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How do I make all of this make sense without telling the whole ugly truth? Because there’s no way the truth can come out, not without causing a whole bunch of trouble. I need to show Bryan that Eddy is a hero, and that he had a great reason for defending my honour. One that makes sense.
‘Because Eddy is my boyfriend,’ I reply.
The words leave my lips before I can really think them through.
‘Eddy is your boyfriend?’ he says in disbelief.
‘Yes,’ I reply, although even I can hear the doubt in my voice. ‘My ex saw us there together, started mouthing off, hurt me… Eddy was the hero.’
‘I thought Eddy was married to the game,’ Bryan points out.
Just between me and you, when I couldn’t sleep last night, I did look Eddy up. I was just curious. I wanted to know more about him. I didn’t specifically look up his marital status; I just happened to notice it during my light research, that’s all. And thank goodness I did, because I couldn’t have thrown out a lie like that if there was a chance he was taken; that would be a whole other scandal.
There’s a brief knock on the door before Eddy walks in. He looks at Bryan, then notices me sitting opposite. He looks surprised to see me – pleasantly though, like we’re old friends bumping into each other.
‘Oh… hello,’ he says.
He’s wearing a pair of navy-blue shorts, his muscular legs on show, and a cream hoodie.
‘Eddy, hello, take a seat,’ Bryan tells him. ‘Brooke was just bringing me up to speed on the events of last night.’
Bryan hits play again.
Eddy pulls a bit of a face as he watches himself confront Ron.
‘I want to say it’s not what it looks like,’ Eddy offers up.
There’s a slight smirk on his face, a hint of satisfaction. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me want to smile, just a little, to see Ron get his comeuppance like that. I’m not usually one for violence, and I’m sure I’ll change my mind when I calm down, but someone needed to teach Ron a lesson. The things he was doing, the way he was treating people, the horrible things he was saying – and I know he didn’t mean to (physically) hurt me, but he did.
‘Where did you get that?’ Eddy asks.
‘Someone uploaded it to the internet,’ Bryan replies.
I know that’s true, but something about his phrasing makes me smile. That’s probably how my dad would say it too.
‘I’m out, aren’t I?’ Eddy says with a sigh, slumping into the chair a little.
‘Not necessarily,’ Bryan replies. ‘Brooke was just owning up, about the two of you…’
‘The two of us?’ Eddy repeats back to him.
I suppose the problem with making lies up on the spot is that there’s no time to brief anyone else who might need to be clued up to play along. I’m going to have to do it in front of Bryan, as subtly as I can.
‘Bryan knows that the man you hit was my ex-boyfriend, that he was giving us a hard time, that he knocked me over – all because he’s having trouble accepting that… we’re a couple.’
I struggle to say those last few words to his face but they come out eventually. I know, this is so weird, but I’m doing this to save his career. After all, I got him into this mess, so it’s my job to get him out.
Eddy’s expression doesn’t change. His eyes don’t widen or narrow, his mouth doesn’t bend up or down – he doesn’t so much as move a muscle. Then he turns to Bryan.
‘Look, ideally we don’t want you hitting anyone, but defending your girlfriend against the harassment of an ex-boyfriend is something we can work with. People are already watching the video, so we put something out there about the reason why, and if it does blow up, we have the right spin on it. If it stays contained – no harm done,’ Bryan tells him.
‘Right,’ Eddy says plainly.
‘But, Eddy, you owe me,’ Bryan tells him. ‘Any promo for the rest of the season, for the World Cup – you’re doing it. The World Cup is our chance to get the Leeds Lions name out there on the world stage. You’re going to be our poster boy. Sound good?’
‘No,’ Eddy says with a snort. ‘But I understand.’
‘Tim and Ben are downstairs; I want you to go see them. They’ll look at that hand, put you through your paces,’ Bryan continues.
