Page 29 of Auction Time
“Vanessa, I call it like I see it. But that’s just me. What actually happened? Minus the tears, your face looks a little like it did ten years ago, just before he left for college. That was him too, wasn’t it?” He knew.
I nodded. “It was him, but I did something stupid, and I did it again today.”
“Well, I know you didn’t sleep with him, ‘cos that …” His words trailed off, and realization along with confusion seemed to hit him when I hung my head down. “Maybe I should let you do the talking.”
I lifted my head, dragged in a ragged breath and got ready to talk. It was what I came here for, so shying away from the problem wasn’t going to help. “I didn’t sleep with him ten years ago, but I… nearly did today.” It was amazing how I could speak to him with such ease.
He tilted his head to the side. “You like him, don’t you?”
I blinked several times and then nodded. “I don’t want to.”
“Well, Vanessa, I can’t tell you otherwise because truthfully, I’d love to see you with someone better, someone with more integrity and civilized… If you look at your phone now and do a Google search on his name, there’s going to be some kind of scandal. You see the scandals first and all the women associated with him before you see anything to do with football. That says a lot since he’s supposed to be this big football star. That should be the part you see first. I don’t want to hurt you, and I guess it’s my crude way of bringing the truth to the table and why no one ever asks my opinion, but that is it. That’s what I think, and what you came here to hear.” He held out his palms an raised his shoulders. “But that’s just my opinion. You have a choice. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Guys like him just… well… they’re looking for fun, Vanessa. That’s the reality of it.Fun. Can’t expect more from a guy like Cole than fun. I think you can do better than that, unless fun is what you want.”
I looked at him and thought about it.
He was right. He was absolutely right, and what I should choose was the nice guy.
That would have been me doing better.
* * *
His words stayed in my mind.
Amplified by the Google search I did on Cole the minute I got home.
Gage, as usual, was right.
Before I could even finish typing out his name, Cole’s name came up, and it was tied to all manner of women.
Jesus… a person could have written a book on it.
There was one story after another from different newspapers and magazines.
There was stuff about his trade to The Centaurs, but that was old news. Only two weeks ago, there was a story about him in connection to Victoria’s Secret angel Arianna Vasquez. There were pictures and everything of them at a party in Malibu. Him kissing her, him with his hand on her ass in her short leather dress, and him leaving with her after the party. That was two weeks ago, and only God knew who he’d been with after that.
It was late by the time I finished reading, but I picked up Madam Phoebe’s book deciding to focus on the gentle guy. I read for an hour and picked up on my reading the following day at the office while I waited for Mom. She wanted to speak to me first thing.
I put the book away when she came in, pushing it in my handbag and shoving the bag under my table. Out of the way.
She smiled wider when she took a seat in front of me.
“Morning, sweet girl,” she bubbled.
“Hey, Mom.”
“I won’t stay long. I just wanted to check on you and find out if you had any dates for me for the articles. No biggie if you don’t. I just want an idea so we can plan some other stuff.” She nodded.
If I’d been my usual self, I would have been the one contacting her to let her know I had everything ready to go. However, all I had since the meeting the other day was a bunch of ideas scribbled down in my notebook.
So, this was me winging it, so I didn’t look bad. “Yes. I have dates,” I told her.
“Oh, brilliant.”
“So, the first article can go up by Monday. I figured it would be better before the season starts.” I could whip that up in no time because I didn’t have to interview anyone about that. “And, um, the Cole Buchanan one should be done by when you wanted it. Friday, sixth of September. The magazine as planned, and I’m excited.”
“Wonderful. Vanessa, my dear, I’m so glad you’re excited. I hope you don’t feel pressured in any way. I just wanted you to have something too, like the others. Taylor has PR, Mia fundraising, Abby the whole digital world. You just seemed to help everyone out. This is yours. Your thing. I know how much you love to write, so write away.” She chuckled.
“Thanks, Mom, I am grateful, and I love the idea.”
