The three text messages sat in Ethan's phone like a ticking bomb, a constant, low-level hum of anxiety and possibility in the back of his mind.
GridironGuru has it. It can only be won. In a wager.
For three days, the words had been his shadow, following him through a quiet, almost normal week.
His two-day suspension from CostMart had ended with a very stern, very public lecture from Mr. Henderson about the "sanctity of the condiment aisle," which had been more embarrassing than punishing.
He had returned to his duties as a model employee, stacking cheese and facing-up yogurts with a renewed, if slightly forced, focus.
The team, in the virtual world, had been given two days off to recover from their collective, spectacular meltdown. The silence from his players had been absolute.
It was a wound that would take more than a few days to heal.
