Page 100 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

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“I’m assuming you’ve seen all the comments online,” Mike said to him the minute he walked in the door on Tuesday morning.

“Some of them,” he said. “You know I don’t get sucked into that shit.”

Warren rarely wanted to see what was being said about him.

Half the time it wasn’t factual, and if it was, he didn’t care since he lived it.

If it was false, it reminded him of what Emma said to him months ago.

Fuck them. That’s what he thought of people judging him.

Not that he’d ever be able to say those words in this cancel culture society.

“I’m not talking about the game talk,” Mike said. “It’s about Emma.”

“I know,” he said. He hadn’t wanted to look at anything until after she left yesterday.

He didn’t see her enough as it was and the last thing he was doing was getting sucked into the black hole of the internet tosee what people could drum up about his gameplay or personal life.

“Are you ready to make a statement on it?” Mike asked. “Word is out of her name.”

He hadn’t seen that part. “When?” he asked.

“I saw it about twenty minutes ago,” Mike said. “I’m surprised it took this long. Let’s be real, there are a lot of pictures of you with her on the field. The camera got a good shot of you kissing her before the game started. Then they were zooming in on her in the suite with your mother and sisters.”

He had realized none of that until Emma got home last night. She’d shut her phone off yesterday so they could have the day to themselves. When she was driving home, she hadn’t turned her phone on either so she wasn’t distracted.

It wasn’t until she was on the ferry that she saw all the messages from her family that had seen her on TV.

She told him she wasn’t taking notes during the game, that she was too busy watching it.

When she was waiting for him, she pulled the notes section up and just bypassed reading any texts other than his to not get sidetracked.

He had to admit he admired that about her. He couldn’t always ignore a text that he got unless it was someone he didn’t care to talk to.

“Emma and I talked yesterday. We knew her coming to the game would get noticed. I didn’t think they’d grab her last name this quickly.”

“She had a badge on her neck,” Mike reminded him. “Her full name and picture were on it. She was talking to some of the WAGs.”

He growled. “And you think that is how it slipped out?”

Mike shrugged. “It’s a free-for-all and you know it. Some don’t like that they aren’t being shown as much. Your guess is as good as mine. Does it matter how they got her name?”

“No,” he said. “I’m going to post something on social media. Emma and I aren’t following each other, but we are going to once I tell her it’s out. I’ll tag her and she’ll reply. Is that good enough?”

Mike’s head went back and forth. “I’m getting a lot of calls that I’m fending off.”

“I hate this shit, Mike. It’s my personal life and doesn’t need a team press release.”

“All I need to do is say we are confirming the relationship. Nothing more.”

“Then give me an hour,” he said. “Don’t you think it’d be better that way?”

“It would be,” Mike said. “With a picture of the two of you. Do you have one?”

He did. He’d taken one with Emma’s phone yesterday with them on the field, but they had a lot more of their time together.