Page 32 of Free Agent
“Do you think fucking Montgomery Rudolph’s fiancée days before you play his team in a match that will determine if the Kings proceed to the championship is a better headline?” Jordan snorted, then clamped a hand over his mouth, trying to contain his laughter.
So of course, I laughed too.
And then Cole couldn’t help herself either.
But… in all seriousness…. Yes, kinda.
From the comments surrounding it all, there was clearly a contingent of the population who saw me as some kind of knight in shining armor. There was another that was thinking more along the lines of Mr. Lowdown, but shit…
I was okay with that too.
He wasn’t gonna beat my ass, so fuck it.
“Look, I know everybody is on edge since we barely made that wildcard, but my performance has been as good as it’s ever been, right?” I asked, and despite her fussing, Cole nodded, right along with Jordan.
“That’s never been in question,” he agreed. “But… man, take it from a former troublemaker myself, you want the deck as stacked in your favor as you can get it. The Kings pulled their shit together enough to keep head above water, but if the championship doesn’t happen, the front office is going to be looking to shake shit up. If you’re valuable on the field, and marketable off it, that will be reflected in your offer.”
I huffed. “So I need to tap dance?”
“Never,” Cole denied. “Just… keep the messiness to a minimum, especially with women who are engaged to someone else. Especially the competitors. Which is like… the norm anyway, right?”
“The norm is not getting side bitches pregnant.”
“Is it?” Cole asked, eyebrow hiked as she stood from the table. “It’s actually disturbingly common these days, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, the drama meter is off the charts here, Tate. The situation is bad news all around.”
“She’s not bad news,” I countered, frowning. “Monty’s bitch ass is the one causing the drama, but I’m getting fussed at, she’s being labeled as something to avoid… this is wild, Cole. You don’t see how fucked up it is?”
“I see exactly how fucked up it is, which is why I’m advising distance,” she answered. “Listen, I think Aurora Mitchell is fabulous, okay? Smart, beautiful, driven, my type of hype all the way. I would love to sit next to her at a women’s empowerment brunch or something, and guess what? We still use the BabyBee app. Rori is amazing! But you know what she isn’t?”
“What?”
“Single!”
“That’s subjective.”
Cole groaned. “It’s really, really not. Monty Rudolph’s obscenely large ring on her finger is damn near as objectively not-single as it gets.”
“But—”
“Taaate,” she groaned again. “Don’t misunderstand me. On a personal level, when I saw that post, my first thought was, yes miss mamas, give him back that same energy. Your weirdo ass side chick recording this woman while she’s hurting, putting it on the internet, making it seem like they are the victims? Fuck Montgomery Rudolph,” she said, arms crossed. “But then, I recognized that big ass Kings logo on the naked arm draped around her, and my next thought was, oh shit, that’s my client. And as your agent, I have to be honest with you. You’re fucking your money up.”
With that said, Cole tossed her hands up.
Next to her, Jordan shrugged.
And I… couldn’t argue.
They knew more about this corporate shit than I did. Her father owned the damn team, so she’d been entrenched in Kings football since before I even knew what a football was.
“Fair enough,” I agreed, since really, there wasn’t anything to argue about.
At least, not with them.
Once we’d switched gears to other things and wrapped up, I left the meeting with a new purpose in mind. Aside from my agents not being too happy about it, there wasn’t much negativity coming my way from the situation, grace I was granted because I was a man. Sure, there was gossip and shit, people talking about it on their little podcasts, longform threads on socials, but my involvement was being positioned like I’d just been used.
Which… I kinda had, but there was no negative spin on that in my mind.
It was just… framed in a calculated manner that I knew wasn’t really the way things had gone down.