somehow took such offense to it that it actually pulled you right out of the game. I think you stepped out there on that pitch, seething full of anger at the press and the people in the stands, the other team, and especially her ex-husband, the team’s manager, and you let your emotions cloud your brain.”
I try to swallow. “What makes you think that would have any effect on me at all?”
“Because I’m not stupid, Alejo,” he says. “Do you know that I just ran into Thalia out there in the hallway?”
Oh shit.
“I saw her coming out of your room,” he adds. “I asked her what she was doing, and she made up some lie about talking to you about the game, which maybe wasn’t a lie because she didn’t look happy at all. In fact, I think she was close to tears. But anyway, I call bullshit on all of this because I have been watching the two of you for the last few months, and I would have to be a real fucking idiot not to suspect that something is going on between you two.”
“We’re just friends,” I say weakly.
Mateo lets out a dry laugh. “You are a horrible liar, Alejo. That’s one of the things I like about you. You wear your heart on your sleeve and you can’t lie for shit. But it’s also your downfall. I know you aren’t just friends. I know you’re screwing around. I don’t really care to know when it started, but it’s obvious it has.”
“How so?” Now I’m curious, though I don’t want to admit anything.
“It’s in the eyes. It’s always in the eyes. No matter which room you’re both in, your eyes always find each other. You say something to each other that no one else can hear or understand, but you both know what it is. That’s what it’s like when someone becomes your whole world. They’re all you see.”
My eyes flit to the carpet, but if Mateo knows everything through my eyes, then he knows everything by now.
“Tell me I’m right,” he says.
I shrug again. “You’re right.”
Silence.
“Alejo…do you even know what you’re doing? Have you actually slowed down and taken a moment to think about it?”
I glance at him sharply. “She’s all I think about.”
“She’s forty!” he exclaims with wide eyes. “You’re twenty-three!”
“Twenty-four.”
“Whatever.”
“But weren’t you almost forty and your wife twenty-three when you first met her?”
He stills, blinks. Shakes his head. “Yes, but that was different.”
“How is that different? Because you’re a man and Vera is a woman? It’s not okay the other way around?”
“It’s a different scenario. Completely. Alejo, Thalia is your physical therapist. She’s off-limits. She’s forbidden to you. You’re crossing a line that can’t be crossed.”
I cock my head. “And weren’t you married when you first were with Vera?”
He frowns and gives me the kind of look that tells me he wishes he could slap me in the face. “This has nothing to do with my personal life.”
“But everything to do with my personal life?”
“Yes!” he exclaims. “And what you do with your personal life affects the team. What I do in mine doesn’t. That’s the difference.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better at all…she just broke it off. Kind of. A break, I guess, until Christmas.”
Mateo sighs dramatically and runs his hands down his face before sitting next to me on the bed. “Look. This has to stop. Not just until Christmas, it has to be stopped beyond that. You can’t do this.”
“What if I play better than ever?”
“It’s not just about the game,” he says, his voice going low and grave. “Okay? It’s about Thalia. I’m her boss, okay? I am in a position to fire her. It is well within my right to go to her room right now and fire her because she’s breaking a very important rule, and it’s a rule I know she’s aware of. You understand?”
I swallow.
Fuck.
Things are going from bad to worse.
I look to Mateo, panic clawing through me. “Please. Please don’t fire her. I’ll do anything.”
He pats my shoulder and gets up, his back to me as he walks across the room. “I’m not a monster, Alejo. I like Thalia a lot. I think she does a great job, and so far, her side of things hasn’t been compromised.” He pauses and gives me a loaded glance over his shoulder. “Maybe that says something about the fact that she can keep her emotions in check but you can’t. Regardless, I don’t want to fire