Page 1 of Gridlocked on the Gridiron

Chapter one

Lucia

Lucia Moretti could attest to the fact that bad news—horrific news—did not, in fact, come in threes. At least not for her, not in all of her twenty-seven years. Not when she'd been eight and her father had told her that her mother had left them and wasn’t planning on coming back without even the courtesy of a note. Not when she'd been thirteen and her first and only pet, a sweet yellow lab who’d been like a sister to her, had gotten sick suddenly and died. And certainly not now, at twenty-seven, when the person she’d planned to spend the rest of her life with was caught cheating. By paparazzi. On the eve of their anniversary.

Okay, scratch that. Maybe bad news did come in threes.

Why The Richmond Herald chose her for such public humiliation that August afternoon, she couldn’t be sure. Maybe it was karma for all the times she’d taken an extra snack from the campus dining halls in college. Or maybe this was the universe’s retribution for all the times she’d done a California stop at Virginia stop signs.

Whatever she may have done was unimportant because, there, below a headline that read, “Interception! Vipers QB Caught Passing to the Wrong Woman”, was a picture of her intended kissing a woman with blonde hair. And, as if the message wasn’t clear enough, beside that was a picture of Lucia with very messy brown hair—couldn’t they have used a better picture of her, at least?—holding a clipboard, her ring finger and ring on full display.

“They could’ve warned you before they posted this,” her best friend hissed over speakerphone, breaking the stunned silence that’d fallen over their collective stupor. Isa’s accent sharpened around the angriest word, as if The Richmond Herald cared about anything besides sales.

Lucia was still too shocked to speak. Her eyes scanned over every inch of the photo, falling to the clothing he was sporting. Were those his clothes from last weekend? That looked like what he’d worn to brunch on Sunday. The brunch he’d told her was with the guys. With the team. Was he really so stupid? Had he genuinely thought this wouldn’t get back to her? He was a nationally recognized sports player, for Pete’s sake.

Her back was still pressed against the concrete of the Virginia Vipers’ offices when Isa, voice calmer and tinged with worry, spoke again. “Luc? Are you still at work?” Again, no answer as Lucia’s eyes marked where Max’s hands were in the photo. “I’m coming to pick you up, hang tight.”

Isa's Camry rolled into the parking lot fifteen minutes later, but it felt like only seconds had passed for Lucia. Isa didn't bother to turn down the unintelligible rock music or roll her windows up as she rounded the car and walked toward Lucia.

“Come, mi cielo. Let’s go to my apartment. Come, come,” she said as if coaxing a small child into eating their vegetables. She held the door open as Lucia slid into the passenger seat, cringing at the sounds of Isa’s “Rage” playlist, courtesy of her girlfriend.

“Have you eaten anything? Abby just went to Trader Joe’s. We have all the cheese and crackers you could ever need.” She was kind enough to lower the volume of the music, though Lucia knew it was for her benefit alone and had nothing to do with the glares from the people milling about the facility and offices.

“Luc?” Isa pleaded tentatively when they reached a stoplight.

She’d struggled to string together a coherent sentence, but Isa’s presence was like a comforting hug, shaking the words loose.

Finally, “It’s so on brand, isn’t it?”

Isa just blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, this is par for the course with me. Standard. Expected. Classic.”

“I’m still not quite sure I follow,” Isa said slowly.

Lucia hardly heard her as she began analyzing every interaction she’d had with Max in the previous few months. Nothing had seemed off, but they had both been so busy gearing up for preseason that it would’ve gone unnoticed either way.

“He’s going to find a way to blame me. You know it. He’s going to say I was working too much, that I wasn’t being attentive enough.”

Isa muttered a string of Spanish curses. “He’s not getting away with it this time. I’m going to chop his itty-bitty, limp dick right off.” She grinned, pleased with herself. She pulled into the alley behind her apartment, diagonally parking in a space that was most definitely meant for straight parking.

Lucia followed her like a zombie up to the third floor and into her apartment, slipping her heels off by the entryway.

“So, how are we ruining his life? Keying his four ridiculously overpriced cars? Setting his hair on fire?” Isa’s words were muffled through the half-closed pantry door. Too numb to respond to Isa’s attempt to console her, Lucia padded to the table adjacent to the kitchen, pulling her laptop out of her purse and typing in the headline that was branded on her brain.

Did she know the woman? She didn’t look familiar, but it was hard to tell with Max’s tongue lolling around in the woman’s mouth. Her throat constricted as she thought of the house they shared. The house she’d turned into a home over the course of two years.

Lucia didn’t notice Abby coming out of the bedroom but felt arms wrap around her shoulders. “Hey, Luc, sweetie.” A quick, reassuring squeeze, and then Abby placed a tray down and helped Isa set up the crackers and cheese.

Isa took her extended silence as grief. “I know you’re not much of a crier, but you’re allowed to mourn, osita. Seven years is a long time.” More than a quarter of her life, to be exact.

And what a waste.

“I’m fine.” At her friends’ disbelieving stares, she continued, “Or, I will be. I just—” She sighed, exasperated, closing the laptop. “I thought I’d be on the ground sobbing, you know? Lying down in the shower for an hour, listening to Billie Eilish, crying until dehydration overtook me, and all I could do was stare blankly at the tub. Instead…” She shrugged.

She didn’t want to divulge more, didn’t want that half-confused, half-sympathetic look as she explained that, instead of grief, she just felt angry. Angry that he’d cheated on her despite everything she’d done for him. Angry that it’d come out publicly, leaving her humiliated.

She’d had so many firsts with Max. He’d been there for practically all of her adulthood, or at least the parts that counted. She’d followed him from California to Virginia. Yeah, the job she’d been offered was a dream, but she’d said yes because he was the Vipers’ quarterback. The monster that was betrayal licked its way up her spine.

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