MY ONE-NIGHT STAND SOCCER BOYFRIEND

Chapter 5: The summon

Jake

For the few years of my excellent soccer career that turned me into a star athlete I came to realize that a team was like a shield. When Liam and my agent arrived it was like my problems had just been solved although they had done nothing really. Gordon, my personal chef made us some tea with samosa’s and the three of us were seated in my living room lost in thoughts and keeping tabs on the news, waiting for the next dirty secret to come up. My face and Lisa's were in every news channel and some lies were also being paraded around for everyone to see.

"This is really bad" Edison said sounding pessimistic.

"Come on eddy you can't give up already what are we dealing with here?" I asked curiously.

Until then I was only aware of the consequences that affected me. A ruined reputation and my name being dragged in the mud for the benefit of a chosen few. I wasn't thinking about Lisa and the other people around me.

"Your career is on the line here"

"How does me having consensual s*x with a random girl picked from the club affect my career? It’s not like I forcefully had my way with her. Am worried about my reputation with all this lies"

"The heat on you might cost the club in a bad way"

From the look of things I was the i***t in the room. Liam seemed like he knew the severe consequences that I had not heard of already.

"A three match ban? You guys can do better without me, tyrus is there, we are a team each of us is as strong as all of us"

"That's not the point here Jake, your tarnished name being among the highest paid and best players on the squad will chase away potential investors and sponsors"

Then it struck me. Coach brooks had always reminded us that no one was bigger than the team. I was not untouchable and invincible. My job was in jeopardy and my reputation in the ICU. The phone buzzed in the side pocket of my shorts. I looked at Edison and Liam with pity in my eyes.

"Who is it?

"HR" Edison said sounding scared.

I picked up the call and the sexy voice of that lady at HR hit my ears. She was gentle enough to say Good morning and ask me how I was before she dropped the bomb. The board was meeting and the club officials wanted to meet me with my agent in the next one hour. That's when reality sank in. The phone fell off my hands to the coach. A board meeting was bad news.

"What did she say?"

"Jake, hey look at me it's going to be okay we are still in contract until 2024" Edison said.

"The board is meeting and they will be ready for me in one hour”

"We go see them I will defend you all I can, come on hit the shower and put on something nice" Eddy said dragging me from the coach.

My knees were weak, the feeling of emptiness struck me making my body feel heavier. If there was a way to save my reputation then the club knew how and the board meeting could go either way, fire me or fix the problem, the former did not scare me. It was really heartbreaking but one thing am good at is facing my problems head-on. After all I am Jake woods, what many sports people in Hillwood and the entire world described as a generational talent, I for one believed it and that's why whenever I got in that pitch I was unstoppable. Nothing I worked for so hard was going to be taken away from me. Not on my watch.

So? I sucked it up and hit the shower playing my favorite Imagine dragons play list. There was no time to worry and wallow in self-pity because at the end of the day no one cared about my feelings as much as I did.

After five minutes of scrubbing my body and using the shower like microphone I emerged confident and put on a white shirt, blue suit and a pair of black loafers. I also settled for my favorite Rolex and wore some cologne.

"Let's go!" I said confidently joining the guys in the living room.

They were surprised to see me back to normalcy after that shower.

"Did that shower wash away the worry or what?"

"Yes Liam, I mean it gets down to choice. I can choose to wallow in self-pity or pick up the pieces of me and create something better am ready to face the board" I said getting in the back seat of Liam's TX.

My agent was dead quiet. I might have found a way to put my worry at bay but he was not out of the woods yet. His job depended on mine and that's why I expected him to find a way to get me out of that mess.

"Eddy my guy, everything is going to be okay men. Am sure if they cut me lose we can get some other club or we can do business but first we have to figure out how to save my reputation"

"Coach won't let it happen stay positive and as for your reputation that’s going to be hard" Argued Liam driving us past the crazy paparazzi's.

They took photos of the car and Liam with Edison. As for me, Liam had tinted his windows making it impossible for them to see and snap me. I had never gotten tired of media attention in fact I cherished it and knew how to get it with my famous goal celebrations and amazing goals I scored on the pitch. Just not that day. My fans had turned on me. From a hero I was now an enemy of the people, a disgrace to the soccer world and a bad example to their children.

That's how the world is. One mistake, one stupid mistake and they all forgot the good things I had done. Hundreds of memories made together all thrown in the gutter and replaced by one mistake it was painful but that day I learned one vital lesson. Always look out for paparazzi when you're a celebrity? Yes that one and another, you can't make everyone happy. It was time I took control of my own life and stopped living for the cameras. Time to tell the world that Whitney and I were not a thing and that as a sane man of sound mind I was grown up hence free to sleep with who I wanted. That was my way out.

"We are here!" Liam announced bringing me back to reality.

We were at the administration section of the Hillwood Arena. An eighty thousand fans capacity home stadium for Hillwood FC. I took one look around, it might have been my final anyway so the guys let me take my time to just look at the stadium that had made me world famous. The four years I had been there were the best in my life and all that was on the verge of collapsing.

"Let's go man, you don't want to keep the bosses waiting" Liam said.

"If am getting released then I'll surely miss this, fans on their feet singing my name on top of their lungs, I'll miss you Liam my friend and brother. You remember when I came in..."

"You were good at making mistakes although you trained hard and coach Brooks had high hopes in you"

"Yeah and you helped me settle in. I will forever be grateful to you men"

"Same here, you came and helped rebuild this team to what it is right now. Despite all this controversies and allegations around you, you're a legend here and you deserve a statue at the entrance"

"Guys!" Edison called coming from the offices.

I hadn't realized he went ahead to do some reconnaissance.

"How are things in there?"

"Not good I talked to the secretary she said the bosses are furious and a few investors are in the process of withdrawing their shares, the club is bleeding cash as we speak"

My heart sank again. You know that feeling when you let down people who have always stood by you no matter what? You don't? Picture this, how does it feel to disappoint your mum or dad, see them cry because you've decided to be a really bad boy or girl. That was how I was feeling and trust me it was more painful than being shot in the skull.

"Are they ready for me?" I asked regardless of the forlorn mood around us.

Who knew that my f**k up was going to cause such a big fuss? Brooks had always said that no one was bigger than the club. And we were fools to believe him. Now I knew how much I meant to that club, too bad I was leaving. If only they could give me a chance to make everything right I would have given them my absolute best.

"They will be in the next ten minutes, we need to practice what you're going to say in there" Edison said.

"Just say the truth, that way they can be able to help"

"How can they possibly help Liam, you know what they say, platitudes are easier to offer for someone with no skin in the game"

There was a ferocious look on Liam's face. My agent might have crossed a vital line there. Liam was like a brother to me and that's why in a team of thirty two players he was the only one there with me at my hour of need. And Edison was trying to insinuate he was not feeling the pain I was feeling.

"You son of a b***h do you know how it feels to say goodbye to a brother?"

"Hey..."

"Don't hey me man. I got my skin in the game as much as you do. Am the captain the fuckin team man and I know how hard it is to replace this guy" he poked my shoulder, “besides he is like my brother on and off that pitch don't you ever doubt my loyalty to this man"

"Am Sorry that came out wrongly" Edison was smart to apologize.

"Calm down guys, both of you are trying to help and I appreciate. Let's not forget we have a common goal here, to get out of this mess. You two have nothing to prove that's why am doing this alone"

You can guess how puffed up they both looked. After following me through the darkest valleys of my tops turvy life I was finally getting rid of them.

"You can't be serious!"

"No he is joking you know Jake" Edison tried to give them some hope.

But it was not a joke.

"Unfortunately no. You guys don't need to suffer for my mistake, there is a high possibility the board might find fault with anyone in my corner and I don't want you guys to be in trouble. Please for the first time let me be, let me do this alone" I begged.

"If you insist" Liam said sadly and hugged me.

"Be strong in there, let everything you speak come from your heart" he hugged me too.

"Thank you both, see you on the other side" I said clearing my throat and adjusting my coat.

The moment I was patiently waiting for came. It was just me and the Hillwood FC board of management. Before going in there I wanted to apologize to Lisa. She was the most understanding one-night stand I had ever had, not that they were many of them.

"Hey there you got home safe?"

"Yes, and you? How bad is this?"

"Very bad but nothing that I can't fix...called to say am sorry you got muddled in this mess your life won't be the same anymore but with time things will go back to normal I promise"

"Why does that sound like goodbye? Tell you what? If there is a way I can help you feel free to reach out and I should be the one apologizing not you"

"Am afraid you can't help me but thank you Lisa. Have a nice day"

"Likewise, good luck in your future endeavors"

After I hang up and kept my phone away, took a sigh of relief expelling a lungful of air, turned around to give one long last look at my friend's. Apart from my mum and sisters who were far away the two were the only ones in my corner. With all the confidence in the world I walked to the boardroom area. The door opened before I did open it. The secretary who always wore a smile had a frown on her face that day.

"They are ready for you Mr. Woods" she said in her velvety private school voice.