“So that’s it? I’m the bad guy here?”
Payton pointed a finger at the conference room. “It’s splattered all over the television!”
Cedric crossed his arms over his chest and pierced her with a searing glare. “And just what did you see on the video, Payton?”
“I saw…” Payton tried to remember exactly what she saw. It was mostly a lot of fist flailing and general hoopla.
“I’ll tell you what you saw,” Cedric said, taking two giant steps forward until he’d backed her up against the wall. His face stopped mere inches from hers. “You saw two drunken Baltimore fans gang up on me, but you didn’t see me throw a single punch. Not even to defend myself.” He stepped even closer. “Maybe you should get the entire story before you hand down a guilty verdict.
“There are a couple of other videos that have popped up since last night. They show Jared and Randall pulling those guys off of me and the three of us leaving the club.”
Payton was at a loss for words.
“I didn’t start this fight,” Cedric continued. “I didn’t finish it, either. I walked away.” The look he trained on her cut Payton to the quick. “Even Coach took the time to hear my side of the story before automatically assuming this was my fault. At least he had faith in me, but I guess it’s asking too much of you to believe I’ve changed over these past few months.”
His frustration was palpable, but Payton refused to bear the brunt of it. She was not the guilty party here.
“I wake up this morning to your name splattered all over the television and video evidence of you in a fight! What was I supposed to think?”
“That you could trust me not to go back on my word,” he suggested in an accusing voice. “I promised you I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize my chances of re-signing with the team. Is it too much to expect that you could believe in me? I thought we’d gotten to that point, Payton, in both our professional and personal relationships.” He took another step back. “But I guess I was wrong.”
Payton stared at his face, remembering the expression it held just two nights ago while they’d lain wrapped in each other’s arms. They’d both opened their souls to each other, sharing their pasts and their hopes for the future. Cedric was a different man. He’d acknowledged that. Why hadn’t she?
He had a right to be upset. From the moment she saw the video, she hadn’t even allowed herself to consider that Cedric had not been at the center of the incident. His earlier promises had meant nothing to her.
“Cedric.” Payton closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said. What else could she say at this point? He was angry and had every right to be.
“It’s all good.” He backed away and shrugged. “At least I know where we stand.”
“Cedric,” Payton called again. She reached for him but he pulled away.
“No. Forget it.” The set of his jaw was hard as stone. “It’s nothing I haven’t been through before. I’m getting used to the way you agents operate.”
His cold words lanced her chest, cutting to the very core of her being.
Payton followed him into the conference room and joined the others at the table. She was introduced to Mark Paxton from the Sabers public relations department. He attached a laptop to an overhead projector.
“So far, two additional videos have popped up on YouTube. The one I’m about to pull up shows the fight from start to finish. It’s almost as if whoever was filming it knew something was about to go down.”
Payton settled into her seat, which was directly across the table from Cedric, as the additional footage from last night’s incident rolled on the screen.
Jealousy gripped Payton’s chest as several ladies—though Payton felt generous in calling them such—approached Cedric’s table, their objective obvious as they sidled their scantily clad bodies up to the stars in the club. One of the women bent low and whispered something in Cedric’s ear.
Payton studied the screen with an intensity that shocked her, so intent was she to see Cedric’s response to the blatant come-on. He smiled at the woman but shook his head in the negative.
Payton slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. She looked across the table to find Cedric staring at her. The grim set to his jaw told her he knew exactly what she thought his reaction was going to be to the flirting women. Disappointment was evident in his eyes, but there was something else there.
Anger.
In that moment Payton realized she’d just added insult to injury. Not trusting him to stay out of trouble was one thing. Believing he would cheat on her showed a complete lack of trust—one he didn’t deserve.
“This is the part we need to show at the press conference,” Mark Paxton said.
Payton brought her eyes back to the screen.
Two men approached Cedric’s table. There were clearly some harsh words tossed back and forth, then one of the men took a swing at Cedric. He ducked, but instead of countering with a defensive swing—something Payton would have done herself at that point—he held his hands up, visibly trying to calm the situation. It was the second guy who came from the other side of the screen and grabbed Cedric in a choke hold who lit the fire on the powder keg.
Pandemonium ensued, with Jared and Randall trying to pull the guy off of Cedric. Cedric wrenched free of the choke hold and grabbed Jared from the fray.
“So, exactly what happened?” Tom Rutledge, the team’s general manager, asked.
“It’s just what you saw,” Cedric replied. “We were sitting there minding our own business. Women had been coming up to the table all night—it’s what happens when we’re out—” he looked pointedly at Payton “—whether we ask for it or not. A couple of the local guys didn’t like that, so they came to the table to tell us.”
“Ced already has a bad reputation in Baltimore,” Jared added. “You know, from that thing with the fan last year.”
“That was
last
year,” Cedric stated. “I’ve done everything by the book this year. Been the model player both on and off the field. The media hyped this up and automatically labeled me as the bad guy. They didn’t even bother to get the entire story first, they just assumed Cedric Reeves was back to his old ways.” He zeroed his gaze in on Payton again. “I guess what they say is true,” Cedric huffed ironically. “Once a troublemaker, always a troublemaker.”
Payton started to speak but Tom Rutledge beat her to it.
“It’s evident that you had nothing to do with this, Cedric. We’d originally called the press conference to tell the press we were looking into the matter and would comment later, but with this other video that has popped up there’s no need to wait for later. We’re going to go out there, tell the people we’re behind you and that’ll be the end of it.”
“The big boys at the network will be happy about this,” Mark Paxton said. “This is the kind of press they like. Scandal equals ratings, but this time more people will tune in to the game because they’ll feel bad that they jumped to the wrong conclusion about you.”
Cedric’s eyes flashed to hers. “Seems to be happening a lot.”
The accusation in his voice quadrupled Payton’s guilt.
“Let’s go meet the press,” Coach Foster said. “The sooner we put this behind us, the better. We don’t need any distractions going into the playoffs.”
One by one they filed out of the conference room. Payton held back, needing to clear the air with Cedric before they stood in front of those cameras.
“Cedric,” she called before he could leave the room.
Jared Dawson stood just inside the door. He looked from Cedric to Payton, then back to Cedric, who motioned for his teammate to leave. Cedric turned to her and crossed his arms over his chest. To say the look on his face was ominous was a gross understatement.
“I was wrong,” Payton admitted.
“Yes, you were,” he agreed. “But it doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does,” she said.
“To you, maybe. For me, this is just par for the course. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and clear my name.”
Payton almost called after him again but stopped herself. She knew she would only get more derision, which was exactly what she deserved.
Cedric stood just to the left of the Sabers head of public relations as the guy told the crowd of reporters that the Sabers organization was behind Cedric one hundred percent regarding the incident in Baltimore last night. But after his opening statement, Cedric tuned out Mark Paxton’s words. His mind was too busy rehashing his earlier exchange with Payton.
Cedric had never experienced a knife to the gut, but he doubted it could hurt worse than the stab of pain he’d felt when she’d walked into the conference room and looked at him with eyes full of accusation.
He’d done a few boneheaded things when he first entered the NFL, but that was nearly four years ago. He’d mellowed out since then and had completely overhauled his image these past few months. Payton had been right there with him. She’d been an integral part of his transformation. Yet after all the time they’d shared, after the night he’d held her in his arms and pledged that he was never turning back to his old ways, all it took was a ten-second video on YouTube to convince her otherwise. His words meant nothing.
Cedric continued to stare straight ahead, his eyes glossing over the crush of reporters who had come expecting to hear that the Sabers had finally kicked their troubled star running back to the curb. At least his team had an ounce of faith in him. It was more than he could say for the woman standing next to him. The woman he’d entrusted with his career.
With his heart.
Despite the announcement from Mark Paxton that there would be no questions taken after the statement, the reporters still shouted a bevy of inquiries at the people on the podium. Coach Foster declined to answer any of them, thanked the reporters for coming and led the march out of the press room.
Cedric stayed back to chat with the coach, hoping Payton would take the hint and leave. But she lingered in the wide corridor that led from the press room to the locker room. After ten minutes, Cedric realized she wasn’t going anywhere. He left the coach and strolled to where Payton stood.
“Can we talk about this, please?” she asked.
Cedric crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “What’s there to talk about?”
She clenched her eyes tight and let out a frustrated sigh. “I can see that you’re angry, and I’m fine with that. You have every right to be.”
“I’m not angry,” Cedric interjected. “
Enlightened
would be a better word. I have a clearer picture of exactly what you think of me.”
“Cedric, that isn’t fair. All I had to go on was that video.”
“Exactly,” he accused, stepping forward and getting right in her face. “You didn’t even give me the benefit of the doubt. You just automatically assumed I was in the wrong.”
Cedric tried to tamp down his hurt and anger but it was no use. He saw every dream he’d had for them crumbling before his eyes, and it hurt even more than her lack of faith. Pain lanced through him at the thought of losing her, but after what he saw today she was already lost to him.
“You want to know what isn’t fair, Payton? You making me think you believed in me.”
She held her hands out, pleading. “I do believe in you, Cedric. It was wrong for me to jump to conclusions. I know that and I’m sorry. But—”
“But what? What else is there to say?” He pointed a finger at her. “You know, I should have expected this. Gus Houseman did the same thing. When the going got rough, he bailed.”
“I am not bailing on you.”
“No,” Cedric stated. “I’m the one who’s bailing on you. My agent is supposed to be my strongest supporter. You can’t support me if you don’t have faith that I’ll keep my word.”
Cedric didn’t give her a chance to respond. Turning on his heels, he called on every bit of strength within his bones as he walked down the hallway and out of the Sabers facility.
Even before she’d paid a ridiculous amount of money to park in the garage next to Cedric’s building, Payton’s gut had told her this trip would be pointless. She wasn’t on the visitor’s list, so the building’s concierge wouldn’t allow her past the front entrance without first calling Cedric.
Payton had known by the frown that had pulled at the man’s mouth what Cedric’s reply had been when the concierge had asked if it was okay to allow Payton up to his condo. With an indulgent smile he’d apologized and suggested that if she wanted Cedric’s autograph, she should try to catch him at Sabers Stadium after a home game where most players met fans.
She hadn’t bothered to inform him that she was Cedric’s agent, not just some random fan. Honestly, she didn’t know if the statement was true anymore. If the way things had ended between them after the press conference was any indication, more than likely she was not going to be Cedric’s agent for much longer.
The thought of being alone chafed like sandpaper on her skin, so instead of going home, Payton had dipped into the sports bar a few blocks from her apartment building. Two hours later, she was still here, nursing her fourth cherry cola.
She looked up at the flat screen above the bar. Theo Stokes shared a news desk with two other former football pros-turned-sports commentators. The TV was muted, but Payton didn’t need the sound to know what was being said as a clip of today’s press conference appeared on the screen. The episode played over and over in her head like a highlight reel.
She had no one to blame but herself. Cedric was right; she hadn’t given him the benefit of the doubt. From the moment she’d seen the clip of the bar fight, she’d judged, tried and convicted him in her mind. It had not even occurred to her that someone else could be at fault.
How could she claim to be a credible agent when she automatically believed the worst about her own client? She should have walked into that conference room and convinced Sabers management of Cedric’s innocence, not the other way around. It took more than just knowledge of the game to be a good agent. It took a faith and commitment to her client that she hadn’t exhibited today.
Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this business after all.
The thought had rolled around in her head all too often over the past couple of hours, and her actions today proved her point. She’d given up on Cedric, losing his respect.