soul ties-a paige bueckers story

NINE

TW: sexual harassment

***

PAIGE

the next day

"Kels, I have something to tell you," I started, sliding into my seat at the long table in the conference room. As soon as we'd gotten back from Providence and Bryce had gone to sleep, I had texted Geno, some of the GA staff, and Kelsey, asking if they had any time for a meeting at any point the next day. In typical UConn fashion and with typical UConn precision, they had set up a meeting for us, bright and early. "I'm in a relationship."

Kelsey nearly spit out her coffee. Geno just nodded supportively, sharply inhaling as he waited for her reaction. "This is real, G?" she turned to him, and he shrugged. "Whatever the kids want to do, Kels."

"Okay," she turned to me, tilting her head as she tried to get a read on me. "I appreciate the heads up?" There was a questioning tone to her voice, because she and I and everyone knew I didn't just call this because I had met a guy at a bar.

"It's with a girl," I said slowly, bracing for the worst. "Her name is Bryce, and she's on the soccer team."

"Okay," Kelsey said, pulling out her notepad from her purse. "Here?"

"Yes, here," I filled in. "She's my year, no partnerships yet outside of team contracts, transferred here from Minnesota last season, but she's originally from Boston."

The irony was lost on no one at the table, given the chuckles when I mentioned Minnesota. "I want to go public with it," I continued. "This is important to me. Everyone knows my brand as authentic, something real. I don't want to lose that. That's not fair to me, or any little girl looking up to me that's going through something similar. So I'm going public with it," I said decisively, "It's just whether or not you're gonna help me."

"Paige..." Kelsey trailed off, setting down her pen. I nervously caught Geno's eye, but he shook his head as if I didn't have anything to worry about, and nodded for me to shift my focus back to her. "We're going to support you no matter what, honey." She reached across the table to squeeze my hand. "You know that I love this program because of you guys. You're all incredible young women and my only job has ever been to make sure those cameras outside protect that."

"So...you're not mad?"

"Mad?" She laughed. "Paigey, I've known. I knew it was your timeline, though. And especially when there's a million eyes on you, I'm never going to rush that kind of thing." Her voice turned serious as she addressed the table at large. "There's going to be backlash, but you're not the first athlete to do this, especially not within your sport. People will say what they have to say, but at the end of the day, if they're true friends of the UConn program and true fans, they're gonna love you regardless."

"So...I don't have to make a statement?"

"No," Kelsey said decisively, getting a collective no from the rest of the table. "You don't owe anybody anything when it comes to this. It's just gonna be a matter of dealing with some negative attention, and deciding for yourself a boundary when it comes to how much you want to share with the public."

"That's the thing," I admitted. "It's hard because I want it all to be thoughtless, but it's not."

"It hasn't been since long before you got here, though," she reminded me. "And if this is something you really want, you're gonna be okay with having to take a few extra steps. You know the team has got you, you know the coaches and staff got you, you know I got you, and you know that the student body here is very progressive."

"And besides, what does this have to do with the kind of player you are?" Geno wagged his finger. "Nothing. In fact, it just makes you happy. And happy Paige gets me wins."