thirty-two | tough decisions ahead

HIS MIND HAD BEEN ELSEWHERE FOR ALL OF TRAINING, TRYING TO CONCOCT WAYS TO HELP DIONNE OUT OF HER SITUATION. The blistering Queensland sun rained down on them, making sweat pour from every player while fans looked on. The odd squeal could be heard whenever a player got too close to the barricades. Reece, who he'd been doing tackle-practice with all morning, had started to grow frustrated with his teammate. Patty had messed up his footwork three tackles in a row, tripping Reece in the process every single time. He imagined the constantly falling was going to end up in someone's Tik Tok later that day.

The young fullback, once again on his ass, glared up at the lock in frustration. He looked around, drowning at the numerous people who had their cameras pointed at him. "Patty mate, are you hungover still or something?" He grunted, pushing himself off up the ground and onto his feet again. After brushing off the dirt that'd caked onto his knees, his hands found his hips as he studied his friend.

Shaking his head, Patty tried to dispel his worries from his mind and focus solely on training once again. His hand ran through his long hair, trying to evict some of the sweat that had built up on his scalp—he tried to ignore that his fingers got caught halfway down, dreading how painful brushing the knot out was going to be. "Sorry, just had a lot of drama this morning," he admits, readjusting the crash pad for Reece to run at him again.

"Is that why you disappeared last night?" Reece asked, scooping his water bottle from the ground to take a loud gulp. "Jordan was blowing up the group-chat trying to find you."

Patty shrugged, not quite meeting his eye. "Yeah, something like that," he muttered before quickly changing the subject. "Who was the girl you were talking about?" He'd read the contents of the group chat on the Uber over, laughing to himself at the things his friends felt confident saying aloud.

Reece waved him off. "That Korra chick who worked with that reporter you fucked," he explained. "She kept giving me dirty looks every-time I'd walk past her." Patty could imagine, having received plenty of dirty looks from the videographer—a side effect of him once being Dionne's enemy, he supposed.

"Yeah, that tends to happen when you ghost someone," Patty replied, rolling his eyes and deciding to leave out the fact that he'd been with 'the reported he fucked' just that morning. He wasn't going to tell anyone anything until he was sure she wasn't going to run away from him yet again. The thought made him want to check his phone, make sure she'd not blocked him again (as seemed to be what happened after they'd sleep together).

Reece threw his hands in the air. "It was just a one-night-stand, I thought she knew that!"

Patty, who's mind had started to race again, had just landed on a brilliant idea. "Oi, do you know if Terry is in today?"

Thrown off by such a random question, Reece frowned at him. "Um. . . How should I know. . . ?" He replied, squinting at him. "Why?"

"No reason," Patty replied, already planning what he was going to tell Terry when he caught up with him. Terry was head of the club's marketing team and he remembered, at the last team meeting, the older man mentioning they needed a new social media manager (the old one was going on permanent maternity leave). He'd not been asked to pose for Tik Toks in a while, so he assumed there hasn't been a replacement found yet.

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(@ppaattyycarrigan made a post!)

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PPAATTYYCARRIGAN: Contentment

view 267 comments

USER1: He's so fine 😍😍😍

USER2: Hey I'm single x

JORDANRIKI: Have my children
     ↳ PPAATTYYCARRIGAN: No

BRISBANEBRONCOS: ❤️

USER3: I heard he got with that reporter girl
     ↳ USER4: Wait WHO. Spill.
     ↳ USER5: That was debunked & she was fired over it
     ↳ USER3: Wait what??? I didn't know that

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PATTY GLARED DOWN AT HIS PHONE AS THE ELEVATOR CARRIED HIM UP TO HER FLOOR. His Instagram comments had always been a cesspool of atrocities people felt bold enough to say behind a screen—though, not quite on the level as Reece's or Jordan's—but people were starting to take things too far now. Thirst comments he'd become desensitised to but speculation on his personal life was where he drew the line. It took everything in him to only delete the comments rather then defend her honour (there'd been a meeting held about how rogue he'd been on socials as of late, he'd been asked to dial it back for the sake of the clubs image). Besides, he had good news that needed to be shared.

The ding of the elevator doors opening made him look up, shoving the little box in his back pocket before venturing out. He strolled casually down the hallway, looking for the metallic number stuck on her door. He barely had to knock once before the door flew open and he was dragged in by his collar.

Dionne, with her work clothes crinkled and undone, pulled him down for a passionate kiss which he gladly reciprocated. His hands found her waist and he lifted her off her feet, legs wrapping tightly around his torso. He loved this side of her, the part of her that was so physically affectionate—he'd not have dreamed have her in his lap on the couch in a state of half-undress when she'd posted her first article about him back in January. It really went to show that you truly could not predict the impact people would have on your life when they enter.

Before she could completely distract him, letting things go further (as much as he'd thought about it all day), he pulled back. Frowning at the sudden disconnection of their lips, Dionne played with his drawstring and asked, "is something wrong?" She looked up at him with big, round doe eyes.

He shook his head, hands reaching for her own as he ignored the tightness growing in his shorts. "The opposite, actually," he told her proudly.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow at his words, urging him to go on.

"I talked to a couple of people at the club today," he began, smiling at her brightly in excitement. He had a specific image of how this should go in his head.

"As you do," she murmured sarcastically, smirking down at him.

"—and they've had a social media manager role they've been trying to fill for months," he continued, disregarding her comment. "I mentioned your name and they said that your interviews had been really good publicity or whatever for the club. And so, if you want it, they wanna interview you for the role sometime this week." He stared at her expectantly, awaiting her reaction.

Dionne's brown eyes went wide as she took in what he was saying, offering her. "I'm hardly qualified. . ." She protested, climbing off his lap and flopping down beside him, hugging the throw cushion against her chest.

"You've got like 100k on Instagram from those interviews," he reminded her, resting his head in her lap. Instinctively, her fingers found their way into his hair and tangled in his slightly damp locks (he'd basically drowned himself in the showers after how bad training was).

"I don't know, Pat. . ." She muttered, trying to envision herself behind the camera, directing the team and writing the captions. Being in front of it had been something that had taken her a bit to get used but she'd conducted interviews before (just in written form). She'd not been the one to run the social media pages her interviews were posted to, she couldn't take credit for all the success. "I'm a journalist, I like to write. It's a nice thought but I don't think I'd be very good at it."

"Don't sell yourself short," he protested, reaching up to cup her cheek. "You're brilliant at everything you do." He paused before adding, "but there's no pressure, it's just an option so you don't feel so stuck where you are."

Her cheeks warmed up at the earnest nature of his words, she was unable to connect the man laying in her lap to the same one she spent ages hating on through a screen and ferocious words. "I'll have to think about it," she decided after a moment, nodding as she tried to convince herself that was the right thing to do.

"Make sure you do," he replied, thumb caressing her cheek. "I hate that you're stuck working for a creep, doing something you're not even passionate about anymore."

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💌 KARLA YAPS !

remember what i said about having no self control not to post chapters i've written... double update !!!

what do we think about the job offer??? will she take it??? or will she stay where she is???

i'll have y'all know, i'm busting my ass trying to pre-write as many chapters as i can tonight so i can give y'all daily updates right until the end of this book :)) appreciate me & make sure you voted on both chapters or Ocea1cPerl will find you.