The teams, “LA Cali FC” and “Titans FC” entered the field, saluted the fans and the referee went to the center field with John and the captain of the other team for the coin toss. John’s team won, so he decided to stay on the right side of the field. The kickoff belonged to the ‘Titans’. “John already did the right thing. He always goes for the right side. He’s a bit superstitious,” Annalise explained in an excited tone. “Oh, this is going to be such a good game… I can feel it in my bones!” “Really?” Lance asked, trying hard not to pull her in his arms and keep her there for the entire duration of the game. “I’ve read somewhere that they bought two new players.” “Ah, yes, it’s true. One is Davide Rossi, the new attacking midfielder. He comes from a great Italian team in Serie A, which is the Italian First League. The other player is Owen Shearer, a goalkeeper from the Premier League. Both of them are quite good… or at least, this is what the newspapers and the experts are saying. R
But they didn’t leave the stadium. Instead, they went down to a restricted area, where Annalise flashed a pass he hadn’t seen up to this point. He shouldn’t be surprised. Nonetheless, when they stopped outside the players’ locker room, Lance was absolutely bewildered. They waited a good while. Several members of the press came and went. Finally, one of the players stuck his head out the door, looked up and down the hallway, and then his eyes brightened when he saw Annalise. It was Cali’s forward, Tom Bostwick. “Miss Annie!” he exclaimed. “You should have just come right in. John got held up by an interview, but he wanted you to come inside the locker room.” Annalise walked over and gave the man a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, congratulating him for the points signed and for such a great game. “My God, Tom… The team was on fire tonight. If you guys, keep playing like this, I might reconsider my decision and come see every Cali’s game. The way you and John a
Her brothers eyed Annalise with renewed interest while she stared at Lance, her eyes wide with shock. Her gaze was saying: ‘a few minutes ago, you thought I was a gold digger and a bad advertising executive and now you say I’m one of the brightest minds in the business?’ “I am very confident that your sister’s determination and hard work are the key to the success of my brand,” he added. Well, those words won’t chase away the way his accusations made her feel, but they were sincere. She was still mad at him, but Annalise couldn’t step away when Lance, smiling at her, reached for her hand. To his surprise, she accepted his gesture without complaint and curled her fingers tight around his. He pulled her slowly towards him and away from Jeremy. Both her brothers looked quite stunned, but none of them said a word about it. “If you’re meeting John to talk business, then we will just go,” Brandon said tapping Jeremy’s shoulder. “Anna, are you going to be at Mom’s for
“I need to talk to Howard about a few details. Has he arrived yet?” Annalise asked Tara the moment she entered the conference room. “No. I tried calling him as you suggested but my call went straight to the voice mail,” Tara replied, stopping her friend from pacing nervously the room. “Listen, from what I saw, the presentation is perfect. But if you need me for anything, I’m right outside the door. Okay, sweetie?” Annalise nodded and took a deep breath. Her nerves were wound tight, but she meticulously went again over every little detail of her presentation. Her little team worked day and night to create something unique to present to Lance. She was extremely proud of every single one of them, but she was a little worried about Howard. The past few days, she found him a bit distant and quite distracted. Trying not to focus on the negative things, Annalise took a look around and smiled slightly. The two displays in the room were running over and over little clip
Tara made a sound of sympathy and smiled. Annalise looked at her friend entirely perplexed. “Anna, calm down. You are not alone, girl. After what you did for the agency, for all of us, you will forever have my undying gratitude and my eternal friendship. You can always count on me to land a hand whenever you need it. Yes, inside the agency, I’m the one with the big mouth, but I can keep it quite shut when required by the situation.” Annalise lowered her gaze. “Thank you, Tara,” she murmured. “I appreciate every single word you said, everything you did and still do for me, as a friend, as a colleague. But not many will understand this situation… I can already see them talking…” “Listen, sweetie, people are stupid and they will always gossip about this and that. Someone I truly admire has a saying: ‘unless they paying your bills, pay them bitches no mind’,” Tara said earnestly. “Stop trying to please the whole world. Do only what pleases you. Live your life the way you like
Friday evening, Jeremy called Annalise and let her know he would stay at their mother’s house for the entire weekend. This was a really unique occasion, so Annalise decided to do the same, happy to spend some quality time with her brother. Well, the weekend has been difficult since Saturday. If the lunch had been quite okay, giving her hope for two wonderful days, the dinner crashed every single shred of hope left in her. Her mother started an apparently harmless conversation, praising her two sons, as she usually did, and pointing out once again, if ever was necessary, Annalise’s personal… lacks: too much work, no free time, no man in her life, no marriage plans. And since all this wasn’t enough, Martha even brought up the fact that Annalise ruined on purpose her romantic relationship with John by choosing her career over love and security. And she did it out of spite. Thank God John wasn’t there… After the verbal punches
David and Elaine stood there, in silence, waiting for Annalise to gather herself together again. She took a deep breath and then looked up. “I promise you both that it’s not how it looks,” Annalise said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I swear to you I never used cheap tricks to get my hands on this account. I’ve worked relentlessly to bring this here. Everything I did was done by the book.” Elaine said nothing. David glanced at the magazine on her desk. “Well, Anna, in this photo, it looks like you were wearing his ring, but I don’t see one on your finger right now…” David continued handing her a paper tissue. “And I remember that you had lunch with him some time ago… It was the day I’ve wanted to talk to you about this account.” After she cleared her throat, Elaine intervened. “David, I know Anna. I’ve watched her for the last few months, working harder than anyone else around here, giving her best to save this agency. She spent so many sleepless nigh
Annalise laid her head on her desk and tried to ignore the painful ache that had developed around her temples. Elaine told her to go home, but she couldn’t… not yet… She knew what she had to do, and it will hurt far more than those damn pictures. Still, she hadn’t worked this hard to rebuild her reputation and her career to have it go down the drain over her affair with Lance. Yes, she was in love with him, that was so very clear in her head, but he wasn’t responding the same way. For him, what was going on between them was just enjoyable sex and nothing more. They were great between the sheets, but out of his hotel bed, in front of the cruel reality, their relationship was doomed. Annalise sighed and covered her face with her hands. “You can’t escape your past, Anna,” she whispered. “It will hunt you forever.” She turned off her cell phone and spent the rest of the day locked in her office. She only spoke to Tara to tell her she was not acc