Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
“Cleo never cheated. On Gustavo or anyone else. She was never with him in the first place. As usual, the media twisted what they saw into a bullshit story, and I refuse to let you drag my girl through the mud. We didn’t set the record straight earlier because it was none of your damn business. The only reason I’m talking to you now is because Cleo deserves better than your baseless accusations. She is everything that is good, honest, and beautiful in this world. So let me be clear one last time. There was no change of possession, she's always been mine.”
They barely waited a breath before hurling more questions at me. I rolled my eyes before spinning on my heel and stomping back to my teammates, who still looked ready to commit murder should I give the word.
I raised my chin at them in gratitude, and they parted to let me walk through the door before filing in after me.
“Never thought I’d see the day,” drawled Brady—a second string quarterback I’d known since his rookie season.
“Love does crazy things to a man,” Prentice remarked with a chuckle. “Just wait until it's your turn.”
Brady scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
I shook my head as I walked away. After a few steps, I tossed over my shoulder, “Famous last words.”
Several of the players chuckled, but I didn’t wait around to see Brady’s reaction. I had one thing on my mind, and that was getting to Cleo. I wanted to make sure she was all right. She was in a study session for an upcoming test for most of my game, so I didn’t know if she’d seen the article or my impromptu press conference.
Cleo didn’t answer when I called, so once I was in my truck and headed toward campus, I dialed my agent and asked him to get me in touch with Gustavo’s rep.
Less than five minutes later, my phone rang with an unknown number. I wouldn’t normally answer, but I assumed Alfonzo’s publicist was calling me directly. To my surprise, when I answered, it was Gustavo on the line.
“Me desculpa, Rigby,” he immediately apologized.
“It’s not your fault,” I grunted. Although it would have been convenient for my rage if he’d been to blame.
“Merda. I tried to quash the rumors after the first article, but it seems I made the mistake of underestimating Beatriz. She is…Ela é a rainha do drama…a drama queen? I didn’t speak to her after the article about me and Cleo came out. But the second my agent saw the news today, she was on top of things. It took very little time to discover that Beatriz was the source behind the story. She found out who Cleo was and paid someone to follow her until they found something she could use against me. I’ve already scheduled a press conference to clear things up from my end, and I doubt Beatriz will be trusted by the press in the future.”
I was impressed by Gustavo’s integrity and swift action—which irritated me because I really wanted to hate the guy. “Thank you. I appreciate that you got out in front of this.”
Gustavo chuckled. “I can’t say that my motives were entirely altruísta. No man wants to be seen as a chifrudo…I think you would use the word, cuckold? Stories of being cheated on by my girlfriend won’t help my image.”
Amused, I muttered, “Anything I can do to help your image?”
“Perhaps if Cleo has a sister…”
He trailed off, then laughed when I growled, “Anything but letting you anywhere near my woman.”
“I figured as much. Tchau.”
“Tchau.”
I was close to Cleo’s campus when we hung up, so I focused on finding a parking spot near her dorm, figuring it was the best place to start looking for her.
13
CLEO
I was already grouchy from lack of sleep and nervous about my test tomorrow. So when Ana and Maria started whispering while looking at me, I shot them a glare from the other end of the table where our group was studying. Then Stephanie leaned halfway out of her seat to see what they were staring at on Ana’s phone. Her eyes widened, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were talking about those ridiculous stories again. Ana had been irritated when I refused to say anything about my mystery guy in the truck when she asked about him before class started, and she struck me as the kind of girl who would be petty like that. Which was why I wasn’t that close with her little trio—I didn’t need to get sucked back into the high school mentality.
I did my best to ignore them when we finished up our test prep session a few minutes later, but Ana made it impossible when she hurried out of her seat and blocked the study room door from me. Planting my hands on my hips, I heaved a deep sigh and asked, “What do you want?”