Page 10 of Wild For You
I glanced around warily to see if anyone else received the same messaging, but everyone else seemed to be going about their day as normal. Not even Jackson looked frazzled. And after ten minutes, when my timer went off, I noticed no one else got up from their desks.
Sweat beaded along my spine and neck. My palms grew clammy. And before long, I was about to have a full-blown panic attack as I boarded the elevator for the conference rooms on the tenth floor.
As I exited the car, I watched as Caleb left the conference room with a smug smile. My heart instantly sped up.
“Hey,” he said as he walked toward me.
“Hey, uh… what are you doing here?”
“The GM wanted to talk to me about something.”
“Oh, okay. Do you want to get lunch when I’m done here?”
“I don’t think that’s best,” he said jovially.
Someone poked their head out of the conference room, and I took a hearty step away from Caleb, but I feared it was too late.
“Come join us, Ms. Davis,” the woman that reminded me of Mrs. Trunchbull fromMatildacalled out.
“Well, good luck. I’ll have someone pick up my stuff tonight,” he said dismissively as he boarded the elevator.
What?
Before I had a chance to ask him what he meant, the lady repeated my name. “Ms. Davis? Please hurry along.”
***
“What am I going to do?” I asked Rory as I opened another box and started shoving anything Caleb left here inside.
“Weren’t you looking for a new job anyway?”
She was right; I was. But it was far easier to look for something new when you had a steady paycheck. I had beenlooking casually for a new job, but now I felt like I had to scramble.
“Yeah, but now no team is going to want to work with me.”
“Explain to me what happened again. Something isn’t adding up.”
I went on to describe once more how I was pretty much ganged up on in the conference room and accused of breaking the no-fraternization rule. I argued that there wasn’t an actual rule listed in the company handbook, but they insisted it was more of a guideline. Fraternization had always been frowned upon. Yet, I didn’t see that stopping the general manager’s assistant and someone in finance.
What really set me off was that Caleb wasn’t willing to fight for me. They gave him a choice to either continue our relationship and risk being let out of his contract or to end things. He chose the latter without a second thought. I guess whatever we had wasn’t worth as much as his contract.
I knew I had grounds for suing the team for wrongful termination, but lawyers cost money. And even if I won, it wouldn’t get me my job back.
“How do you think they found out?”
That was the question I’d been asking myself since I packed up my desk and then went to collect my things from the training facility. Being escorted out by security wasn’t my favorite memory, but I understood.
“Maybe he slipped and told one of the other players? We were really careful whenever we were out in public.” If we went out by ourselves, it was always to some place he wouldn’t be recognized. But most of our meals when we were together wereeither takeout or I cooked. Caleb could burn water, so it was usually left to me. And the times we went out with a group of people, I made sure Jackson or some of the other medical team members were with us.
We had been so cautious. Or so I thought.
“I’m so sorry, Kels. Lose your job and boyfriend in the same day. What are you going to do? I’d offer you my house, but my brother is staying there right now. Maybe you can come stay at the bed-and-breakfast for a while until you figure something out?”
Smiling, I closed up the last box of Caleb’s things and set it by the door before moving toward my couch and relaxing back into the cushions.
The idea had crossed my mind, but I needed to start job hunting immediately.
“Thanks, Rory, but I’m paid up on rent here for the next six months, so that gives me time to search around for something in my field. Though, I guess my options are limited now.”
