26. Maggie

Acar took us to the venue where SUVs were waiting to drop off their passengers at the red carpet. Police officers had the surrounding streets shut down, and fans stood on the sidewalks wearing their favorite athlete's jersey and holding signs as the cars passed them. I spotted a few Tommy Mikals signs as we edged closer to the carpet. He wasn't up for any categories tonight, but Monica had gotten him to present one of the awards.

"Are you doing okay?" I asked him as I watched his leg jiggle faster and faster the closer we got to the venue.

"Honestly . . ." His hand threaded through mine. "Not sure yet."

"Good or bad, we'll get through it together."

Tommy lifted my hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to it without looking over at me.

Our phones went off at the same time, tearing our attention away from each other. I tapped on my screen to see that I had been tagged in an article from NewsWeekly. The headline reported that Tommy and I were discussing moving in together. A headache that felt always present nowadays whenever it came to the media circus that Monica was orchestrating pressed against my skull.

"Unbelievable," Tommy muttered.

Our car pulled up next to the red carpet. There were even more reporters and paparazzi waiting down the carpet than at the Red Cross event. My anxiety built inside my chest, trying to grab hold and pull me under. I wasn't sure if I would ever be comfortable at events like this. Tommy's grip on my hand was firm and was the only thing keeping me grounded as one of the ushers pulled open his door. His hand left mine for a brief second, and it was like I was on a raft by myself floating in the middle of the ocean until I scooted out of the car and reemerged next to him. His hand immediately found mine again, and the two of us squared our shoulders like we were about to go into battle.

The cameras started immediately, and I could honestly say it was getting easier to try to avoid them. However, I was sure I would never get used to the shouts. Fans called out for Tommy. Reporters tried to grab our attention as we passed. Tommy stopped to answer a few questions for some of them about the season.

"Tommy! Maggie!" a reporter called out to us, waving us over excitedly. "You both look amazing."

"Thank you," I replied.

"Tommy, are you excited about presenting tonight?" she asked him.

"I am. I'm incredibly excited to be here around some of the greatest in sports right now. It's really an honor."

The reporter nodded enthusiastically. "Maggie, you're no stranger to professional athletes, but how are you feeling about tonight?"

I could sense Tommy tensing up next to me. His eyes danced around at the different athletes mingling on the red carpet around us. The purpose of this interview looked like it was getting further and further away from the front of his mind. It seemed like it might be up to me to deliver on what Monica wanted from us.

"I love watching the ESPYS, and I feel extremely honored to be able to watch it in person this year. Tommy knocked this date night out of the park." The reporter smiled like the Cheshire Cat with a bird trapped between its paws.

"Do you two have any comment on the article that came out this morning reporting that the two of you are discussing moving in together?" she asked. The two of us must have looked like a couple of deer caught in a pair of headlights. Neither of us had been prepped on the article or how the Cougars wanted us to respond.

I could feel Tommy square his shoulders. "The two of us have had discussions together about our future, but for the sake of our privacy we would like to keep those parts of our relationship private."

I fought to keep the gasp his response elicited from passing my lips. I knew that was Tommy's way of letting Monica know she had crossed a line.

The reporter deflated slightly when she realized she wouldn't be getting an exclusive scoop on the couple the entire world had been keeping under a microscope.

The reporter wished us a good night before directing her attention to the next guest walking the carpet. Tommy's arm swept around my waist as he began to lead us toward the entrance of the venue. The anger was radiating off Tommy, but the night wasn't over yet.

We walked into the theater to find our seats. Tommy moved us fast through the crowd and kept his head down so he didn't make eye contact with anyone he wasn't ready to speak to. Tommy had made strides in his life to turn over a new leaf and be someone better, someone he was proud of. Tonight was the ultimate temptation of his previous life. It would be easy for him to fall into conversation with people he used to share weekends with. They would catch up, chat about their new seasons, and then someone would throw out the idea of an afterparty. I could tell from Tommy's face that was the last thing he wanted. He wanted to come out of tonight unscathed.

"Are you doing okay?" I asked him once we found our seats.

Tommy nodded. "So far."

I was hoping for his sake that the night would go quickly. Even though we were dressed up for a fancy event and out together, I knew this trip was the last thing he wanted. More people started to wander into the venue to find their seats for the show. Tommy stayed looking forward as he dissected the stage that he would present on later. I, however, looked at every person that came in. There were athletes that I had watched on television not even fifteen feet from me. It was odd seeing them in suits and dresses rather than in their uniforms. I had to stare at a few longer than was probably socially acceptable at events like this so I could figure out who they were.

A woman caught my eye as she drew closer. Her dress was practically nonexistent, and she hung from the arm of a well-known football player that played for San Diego. She looked oddly familiar, but I couldn't seem to put my finger on it. Then I heard Tommy suck in a breath next to me. I glanced over my shoulder at him to see his eyes locked on the woman I had been looking at. When I glanced back at her, something clicked. It was Sutton James.

Tommy grew tenser the closer she got. It was one of those moments that felt like it was happening in slow motion. We were close enough to the aisle to be noticeable. Sutton glanced over the people who were seated, and I watched as she looked at something over my shoulder, or someone. I was in the middle of something I shouldn't be as Sutton pulled her date to a stop in front of us.

"Tommy?" she exclaimed, her smile sickeningly sweet.

"Sutton," Tommy replied, his voice tight. "I didn't know you'd be here tonight."

Sutton didn't even bother to look down at me. Her gaze was planted firmly over my head on Tommy. I knew that she had probably seen all the photos over the past two months of me and Tommy. She made a living off social media, and the fact that she wouldn't even bother to look at me showed me exactly how she felt about those pictures.

"How are you?" Sutton asked Tommy. "You're in Chicago now, right?"

It was clear what she was doing. She was trying to distance herself from Tommy as much as she could to appear unbothered. She was playing the Breakup Code Book perfectly.

"Yeah." Tommy's reply was short, telling me everything I needed to know about how he was feeling. I wanted nothing more than to reach over and take his hand in mine for support, but now wasn't the time to do that.

"Let's find our seats," Sutton's date spoke into her ear. Her eyes stayed firmly planted on Tommy as she listened. Finally, she nodded and let him lead her away.

My hand finally felt free to reach over and take Tommy's into mine. His fingers wrapped around mine and held on for dear life as the venue continued to fill. Neither of us said anything, but I knew our thoughts were drastically different. I doubted that Tommy was thinking about that time he told me he would forgive Sutton if she were to choose him.

He surely wasn't.

But I was.

The ESPYS went by in a blur. I wasn't able to focus much on the speeches from the winners and the videos being played up on the screens on either side of the stage. My eyes stayed locked on the back of Sutton James's head for much of the night. I barely even looked up when Tommy emerged on the stage to present the award he was assigned. Instead, I watched as Sutton's shoulders straightened and she sat up slightly in her seat.

I hated the sour feeling that was filling my stomach. That feeling felt oddly like jealousy. I was aware Sutton and Tommy didn't start a relationship because they had to. They got together because of pure attraction. Part of me wondered if Tommy would have chosen me if we weren't already stuck together. Or would he have found someone like Sutton?

Tommy's hand slipped into mine as the lights came on in the theater, signaling the end of the show. I blinked, realizing that I had missed a majority of the night while I was lost in my thoughts. The two of us walked out of the event together, completely ignoring the flashes from the cameras and anyone who may have wanted to talk to us. We'd both had our fill of the night. The car ride back to the hotel was relatively quiet aside from the music the driver was playing. I knew that Tommy was thinking about seeing Sutton again, and I would have given anything in that moment to have the ability to read minds.

The car dropped us off at the hotel, and neither of us spoke until we walked back into the hotel room we had been in hours before anything from tonight had happened. It wasn't until I was standing in front of the bed that I realized there wasn't a second place to sleep in the room. There was one single, massive bed.

"I can sleep on the floor." Tommy walked up next to me to join me staring at the bed.

"It's a tile floor."

"And your point is?" Tommy asked.

"I'm not going to make you sleep on the hard tile, Tommy. The bed is big enough for both of us."

I was surprised by how confidently those words came out of my mouth. It felt like someone else had taken over my brain for those few seconds. Normal Maggie never would have suggested sharing a bed with an extremely hot man that she had developed strong feelings for. That was a recipe for disaster. I'd seen practically every romantic comedy movie that existed. I knew how this ended.

"I'm going to go get changed." I swiped my bag off the bed with my overnight clothes and dove into the bathroom before Tommy could say anything or the red spreading across my cheeks could give me away.

Before I attempted to get out of that stupidly expensive dress, I grabbed my toiletry bag to unpack my skin care routine. Just because I wasn't in my apartment didn't mean I was going to miss a chance at relaxation while giving myself clean skin again. It wasn't until my skin was bare that I felt like myself again and not some version of myself that was used for a photo op. The second I went to reach for the zipper behind me, I knew I was in trouble. It was too high for me to get on my own.

I sighed before calling out to the one person I had been trying to avoid as much as possible. "Tommy, can you help me?"

Tommy walked into the bathroom to find me struggling to grab the zipper on the back of my dress. A smile broke across his face as he slowly approached me and pushed my hands away. His eyes met mine in the mirror as he stood behind me. His hands slowly pulled the zipper down. His fingers brushed against the bare skin of my back. Sutton completely disappeared from my mind as Tommy finished unzipping the dress and it fell down around my waist, leaving me standing in the bathroom with only tape covering me.

My gaze was still locked with Tommy's in the mirror, the two of us frozen as we waited for the other to make the next move. His hands gently pulled the rest of my dress down to pool around my ankles. I was now standing in nothing but a pair of panties and tape with my back still facing him.

The jealousy was still building inside me, and I desperately needed Tommy's reassurance that everything would be okay. That our real relationship wasn't going to be over right when it was beginning because of Sutton James.

"Do you still want me?" I asked him, my eyes still locked on him in the mirror.

"I don't think it's possible for me to want you any more than I do now," Tommy told me. "But I know I'll wake up tomorrow and prove myself wrong."