Page 4 of Not that Impressed
The women seem familiar, like I should know them. Charlie nudges his way through a few people to make his way toward them, and I unconsciously follow. He doesn’t have to go far. The woman with light blond hair has eyes only for Charlie and heads straight for him.
“Will!” Kara’s voice right at my shoulder startles me. I look down at her, and she shoves a couple of pills in my hand. I toss them in my mouth and swallow them dry, my gaze going right back to the women, particularly the one with darker hair, the color people argue about whether it’s blond or brown.
“Who are they?” I say loudly to Kara. “I know them, right?” The one with the darker hair meets my eyes for a moment. She’swearing a long, loose spaghetti strap dress, and her hair falls in loose curls over her bare shoulders. The vibes for the outfits of both women are chill and casual and yet … not. Maybe they’re models? That’s the kind of effortless sense I get from them and that’s probably why I recognize them but can’t come up with names.
Kara’s eyes narrow. “Janelle and Ellie Bennet.”
My eyebrows jump. Not models, but close. “The Pumas’ owner’s daughters? From the show…” My mind goes blank as I try to think of the name. I play for Rob Bennet’s team and live in Houston. They’re all over my social media.
Kara gives an unimpressed huff. “Yeah,Being the Bennets. Janelle is the sweet one and Ellie’s the witch.” She laughs.
I nod in response to Kara’s explanation and study the group. Charlie is engrossed with Janelle, and I connect that this is the woman he mentioned meeting on his walk with his dog, Coco, the other day. He’s moved closer to her, and his expression says he’s mesmerized by her. Ellie is half turned away, like she’s trying to give them space. She glances at me again. The crowd has shuffled aside, since Charlie only has eyes for Janelle now.
I’m surprised I didn’t recognize the women right off, but I’m better with faces than names, especially of celebrities. Worry itches in my stomach that my friend is falling for someone he shouldn’t. By the way Charlie’s staring at Janelle, I can tell he’s falling fast. He’s always been too trusting—women, teammates, whoever. Our freshman year of college, an old high school friend of his got him talking about our defense and Charlie never questioned it, until I pointed out that his friend’s cousin played for a team on our schedule later that month. We had to talk to our coach about it, and Charlie felt awful. I’d rather nip something like that in the bud, before he falls too hard. This is more than football. This is his heart.
Charlie puts his hand on Janelle’s back, guiding her past us toward the deck and the food, Ellie in their wake. Janelle’s back is to me, so I can’t see her expression and judge if she’s as intoCharlie as he is into her or if this is all for the buzz it will create. Rob Bennet is a great owner as far as I can tell, but I’ve never really spoken to his daughters, much less gotten to know them beyond what’s on the show.
I narrow my eyes at them. “Ellie is the one who blasted that other fitness influencer on the show. Famous on her dad’s dime and doing anything for clicks.” The last words are out of my mouth before I realize that Charlie has finally done something about the volume of the music.
Ellie Bennet spins to face me, green eyes zeroed in on me and full of fire that I think could set a blaze to my hair.
“Wow,” she snaps. “You’d think a guy who spent the better part of last year trying to put down rumors that he slept with the coach’s wife would know the difference between truth and what’s just for clicks.”
“Excuse me?” I straighten, trying to ignore the eyes on me. Not only has the music volume been lowered now, but thanks to Ellie’s words, conversation has died around us, and the hush is spreading around the house as people turn to find out what’s going on.
She tilts her head. Her expression is cool, like she didn’t just bring up my worst PR nightmare since going pro. My stomach burns at the way she can treat something that humiliated me so lightly. This is classic mean girl, tempting me to question if I’ve somehow stepped into a stereotypical teen movie.
“That fitness influencer you were talking about?” Ellie says calmly. “She copied Janelle’s content and used it to steal a brand deal that Janelle was working on for a partnership for her nonprofit. But the edits didn’t mention that. And nobody who reposted the footage bothered to dig into the details.”
My face burns, a mix of anger that she’d bring this up, and embarrassment at what I said. I glare at her, hoping she’ll move on, and everyone can stop staring at us. Even loud music would be welcome right now.
She gives a cold laugh and shakes her head. “The trolls cannever stand a confident woman standing up for herself.” She whirls around before I can respond—if I had a response—and stalks past to join Janelle and Charlie, who are both looking at me with wide eyes.
My headache sharpens and I try to relax my jaw. Conversations are building back up, but considering they’re a low hum and people keep glancing at me, I can’t help but wonder if some of the people here are debating—again—on if I really did sleep with my coach’s wife.
“Well,” Kara says in a low voice from beside me. I’d forgotten she was there. “Like I said. Witch.”
I grunt in response and stalk out the front doors without another word.
CHAPTER 3
ELLIE
The only reason I’m still at this party is for Janelle.
She likes Charlie—a lot—and if I leave, she will too. Not because she can’t handle a party without me, but because she’ll feel like she needs to leave with me after what happened with Will.
I’m not sure why I’m so bothered by him thinking the worst about me. It’s fine if he doesn’t like the image of me that gets portrayed onBeing the Bennets. Plenty of people don’t. In fact, there are about a dozen anti-Ellie Bennet fan clubs out there that he could join. And those are just the ones I know about.
Why do I care if he and his princess girlfriend are critical of me?
Maybe it’s the hypocrisy, the way he acted like I don’t have to work for my fame the same way he does.
Puh-lease.
That boy is acting like his parents didn’t move him across six states so he could go to a high school in California that would guarantee college offers and a spot on a pro football team. Like they didn’t shell out thousands of dollars for him to play football since he was like four or something.
But I didn’t hustle to get all my brand deals, not like him. No.I’m just a pretty face who happened to get ten million followers because of her daddy’s TV show. I’m sure it has nothing to do with my degrees in business and marketing either.
