Page 30 of Fake Love

Now I’m the one that is having their back go straight.

“Seriously?” My mind's going crazy right now. I don’t believe in coincidences, but this is too crazy to ignore.

“Yes,” Jen nods and by the look of her face she’s thinking this is crazy too.

“What athlete?” I ask out of curiosity.

“Hunter Jacobi.” she answers.

Damn. “Like Quarterback to the San Francisco Gold, Hunter Jacobi?”

“The very one,” she says through a sigh.

Double damn, that would have been great for her, but that doesn’t matter now.

“I didn’t wiretap your phone,” I say, getting back to the topic at hand. “The fact that I need a social media manager and you trying to convince another athlete to take you on, is just a huge coincidence.”

A trippy one at that.

“Apparently,” Jen says, shaking her head a bit before giving me her full attention. “So, are you an agent or something? Who’s this athlete you are trying to hire me for?”

Is she serious?

I had an inclination that she didn’t know who I was when we first met, but a lot has happened since then. Like my face being all over the city and the ballpark and every local sports station talking about me and how spring training went.

Hell, I even got a text from Cole a little bit ago about how I was all over the team’s Twitter page with my batting practice appearance.

But does she seriously not know?

“I’m the player.” I say, a bit of confusion in my tone.

“You’re a professional athlete?” She asks, bewildered as if she can’t believe it.

“I am. Do you not know who I am?”

Jen shakes her head. “Should I?”

This is new to me. I’m so used to people knowing who I am everywhere I go. Back in Chicago, every time I went to a restaurant, the grocery store or took the train somewhere, I was always stopped for a picture or an autograph.

It’s happened a few times here in San Francisco these last few days and I’m sure it will happen more and more when I get back on the mound. Hearing that someone doesn’t know me, it's a little mind boggling.

“Not unless you're a baseball fan.”

Jen gives me a shrug, her ponytail swinging in the process. “Baseball is more of Selena’s thing. I’m more of a football girl.”

I don’t even know if I should ask who this Selena person is.

I let out a sigh and start from the very beginning.

“I’m Maddox Bauer and I’m a pitcher for the San Francisco Miners. Up until a few months ago, I was playing for Chicago but when I decided to drown my issues in cocaine, I got suspended, let go from my team and now I’m here. Given another chance at my career after spending six weeks in rehab.”

A small gasp leaves Jen’s pouty mouth when I say the word cocaine all the while her eyes going a bit wider than what they already were.

“Was it just for fun or was it to forget about something? The cocaine.” She asks.

“Something happened with my mom, this time last year and I didn’t take it well. I wanted to forget the possibility of losing her, so I drowned my pain in the coke, all while she was drowning in the pain of her illness.”

I look into Jen’s eyes as I speak, and a part of me thought that I would see disgust looking back at me, but no.

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