In The Square

Coaching was my retirement plan. I thought it wouldn’t happen until I was in my forties. To be an Assistant Coach at twenty-one… well it wasn’t exactly ideal.

But it gave me a second chance, rejoining the game I spent so many years loving, what I wasn’t expecting, was him.

Tate Stone was the kind of rookie you build an entire team around. He was brilliant, talented, and breathtaking.

I told myself it was professionalism. That watching his footage late at night was part of the job. That the pride in my chest was just coaching satisfaction.

I was able to lie to myself.

Until I realised that my gaze lingered a little too long, I appreciated his form for more than just its strength, that I thought about more than just about what game play would be best for him, and that the jealously I felt wasn’t because he still got to play the game I loved. No, it was because I couldn’t have him the way I wanted.

Then, it happened.

One drunken night, one social media post, and suddenly the whole world sees what I spent months burying. Blindsided by our new reality, Tate and I fumble the ball, trapped in a world where we don’t know heads from tails.

Pretending only makes me want him more, and now that everything’s out in the open, the hardest part isn’t surviving the scandal

It’s giving up what was never truly mine in the first place.