“Yeah, well. Maybe I’m trying on something new,” I answered, stepping into the bathroom to wash my hands in the sink. I raising my voice over the hot, running water. “You know. Seeing how I like it.”
“Well, pissing off your something new isn’t such a good idea!” She called out loudly from the other room.
“What do you mean, pissing her off?” I asked, wiping my hands clean with a stiff, rough hand towel as I strolled back into the main room.
“What, you didn’t see that look on her face?” Jess sharply took in a breath for emphasis. “She was livid. Doesn’t surprise me, though…”
“You’re speaking cryptically,” I simmered. “You know that I don’t like cryptic. Get on with it.”
“How does it look to you?” She asked. “She’s half-asleep, all cuddled up to you or whatever, and then some strange woman answers the door. You get up, you get into some hushed, heated conversation, all mysterious and shit, and then when she tries to make a show of storming off, you just let her? You realize that she was mad, and you didn’t even bother trying to stop her.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“That’s not what it was at all.”
“Context, Lex,” Jess shook her head. “She doesn’t know who you are… unless you told her.”
“Didn’t tell her a thing,”
“Right. So, she doesn’t know who you are… she doesn’t know who I am… and she’s totally in the dark as to the secrecy. Hell, it probably looked like I’m some jilted ex-wife or some shit, coming to bother you.”
I hadn’t considered that.
“Fuck me,” I grumbled.
I glanced down at my pajama pants.
“I’m… not exactly equipped for this right now,” I muttered. “You’re my publicist. Go catch her.”
“I barely saw the chick,” Jess shrugged. “Besides, I wouldn’t know where to start. I’m not exactly private eye material, you know.”
Grumbling, I pulled upon my wardrobe and whipped out a few choice garments. “Fine. I’ll handle it. If I’m lucky, she might come to me.”
“You think so?” She asked, that mischievous smirk on her face again. “I dunno…”
“If not… there was a Japanese girl who wandered in with her last night. I’ve seen the bartender speaking with her from time to time – I think they’re friends. I can probably follow up on that lead and track her down, but only if I have to. I don’t want to force it, after all.”
Dwelling on these thoughts, I buttoned up my long-sleeved top, swapped the pajamas for slacks, and whipped a blazer over my shoulders. My publicist made and poured herself a cup of coffee, and then spat it out in my bathroom sink.
“Ugh! This is fookin’ disgusting!”
“There’s that chav coming out,” I teased.
“Don’t you start with me,” Jess squinted an eye and gave me a defiant glare. “You know I’m not a damned, dirty chav.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
She looked like she was going to burst a blood vessel, but relaxed. I recognized that look – she was deep in thought, considering something that we’d both overlooked.
“What is it?” I asked, stepping back into view. I was suited up and ready to tackle the day, even if that involved tracking down a wayward lay to straighten out some things.
After all, the sex had been pretty good…
And Jess was right.
It really had been a long time since someone had impressed me.
“This overnight woman of yours, this… damn the gods, what was her name again?”
“Riley.”
“Right,” Jess continued. “Thanks. This Riley. You said you found her challenging. Would you say you stand by that assessment?”
I straightened my tie in the mirror.
“I think so.”
“She could be the answer you need.”
I paused. “…Go on.”
“What does Alistair Pritch have that you don’t, Lex? Really think about that for a moment. What makes him way more attractive than you for a corporate, multi-million sponsorship?”
“Choose your words carefully,” I growled.
“I’m not trying to stir you up,” she smiled. “Apply those critical thinking skills of yours. What does he have that you don’t?”
I begrudgingly considered her question.
“His record is weaker… but he’s a maverick on the field… he’s a defiant upstart, a wildcard, but a highly-calculating–”
“You’re looking at the wrong details,” she coerced me. “Think about his stability.”
“What are you getting at?” I demanded, whirling around to stare at her. “Do you have a plan, or not?”
Jess smiled at me softly, the way one would at an adorable pet. I didn’t like it. “Pritch has a wife,” she responded. “A wife and a kid. He’s got a solid family, and that carries through to his reputation off the field. None of these playboy scandals of yours… he’s clean. Squeaky clean.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Everyone knows you’re the better player Lex, but he’s a safe bet,” Jess commented.
“And that’s what Brett Barker wants,” I growled, driving a fist into the wall. I could feel it slightly give way beneath my pressure. “He wants a safe bet. No scandals, no fuck-ups.”
“That’s right. He’s going to choose Pritch over you because you’re the loose cannon football star.” Jess threw her hands up as she spoke. “Sure, you have the prestigious record, the respect, and the wins under your belt… even if the National Team hasn’t won the World Cup beneath your leadership.”
“The National Team hasn’t won a World Cup since 1966,” I clarified.
“Oh, I’m not saying you aren’t a capable leader, by any means,” she backtracked. “But you haven’t given him that hole-in-one. You’ve been National for, what, three years now? If you’d led the team to international domination, that’d be one thing…”
“Not everyone on the team is as good as me.”
Jess caught the primal, irritated tone beneath my voice. “Be that as it may… we’d be having a very different conversation right now if they were. Instead, the Head of Public Relations needs to make the wiser choice for corporate sponsorship.
“Sounds like both of his highly-qualified options are: the popular, arrogant playboy, practically a force of destruction both on the field and off… and the defiant but grounded, beloved sub
ordinate, who is still a pop culture icon and a member of the National Team.
“Who’s he logically going to pick?”
I grit my teeth.
“Unless you show him something else.”
“Something like Riley.”
“That’s right,” Jess schemed. “No more of these ridiculous one-night stands, public intoxication feats, and making my job a living nightmare,” she told me. “You’ve got to settle down. Find yourself a nice girl. An American could work… it’s an interesting but believable choice for you. Someone who challenges you… someone who can keep you in line.”
“And I have to marry her?”
“Of course not!” Jess laughed. “But getting a girlfriend out of her is a step in the right direction, wouldn’t you think?”
I dwelled on this a little longer.
“You think it’s her?”
“From the way you went all googly eyes when we were talking about her?” Jess asked, standing up from the chair and straightening out her outfit. “She’s a girl you sound like you actually respect. I think she’s a probably a good start.”
Riley
Unsurprisingly, the English guy had turned out to be an arrogant prick.
And the sex had been phenomenal…
Isn’t that how it always worked?
It wasn’t all bad… It’s just a shame that I didn’t have a chance to cut my proverbial tether and bolt before the woman showed up.
I wasn’t sure who she was.
A wife?
A girlfriend?
It didn’t really matter. I’d gathered up my things and just pushed my way out the door and the asshole didn’t even try to stop me.
It wasn’t hard to navigate down to the ground floor and out the door. He was staying at one of the halfway-decent hotels in the area, and within a couple of minutes I was already on my way back home to my apartment.
Oh well, I thought to myself. At least I got myself a great fuck in there before the sky came crashing down.
The further away from the hotel I walked, the more that I considered the night. It had been more than just sex. Lex had pushed me to my very limits. The Englishman knew just how to excite me in the best ways, ramping up my passion before letting me dangle precariously at that precipice… letting me drift back… and then pushing me again and again, teasing me, until I finally begged for release.