Everything was going great in my life until Coach Harris pulled me aside after practice a few days later. As he stared at me, glancing down at his tablet occasionally, I wondered what it might be.

“Toby, you’ve been with us going on two years now.”

Damn straight. This is it. My contract renewal.

“You’ve had some good games during that time,” he continued. “But lately, you’ve been slow at practice and not paying attention during games.”

“I’ve been busy,” I said, trying to hide my grin.

“I bet you fucking have. It’s that damn photographer, isn’t it?”

“Her name is Haley. And I’m allowed to have a personal life, aren’t I?”

“Well, yeah, son, but you came to me a broke man after your first wife ran you through the wringer. You want to go through that again? I’m speaking to you as a friend now, not a coach.”

“Haley’s not anything like Jessica.”

“That may well be, but you can’t see what’s in front of you because you’re blinded by love.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, Coach.”

“So, you’re telling me you’re about to cut your professional football career short for a woman you don’t even love?”

“What do you mean?”

He had my attention at the mention of my career ending.

“Your contract is coming up for renewal. I’m not sure I can approve you if your mind isn’t on the game and taking us all the way to the Superbowl.”

This is not happening. My life flashed before my eyes.

“Come on, Coach. I’m not doing that bad.”

“Don’t come on me,” he said.

I snickered despite my best efforts.

“Your whole generation is fucked,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve not made my decision yet, but let this be a heads-up. I’ve got my eyes on you.”

“Got it, Coach.”

“Now get out of here.”

As he directed his attention to his tablet, I jogged over to the locker room entrance. Most of the other players had showered and left. I saw Jason standing by his locker, tossing the ball in his hand.

“What’s up?” I asked as I walked by him.

“Coach talk to you?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“I’m the leader of this team, and I need to talk with you too.”

“No time,” I said. “I’m going to shower before heading to see my parents.”

He pointed a finger at me.

“We need to talk soon.”

I nodded.

“We will. Later, bro.”

After he walked out, I stripped and got into the shower. The water rained down on me as I thought about what Coach had said a few minutes earlier.

I’ve got to get my act together. Taking a break with Haley will be good for both of us.

She’s amazing, but we need some time apart, at least until the season is over.

By the time I dressed and headed to my car, I had a plan worked out in my mind. She probably would have liked to know, but I had more important things to worry about.

Business at Chez Louie still hadn’t bounced back. Even worse, some online trolls were leaving negative reviews on Yelp and other review websites, driving my father crazy.

Haley called on my way to the restaurant.

I let it go to voicemail, putting my plan into action.

No time like the present, I thought, even though I knew it would be hard to do without her. She’d become my main focus, and I couldn’t let that happen.

I knew she was calling today because she wanted to reschedule a time for me to have dinner with her and Billy again, but something was still holding me back.

I didn’t know what it was, but I couldn’t let it get in the way of my career. I’d worked so fucking hard. I’d come so far.

As much as I hated it, I knew taking a small break would do me the most good. At least until I could prove to Coach that my head was in the game. Once I'd done that, I’d make it all up to Haley and we could figure out where this was all going.

Nothing wrong with a little breathing room.

* * *

When I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, I saw no other cars, not a single one. I locked the car up before going inside. My mother greeted me with a worried frown.

“I’m here,” I said. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Those people on the internet are animals!”

“You don’t know the half of it, Ma. It’ll be okay.”

“Can you get him away from the computer? Please? I’m afraid he’s going to get his blood pressure up and have a stroke or something terrible.”

“Don’t worry, Ma. I’ll handle it.”

“You’re such a good son,” she said. “How is everything going with Haley? You haven’t brought her back.”

“She’s fine. I’ll talk to you about her later, okay? I need to take care of Pops.”

“You don’t need to make it sound like you’re going to whack him.”

I grinned, shaking my head.

“Ma, you’re something else. You’ve been watching your mob shows again, haven’t you?”

“All I have is time! He won’t talk with me anymore because he’s always online responding to those terrible people with the crazy names.”

“They’re just trying to get a rise out of him. It’s called trolling.”

“I don’t care what you call it, you have to help him.”

“You don’t think I’m trying?”

I sighed as I walked to the office in the very back of the restaurant.

My father sat in the office, madly banging keys on the keyboard as he muttered to himself.

“Problems?” I asked.

“I’m going to kill the internet!” he declared without turning around.

“You can’t kill the internet, Pops. It was built to withstand a nuclear war.”

“Well, I’m going to sue that Bill Zuckerberg guy!”

“Do you mean Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg? You know what, never mind. I told you to ignore the trolls online. If you feed them, they’ll just keep coming back. The only thing they want is a reaction from you.”

“I’m going to show them,” he said, his typing slowing. “There! Hah.”

He spun around, a look of satisfaction on his sweat soaked face.

“Hey, Pops. You okay?”

“What do you mean? I’m fine.”

“You’re sweating bad and yelling at me. Take it down a notch.”

“Don’t talk to me that way,” he said, standing and bumping his chest against mine. “I raised you, and I can still take you down.”

“I’m sure you can, but I’m here to talk. We need to get this worked out. I can’t just keep throwing money at this restaurant if you’re not even going to try.”

“You don’t think I’m trying?” he yelled.

“Hey, easy. We’re just talking. Take a deep breath.”

He stared at me, his nostrils flaring.

“Are you happy? You sound like your damn mother.”

“Hey, don’t put her down in front of me, okay? I’d rather you didn’t do it at all.”

“They make me so mad with their lies about Chez Louie.”

“I know, Pops. That’s what they’re trying to do, make you mad. And you’re falling for it.”

“I’m not falling for anything. Wait until they read my last reply. A zinger!”

He thrust his finger upward in the air. I smiled, loving his ferocity. If only he would direct it better.

“Are you and Ma doing okay?” I asked.

“Why? What did she tell you?”

“Well, you’re scaring her. You need to calm down and take online advertising seriously. It’s the only thing that really works these days.”

“I have a coupon sheet,” he said, nodding to a stack of cardboard boxes outside of the office. “We have thousands of them, but no one takes them.”

“How do they know you have them here in the first place?” I asked, trying to understand his logic.

“’I’m not sure, but I wasted so much money on those fliers, I don’t want to send any more to The Facebook.”

“Facebook, Pops. It’s just Facebook.”

“Whatever!”

I patted him on the shoulder.

“We need to switch you to drinking decaf or something.”

“Are you done putting me down?” he asked.

“I’m not putting you down. You have time to talk about hiring someone to help you with the internet?”

“No.”

“No? Come on, Pops.”

“I don’t want a snot-nosed kid in here telling me how to run my business. I’m the best damn chef in ten or twenty blocks.”

“You are the best, but people need to know about you. And everyone is on their phones these days.”

“Now you’re talking over my head. I need to see if they’ve replied.”

He turned to the computer.

“Hold on. Come out front and have something to eat with me? Have you eaten yet?”

“No,” he admitted, patting his stomach. “I could eat.”

“Let’s have dinner and talk.”

“Fine, son. For you, I will pry myself away from defending my livelihood and eat dinner.”

My phone rang as he walked past me. I turned it off, wanting to spend some quality time with my parents before heading home and getting ready to show Coach Harris I meant business at practice the next day.

That meant a full night of sleep and no sex with Haley. She would be fine without me for a single fucking day, I told myself as I followed my father to the front of the restaurant. A nice dinner with family would get me back in the right mindset.

My cock swelled in my jeans as her face flashed in my mind, reminding me that it might not be so easy after all.