Page 13 of Game Plan
“Play coy all you want; you and I both know how this is going to play out in the end. So, will we just skip all your procrastination and get straight to the details of this week or month’s latest female interest?” Will scooped up some loose rice from his bowl and ate it while waiting for Jade to update him.
He wasn’t wrong. Jade regularly met women on nights out. It was no secret that she didn’t stay with the same woman for more than a few dates before moving on. She just wasn’t the kind of person to be in anything serious; that was more her sister’s area with Ivy. And her brother’s again, now that he’d met Ivy’s friend and colleague, Toni. Not to mention even thinking the phrase ‘long term relationship’ typically broke her out in hives. Until now.
“I may have met someone.” Jade placed her chopsticks down, and sat back in her chair, giving Will her full attention before continuing. “It was three weeks ago now, and I’ve not been able to get her out of my head ever since. Which, as you so eloquently put it, is new for me to not already be moving on to the next woman who catches my eye.”
“Huh, can it really be true? Are your womanizing ways coming to an end?” Will asked with a chuckle as he reached for his glass of ice water.
“It’s a little more complicated than that though.” Jade tried to explain. “We met at a bar; we each ditched our friends to spend the evening together -”
“Oh, I bet Emily loved you for doing that to her!” Will added.
Jade smirked, “She forgave me, eventually. Anyway, we spent the evening, and several hours into the next morning, walking around the city just, talking. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”
Will sat hit chopsticks down and studied Jade closely. His head tilted slightly while his eyes narrowed as he watched her, “She’s different than the others, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, I really think she is.” Jade felt her face scowl, “But I’ll never see her again.”
“Why not?” Will gently encouraged Jade to answer.
“A couple of reasons. Mostly, we didn’t exchange phone numbers. Or surnames, so I have no way of finding her.” Jade reached forward and touched the condensation on the side of her glass of ice water. She watched the water droplets trickle down the edge of her glass before finishing on the small card mat on their bench.
“Yeah, that would make it difficult to find her alright. I’m sorry, Jae,” Will said gently.
Not as sorry as I am!
Chapter 12
April
“April, honey, will you come down here please?” April heard her mom shout from the bottom of the stairs.
April used the term ‘shout’ as loosely as humanly possible when referring to Imogen Walker. The woman had never raised her voice louder than a hiccup as far back as April could remember. Even the woman’s sneeze could be described as genteel.
As April made her way into the kitchen, she found her mom preparing a selection of snack boxes for the next few days of April’s training. Apron tied around her waist, sleeves rolled up to just below the elbow, slim-fitted jeans, and short hair styled tostay out of her face. This is the look April always associated with her mom whenever she was away from home.
“Oh good, you’re here. Are you hungry? I’ve got some boxes finished if you want one just now? It’ll be a few hours before dinner, but I don’t want you to be hungry,” her mom started. “Let me get you something while you wait.”
“Mom, I’m fine, I’m only waiting because you called me down. Do you want me to help?” April made her way over to the sink and was already washing her hands before her mom told her she had called her down because her dad wanted to see her in his office. “I’ll help first then I’ll go see him.” She started putting lids on the filled pots and stacking them into their large fridge. “How’s your day going? Did you hear back from Aunt Lucy?” April smiled. No matter what age she was, she’d never be able to say her aunt’s name and title without hearing Paddington Bear’s voice in her head.
“I did, she’s going to be here the weekend after next. I know you’ll be busy then.”
“Hopefully,” April corrected her mom. As many professional athletes would agree, you don’t plan to get through rounds of a tournament, but you do practice in the hope that it happens.
“You know what I mean, but she says that if she misses you this time, she’ll see you again soon anyway. Now, you'd best go in and see what your dad wants before he comes out here looking for you. That won’t do either of us any good if he’s in one of his toddler tantrum moods.” Her Mom smiled and did a half wink. Knowing how to handle her dad, especially during his moods, made life easier for everyone. He wasn’t a particularly angry man, but if he didn’t get his way he could pull the silent treatment better than anyone she knew.
April leaned over and kissed her mom on the temple before heading through to the home office where she knew that she would find her dad. He would be surrounded by both of theirtrophy collections and no doubt squinting at the computer screen because he refused to admit he needed glasses.
Her dad was a very proud man. Kept himself fit, watched his diet, had a haircut every three weeks, read autobiographies of successful sports managers in different fields, attended leadership courses, and had even completed an online course in business management. He always wanted to improve himself. Just don’t ask him to admit that his age was starting to factor into his life.
As suspected, she found him at his desk in front of the display case that held their multiple trophies, narrowed eyes looking at the screen while the printer sprang to life as she walked into the room.
“Ah, there you are! I’m just printing off the contract for the new sports drink. Well, the updated version of the contract now that our lawyers have read it over and demanded some of the wording be altered from the original.” Her Dad was clearly in manager mode, not even a ‘hi’ before talking business. “Sit and take a look at it while I work through a few things, then if you’re happy, sign and date it at the end.”
April sat down on the chair opposite her dad, picked up the contract, and began working through it. One of the things that had always been instilled in both her and her brother, Connor, was to never sign your name to anything that you hadn’t read through yourself. This had followed an issue with a contract her dad had signed early in his career which saw a large portion of income going elsewhere due to the wording in a clause that had been added without his consent between agreeing on the terms and physically signing it.
Over the next 30 minutes, April sat and read about terms and conditions, finances, expectations, and was about to skip to the end when a word caught her eye.Lifestyle.
She carefully read the clause that specified the contract would be null-and-void should her personal conduct and behavior reflect negatively on the brand, including social media posts, public appearances, and personal relationships.
