The Rookie and Me (COMPLETE)

twenty-three.

We enter the ballroom, hand in hand, and find a seat at one of the round tables. The tables are cloaked in white tablecloths, with white candles of all different heights in the center of each one. Each table is set with beautiful round plates, champagne glasses, and water goblets. Tyler pulls my chair out for me and pushes me in with ease. We're sitting next to a few of his teammates and their significant others, all of whom have not taken their eyes off of us since we walked in the room.

A beautiful woman with long blonde hair leans over and introduces herself to me, "Hi, I'm Claire. I'm Peyton's wife."

I smile back at her and shake her hand. "I'm Ali, it's nice to meet you." I have no idea who Peyton is, but I'm not about to say that out loud and offend anybody...

The large man next to her reaches his hand out to me, "I'm Peyton. You must be Tyler's new girl, huh?"

I shake his hand and grin, "Um, yeah. I'm Ali. It's nice to meet you, Peyton."

The other wives around the table introduce themselves to me and go on talking about their husbands and their businesses that they have going on back at home. One of them owns some type of clothing store, another one has written a few cookbooks, along with having her own line of cookware sold all around the country. As they all discuss their work, I can't help but feel so out of place. These women are powerful businesswomen. They don't struggle for a thing it seems like. And here I am, just some trashy waitress clinging onto Tyler's arm like some sort of leech or something. I really hope none of them ask me what I do for work. I don't want to have to explain myself or my situation, and I definitely don't want to lie.

"Never thought I'd see the day Reeves' brings a girl around!" A loud voice says from behind my seat. I look back and see the one and only Jamal Tucker leaning back in his seat.

Tyler leans back and slides his hand across Jamal's. "Isn't she a beauty?" Tyler says as he pushes a strand of hair behind my ear. I smile shyly and lean my head onto his shoulder.

"Wait a minute, I know you..." Jamal says as he points at me. "Where do I know you from?"

I shrug my shoulders and shake my head slowly. "No idea. I'm sorry."

Okay, I know I said I didn't want to lie, but I also want to try to avoid any conversation at all with Jamal Tucker. I really don't want to make a scene again the way I did back at the restaurant that day. Just ignore him, Ali. Deep breaths.

Jamal snaps his fingers together, "You work at that steakhouse back home, don't you? That's right! You're the waitress that got shitty with me!"

At this point, the entire table hears Jamal's loud voice booming over the piano playing over in the corner of the room. They all look up and watch at mine and Jamal's interaction.

Embarrassed as can be, I look to Tyler for some sort of comfort. For him to rescue me from this conversation somehow. Can he not tell how uncomfortable I am right now? And as I continue to hope that he will put an end to this conversation, he does nothing. He just ignores Jamal's comment and sips on his water.

"How the hell did you manage to hook this one, Reeves? If I remember correctly, she wasn't the least bit interested in any of us. If I can recall, she was a real bitch when I was just being friendly with her." Jamal says as his voice changes to a deeper, more annoyed tone.

I look at Tyler in disbelief. He scrunches his eyebrows and shakes his head subtly to me, as if telling me to just ignore Jamal. As if he doesn't want to start an argument, which I can definitely understand with the biggest game of their careers just days away, but he's seriously okay with him speaking to me like this?