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LIAM

Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh.

Breathe…

Breathe…

Liam was going to have a nervous breakdown.

Yesterday did not go how he expected it would – and he didn’t sleep a wink last night. No, after yacking up his guts and spending too much time on the ‘throne’ in the hotel bathroom, he was pretty sure that the wobbly feeling in his legs wasn’t due to restricted blood flow.

He was scared to death.

The call came.

The phone call he never expected.

The Call.

There was a new hockey team – and they wanted him – as their captain.

Him.

His agent assured him this was a ‘done deal.’ This was the job of his dreams; they kept referring to him as the ‘golden boy,’ and went as far as to deposit a mass ive lump sum into his bank account as a guarantee…

which should have been red-flag number one.

He didn’t give them his bank account information – yet.

Liam called his parents, told them the good news, basked in their praises, came over for dinner, picked up a few things from his parents’ house – and then left for Nadine’s place. She had been his ‘on-again, off-again’ girlfriend for about a year now… and frankly, he was tired of the drama.

Narrator: This would be Red flag number two, dear readers.

As Liam knocked on her door. Nadine answered it with enthusiasm that was flattering to any red-blooded male. She hopped into his arms, kissing his face all over, and nearly suffocated him with some brand-new cloying perfume he didn’t recognize.

“We need to talk,” Liam started and saw her annoyed face as he put her down, standing her on her own two feet… and looked up. Every cell in his body froze with nightmarish horror as he stared in disbelief at the dress form in the corner of her filthy living room. “ WHAT IS THAT? ”

He hadn’t meant to shout the words at Nadine.

Maybe just an ‘ emphatic yet brief questionnaire’ regarding the satin and sequin monstrosity that was on display with all sorts of flounces, frills, and gaudy beads dripping from it.

His horrified eyes turned to her annoyed ones, and he knew – heaven help him – he knew deep down inside why she was glaring at him…

and why there was a wedding dress in the apartment.

“We’re getting married.”

“Uh, no, we are not!” he practically yelped in disbelief.

“Your agent called me and… ”

“What?!”

“Okay,” Nadine huffed. “I will just let you know now that, as your wife, I do not appreciate you yelling at me or raising your voice…”

“ WE’RE NOT MARRIED! ” Liam screeched and then realized he’d yelled the words.

He drew in a shaky breath, steadying himself.

“We are not married. We are not getting married. No engagement, nothing . And I came by as a courtesy to let you know that I’m breaking up with you.

We’re over, Nadine – and we most certainly aren’t getting married. ”

“But Ricky said…”

“Ricky… is… FIRED !” he began, shouting the last word in sheer amazement as he slapped his forehead. “I cannot believe this. I can’t. This has got to be some practical joke or…”

“But, I paid for it,” Nadine began, sticking out her bottom lip as Liam looked at her, the dress, then back at her… as it clicked.

Narrator: And now, may I present Red Flag number three…

“How?”

Liam wasn’t sure that single word needed to be repeated, but it hung in the air, unanswered for much too long confirming what he already knew. “ How did you pay for the wedding dress, Nadine? Why would you pick out a wedding dress when I haven’t proposed to you?”

“Yet,” Nadine said persistently, huffing.

“Ever,” he corrected and looked around at the scattered mess on the coffee table – and froze as he spotted the item he never imagined seeing within the confines of her space. “Did you take a blank check from my apartment?”

“You said to make myself at home,” she puffed and then put a hand on her hip. “So I did. Ricky said you were taking a contract in Canada but that you had to be married for the job and well, I’m ready.”

“Why are you talking to my agent – behind my back?”

“Because he’s super-cute and takes care of you. I looked him up on one of those business-y websites and…”

Narrator: I didn’t expect red flag number four, but sometimes even I am surprised that people do not learn their lessons. Boys and girls, get the popcorn. This is going to get interesting…

Liam felt a vein throbbing in his forehead as he closed his eyes, counting backward, and felt his patience threatening to snap.

Was he really so easily taken advantage of, so na?ve that his own girlfriend could steal his bank account number, go behind his back, and contact his agent?

Wasn’t there a name for that – larceny? Except they deposited money in his account.

Money, he hadn’t earned. but she had spent – somehow.

And his agent?

Didn’t that break every privacy rule in his contract? What happened to confidentiality? How could two people take advantage of him like this, and he fell for it, completely blindsided and taken unawares.

Narrator: And three… two… one…

“Oh my gosh,” Liam whispered, suddenly seizing up in horror as everything collided in his mind at once.

He’d been let go from his team this morning, breaking his contract for the position in Quebec.

He had the movers coming, his plane ticket purchased, a new condo waiting for him to sign the lease, and he was on his way to drop off his Tahoe at the dealer ship, where he’d pick up the last bit of paperwork here in Houston.

He was done with the area and moving to another country – today .

‘ …And you had to be married for the job.’

Nadine had said a few moments ago, but he hadn’t caught it – until now.

“I need to call Ricky,” Liam whispered and froze because he couldn’t. He couldn’t unload to his agent because the man betrayed him - but he was letting him go immediately.

“Me too,” Nadine huffed, causing Liam’s head to whip around in disbelief.

“I am calling the bank, calling the police, and calling my agent to handle all of this mess – MY WAY,” Liam snarled, shoving his finger in Nadine’s face as she backed away from him.

“And then I am getting the heck outta here, taking that contract and marrying the first woman I can find that looks and act nothing like you! ”

Nadine blinked at him, shocked.

“Do you hear me? WE ARE DONE! ” And with that, Liam turned around and raced out of her apartment, slamming the door behind him hard enough to rattle the windows.

His heart was slamming in his chest as his mind was in a flurry of everything he needed to possibly shut down or what else Nadine could have done to him.

He had a prior ex-girlfriend tell him once when she was dumping him that she was ending things because of his ‘lack of communication’ – so he had bared his soul and opened his home to Nadine because they had been a couple at the time during one of their ‘on-again’ moments.

“I’m so stupid,” he hissed angrily, getting to his car and slammi ng the door. “Pick up the phone! Pick up, pick up, pick up!”

And then heard Ricky’s voice.

“Liam, my maaaaan…”

“You listen to me,” Liam hissed angrily, driving his Tahoe over a curb like it was nothing and nearly hitting a fire hydrant.

“I’m taking that contract in Quebec. I know you’ve been talking to Nadine behind my back – about me!

” he raged, feeling tears of anger and frustration burning with a ferocity that was beginning to scare him as he now understood what ‘temporary insanity’ felt like… and dove in.

“I’m getting married,” he bit out, letting out a maniacal laugh before Ricky could say anything else. “I’m going to be in Quebec tomorrow, talking with the coach and their attorneys… and do you know what I’m going to tell them? Do you? Hmm?”

“Liam, calm down…”

“I’m gonna tell them that I’m a free agent .

I’m going to whip out my contract with you, show them how you broke confidence, explain that I want to sue you for a breach of contract, and explain how I’m all in as their new team captain – and no one in the media will hear a peep about any of this, or I will sue you again.

You hear me? You are fired – and you’re gonna rip up the contract with no repercussions against me because we are done! ”

“Calm down and think about this…”

“Oh, I’m calm. I’m the calmest calm that has ever calmed, right now,” Liam ground out and pulled into a parking lot so he could let off some steam.

“I’m completely calm, completely within my rights, and completely finished with you both.

She spent some of the money, you know that?

She spent money that she authorized to be deposited into my checking account – and now I’m on the hook for it .

What do you th ink of that? Hmm? Hmm ? Sounds illegal, doesn’t it?

Did you have anything to do with it – and I suggest you think about your next words to me, Ricky – very, very carefully . ”

“I guess you are a free agent,” his agent replied quietly.

“I guess I am,” Liam spat angrily. “I want my fees refunded within twenty-four hours because I need to get a different bank account. Twenty-four hours, Ricky, or I’m going to take you both to the cleaners.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to freeze any outgoing withdrawals on my account and catch a flight. I’ll handle my own life from here.”

“Good luck, my man. I wish things could have been different.”

“You know what? - Me too.”

Liam hung up the phone, cracked open the driver’s door, and promptly threw up. No agent, no girlfriend, no place to fall back – except his parents’ house, and that made him feel like an even bigger failure in life, and now, he was just now finding out that to land this job, he had to be married?

When had that been a stipulation?

And how had he missed that on the contract he signed?

That’s a heckuva bombshell to land directly on my head.