We watched him walk out of the room. Bill stomped away. I turned to Jamal. “That wasn’t on my bingo card today.”

“Let’s hope it’s a one-time deal. The last thing we need is a flighty quarterback.”

“I’m sure this was a slip up. He looks fine though,” I said.

“This was his freebie.”

“Come on. Let’s grab something to eat. I feel like I’ve been here longer than five hours.”

I was exhausted, but not from this morning’s meeting. Last night was a complete disaster. I got home to Lexi pulling out of the driveway in a U-Haul. She was bitter and accusatory, which confirmed that splitting was the right thing to do. I felt nothing. That’s not true. I felt relieved. She wasn’t wrong about me not being available, and it was a relief to stop pretending I was ever going to make that space for her. I removed her access to the house security system, changed the passwords to all my online accounts, and finally crashed about one. I got five hours of restless sleep. Even Crowbar wasn’t in the mood to go to work. Yesterday was a lot for both of us.

“How did you celebrate last night?” Jamal asked on our way to the cafeteria.

“I had dinner with my father and his new girlfriend.”

“That sounds nice. What about your girlfriend? I didn’t see her at the game.”

I never wanted my personal life and professional life to collide, but that went out the door when we signed Grayson. “We broke up. She moved out last night when I was at dinner.”

He stopped and put his hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I waved him off. “I don’t know why she moved here with me. We were on the rocks anyway. I’m fine with it. Really.” I was angry last night, but I woke up and felt such peace. This was a fresh start for me. I could focus my energy on football and making sure I was doing everything in my power to take this new team to the playoffs. We just needed to make sure Grayson was feeling better. I grabbed a salad, fruit, and a chicken breast and went back to my office. Crowbar probably needed to go out and I needed the world to go quiet.

Did Grayson make it?

I leaned against the open side door to enjoy the sun and answer Parker’s text. He did. Said you tried to poison him last night, but he survived anyway. I quickly followed up with a wink emoji because I didn’t know her humor anymore.

Ha ha. I’m glad he made it.