WORK IN PROGRESS: Guy and Reason

Chapter 14 (Eden/Reason): The Entire Way

"The short answer is she plays no part in my life," Guy said immediately when I asked him to tell me about Ingrid's role in his life. "The long answer is a few weeks before the month when I self-destructed, Ingrid's dad signed me to his agency for a three-year contract with the understanding that Ingrid would be my agent and he'd be heavily assisting her. Shit went down, my mom and I were focused on my mental and physical health, but then after the NFL draft, some Ingrid-related shit started coming to light."

Guy had his hands low on his hips where his thighs began. I knew that pose. It didn't mean good things were coming.

"Ingrid was staying away from me because mom wouldn't let her near me when I was at my lowest. Then that girl I...kissed ran into me on campus and apologized, said the guilt was getting to her but she had needed grocery money that week. I had no fucking clue what she was talking about, but she told me Ingrid had given her a hundred bucks to come up to me at the party and kiss me. It's still my fault, Eden. I kissed that girl back, but that was new information. This is about a month after I broke up with you."

A month.

Then I realized that Guy had made a big deal about when I'd received those four pictures from Ingrid.

"So I got home from therapy that day, and Ingrid was over and she and my roommate were drinking, getting pretty hammered. I pretended not to know anything about her paying that girl. Instead, I talked to Ingrid about needing to back out of the NFL contract I'd signed, how my doctor had said he'd talk with the team if necessary and tell them I was mentally unfit to play."

"Why would you tell her that?"

"To see what she'd say. And it worked. It triggered her. She started saying it wasn't supposed to get that far, she never realized I really needed help, she thought I was just stressed and taking the break up badly. She said she wouldn't have pushed to get you out of the way had she known it would cause my break down and ruin my NFL career before it even started."

"What the hell?" 

Ingrid needed to get bitch-slapped a few thousand times. By a tiger. With its claws out.

"So I played along, asked her what she hoped she'd gain and she said me, even if she had to hand me over to another agent at her father's agency. Then she told me that she'd fallen in love with me, and she'd planned to keep the other girls away from me until just the right time and then she'd break us up and end her engagement. I'm not blaming her for everything, but she definitely caused some shit. She loaded the gun, but I still pulled the trigger."

"That bitch is even worse than I thought."

"I left and spent the night at a friend's place who'd been on the team with me, and I went back to my apartment in the morning and woke Ingrid up. She was hungover, but she tried to deny everything, said she was just drunk, and tried to shovel some more bullshit at me."

Sometimes, I still knew Guy. "But what had you been doing all night?"

"I was on the phone with my lawyer. He called her father and set up a meet for the next morning. Told Ingrid that was the last time she'd see me and to get out. Had the meeting with her father and the lawyers, and the upshot was I'd have to pay millions in penalties for three years if I tried to break the contract. Her dad wanted to work with me, so I told him I wanted a new agent and if I didn't get one, if I ever had to see her or deal with her in any way, if I even got a text or a call from her, I'd make sure I really was declared mentally unfit to play. So her father promised me everything I asked for, told me Ingrid would never be where I was and put it all in writing. He also agreed to not let her work for the agency in any capacity for the three years I was signed. I suspect not long after her father told her she wouldn't be working for him, you received those pictures."