and came up empty. He was pretty sure that he was good. Pretty sure…
“Jack, can we have a word with you in private?” Coach Fontaine said. The look on his face said that Jack didn’t really have a choice.
“Sure. Lead the way,“ he said, setting his weights to the side and standing up.
“Have a seat,” Coach said, closing the door behind the four of them as they ducked into one of the small conference rooms off of the main hallway.
“What’s going on?” Jack said as everyone settled in.
“Jack, you realize that your contract is coming to an end next year, correct?” Yasmine said. Jack nodded and grinned.
“Yeah. Are you trying to talk about renegotiating already? It’s a bit early,” he said with a rather self-satisfied smile.
“We aren’t interested, Jack,” Kevin said. Jack’s cocky grin wilted around the edges a bit.
“Of course you are, I’ve carried this team on my back since I got here,” she said. Coach sighed heavily.
“Look, you’re a good player and you know the game well. The problem is all of the other bull that comes along with having you here. That’s what we aren’t interested in anymore,” he said.
“What?” Jack said.
“You’re a pain in the ass, Jack. Hell, other teams that know how well you play aren’t even interested because they don’t want to have to deal with your antics ending up in the news every other day. It’s not worth it to them anymore, just like it isn’t worth it to us,” Kevin said.
“We’ve already told your agent about this, but we decided to tell you think ourselves instead of leaving it to her. She’s under enough pressure without having to worry about you going off on her about something that you brought on yourself,” Yasmine said.
“I’m sorry about all this, Jack. I hope you get it together. You’ve got a year, that’s plenty of time,” Coach said. Jack was pissed. Super pissed. He stood and walked out of the room, his hand already dialing his manager.
“Paula, what the hell is going on?” he said as soon as she answered.
“Look, I’ve got a meeting, so I don’t have a lot of time. You need to redeem your reputation, Jack. Tone down the partying, maybe get yourself a girl or a kid. Preferably both. Something to show stability. I’ve got to go, think about what I said and we’ll meet later,” she said before hanging up on him. Jack stared at the phone for a moment.
“A kid?” he repeated.
Chapter 2
A month had passed. Jack was partying less now, not that he liked it. That also meant less women, which he really didn’t like. He would admit that his game had gotten better, or he thought it had. Who the hell knew anymore, he was bored. Paula had been adamant about him settling down. If he wanted to party, he needed to get one person that he partied with. Meaning, a steady girlfriend. Otherwise, once every two weeks, and he’d better not be caught drunk and stumbling out of anywhere or anyone on the news. Them’s the breaks, kid, she’d said. He didn’t like it, but he abided by it because Paula had never steered him wrong in the past. That, and he didn’t really want to leave his team in a year. He liked it where he was, he like the dynamic that he had with the guys when he wasn’t busy being a total prick. He was working on that too.
Tonight, he’d decided that he was going out, but not to party. He was going to a nice jazz club that he’d found out about a few weeks ago. Tonight was the night that they had a live band, and he could get down with that. You know, dressing nice, sipping something fancy like scotch instead of beer, and listening to something mellow and smooth. It wasn’t a party, so it didn’t count against his every two weeks, and it got him out of the house, so he was going. After he decided what to wear, he wasn’t going out without looking his best, as always.
An hour later, he pulled up in front of the club, a small but classy place that actually served a pretty impressive menu of
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley