Practices were brutal. Hours and hours spent in the weight room, on the field scrimmaging, in the physical therapist's room, muscles being stretched to their farthest expanse, soaking in the ice tub and more torture that I put myself through all for the notoriety and glory that came with the territory of being a pro football player.

Playoffs were going well and we were looking good since we won our wild card game against the Saints in the first week of January but we were coming up on our Divisional game against Baltimore and they were in better shape when it came to their offense which meant that coach wasn't letting up on me or our first string but I was being looked at more heavily since I was put in at the last second of our last game and scored another touchdown securing our fourteen point lead and winning us the game.

I was supposed to be going over to a fellow player's house and going over hours of footage of old games but Michael Dermott caught me in the locker rooms before I headed out and invited me to a press junket with VIP passes to the after party which sounded more intriguing than hanging out with twelve sweaty guys and having to sit on the floor to watch old games because the rookie always got last pick of the seating.

I dressed in my best suit jacket outfit and checked my reflection before leaving, realizing with a start that I hadn't thought of Lydia all day. Maybe it was getting easier...

The stab of pain in my chest as her name flashed in my mind told me that just wishful thinking, and probably a fluke because of how hard I'd been practicing that day.

I shrugged off the thoughts of the gorgeous woman who captivated my thoughts day and night, her sky blue eyes piercing my heart while memories of her silky smooth dark skin slipping between my hands captured my consciousness.

I used a car service and soon I was arriving on the red carpet with flashing lights and cameras flashing, people yelling my name echoing off of my eardrums and reminding me that I should've probably brought a date. I was well aware that my presence in the city on the arm of very beautiful women could reach Lydia, but she was the one who broke it off with me. I didn't want to seem like I was still heartbroken over her even thought that was exactly the case, so I used those meaningless dates to try and get over her which obviously didn't work.

I wondered about her, if she was moving on easily unlike me. I wondered if she would find someone that would make her feel the way that she made me feel. I'd kept in touch with her brother over the past few months but he hadn't heard a peep from her, and neither had Reed.

Lucas was wanting to move up to Massachusetts to apply for a job at MIT and Reed was content with his new boyfriend down in Texas so I doubted that he would join him, even though it'd be nice to have the gang all back together again.

The roar of the paparazzi flooded my ears as a popular singer sidled up next to me and wrapped her arms around my midsection, and although I'd never formally met her before, my manager had told me that her people were asking about me for a meet up and I assumed this was her way of saying hello.

She had long dark hair and light brown eyes, foreign features and a Disney background that made her mega popular, but I'd never realized that someone of her caliber would be interested in someone like me.

Sofia Renault clung onto me for the pictures like we were a couple and the commotion this action caused within the press standing before us was almost like a catastrophic wave. It started with paparazzi photographing an actor further down the carpet flocking to our position on the carpet, almost tripping over each other to try and get an elusive picture.

"Nice to meet you, superstar. You looked great at your last game."

I smirked as her voice dropped into my ear. What an introduction.

"Thanks. Nice to meet you as well."

Our voices were drowned out by the screaming rush of people begging for us to look their way to capture a picture of the two of us with our eyes facing their specific lens.

She placed a chaste kiss on my cheek and I almost thought about pulling away, scared of what the implications of such an action would cause but decided to let it go. Lydia had broken up with me, I was allowed to be seen with others, and it wasn't like I was photographed with models before, or even taken them home just to try and get the memory of the feel of her body underneath mine out of my damn head.

"See you in there?"

I nodded my head at her as she disappeared and disentangled her body from mine, taking half of the paparazzi with her. I was bombarded with questions asking how we'd met and how long we'd been dating but I didn't answer, deciding to keep my answers close to the vest. If she wanted to tell the press anything I'd let her, but I wasn't about to say anything and show my cards.

The rest of the night droned on as the charity gala was in full swing, and I found a few of my teammates in the VIP section congratulating me on picking up a girl like Sofia. They were especially surprised considering her recent split from her ex who was admittedly one of the biggest names in the music industry, so of course they all decided that she was way out of my league but they didn't know what was going on in my mind.

The only girl I cared about being out of my league was in the same state, the same city, and yet she was still so far away.

Sofia caught my eye a few more times over the course of my night and we met up at a pub table at the after party.

"Sorry about ambushing you on the carpet like that even though we'd never really met before. I tried to have my people get in touch with you but for some reason they never got back with us..."

She trailed her words off and gave me an intentionally innocent look, the air being sucked out of the room with her intensity and I couldn't tell if I enjoyed the strain it caused in my chest.

I'd checked my phone in the hour after the red carpet and sure enough we were close to breaking the internet, especially considering her ex hadn't been photographed with anyone else yet since their split. They were speculating that I was her rebound and we were already dating when I'd hardly spoken two sentences to the woman.

She was probably just using me to either get the attention off of her breakup or to get the upper hand on her ex, but it didn't bother me. Any distraction from the girl I was still desperately in love with was a welcome distraction, even if I was being used.

"No worries. It was...interesting, that's for sure."

Her twinkling laugh filled my ears and I spent the rest of the evening downing Crown and Coke and listening to her star studded stories while probably boring her with my tales from practices.

It was the first night in a long time that I felt somewhat normal in the midst of all the chaos surrounding me and the fame that came with my job title.

I realized with a start that if our QB's injury still affected him until the next game that I'd be starting...and that this paparazzi and attention was only going to get worse, especially if we won our Divisional game and made it to the Championship game, and from there the Super Bowl would be in our grasp.

I gulped down the last bit of my alcohol and followed Sofia out of the club into the awaiting throng of flashing cameras and screaming fans. Someone had tipped them off to the after party, of course.

She grasped my hand and I fell into her waiting SUV. I didn't care if I either went home alone or with her, because no matter how hard I tried I'd never be able to erase a certain dark haired raven beauty from my mind, even with someone who almost matched her radiance, she still lacked the one thing that would keep me awake at night, every night, until I somehow got over her once and for all...

She wasn't Lydia.