I glanced up at the TV to see my smiling face superimposed next to the ESPN anchor’s head. I turned up the sound.
“Still no word on when New York Kings star running back Sean Donovan will be back in the game,” the anchor said, his handsome brow furrowed,
almost like he gave a shit. I knew the guy well. He hated my guts and was probably reveling in the fact that I was out for the season.
He continued, “But a new post on the Sports Insider Online website today is giving fresh insight into Sean Donovan, offering up a side of the football great that you might not have known even existed. Lou Walls is here to tell us more. Lou...”
“What the fuck…” I said, leaning in toward the screen.
The reporter spoke on-camera as stock footage of me on the field and on TMZ rolled in the background.
“That’s right, Ed. We all know the legendary exploits of bad boy Sean Donovan, from the drunken bar brawls to the viral sex videos, but did you also know that he visits children with cancer every week? Or that he donates millions of dollars to charities very year? And that he does it all anonymously? No one knew that side of Sean Donovan until today when Kate Asher’s profile of Donovan hit the web.”
Kate Asher’s beautiful face appeared in a bubble next to the reporter’s head.
“What makes this story even more interesting, Ed, is that Kate Asher actually disguised herself as a reporter from Playboy Magazine to get close to Sean Donovan, which tells me that some habits are harder to break than others. Ed, back to you.”
I switched off the TV and looked around frantically for my computer. It was on the table next to Leon. I waved at it. “Hey, hand me my laptop. I want to read what she wrote.”
“What do you care?” Leon asked, handing over the laptop. “Have you even spoken to her since Madge threw her out of the hospital.”
“No, not a word,” I said, tapping the keys to bring up the Sports Insider Online website. The story was the first thing on the screen.
I tapped the link and a new page opened with the bold headline “The Many Sides of Sean Donovan”.
The byline read Kate Asher, Sports Insider Online.
Her picture was next to the byline. It was the same one they’d just shown on ESPN. I clicked on the image to enlarge it to full screen. I felt a little twinge go through my body when I gazed into her blue eyes.
She was looking directly into the camera with a modest smile. Her red hair was loose on her shoulders. Her lips were turned up at the corners. I could see freckles across the bridge of her perfect nose.
My eyes followed the gentle slope of her neck down to her collar bone. I remembered trailing my tongue down her neck. I remembered how her breasts felt in my hands. I remembered her sighing into my mouth as I squeezed her long nipples.
“She’s smoking hot,” Leon said, bumping me with his elbow, interrupting my memories of her. “I’d tap that ass.”
“I know,” I said quietly.
“You should tap ass that again.”
“Will you shut up and let me read?”
His cellphone buzzed on the coffee table. He picked it up and winced when he saw the call was from Monique, his soon-to-be bride.
“Fuck. I gotta go home, man,” he said.
“Okay,” I said, giving him a distracted wave. “Have fun.”
“Three words for you, man,” he said, backing out of the room. “Tap that ass!”
“Okay, thank you,” I said. After the door closed, I forced my eyes away from the photo of Katie – Kate – and read the story of my life.
Kate
I’d never seen Walter this giddy. When he came into my office with a big grin on his face and his hands in the air, I thought that he had lost his mind. When he pulled me out of the chair and put me into a bear hug, I was convinced that he had gone completely over the edge.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to wiggle from his grasp.
“You don’t know?”