Hard & Deep: A Football Romance
She grabbed her phone and for a fleeting moment, considered calling Oliver and confronting him about the incident, but the idea left her mind as soon as it had come. She decided she wouldn't give him the time of day. He didn't deserve it.
“Screw this,” she said, tossing the phone onto her bed. “I need to go for a walk or something. Get some air.”
Elsie stepped into her tennis shoes and opened the door to the room. She'd hardly had a chance to close the door behind her before the sound of footsteps caused her to look down the hallway. There, running toward her at breakneck speed, was Oliver. He was dressed in a black suit and his tie was over his shoulder, flowing back like a cape.
What the hell is he doing here? She asked herself.
Ollie ran up and slid to a halt, coming toe-to-toe with Elsie. He was panting and out of breath. A few drops of sweat ran down his forehead.
“Elsie, thank god you're here,” he said. “We need to talk.”
Seeing him in person made her even angrier and she felt like slapping him right across the face.
“We don't need to talk,” she said, swallowing back her tears. “We don't need to do anything. We're done, Ollie. I saw your damn picture with Nikki. You're a disgusting dirt bag of a man and you have no business being in my life.”
“Elsie, please. You have to let me explain,” Ollie begged. “It's not what it looks like.”
“Go away, Oliver,” she said, crossing her arms. “I mean it. You've hurt me so badly. The fact that you'd sleep with Nikki and call her your girlfriend while you and I were dating me makes me sick. I've got enough going on in my life and I certainly don't need this. Please, just leave. Go home and don't ever call me again. I'm doing the same.”
Ollie sighed, looking defeated. “Please. Let me tell you what happened. I wasn't sleeping with Nikki and I wasn't dating her. I haven't been with her for over a year. She snuck into my room last night and...”
Elsie cut him short. “Oh yeah, Oliver. That makes total sense. She 'snuck' into your room, huh? Did she also accidentally drop her panties and take off her shirt? Did she happen to sneak under your covers while she was at it? I hate when those kind of accidents happen.”
She placed her hands onto Oliver's chest and pushed him hard. It forced him to take a few steps backwards.
“You have to trust me, Elsie,” he said, moving back toward her. “Please. Nothing happened last night. Nikki is crazy. She's trying to ruin my life because she's jealous of you.”
“You want me to trust you, Ollie?” Elsie felt another wave of tears coming on, but she did her best to ignore it. “How am I supposed to do that? You think I don't know your history with women? You're a player, Oliver. I knew that when I first looked you up online after we met.”
“Elsie, it wasn't me-”
“But I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. So for three months, I ignored what everybody already knew about you. Do you know why I did that, Ollie? I ignored it because I thought I had gotten to know you. The real you. I thought I had gotten to know the Oliver Lance that the public didn't have a clue about. For the last couple of weeks, I was absolutely certain that you weren't the womanizing player that everybody had made you out to be.” She was shouting now, but she didn't care. “But I had been duped. I guess I should only blame myself, though. I should have realized that guys like you never change.”
Oliver stayed silent the entire time. His shoulders were slumped forward and he looked sadder than Elsie had ever seen him. She didn't care. There was no way that he was more upset than she was.
She pointed down the hallway. “You need to leave.”
“What about you?” he asked, not moving a step. “Are you leaving?”
“Am I leaving?” she snapped back. “What do you care?”
“I don't want you to go home before you at least let me tell you the whole story of what happened,” he begged. “Please.”
“I don't need or want the story,” she said, shaking her head. “I saw the story this morning on the web. Trust me, that was enough.”
Two heads popped out of doors along the hallway.
“Please, just leave so I can get on with my life as you so obviously have with yours.” Her hands were shaking she was so angry. “Good luck with your season. I hope your knee stays healthy.”
After saying that, she turned and went back inside of her hotel room. She closed and locked the door, then leaned against it. The tears she'd been holding back exploded out of her. Oliver knocked on the door, but she ignored it and ran to her bed. With her face buried in her pillow, she just cried. She cried until her eyes were dry and the pillow case was soaked. By the time the waves of emotion had passed, Ollie had stopped knocking on the door and the room was silent.
Elsie rolled over and sighed. The word “heartbroken” wouldn't have done any justice to the way she was feeling now. The man that she was beginning to love had shattered her trust and stomped on her heart. Now, she was forced to wait for two miserable days until she could catch her flight back home.
I can't believe Oliver did this to me, she thought. When I get back home, I'm throwing away everything that reminds me of him. That's all I can do, is just pretend this fling with him never happened.
Chapter 25
Elsie