A lot of the veterans didn’t want to live at the facility during training camp - they had family and lives outside of football they wanted to maintain. The rest of us, though, we lived in the facility, and didn’t have a choice about it, and it wasn’t exactly easy for us to get out unnoticed, but I managed, after dressing up a little bit.
It took me a few minutes to get to the place I had texted Lily to meet me at, just beyond the facility, in a little strip mall a few blocks away from the entrance. I didn’t have a car around here, but I assumed Lily did. If we could avoid taking Uber or Lyft that would be great, even though I doubted anyone around here would recognize me.
Of course, there was that video going around…and New Englanders were rabid about their Patriots…yeah, if we could avoid being recognized that would be good.
Lily showed up a few minutes later, walking up to me as I sat on a bench outside a convenience store. I stood up as I saw her approach, and immediately wanted to sit back down again.
Holy shit, she looked blindingly hot. Like, damn, where has this girl been hiding? Her dress was deep blue and clung to her body like a sheath, showing off all her curves in a way that made my eyes want to jump out of her head with every step she took.
I was mesmerized. As she walked up, Lily had a tense and wary look on her face, but I think she saw the effect she had on me almost immediately, because she softened and even started to look a little amused.
“Drake.” That was my name!
“Lily.” Now we’d gotten the tough part of the evening out of the way.
“I found a dress.”
I looked her up and down. “I’ll say.”
She blushed, which was funny, because I was still ogling her just like before, no change on my part. It was like she suddenly got embarrassed to be there with me. “Down, boy.”
“Huh?”
She stepped closer. “Nothing. Where are we going?”
“Oh, uh, yeah,” I stammered. Wow, this was not like me at all. With the number of girls I had been with since I started working out, practicing hard, and catching every touchdown thrown my way, I could not even remember the last time I had been this un-smooth with a girl. Get it together, Rollins, it was time to play. I blinked a few times, shaking my head slightly to clear out the Lily’s-curves-shaped cobwebs as best and as fast as I could. “Do you have a car?”
“Yeah, the Globe assigned me one in case the team wouldn’t let me travel locally with them.” That was no surprise. The Patriots were pretty well known around the country as the least media-friendly professional football team.
They took secrecy and paranoia to a new level, and after even just two days on campus I kinda understood why that was. There was a lot going on here, lots of things cooking to out-scheme and out-fox the competition both on and off the field, and it the media got wind of any of these things, all that work would be for nothing.
All of it was above-board, of course, and well within the rules of play. But still, one of the best ways to get an advantage in football, and in life, was to keep your opponents guessing, and then hit them with something they never even expected. That was just one of the ways the Patriots worked on improving their game throughout the year.
Which is why this whole inside access deal with me and the Boston Globe was so confusing. Like, why would the team agree to this?
“Great, we’ll take your car, then.”
“Of course we will, you don’t have a car here.”
I furrowed my brow. “How do you know that?”
“If you did, I’d know about it. The team has provided me with all the information I need on you, Drake, and I’ve done a little digging myself.”
Shit. “Right.” I didn’t say anything else, just started staring at her body again. Fuck, she looked good. I wasn’t even hungry anymore, I just wanted to taste her.
But I knew I had to stay away. She was the enemy. She was definitely not in my corner. When this was over, she’d go back to Boston and cover the Patriots like nothing had changed, and I’d be out picking up the pieces of my life.
I had to show her, I had to show them all, and make the team.
“Drake? It’s a little chilly, let’s go.”
“OK, yeah, let’s go. I’ll drive.” She reached into her purse, pulled out the keys, and tossed them to me.
Her throw was high and to the right, but I reached up and snatched them out of the air behind my head, one-handed. Lily smiled and clapped. “Do that in a game and you’ll make the highlights like Odell.” She turned and started walking away, I guessed to where she had parked.
I laughed and followed her. “Odell? Yeah, he’s alright, I guess. A little flashy for my taste. Doesn’t have to look good as long as you score.”
She turned to me, but kept walking. “Points have a beauty all their own, yeah?”
“You said it.”