Chet throws his hands out. “What am I missing? Someone want to let me in on the joke?”
Bianca’s heavy sigh draws our attention as she sits down in her chair and picks up her office phone. “Hey, Breanna, I’m going to need you in my office.”
PR. Right. That shows how Hardy has been a bit naive about this. He didn’t even think to include what will likely be the most important department to talk with going forward.
“Will someone explain to me what’s going on?” Chet demands.
It doesn’t bode well that he hasn’t even considered that I’m the person Hardy is in a relationship with.
“It looks like two of your best players are more than friends,” Bianca says, her demeanor lighter now.
“What?” Chet snarls. “Is this some kind of practical joke?”
Coach Robbins shakes his head. “You haven’t been paying any attention to the team dynamics if you’re shocked by this.” Then his eyes narrow as he stares at us. “Tell me you two haven’t been fooling around under my nose for the last two years.”
Bianca goes still as a stone, stopping midway through typing as she watches us.
Chet’s face goes red.
“No,” Hardy says quickly. “That’s giving us way too much credit. The feelings were there, but we didn’t acknowledge them or start anything until after the last game.”
Coach lets out a sigh of relief.
“I appreciate you declaring the relationship?—”
Chet cuts Bianca off. “Relationship? They can’t. It’s against?—”
“There’s nothing in the contract that says they can’t,” Robbins says, voice sharp.
“What? Why not?” There’s nothing understanding in Chet’s voice. There’s only anger, letting me know my gut feeling was dead-on.
“Because as much as everyone likes to say professional football is inclusive, none of those contracts are written with having active queer players in mind,” Ryan says.
“For fuck’s sake,” Chet mutters.
Coach’s gaze hardens. “Are you going to be openly bigoted about this? Sounds like a great new slogan for the press. Bandits are bigots.”
“Can’t say I’m a fan of that.” Breanna from PR walks in, a tight smile on her lips as she regards Chet, though her eyes are calm. She aims for Bianca’s desk. “We should’ve seen this coming, huh?”
“Yep,” Bianca says. Her printer goes off, the jarring sound filling the room. She puts two papers on the desk. “I need you each to fill in the blanks and sign your names on one of these.”
“That easy?” Ryan asks as we step up to the desk.
“The HR side is the easy part. Bre has the harder job.”
“This can’t happen,” Chet says.
Bianca stands up, a cool expression fixed on Chet. “Legally, it absolutely can.”
Beside me, Ryan bristles, and though I want to reach for his hand, I know that would only add fuel to this dangerous fire.
We both fill out the paperwork as a tight silence fills the room.
Once we’ve both signed our names, we slide the paperwork back to Bianca, who files it away.
Chet is standing still as a stone, face red and arms crossed over his chest. Coach doesn’t look happy either, but his ire isn’t for us.
Breanna clears her throat and steps forward. “Let’s talk about where we go from here,” she says.
