Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
After the meeting concludes, I head into the breakroom and make myself a cup of coffee before heading back to my desk. I check my phone and find a couple text messages from Alex.
Alex Moore
Hey honey.
Honey?
Yo, girlfriend
Okay, I get it. You’re busy.
The messages bring a smile to my face, and I quickly write back.
Sorry. Staff meeting. Guess what, the author for the football book—accepted!
Alex Moore
Ah, so you are using me for my knowledge of the sport!
I giggle, a bit louder than I should and type out my reply.
And your body!
Alex Moore
I knew it and honestly, I’m okay with it.
See you after work.
I just wanted to let you know I’m thinking about you.
As much as I want to reply, I’d end up texting with him all day. Such is the life of working a full-time, Monday through Friday job, when my boyfriend doesn’t. I’m not saying he doesn’t work—he does. I can easily admit I thought he went to the facility, played some football, and then went home for the day. Nope, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. He has early morning wake-up calls, on-the-field practice, workouts, game film, more practice, and then physical therapy on his aching muscles and bones. I think he works more during his season than I do in a year. Plus, people aren’t trying to hit me all the time.
After forwarding the information to the legal department, I send an email to my new author, welcoming her to Willamette Publishing and letting her know how happy I am to work with her. I tell her what to expect in the next coming weeks and ask her to send a fresh copy of her manuscript to me so I can start working on it. I have the original printed off, but more often than not, the author has made changes and I want to make sure those are implemented.
I respond to a few more emails and then dig into the proposals I received overnight. This is normally the first thing I do every morning, but Basha threw me off with her thirst-trap videos of Alex. I’m not sorry she did, but her suggestion of sliding into his DMs without him knowing it’s me isn’t sitting right. I know people do this, and it makes me wonder if Alex has this issue.
And if he does, would he tell me about them?
An uneasy feeling takes over and while I try to shake it, I can’t. I’m at a disadvantage here, with this whole social media video-making thing, and I don’t like it.
EIGHTEEN
ALEX
It’s game day.
During warm-ups, I scan the crowd for Kelsey. When I see her sitting with Autumn, a big smile takes over my face, going from ear to ear. It’s not lost on me that I almost lost her. If I were her, I would’ve quit this relationship and never looked back. It doesn’t matter how well you get along with someone or how fantastic the sex is—because believe me, I’m horny for her, twenty-four-seven—the shit the media pulled is unacceptable. I wanted to issue a statement but the PR team for the Pioneers thought doing so would cause more harm than good. Instead, I took jabs at them during on-field interviews. I’m not sure if my message has been received, but they have seemed to leave us alone for the most part.
Of course, there are still the fans out there, making videos of us. Those, I don’t mind, as long as they’re not bashing my honey.
My honey. What a freaking pet name this is. In all the years of dating Maggie, not once did I call her anything other than her name. But day two or three into being with Kels and she’s my honey. Sweet and tangy, not to mention sticky. Boy, I do love when she’s stuck to me.
Kelsey finally waves, and like the fool in love that I am, I wave back. Trey Miller, our left tackle, bumps my shoulder and nods toward her.
“Does she have a friend? Sister?”
“She has two brothers if you want me to hook you up.”
“Fuck off, Moore.”
“Don’t be a hater.”
He shakes his head. “Be serious.”
“She has two coworkers that I know of. One she hangs out with a lot, but I don’t know much about her. Want to double date?”
He stares into the crowd and nods. “I think that would be nice.”
I give him a sideways glance. “Ah, I didn’t know you had a sweet bone in that hulk sized body of yours.”
“You think I look like the Hulk?” He flexes but nothing happens since he’s wearing pads. “I have been working out.”
I roll my eyes. He weighs over three-hundred pounds, and his jersey barely covers his belly half the time. None of this fazes him though. He struts around like he’s the next GQ model. It’s all in the confidence you have, I suppose. I’m a big dude, but I like to keep things tight. I don’t mind being someone’s teddy bear, I just don’t want to always look like one.