking him to meet you out for lunch.”
I can’t stop the choked cackle that comes out of me, she is unbelievable. “Kari, you cannot be serious. There are pictures everywhere of how that ‘lunch’ went. I didn’t ask him to meet me, nor did I ask to be kissed. I was meeting someone else when he blindsided me, with not only his presence, but the photographers he obviously paid to be there.”
Her face becomes red with anger or embarrassment—I’m not sure—and she sputters, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re still together and very happy. He told me you initiated the kiss with him and made sure someone was there to capture it.”
I would keep laughing if a part of me didn’t feel sorry for her. Mia picks up on my bleeding heart making an appearance because she clears her throat. “Em, we should probably go out and find the guys.” And to make the point of me being over Chance, she throws in, “Spencer probably doesn’t know how to act with you away from him for so long.”
“Right,” I respond.
As soon as we get away from the bathroom Mia says, “I’m proud of you for keeping it together. Although I’m upset you didn’t let me have a real go at her.”
Since she’s faking a pout, I know she’s joking. But there’s a side of her that is dead serious and that’s what makes me laugh uncontrollably. Which is right when we find Spencer and Beckett.
Neither of them have ever heard me laugh like this, so when Beckett leans over to Spencer and loudly whispers, “Is she broken?”
Mia joins me and laughs just as hard.
“We missed something,” Spencer tells Beckett.
When I finally get it together, I give them a rundown of what happened in the bathroom. Beckett is a bit confused, but Mia tells him she’ll fill him in on the way to find her some loaded nachos.
“Are you okay?”
“I mean I kind of froze and felt a bit of a panic attack coming on. Then I listened to her spit out the lies he fed her—which she believed—and it made me realize I don’t want to be that girl anymore. It was like looking at a different version of me. I don’twant anyone else to walk all over me—even if I do kinda feel bad for her. I stood up for myself.”
He pulls me closer to him, kissing the side of my head. “I’m proud of you, Emmaline. Seriously.”
“Thank you,” I say, just as my stomach growls.
Spencer laughs, “Sounds like you need something other than sugar. Want to split a double cheeseburger with me?”
“Absolutely I would.”
***
After halftime, both teams really step it up.
The Cougars score two touchdowns within the third quarter, but it goes downhill for them after that. Chance became even more aggressive and reactive to the normal shit talk players spit at one another. At one point in the fourth quarter, he catches a pass and gets tackled. As soon as he gets up, he goes after the Tennessee player that tackled him and ends up getting ejected from the game.
I’ve watched him play for years and this is not at all normal for him. There’s obviously something going on with him, but I can’t worry about what that is right now.
The Titans score two touchdowns, one of them being an intercepted pass, causing them to win the game.
