Golden

Chapter 14: Breaking News

—Week before training camp 2018 starts—

"I'll see you in a week." I say kissing Jimmy goodbye.
"Have fun, but not too much fun." He laughs watching me go to TSA. I'm going to London for charity event the magazine puts on every year. It's my first time going to one of these things, but I have a gown and I'm really excited about everything.
10 hours on the plane seemed scary, but it was surprisingly good because of first class.
I text Jimmy but he doesn't reply, must be at the gym. I know they don't start OTAs until next week. I hope he gets back to me soon. I entertain myself with sleep and movies the whole time.
I land and head to my hotel. As I'm checking in a I hear a familiar voice. I turn to my left and see him.
"Jack." I say with a gasp. He turns to look at me and his eyes light up.
"Ana." He breathlessly says before giving me a hug.
"I was hoping to see you." I say.
"Me too." He says not letting me out of the hug.
"Can we talk?" I ask.
"Sure, when?"
"After we get settled in?" I ask.
"I have a dinner with the international team, actually you should come." He suggests.
"Really?" I ask.
"Yeah, I'll meet you down here in an hour."
We head to our rooms which are weirdly down the hall from each other. I panic no way can I look decent in an hour. I bring out my dry shampoo waving out my hair and makeup I go for a natural look with a nude lip gloss. I unpack and hang some options, is it casual? Super formal? I grab a burgundy off shoulder hilow dress and heels. I see I'm calling it close on time and hastily put on deodorant lotion and perfume.
When I get to the lobby I see Jack wearing a button up shirt with slacks and dress shoes. He sees me and stands up.
"Look at you." He smiles. I playfully roll my eyes giving him a spin. He gets us a car and we drive to the restaurant. I've never been to London so I admire everything.
"Oh look Big Ben!" I point out like a child. He points me in the direction of touristy places and enjoys how enthusiastic I am.
"So what did you want to talk about?" He finally asks.
"Why you gave up the job so it'll go to me." I say turning to look at him.
"That..." he trails off. "Is a good question, which we unfortunately don't have the time to answer." He laughs
He pulls up to the valet parking and I'm helped out of the car. We go inside to meet with our team and the food is great, the conversation is amazing. These are genuinely my people.
After dinner I notice we're not driving back to the hotel.
"Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise." He says.
"So can we talk about what I wanted to talk about?"
"Later." He begs and I nod.
It doesn't take me long to know he's taking me to the London eye.
"It's so gorgeous!" I say as we walk to buy tickets. It's pretty lonely but the worker says it's normal for a Wednesday night in June. We're lucky enough to get a dome for ourselves.
"Let's get a quick picture." I say taking my phone out and taking a quick selfie of us  I post it on my Instagram story. I notice I have a lot of mentions but before I can click on it Jack gets my attention.
"I left the job go because I knew you'd be great at it." He says. I put my phone down and listen. "I wanted the job because I wanted a fresh start, but you wanted to be with Jimmy and I knew it was the right thing to do because it'd make you happy." He says making me smile. My phone buzzes and I try to ignore it.
"You wanna get that?" He asks with a laugh. I look down and see Jimmy's name flashing on the screen
"If you don't mind." I say nicely. I answer the call and step to the other side.
"Hey." I answer.
"Hey sorry I didn't answer, I've been pretty wrecked with workouts and charity events like the zoo naming a  snow leopard after me."
"Oh don't worry about it. And that's amazing! how are you feeling?"
"Great, I have a good feeling about this coming season. How was the flight?" He asks and I tell him all about it.
"Okay well I'll let you enjoy the view." He says.
"Okay baby, I love you."
"I love you more." He says before hanging up.
"Sorry about that. Different time zones." I laugh.
"It's cool we're about 5 minutes from the top." Jack says pointing to the monitor that showing an estimated time. "So are you liking the Bay Area?"
"Oh I love it! Jimmy and I go hiking and to the beach all the time, it's truly an amazing place to live."
"I'm glad you love it." He says. "Great issue as well, we work well together."
"I'd say, we had a boost in sales." I point out. He laughs and then silence quickly takes over.
"I heard he signed his contract." He mentions.
"Yeah he did, today I think." I say looking over the town.
"Biggest one in history."
"Is it?" I ask turning to look at him.
"To date." He confirms. We spend the rest of it talking about our new staff writers and interesting story topics for the next issue.
After the ride he drives us back to the hotel, and I am so happy to shower and sleep.
—
My assistant wakes me up with a phone call.
"Hello?" I answer.
"Good morning! In know you're tired but if you have breakfast now you'll make your spa and gym appointments and have more than enough time to get ready. I'll meet you at the hotel at 12." She says. I look at the time and see it's 7am, what the fuck I'm so tired.
I do as I'm told and have a lovely time in the spa, it helps in waking me up. I see Alicia in the lobby.
"Hola." She smiles giving me hug. "I have hair and makeup ready for you." She says motioning to the people beside her.
"Sounds great." I tiredly say and we head up to get me dolled up.
"Does today feel like a weird day to you all?" I ask. They all answer shaking their heads. "I just have like a feeling." I say unable to shake the feeling. "Look I'm getting goosebumps right now." I say with a laugh as I raise my hand and show them.
"You're probs just nervous hun." Ali says.
"I know." I brush off. I grab my phone and call Jimmy.
"Babe you know it's 4am out there right now." My hairstylist says.
"You're right.." I laugh ending the call. What's wrong with me? I get dressed have a quick lunch and then I'm told it's time to do some press. Why? I don't know I just do as I'm told by Ali.
"Hello Ana!" A news reporter says getting my attention.
"Hi." I say standing next to them.
"You look gorgeous!" She says and the camera moves to my red dress. "Sporting the red for your boyfriend?" She asks and I furrow my eyebrows. "You know team colors." She explains and I laugh.
"Oh yeah, totally." I say. She asks me questions about the charity and I love answering them.
"Before you go, how is he doing? The San Francisco team is very popular here."
"Oh I had no idea." I say. "But he's great, looking for anyway of improving he's magical really."
"Bit under the spell aren't we?" She judges me.
"Four years of love and counting." I say with a shy smile.
"Can we expect a ring anytime soon?" She asks and I raise my eyebrows.
"Not for me to decide, but yes I hope to wear a ring soon." I joke before walking away. About an hour of that later I bump into Jack. He's looking gorgeous in a classic black and white tux.
"Hey stranger." I say giving him a hug. "Can you believe how many celebrities are here?" I ask still not believing it.
"I know it's quite overwhelming." He sighs. "Had to book an emergency phone meeting with my therapist."
"Oh poor thing." I frown putting my hand on his shoulder.
"I'm fine now." He smiles and leads me inside to the venue and it's so gorgeous. We talk and eat the whole night and I get to meet some really inspirational people. After the event there's an after party I'm invited to we head over and about two hours later I'm feeling tipsy so I decided to call it a night. I go outside to get a cab and am ambushed with paparazzi. I look down at my phone and it's blowing up. I have multiple texts from Claire, Maya, and Alicia and my Instagram keeps showing my notifications. What the fuck. I opened my phone and see everyone is tagging me to one photo and a video. It's Jimmy out having dinner with some girl. What the fuck. I see texts from Maya and Claire asking me what was going on Alicia asking me to go to the hotel and not talk to anyone. I'm so confused. I push through the mob get a cab and head to my room.
"What is going on?" I ask Ali who has something on the television but it's paused. "What's going on?" I ask again.
"This is all we know." She says and presses play on the video. I see the footage of it and I don't know what to think.
"When did this happen?" I ask.
"Last night." She painfully says. I look at my phone seeing the last time he texted me was a couple hours. I feel like he was texting me during the clip we saw and I feel like throwing up. "Do we know who she is?" I ask trying to keep my tone unphased.
"Popular pornstar." She quietly answers. He talked to me and told me loved me hours after all of that. I feel so sick.
"Can I get a minute." I say biting the inside of my cheek.
"Sure sweetie." She says stepping out of the room.
I start to think about the conversation we're going to have and I get flashbacks from my ex boyfriend who cheated on me. It's about to be 1am so I know he's up.
I'm gonna call him and see what he has to say.
"Hey baby." He answers.
"Hi." I reply nervously. "Let's FaceTime, I wanna see that gorgeous face of yours." He says before I get the request. I sigh and fan my face so my eyes won't be red. "Ana." He says when I take too long. I accept the call and smile as best I can. "Oh you look beautiful." He says.
"Thank you." I say not looking at the screen.
"Let me see the whole outfit." He says and I go to stand in front of a mirror.
"I bet you outdressed everyone." He laughs.
"I don't think so." I shyly reply. "How was your day yesterday?" I ask, I still can't bring myself to look at the screen.
"It was okay I guess, nothing special I just worked out and looked at some tapes."
"What kind of tapes?" I question.
"Football tapes, what else would I watch?." He laughs off. I can't keep it in any longer and a tear slips down. "Hey, are you crying?"
"How could you?" I ask as more pour down. "Four years Jimmy, we've been together for four FUCKING years and I love you with every cell in my body and I cannot understand how the fuck you let this happen." I loudly say on the phone. He freezes. "You can't even talk Can you?" I ask. "But it's fine Jim it's fine, Maya will be there tomorrow morning to start moving my things out." I say wiping my tears away.
"Out where?" He asks. "You're not going anywhere we'll work this out. I fucked up I know I did but baby you don't have to go anywhere."
"How?" I ask. "How the fuck are you going to work this out? I can't even look at you because you disgust me right Jimmy." I say and start crying again. "I knew you'd never want me deep down inside, I knew it I just pushed it aside because I thought that I was wrong and I was just a self destructive monster, but no this wasn't meant to last."
"Yes it is were meant to last." He says. "I'm sorry Ana I really am I don't know what I was thinking just please come home. We can work it out."
"People like you don't deserve people like me." I say finally looking at him. I see his hair messy probably from running his fingers through it like he does when he's frustrated. His eyes are glossy. "You go be happy with your pornstar, I hope she's worth it."
"Ana you're the love of my life. I'm sure if it." He says. "Please don't rush into making decisions please just come home and we can talk about it."
"I don't have a home." I yell. "And you made sure of it." I say as I cry. I finally hang up and Ali walks in she sits next to me and gives me a hug.
I take a shower and cry, then I get into my pjs and cry myself to sleep.
Ali wakes me up in time for my flight, I'm swarmed by media for comments about the situation, but I keep my AirPods in to try and block them out.
I try my hardest not to cry on the plane but that's pretty tough.
The media is even worse in the San Jose airport. Maya is here to get Ali and I. She hugs me tightly before we push our way through to her car.
"I tried to get your things, but he threatened to call the cops if I touched your things." She says as she drives us.
"Drive me there." I say.
"Are you sure?" She asks.
"Mhmm." I reply.
She asks me about the event and I tell her everything, it was all nice with the exception of the night of. It's not too far of a drive and before I know it we're in front of the house.
"I'll call you guys later." I say grabbing my suitcases.
I type the code in the gate and walk in. I open the front door and Wilson runs to greet me. I sit on the floor to play and rub his belly for a while.
"Ana." I hear Jimmy say as he comes down the stairs. I look up and finally take off my glasses, he seeks my puffy eyes and he looks sad. He doesn't look any better than me.
"Look at me." I say when he lowers his eyes to the floor. He shakes his head no slowly. "Look at me." I repeat. "This is what you did to me." I say as tears threaten to spill. "You know it would happen, what did you expect?"
"Ana, I am so sorry, I know I hurt you but please believe me when I say I love you more than anything in the world I could lose everything in the blink of an eye and I wouldn't care as long as you were by my side." I finally stand and he looks up to me.
"I... I love you, you know me better than anyone and that's by choice, I chose you. I'll always choose you Jimmy, but I just wanna know why?"
"Because I was stupid and wanted to get laid, it was not emotional at all Ana I love how much you love me and you're more than enough for me, I'm just so fucking stupid and desperate." I look at the broken man in front of me and I know he's a good man, I know he is. I trust him more than I trust anyone. He's never done anything to hurt and I don't think he's deliberately hurt me with intent. My mind goes back to Jack's letter about my forgiveness.
"I want to move past this." I finally say and he looks up at me.
"I'll do anything baby, anything you want me to." He says on his knees.
"I'm gonna need space." I say looking down at him.
"What kind of space?" He asks holding my hands between his.
"Some time apart. I only ask that you wait for me and help me through it by allowing time to process everything."
"I'll wait for you baby." He says kissing the back of my hand.
"I'm gonna be at Maya's." I say pulling away from his grip and heading outside.