Chris' POV

The flight back to Arizona was long, even though technically it was only an hour flight. Shawnie was on my mind the whole time. Last night was a really good night and we haven't had a night like that in years. Even though someone else was there I was only worried about her and it made me feel like old times. I know we're not gonna get back together, but I still have a little bit of hope that we will.

When we get together like that it fucks with me head. Here I am thinking about possibilities of us getting back together and how things could be. I really feel we could work now. We both are just so much better mentally and I believe it'll work. I know she isn't going for that though, it's just wishful thinking. I have bigger issues to take care of.

I don't know what Jasmine is on. I know she's probably tired of my bullshit and I know it's a lot to deal with me but I kind of feel like she's giving up on me in a way. I care about her but I'm just not ready to take the next step and be in a relationship with her. I know I'm not ready to be in a relationship and I know I'm not forcing myself to be in one, but having her around so much makes me feel like I am already in a relationship with her.

Jasmine and I got into an argument because I was trying to express that to her. She wants to take the next step and she's right in feeling how she feels but I don't feel the same 100%. So while I was telling her that I still want to take things slow and keep things how they are she told me to get off of her phone and never call her again. I know it doesn't help that she's been hearing all of these different rumors about me being out on the road with different women. I'm sure that aided in her decision to stop messing with me.

I know I should call her back and talk to her, it's been a day and even if we don't get back on the right track, I still wanna make things right with her because I don't want her to feel like she did something wrong because truth be told, she did everything right. It's just me. I'm the problem. I'm always the problem and I will probably forever be the  problem.

As long as Shawnie is around and it doesn't matter if she's giving me any play or not, as long as she's around I'm always gonna feel this way about her. I've tried so hard to move on and I tried to wait, but nothing is fixing these feelings I have inside for her. I don't know what it is and honestly I'm sick of it but I just can't shake the feelings that I have for her.

I got to the venue, the sound check, and went right into the show. As soon as I got off the stage, I decided I was going to call Jasmine. After I did my meeting greets, I got on my bus and called her.

"It's late, I have a flight in 4 hours." She answers

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to call you and apologize."

"But what is the point of calling and apologizing when nothing's gonna change? And on top of that, what's the point in calling me now when you spent all day with your baby mama yesterday?"

"I'm not trying to get into all of that." I say

"It doesn't matter if you wanna get into it or not. You got mad and you found out where she was. You flew to her because you were upset with me. I'm almost 100% positive that you fucked her. Why should I keep putting myself in a losing situation with you?"

"It's not like that..."

"Yes it is. It's like that and it's going to continue to be like that. Just like she runs to you every time she has a problem, you run to her too. Don't try to make it seem like it's just her. You're the problem too." She says

"Yeah, I know I'm the problem. I'm always the problem." I mock her. I'm not trying to be an asshole because I know she's right, but damn give me a little bit of slack.

"I'm happy you know that, now get off of my phone." She says

"Jasmine, I'm trying to talk to you and make this right." I say in a calm tone.

"Did you fuck her?"

"Look.." I start but she cuts me off.

"Nah. Answer me. Did you?"

"........Yeah." I say honestly

She hangs up.

I can't be mad at her, but I can still feel like she can't be mad at me because I was honest with her. I could've lied to her like I used to do to all my other girlfriends but I'm trying to be honest with her. She doesn't appreciate my honesty. I don't need to be with her ass anyway. Fuck her.

Shawnie's POV

We all flew back to San Diego later on that night, and we just crashed. We all were so exhausted from all the partying that we have been doing the last couple of days, especially me. I was pretty much going off of only a few hours of sleep. After I left Odell, everyone was already up and getting ready to go out for breakfast. So I haven't really hadn't much time to sleep other than the few minutes I got on the plane ride home. 

The next morning, I woke up to Joe knocking on my bedroom door. I got nervous because Joe and I have had an eventful couple of days and now that we're back home, I was kinda nervous to have the talk with him about everything that has gone on since he hit Aubrey in the face.

"Come in." I say loud enough for him to hear me on the other side of the door. He cracks the door, popping his head in.

"Amanda is here for you." He says

"Amanda?" I look at him confused.

"Yeah, she's downstairs in the living room."

"Aw shit!" I say getting up. "Tell her I'll be down in a minute."

"Okay." He says, then closes the door.

What in the world could Amanda be doing here? I'm sure Aubrey does not want her representing me since I have announced the divorce. Which is right because how can we have the same people while we're going through a divorce. They were his employees first so it's not uncommon for them to drop me.

I hurry up and brush my teeth, wash my face, fix my hair and put on some somewhat presentable clothing, and I head downstairs.

"Hey!" She says happily.

"Hey, Amanda. Is everything okay?"

"Um, yeah!" She says, trying to sound upbeat, but I can see it all over her face, something is going on.

I take a seat on the loveseat, cater-cornered from her, who is sitting on the sofa.

"What's up?" I ask

"Would it be asking too much if I spoke to you in private?" She asks

A glance over at Joe, who is in the kitchen and can hear everything that's being said.

"No, but what is this about?"

"There are some things that I want you to be aware of. I'm kind of giving you a heads up and honestly I am still on Mr. Graham's payroll, so I can get fired for this but I think this is very important and I cannot let this happen without you knowing."

"Joe, can you give us a minute?" He nods his head and leaves the kitchen.

She waits for him to leave then she speaks. "I know there's been a lot of things going on in the past few days and I have been working overtime. When they announced your filing, Craig called an emergency meeting. Which is normal, but he already had a divorce attorney sitting in the room when I got there. Not really trying to get too much into details of everything we talked about, but obviously he's very upset. He threw a chair and flipped a table and he threatened pretty much all of us. So it is a huge risk that I am here right now and I want you to understand that."

"Okay." I say. Now I'm a little worried.

"But, I do want to shed some light on the situation. While you guys were together, and you moved out here, he got a private investigator. The private investigator followed you for a few months, gathering information on you, Joe, everything that has been going on here. There are a couple of pictures that could be taken out of context between you and Joe."

"JOE!!" I call for him. "If he is involved in this, he needs to be here for this conversation."

"He's not involved, but I understand." She says

Joe walks downstairs and stands at the bottom of the stairs.

"What's up?"

"Sit down." I say

He doesn't hesitate, he just walks over and takes the seat next to me.

"So, Aubrey has had a private investigator following us for months, and Amanda just told me that there are some pictures that could imply something other than what was actually going on with us." I explain

Joe was instantly irritated. I could see it all over his face.

"Really?" He says

"Yes." Amanda says.

"He would do some bitch shit like this. To his wife, the mother of his child." He shakes his head. "Pathetic."

"This private investigator has pictures and videos of you guys, even you and Christian Middlebrooks. I didn't really come here to inform you of all of this but I am letting you know so you can know where his next steps are coming from, because I know you weren't cheating on him. He knows that too. This is all a fabricated lie."

"His next steps?" I say

"Yes. He's going to try to argue that you have been cheating on him the whole time you guys were married. He's gonna say you were with Mr. Brown, he's going to say you were with Mr. Middlebrooks, and he's going to say you were with Mr. Anoai."

"So I'm just out here supposedly hoeing around with everybody? That's what he wants people to think? That he married a hoe? Does he not realize that makes him look bad too?"

"Right." Joe says

"I'm here because he gave me until today to release all of that information." She says

"That's why you've been calling me like crazy?"

"Yes. I'm coming to you because I'm trying to get ahead of this and I want you to be fully aware of everything that's about to happen. If I don't release this information along with the pictures and videos, he's going to fire me. I'm completely fine with that, but I don't know what's going to be said if someone else puts the stuff out. So this is what I propose... I'm going to put out what he's asked of me. I'm gonna try to do it in a way that it's not implied that you were cheating, but you were just seen with them. I want you to release a statement, I will write it of course, but I want you to give an explanation of who they are, and what you were doing."

"The only person they don't know is Christian. He knows exactly who Christian is and that's why he's doing this. I don't want to drag Christian into this."

"Well, I'm sorry to be so harsh, but maybe you should not have been seen with him in public." She says. "He's fair game."

I sigh, "That's true, but Aubrey was there with me. There has never been another time where we were photographed together other than that one time that Aubrey was there. His shit doesn't even make sense."

"What do you expect?" Joe says. "You filed for divorce, got his ass beat and damn near arrested. He's bitter as fuck. Do you really think he's just gonna let this slide?"

"No." I say

"Okay then. You've been telling me that he is not the type of person to just let something go. He's gonna have the last laugh, this is exactly what he's doing." He says

"You're right. I can't believe he would do this."

"Okay, hold on. Let me finish with what I was saying we can do all of that, you know I have TMZ on speed dial. But if I do this, I'm walking. I will no longer work for him and I'm coming to you because you're going to need a publicist."

"Amanda, I can't pay you what he pays you." I say, realizing she's one of the best and my little money simply can't pay her. I don't have a steady income right now.

"I am completely fine with that. I'll lower my rate, and pay what you can until you get the money from the divorce."

"I don't even know if that's gonna happen." I say

"Oh, it's gonna happen. You're guaranteed everything you asked for. They're going to try to negotiate with the hockey team and maybe the house but you're getting the money, the support, the plane, and the backend of all business deals. You won't have to work ever again. You're going to be okay." She says in a soft tone.

I guess she sensed the insecurity in my voice.

"Oh..."

"On top of that, he told them to give you everything you asked for. Everything." She says

"What?" I say in disbelief.

"The team is pissed off, of course. Has Billy contacted you at all?"

"No."

"He said he was gonna try to contact you to see if they can talk you down, but Mr. Graham told them to just give it to you, so that's probably why he hasn't called you. Please don't repeat anything I've said to you."

"Of course not." I say

"Mr. Graham is hurt and he's only trying to make you hurt too. I believe he truest lives you but he doesn't know how to cope with this loss...he's used to getting whatever and whomever he wants."

"Why do I feel bad?"

"Because you don't want to hurt him. I know you love him but woman to woman, this is going to be the best thing you do for you. It's best that you get out now."

I nod my head.

"So, I'll get on this. You can expect this to go live within the hour."

"Okay."

"Please. Don't post anything and do not contact him until after this happens."

"But I have to talk to him. He's been calling me for days." I say

"Wait a few hours." She says

"But maybe I can get him to change his mind about doing this."

"You're not supposed to know about this." Joe says. "Just wait a few hours like Amanda said."

"Okay." I say. I know me and I believe it is best that I wait a few hours after this story breaks because I will get so upset and I will start going off on him and it will slip out.

Amanda stood up. "I will be giving him my letter of resignation tomorrow morning, and I will be on call for you 24/7. So I will be back with contracts and all that good stuff."

"Sounds like a plan. I will see you tomorrow." I say and she leaves.

I turn around and look at Joe.

"He's a bitch. You know that."

"That's crazy." I shake my head.

"Yeah...since we're down here by ourselves..."

I cut him off. "I know we need to talk about the last few days but I don't think I'm ready yet." I say

"You don't need to talk, just listen."

"Okay."

"These last couple of days have been a lot. I know. But I kind of wanna backtrack a little bit because even though we kind of have something going on, and I told you, I wanted you to explore everything you want to experience, and I stand by that, but....."

"..... you don't want anything with me right now."

"Yeah." He says

"I already knew that. Just like you know me, I know you. We've talked very vaguely about this these last couple of days. Let me say this, so you'll know that I know what you mean. There's something there between us, but neither one of us wants to see what that is right now. We're both intrigued, but we don't want to get wrapped up into it because it will cause problems, and potentially become very problematic. Right?"

"Yup. And I still want you to date other people and do whatever it is you feel you need to do. I'm willing to take that risk. You have a lot of things you need to work out within your marriage, yourself, and with Chris and adding me to the mix would just make everything a lot more complicated." He says

"I agree."

"Okay, so we just keep things how they've been and everything's gonna be all good. No hard feelings?"

"None." I say

"Aight." he says, and stands up. "I'm gonna go for my run, you wanna come with me?

"You know what, yes. Let me put on some workout gear and I will be back." I say

"You gonna run with me?"

"I'll run with you for like five."

He burst out laughing "Alright I'll take what I can get."

When I got back up to my room I heard my phone vibrating on the nightstand. I quickly rushed over to pick it up and I saw was my dad calling.

"Hey Daddy!" I answer

"I tried to wait until you called me back but I couldn't wait any longer. I'm excited." He says

"Why? What's up?"

"THAT'S the kinda man my daughter should be with." He says

"....... Huh?" I was so confused as to what he was talking about. "Who?"

"OBJ! I saw you guys photograph together. Is he your new boyfriend?"

I burst out laughing. "Oh...no Daddy. We're not together."

"That's the type of guy you should be with. A NFL player. You know he won the Super Bowl last year?"

Laughing, "Yes daddy. I know."

"I was thinking, maybe I should just come out there..."

"You just want to come so you can get football tickets." I say laughing

"Damn right! Kick my feet up in the family suite at Sofi stadium, have a nice cold beer. You think they'd sell my beer there? You think he could introduce me to the right people?" He asks

"I'm sure he could but dad we aren't together and nothing is going on with us. We just ran into each other out there. We were just having a conversation and someone took a picture of it." I explain

"......Oh.... So no football tickets?"

"No. Maybe I can ask him when the season starts though. He's really cool."

"No. Don't bother. I was just excited. I thought you were dating him." He says

"Daddy the ink isn't even dry on my divorce papers yet." I laugh. "It's barely on the documents."

"Shouldn't have married him in the first place." He says

"OMG, Dad. Stop." I say laughing.

"Well he's gone so I can say it now. I didn't like that snotty motherfucker." He says

I was laughing so hard, and I couldn't stop when I heard snotty I lost it.

"I don't know why you're laughing. You're the one that had to sleep with him."

"Daddy...I gotta go. Joe is waiting on me. We're gonna go run." I say

"Run? You've never worked out a day in your life. You going Hollywood? You ain't the First Lady no more, you gotta go be a football wife." He jokes

"Bye, Daddy."

"You know I'm just joking with ya! But seriously, I am going to take you up on that offer. We have some business we need to discuss."

"What?"

"You know I built this company so you could have something. I'm getting older, having health problems, I can't do this like I used to." He says

"Health problems, what are you talking about?"

"We can talk about it when I get there. Everything is in your name so if anything was to happen, there really wouldn't be anything that I need to do." He says

"I don't like the way you're talking. These health problems, are they serious?"

"We can talk about that when I get there. Everything is fine. Don't worry about it." He says

"But you know I am."

"I know, but try not to worry so much." He says

"I'll try. When can you come?"

"As soon as you want me to."

"Okay how about you come out here in the next couple of weeks."

"Sounds good. I'll get my Speedo ready."

"Ugh. Okay that's my cue. I love you. Bye daddy." I hang the phone up before he could say anything else.

My dad is a trip.

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