Rumor Has It I'm Dating the Football Captain

Chapter 19: Chapter 19:The Heartbreaker Who Didn’t Know

The email notification arrived at eight in the morning on Monday.

Audrey stared at her phone screen. Her thumb hovered over the open button. Her heart beat a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She sat in the corner of the crowded cafeteria and clutched a lukewarm black coffee. She braced herself for the worst.

We are pleased to inform you that your application for the Spring Sports Journalism Internship has been accepted.

She let out a shaky breath. She refreshed the page three times just to make sure it was not a glitch. It was real. Logan did not win this time. She leaned back in her chair and felt a hollow sense of relief. She was not just the clingy ex anymore. She was Audrey Ellis, intern.

”Are you going to cry, or are you going to show us the goods?” Zoya asked. She slid onto the bench across from her.

Chloe followed and dropped her tray with a loud clatter. ”If it is bad news, I am ready to fight someone. Just give me a name.”

Audrey turned the screen around.

The girls shrieked. Half the cafeteria turned to look, but Audrey did not care. She sat there, tucking her dark bob behind her ears. She finally felt like she could breathe again.

”Speaking of drama,” Zoya said. She pulled out her phone, tapped the screen, and pushed it toward Audrey. ”Have you seen the latest update?”

Audrey looked. It was the photo Leo had taken on the bus. The caption read: The Captain doesn’t sleep in public. He only sleeps with his girlfriend. Looks like it is official, folks.

”It is not official,” Audrey sighed. She put her phone face down.

”Keep telling yourself that,” Chloe laughed. ”You are literally wearing his hoodie today.”

Audrey looked down. She was wearing a grey Westbridge hoodie. She had not even realized she grabbed it from her duffel bag this morning. She groaned and covered her face. ”I am going to class. You two are the worst.”

By the time Audrey reached the athletic building, the campus was buzzing.

She stood near the main entrance and watched the stream of students. She spotted Mason near the practice pitch. He was surrounded by a small group of students. He was laughing, casually juggling a football on his knee, and leaning in to listen to a girl who was talking animatedly about her schedule.

Audrey stood back and watched.

It was fascinating. Mason was completely effortless. He did not seem to be chasing anyone. He just existed, and people gravitated toward him. He joked with the girl, remembered her name, and laughed when she made a clumsy attempt to kick the ball back to him.

She noticed another girl hovering nearby. She clutched a textbook like a shield, waiting for her turn to speak to him. Further back, Audrey recognized a girl from her own lecture. That girl had spent weeks crying in the library because Mason stopped texting her after one movie date. He was warm, he was funny, and he was totally unbothered.

So that is it, Audrey thought. That is the heartbreaker routine. He does not have to try.

Seeing him laugh so easily with someone else unsettled her.

She frowned.

Why am I even thinking about this?

He was like that with everyone. It was not just the girl he was talking to; it was the whole line of people waiting for a second of his attention. She told herself it was just annoyance. She liked to think she was the only one who saw through him. But watching him be exactly the same with everyone else made the fake girlfriend status feel a lot less special.

Then, he looked up.

He did not just spot her. He abandoned the conversation in the middle of his sentence. He did not even say goodbye to the girl. The girl looked visibly stunned as Mason jogged toward Audrey.

”What are you doing here?” Mason asked. He stopped in front of her. His permanently dyed black hair caught the morning sun.

”Coach Miller asked for my input on the article,” Audrey said. She tried to sound professional. She pointed toward the group he had just left. ”Do you always flirt with people like that?”

Mason blinked. He looked genuinely confused. ”Flirt?”

Audrey pointed a thumb toward the girl he had been talking to. ”You know. The charming, invades your personal space thing. The ’you are the most important person in the world for five minutes’ routine.”

Mason looked over, shrugged, and looked back at Audrey. ”I was answering her questions about academy trials. Why? Was I doing it wrong?”

”You were doing it very, very right,” Audrey muttered.

Leo jogged up behind them. He overheard the exchange and burst into a fit of laughter.

”Captain!” Leo wheezed. ”Captain does not know he is flirting! That is the problem!”

Jackson joined them and shook his head. ”Audrey, he has broken more hearts than anyone on this team because he genuinely thinks he is just being nice. He smiles, he remembers your dog’s name, and then he goes back to his dorm, and suddenly you are in love with him. He has zero clue.”

Mason looked genuinely offended. ”I am just being nice! Everyone is exaggerating.”

”Remember Sarah from Chemistry?” Leo asked. ”She thought you were proposing because you asked her to hold your football boots while you tied your shoelaces.”

Mason looked horrified. ”I was just tying my shoes! The boots were heavy!”

Audrey could not help it. She let out a laugh. The sound caught Mason off guard.

”See?” Mason said. He pointed a finger at her. ”You are laughing. You know I am not a monster.”

”You are an oblivious disaster,” Audrey corrected.

”I am a disaster you are currently dating,” he countered with a wink.

”Fake dating,” she reminded him. But the edge in her voice had vanished.

”Right, right,” Mason said. He waved a hand. ”Coach is waiting inside. Try not to fall asleep during the footage. It gets a little slow.”

Audrey followed him into the film room. It was cool, dark, and smelled like stale sweat and popcorn. Coach Miller was already there. He pointed at a screen with a laser pointer.

”Ellis, sit,” Coach Miller said. He did not take his eyes off the screen. ”Calloway, talk me through this play. Audrey, I want to know why you think the defense collapsed here.”

Audrey took a seat at the table. She pulled out her notebook.

For the next hour, they did not talk about rumors, or Logan, or fake dates. They argued about passing lanes and defensive shifts. Audrey found that she actually liked this part. Mason was not the heartbreaker here. He was just a player who took his sport seriously, and Audrey was just a journalist who took her research seriously.

”You missed the shift,” Audrey said. She pointed to the screen. ”You were too focused on the ball.”

Mason leaned over. His head was inches from hers. He watched the screen. ”I was not focused on the ball. I was waiting for the striker to commit.”

”That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” Audrey said.

”But it worked, didn’t it?” Mason countered. He grinned.

Coach Miller just sighed. ”Can you two get married and argue in your own house? We are trying to win a championship here.”

Audrey’s face burned. She did not look at Mason. She focused on the screen and felt a strange, quiet thrill.

Mason did not even look away from the screen.

”Coach, she is wrong.”

”I am literally looking at the replay.”

”The replay is biased.”

Audrey rolled her eyes.

”You are impossible.”

”And yet,” Coach Miller muttered. He rewound the footage again. ”You are the only person who will argue tactics with him for an hour.”

Audrey looked at the screen.

She had not even noticed how much time had passed.

Mason was still debating passing lanes beside her as though they had been doing this for years.

It was surprisingly fun.

Maybe everyone else only saw Mason Calloway the heartbreaker.

She was beginning to realize there was another version of him.

Loud.

Competitive.

Annoyingly observant.

Completely obsessed with football.

Nothing like the rumors.