Page 86 of My Secret Bandit

Ienteredthepressbox, surprised to find Kyle staring down at the field. Frozen, I tried to decide what my next move should be. Before I could commit to a plan, he saw me.

If I knew anything from my time with Kyle, it was that he was persistent when he needed to be. I avoided him the last couple of days, but I knew my luck wouldn’t last. Might as well woman up and get this conversation over with.

“What are you doing here?” I asked flatly, taking my usual seat along the desk, and skipping the polite greetings.

“You won’t talk to me anywhere else, so here I am.”

He was smart, I’d give him that. This was the only place he’d find me for an extended period without my intimidating protector nearby.

“I guess you didn’t stop to think I was avoiding you for a reason,” I said, looking out the window, unwilling to meet his eye again.

His chair spun in my direction before speaking again, running a hand through his hair. “Jamie, I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was going to put you on blast like that. I swear on everything, I didn’t. I was running my mouth after practice. She stopped me, pretended to be a sympathetic ear. She offered to show me the ropes when I mentioned Jeffrey being an asshole. Said she'd sponsor the rest of my internship, if I left Tampa Sports. I thought she was sincere. I didn’t know she was using what I told her to get a story until I saw it. Fuck, I didn’t even know she was his ex.

“Was I disappointed when you turned me down? Yes, and I acted like a piece of shit after. I’m sorry, Jamie. The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you. We’ve been through too much for me not to at least try to make things right.”

As much as I wanted to blow his apology off, I couldn’t. I didn’t want to tote around the negativity anymore. Plus, I felt bad for him. Ariel pretended to be his friend then manipulated him into giving her a story.

I wasn’t sure what to do, so I let the pitiful look on his face guide my response. “I accept your apology.”

“You do?” He perked up, a sense of hope entering his voice.

“Yeah. Because of that article, I overcame a lot of personal issues, and it helped strengthen mine and Mateo’s relationship.” A smile crept onto my lips.

“You really love him, huh?” he asked. The friend I recognized showed in his slight smile.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “More than anything.”

“Okay. I want you to be happy. If you’ve found it with him, I can respect that. And I hope you’ll consider giving our friendship another try.”

“I mean… I’m not ready to share lunches again or anything, but we can take it slow. Day by day,” I agreed.

I didn’t want to be upset with Kyle anymore. I wanted to put the entire article debacle to bed. I was glad he fought to explain his side of the story. Now that I heard him out, one big mystery remained.

How was Jeffery ever married to that evil ass woman?

After a Tampa Bay win, Kyle filled me in on his sick grandma, which was why he went MIA for almost a week, and that pushed me even closer to complete forgiveness.

We separated as we entered the locker room, both going through our own routines. Back in the conference room, I took the open seat beside him. Like most games, we started out with Coach Porter. Then Alec, the running back, came up to the stage. Fun to interview, he always cracked jokes and brought his cute toddler-aged son with him now and then.

Just as much a staple of this room as his coach, Mateo strode in.

His presence turned all eyes to him rather than the little boy he shared a fist bump with when they traded positions. Not at all affected by the attention, he looked as confident, cool and self-assured as ever.

Until he saw Kyle next to me.

Breaking his professional, practiced demeanor, his eyebrows drew together, and his head tilted slightly while his eyes darted between our faces. I gave him a nod and a smile, hoping to diffuse whatever bomb ticked in his mind. I mouthed a quick “later” to him. He took his seat and prepared for the first question from someone in the front.

“All right, Mateo. We know you’ve probably heard this a lot in the last few days, but how are you feeling after everything that went down last week?”

“Everything is good. Ribs are good, there’s no pain or discomfort.” His eyes shifted over to me, making sure I heard him and believed his attempts to soothe the worries I still carried after last week.

“Glad to hear you’re feeling better. But I’m talking more about the article released after the game. Do you have anything to say about that?”

Kyle went rigid next to me. Ahead of us, Mateo sighed, his head rolling to the side.

“Not really. But because it seems to be such a hot topic, I’ll address it once and I don’t want to be asked about it again. Anyone that feels the need to try to publicly humiliate another based on their body is a coward. Your body shape doesn’t determine the amount of respect and love you deserve. My girlfriend is fucking gorgeous. If you don’t believe me, she’s right there. You can turn around and look for yourself. You can’t look at her and tell me she doesn’t deserve the world. Beyond her physical beauty, she has a heart of fucking gold. A heart that nearly broke after someone who knows nothing about her publicized and sensationalized our relationship without consent. She deserves so much more than that. She deserves so much more than being compared to someone shallow enough to thrive off the validation of strangers. Jameson holds herself to a different standard. One that loves what’s within rather than what’s on the surface, and I’m proud of her for it. If someone has a problem with that, come directly to me, and we’ll handle it. No sense hiding behind anonymous articles.” His voice rang patient and sure. Like what he just said was pure fact rather than opinion.

Normally with so many sets of eyes on me, I’d feel anxious or embarrassed, but with my own eyes locked on Mateo’s, I only felt safe.

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