Tripping

Chapter 5: Nathan's POV

Nathan 

I love playing for the NHL. How could I not? My whole life this is what my dad prepared me for and all I want to do is make him and my mom proud. He has to be proud of me. I made it to the team I always wanted to play for, found the girl of my dreams on the way, and just resigned a pretty hefty new contract securing my spot with the Leafs for the next two years.

You know what my dad would not be proud of me for? Publicly having sex with my fiancé in a foreign country and possibly jeopardizing that new contract and our careers.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. That's what I am. I had to let my caveman out and fuck Mia on the balcony pool because I was worried people would be watching her and trying to figure out how to get to our villa to get their hands on her. So being the dumbass I am, I publicly staked my claim. Completely forgetting that I am in fact, a professional athlete. If you thought you could escape the paparazzi even being far, far away from home, you thought wrong. The Greeks do in fact watch hockey and do in fact know me and apparently have been following me.

I woke up to the team group chat going off, and Mason reassuring me it wasn't so bad and instantly going into the legal parts of it. All I can think about is if Mia's face being hidden is a good thing or bad. It's good because I would never want to purposely exploit my fiancé of not even 24 hours like that. But it's bad because what if people think it's not Mia. I would never, ever, cheat on Mia. She's there for me when she doesn't need to be. I'm the luckiest guy ever to have someone like her on my side forever, hopefully. I've been doing my best these past couple of years to protect her from the media. I know how they can be. I've seen the worst of it and refuse to let it ruin our relationship.

I open a text from Ricky hoping he will know what to say to calm me down.

Ricky: It's not that bad. No proof it's you guys. Just be there for her when she finds out, that's all you can do.

Be there for her. I can do that, I always do.

She's still knocked out beside me after I fucked her all night. Saying it was amazing is an understatement. But now watching as Erik Davidson, the biggest asshole on my team, shares the article into our team chat for all the players to see, including the horny rookies, it's not so amazing anymore.

I try to downplay it all, I mean you can't even tell it's us, we left our swimsuits mostly on, I just have her bent over the corner of the pool. Thank God it's only a picture. The only thing giving away our identity is the NHLBuzz headline reading, Nathan Reese and Girlfriend Mia Evans Seem to be Enjoying their Off-Season! Opa! Are you kidding me? Opa? Really? What the fuck am I supposed to say to Mia when she wakes up?

I gently try to grab her phone without waking her up to see if she has any messages about the picture to make sure nothing in here is going to make her regret saying yes to marrying me just last night. I open her phone and the first message I see is a comment on the picture she was tagged in by NHLBuzz by the account @icebunnies. Oh fuck. Fuck that account, they continuously DM me on my social media accounts and Mia and I spend some nights laughing at the things they send me in bed cuddled up together. But now it's not so funny when they are commenting on something involving Mia.

Comment and send me messages all you want, I don't give a fuck, I never act on it. But about my Mia. Big FUCK NO. I read the comment and I'm instantly fuming.

@icebunnies: We have room for you here Mia when you're done with Reese, we'll find you a new one.

New one? No. Never. Not today, tomorrow or ever. No other player or person gets her. Do they think we are not still humans? They really think they can fucking buy us at a hockey store.

I do quick work of deleting any comments and blocking them but I can't get rid of the article with the picture no matter what I do. I wish it were that simple.

"Morning handsome," Mia says to me through a lazy smile, eyes still closed.

She has no idea what she's going to be opening her eyes to and it's killing me that I can't do anything about it. I've been playing for the NHL for a few years already, I always stay clear of this type of shit, my publicists tell me how to avoid getting caught in this stuff. This time I didn't even try to avoid a bad situation. No, I walked right into it, head up like a cocky asshole thinking I was fine. Thank God for Mason, already working his ass off to try to get it down since he has an insider to NHLBuzz. For the first time, I'm actually grateful for his fuckboy ways, one of those girls who fell for his trap happens to be the PR rep at NHLBuzz.

"Hey beautiful, how did you sleep?" I ask her hoping she doesn't realize something is wrong.

"So good, I'm a bit sore but I'll be fine," she tells me as she kisses my forehead.

Just tell her Nate, relationships strive off honesty, keeping this secret right after you promised her a life full of honesty and love and she accepted isn't how it's supposed to be.

"There's a picture of us having sex in the pool from last night," I practically vomit out the words to her.

She quickly shoots up and goes to grab her phone but I stop her, wanting to tell her everything without her seeing things on social media.

I'm holding both her hands with mine watching tears form in her eyes and fuck if my heart doesn't completely crack.

"I already talked to Mason. He is trying to do anything he can to get it taken down and you can't really see our faces, mostly just our upper bodies but you're all covered. Everyone only thinks it's us because of the headline, for all they know it's someone else's picture."

"But it's us, it's not someone else's picture, it's us. Our picture and names are all there. God Nate how can we be so stupid," she sobs out.

"You're right it's all there and we know that, but people are already commenting that they don't think it's us," I try to reassure her.

"Nate, what the hell am I supposed to tell my work, I work at a fucking law firm. We usually help people in these situations, what are they going to think when I'm now the victim?" she practically spits out in disgust. She's leaving me. Before we even get our forever she's leaving me and I feel so helpless.

"I'm so sorry, I failed at doing the one and most important thing which is protecting you. I've tried to do that ever since we met and now I failed you, I'm sorry if you feel like you need to leave me to get away from this lifestyle but I can't hold you back," I try to hold back my own tears but I can't stop but feeling like our 6-year relationship is ending and fuck if I don't feel like crying. When it comes to her I'm always emotional.

"Leave you? Are you crazy? Why would I ever leave for something we are both responsible for. Sure I'm pissed because fuck, what are we supposed to do? But I thought we are supposed to take on these things together," oh shit. Wow. I sound dumb as fuck right now. Like a weak asshole that's doing fuck all instead of figuring out how to fix this.

"Fuck, sorry baby, I'm just upset I made a stupid mistake," I tell her and encase her in a hug holding her tight against me. "We are heading home tonight, we'll go see Mason and my team and see what we can do about it."

I kiss her forehead and hold on to her tightly hoping we can get through this without breaking. 

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Oh Nate... 

Short chapter but another one is coming soon! 

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