Throwing Love #2 (Throwing Love #2) (7 page)

In the end, I knew I had to call
him. It was only fair. I wasn't sure how he would react to hearing about my
article, knowing that I had written about his situation without even discussing
it with him first. That would probably be worse for him than finding out I knew
and was being forced to write about it.

I needed to get Bennett's side of
the story, that was the only fair thing to do and I hoped that he would
appreciate my effort.

I made the call and listened to
the phone ring. I wondered if he was screening his calls and whether he just
was not going to talk to me. It made my heart sting painfully at the thought of
him ignoring my calls. Just when I was about to hang up, he answered.

“Bennett, hi.”

“Emmi, hi, how are you? I guess I
should have called you.”

“You guess?” I chuckled. “Yeah,
maybe.”

“Did you hear the news?”

“Yes I did. Embarrassingly enough
I had to hear it from my editor and the entire staff at the paper. Everyone was
super surprised that I didn't already know. Weird, right?”

“I guess I should have stayed
around and explained things to you.”

“You say guess a lot. Yes,
Bennett, I would think that would have been obvious. I thought we had a great
time and you bolted after a very unusual conversation. Instead of clueing me
in, I had to find out from someone else. We really aren't off to a very good
start here.”

There was a long silence on the
other end of the line. I wasn't even sure if he was even still there. The fact
that he wasn't saying anything to me wasn't helping my annoyance level.

“Anyways, if you want some even
better news, I am being forced to write the story about it.”

“What? No way. What the hell?”

“My thoughts exactly.
Unfortunately, I don't have a choice in the matter, big surprise there. For
some reason, they think it's okay to have me write something so personal and damaging
to you. I'm calling, Bennett, because I need to get your side of the story.”

“This is ridiculous.” His voice
was angry and a little gruff. He didn't sound like the same man I had spent
time with in my bed.

“This isn't my fault, Bennett. I
don't want to write about it. But story or not, were you never planning on
calling me and telling me? Don't you think that is a little rude, to say the
least.”

“Yeah, I get that, Emmi, but I
have had a lot on my plate since that call. Telling you wasn't first on my
priority list.”

Shocked I said, “Noted.”

There was another silence on the
other end and I hoped that he was realizing that he wasn't winning any points
with me at that point. His behavior needed to change immediately because I
wasn't the enemy and he didn't need to talk angrily with me. I wasn't the one
who did anything to him.

I knew he was under a lot of
stress, but all I had wanted to do was help him. I was in a difficult position,
but at the end of the day, I was still there for him and he was pushing me
away. It wasn't right. Just because he was under stress didn't mean he could
treat me poorly.

“Are you going to tell me what
happened, Bennett? If not for the story, at least for me? That is, if you even
care about us anymore.”

He sighed, “What's the point? I
already feel like I'm dead in the water. This was my whole life and now I'm
suspended. I can't even concentrate on life, I'm so depressed.”

“Bennett, please just tell me.”

“I didn't do it, Emmi,” he said
sadly.

“I never said you did. In fact, I
told my editor that I thought you cheating were impossible. I believe in you,
but I need to know what happened.”

“The ball wasn't mine.”

“What do you mean?”

I have no idea how the ball ended
up with tar on it, all I know is that I wasn't the one that did it. If someone
put tar on that ball, it wasn't me.”

“Who could it has been? And why
would they do that?”

“Seriously? I have no idea! But
it wasn't me, okay!”

He was getting defensive, so I
said, “Bennett, please, I believe you. I'm just asking questions.”

“Yeah...I get it. I have to go.”

I heard a click on the other end
and Bennett was gone. It didn't seem to matter to him that I believed him. I
had my quote, but not much else. I would have to finish the article with what
he gave me and hope for the best.

I wasn't sure what he meant by
the tar not being on his ball. Whose ball was he using and why? Who would put
tar on a baseball to begin with? Was there a chance that someone was trying to
frame Bennett? Did someone purposely put tar on the baseball to get Bennett
suspended? If so, who would do such a thing?

Chapter Thirteen

The next week was brutal on my
mind and spirit. Things just seemed to get progressively worse when it came to
Bennett's allegations. When I had completed the article and submitted it, I instantly
received a call from my editor asking me why I put in a quote from Bennett
about his innocence. I laughed it off and told her that was part of the story
and that it better be printed in full.

From there, things only got
worse. For the entire week, I had been in a constant battle with my editor in
regards to Bennett. She seemed to have suddenly developed blood lust for him.
One minute she had been hoping we would work out our relationship and then the
next she wanted all the blood and gore. She literally wanted me to rip out his
guts with prose – I just couldn't do it.

All the while, Bennett was
claiming his innocence for good reason. My heart bled for him and all that he
was going through. Even though he claimed his innocence throughout, no one seemed
to care about it. Just like my editor, they assumed the worst about him and
already figured he was guilty of the allegations. It was heartbreaking to
watch, especially as someone who was trying to defend him. They had watched
Bennett rise up in his career in awe, trying to figure out how someone was so
talented. Now they figured they had their answer for it and the city was
furious.

I believed Bennett
wholeheartedly, but he was right when he said no one cared about his innocence.
They already had their minds made up about Bennett and it didn't matter what he
said to defend himself, they weren't going to believe him. He was already
guilty of the crime in their eyes and he would have to prove his innocence if
he expected anyone to believe a word he said. I felt helpless in the situation,
especially since I was trying to write about his side of things, as well, and
all my editor wanted to focus on was the allegations alone. I couldn't have
been more frustrated with everything that was going on.

Every time a new article was
assigned to me, it was about Bennett and his allegations. I continued to quote
him as I felt that was only fair journalism. I didn't want to just tell one
side of the story, but still it didn't matter. The next story would be about
the same thing, and I could only do so much for Bennett until he was able to
prove himself right.

The problem was, the story and
the allegations were tearing us apart. Even though we tried to remain normal
throughout everything, it was next to impossible. After our last call, he had
shown up at my apartment with flowers again and apologized. He stated that he
shouldn't have treated me poorly even if he was under stress. I had obviously
forgiven him and we went forward with our relationship. Unfortunately, it just
wasn't that easy for us.

We had agreed to not discuss the
case at all, that we would just enjoy each other’s company and not worry about
it. Our time together was limited and we just wanted to focus on one another.
It was impossible to do so, however, as the case was so prevalent in both of
our minds that we ended up discussing it even when we didn't want to. It just
kept coming up. It was impossible for Bennett to forget, to just let it go for
one night, and I was right in the middle of it because I was writing about it,

It was a tragic mess, and I
wasn't sure how to fix it. What was worse was that I was starting to worry that
we weren't going to survive the scandal. Things were just so heated all the
time and neither of us was handling it very well. I was helpless to fix things
and the fact that I was writing about his scandal was not helping our
relationship at all. It was becoming a wedge between us and I didn't know how
to stop us from pushing each other away.

Chapter Fourteen

“Please tell me you have some
words of wisdom because I feel like I'm going slowly insane.”

Connie smiled sadly. We were
sitting across from each other at the burger joint, sharing some French fries.
I felt incredibly saddened and a little depressed as I felt I was powerless to
the fact that I was slowly losing Bennett. I had called Connie for some girl
talk and moral support, but things were looking grim. In fact, I had not
ordered a beer; instead I was drinking whiskey with a dash of coke.

“I don't know what else I can say
here, Emmi. You are definitely in a very tough situation and your editor is
kind of a huge bitch.”

I laughed. I didn't even want to
get on the topic of how unimpressed I was with my editor. Sometimes I felt like
she had gone off the rails with the story. She was so determined to get the
inside scoop on the scandal first that she was forgetting the fact that a
relationship was being ruined in the meantime.

“Yeah, I can agree on that one.”

“It sucks, Emmi. I understand. It
really sucks. You are being forced to choose between your boyfriend and the
career path you want. It's a shitty deal. Now because of that, Bennett is
pulling away and I can also understand that, as well.”

I sighed. “How can you understand
that, Connie? I'm doing the best that I can, and I care about him a great deal.
I don't want him to pull away from me. I want us to survive this and stay
together...possibly forever.”

“Well, unfortunately, this is a
good indication that maybe he isn't the one. The guy you share your life with
should be someone that you can brave any storm with and still survive in the
end. Now I get that this is a different storm, one that puts you both in
unusual circumstances, but I think the theory still holds true. You guys should
be able to band together and get through this and you just aren't doing a very
good job.”

I frowned. “I thought you were
supposed to be making me feel better here, not worse.”

Connie chuckled. “I'm sorry,
Emmi. I'm definitely not trying to make you feel worse. Like I said, this is a
shitty deal and neither of you deserve to be in it.”

“What do I do? How can I save
this?” I took a large gulp of my drink and waited.

“Go easy on the liquor, okay,
girl? I don't want to have to hold your hair back tonight.”

I laughed.

“Look, Emmi, I know you care a
lot about the guy and you really do seem good for each other, but you have to
understand that Bennett is under a great deal of stress right now. His career
and future is on the line.”

“I know.”

“That's great that you know he has
a lot going on because you'll have to keep reminding yourself of that. The best
thing that you can do at this point is to just continue to write your articles.
That's your career path and that at least isn't going to change, so that's
something you need to focus on. In the meantime, continue to be there for
Bennett as best as you can. The guy is going to need you if he is willing to
lean on you for support.”

“I hope he can, but he doesn't
always do that.”

“Just be there for him when he
needs you and step back, Emmi, when he doesn't. You're not going to be able to
fix everything, and this is something he has to deal with. It may not end well
for him and you need to prepare yourself for that possibility.

It was all very good advice, but
I just wasn't sure if I could follow it. It was easier said than done, I guess.
I just wasn't sure that I could put her advice into practice. I knew logically
that I needed to step back and let Bennett handle his own problems, but it
wasn't an easy thing for me. I wanted to take care of Bennett and be there for
him every step of the way, but I also knew that he didn't want that, either.

I was really starting to fear for
the future of my relationship with Bennett. I had grown to care for him a great
deal and there was a chance we weren't going to survive.

Chapter Fifteen

The next night, Connie was over
and we were drinking wine together and watching sappy romantic comedies. We
were laughing and it was a good opportunity for me to forget about the
heartache I was experiencing in my relationship with Bennett. I hadn't heard
from him all day and the thought just about broke my heart. I needed to hear
from him, but I knew if he needed me he would call and clearly he didn't. I
wasn't sure what I was going to do, but that night I was determined to have fun
with my friend and not worry about it.

We had rented
The Proposal
with Ryan Reynolds and we
could not stop laughing. It was one of the best movies I had seen in awhile and
we loved every moment of it. I swear it was a great movie – it wasn't
just the wine talking.