“Why the hell would I joke about this?” I slouch in my chair.

“Fuck, I don’t know. Why?”

I slowly shake my head.

You haven’t been paying attention. You’ve been so focused on life after baseball and how you can satisfy your drive to be successful. Meanwhile, you’ve forgotten about me. You’ve forgotten about our life. You’ve forgotten your promises, and no amount of communication will take away the bitterness I have toward you for that.

“She wouldn’t talk about it. All I really know is that she’s very unhappy and has been for a while. She gave me the divorce papers and then slept in the guest room.” Loneliest night of my life.

“Jesus. I’m sorry, man. Are you going to sign—”

“No,” I shout and then quiet my voice when I’m snapped back into reality. There are people around us. I don’t need them listening in on my private conversation. “I don’t want a divorce.” A divorce would fucking break me. Losing Myla would break me.

“Did you tell her that?”

“I mean, I think I made it pretty clear. I tried to tell her I loved her, and she immediately shot me down.”

“Dude.” Banner rubs the back of his neck. “Fuck. I did not see this coming.”

“I had no fucking clue either. What do I do?” I ask. “I knew she was acting weird, but a divorce? That’s the last thing I expected. Have I really been that busy, that blind to the situation?”

“I don’t know, man . . . maybe . . .” Banner shrugs just as I spot someone approaching us.

“Did the meeting start without me, boys?”

Penn Cutler.

One of my best friends and former teammates and the reason I came up with the idea of The Jock Report. It’s the reason we moved to California and probably why I’ve been so blind to what’s been going on with my home life.

Just to splash you with some quick backstory—boring I know, but it’s needed—Penn and I played with the Chicago Bobbies a few years back. I tore my rotator cuff and couldn’t recover despite my many attempts, and Penn . . . well, his haunted past drove him off the pitcher’s mound. A former alcoholic who attended rehab during the off-season, he was picked apart by the media, season after season. One bad game and they assumed he was back to drinking. It got to the point where the Bobbies couldn’t manage the press anymore, so Penn cut ties with them before they could cut ties with him. And that was how his career ended.

It was so fucking unfair to be pushed out of his sport for a past that he cleaned up, so I came up with the idea of The Jock Report, a social media website run by the athletes where they have their own voice, can tell their own stories, and can interact with fans. It’s been a billion-dollar idea, and with the help of my brainiac brother and investment from Cane Enterprises, we’ve been able to shoot up to the top-selling app in the world. Together, Penn, Banner, and I moved to Los Angeles, where we opened an office and now manage over fifty employees. This all happened within a few months. Yeah, that fucking fast.