Blindsided (Fake Boyfriend 4)

As friends, we were fine with sharing and having fun, but what we have together is so much more.

There’s no way to positively spin that, and we’re going to be a PR nightmare. I like my life being private. I’ve loved being the one in the background of paparazzi shots. I don’t want my mom, sister, or niece to be dragged into this.

How do I get over that fear?

How do I tell myself to jump all in and have that blinding faith Talon has and I’ve always been envious of?

It takes a knock on my door for me to gain some real perspective.

When Lennon and Noah stand on the front porch of my mother’s house, Lennon with a tentative stare and Noah with a somber expression, I seem to lose all my proper manners Mom ingrained in me from birth.

“Who is it?” Mom calls out.

“Some friends.”

“Can we come in?” Lennon asks, still hesitant.

“Sorry. Of course.” I step aside and lead them into the kitchen and dining area.

“You’re probably wondering why we’re here.”

“Little bit. Are you going to try to get me to talk publicly?”

Lennon shakes his head. “No, I won’t pressure anyone to do that before they’re ready. I … I actually wanted to share with you what I wrote about Talon.”

My eyes widen. “I thought he didn’t do the interview?”

“He didn’t. Not a proper one. He sat there and talked about you the whole time. I won’t publish this unless both you and Talon sign off on it, but I wanted you to read the words he said about you.”

Lennon reaches into his laptop bag and slides papers over to me.

Mom comes into the room to introduce herself, but I’m too busy staring and focusing on the article in front of me:

Blindsided.

A one-twenty-yard patch of turf is the last place Marcus Talon thought he’d find love. He reserved all his affection on the field for the game, the glory, and his love of football.

That all changed this past season when he signed with the Warriors.

Shane Miller’s job is to protect Marcus Talon’s blind side, but it’s their friendship off the field where they started seeing each other as more than teammates.

“Miller and I clicked the second we met,” the three-time Super Bowl winner says of his college roommate. “It took me six years of missing him to realize I loved him—even back then.”

Marcus Talon didn’t understand his urge to follow Shane Miller and sign with the Warriors last season. He describes it as a gut feeling—the same instinct he has as one of the most successful quarterbacks in the league right now.

The move to Chicago led him to question a lot about himself and his life.

“Miller’s been super patient with me while I’ve figured it all out.”

Talon and Miller are teammates with Matt Jackson—the first out player to win a Super Bowl. When asked about Matt Jackson’s influence over his relationship with Miller, Talon has only one thing to say.

“All Jackson has done has paved the way for others to explore what was already there. My feelings for Shane have been there for years. Jackson having the courage to be one of the first ones in this industry to speak out only gave me the motivation to go for something I’ve always wanted but never knew it.”

Statistics show similar situations in other industries throughout the world. In supportive and accepting environments, it’s more likely people will be open with their sexualities. It’s why we see families with many LGBTQ members and schools with clusters of queer students coming out at similar times. Just one person with the courage to come out can cause a domino effect, similar to what we have seen in the NHL in recent months with the simultaneous outings of Caleb Sorensen and Ollie Strömberg.

“Miller and I became friends over a shared dream. We always planned on winning the Super Bowl together, and that’s still the goal.”

The Warriors won this year’s Super Bowl, but with Shane Miller out for the season due to a hamstring injury and missing twenty games, that’s not good enough for the couple.

“A win where we’re both on the field or it doesn’t count,” Talon says, his eyes shimmering with determination.

It’s the kind of drive only a winner possesses, and with three Super Bowl wins in six years, this quarterback has the talent to pull off another trophy alongside his boyfriend.

In the past year, the NFL has seen its first out player since Michael Sam in 2014, and now it’s facing the new dynamic of welcoming teammates in a relationship.

“I never saw this coming, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Miller and I were meant to be. We were made for each other.”

The article goes on and mentions our stats and the highlights from our careers, and the entire article reaffirms everything I’ve already known but has been drowned out by doubts and other people’s negativity, but it’s the last paragraph that kicks me in the ass and in the gut.