Page 22 of My Italian Love Affair

Let them think whatever they want.

One of the younger guys, Nico, is scrolling through his phone and snickers before flipping his screen in my direction.

"Have you seen this? There’s already pictures of you from today.”

Sure enough, there’s an article with a blurry shot of me entering the hotel, paired with some nonsense headline speculating about my contract situation.

I roll my eyes.

"You think I care?"

"You should," Diego says, nudging my arm. "People are obsessed with your life, man. Just embrace it."

Before I can respond, a voice cuts through my thoughts.

"You still planning on training tomorrow?"

I glance over at Luca, one of my teammates.

He’s been around long enough to understand that I don’t do downtime well. That even after a win, even after a long night, I’ll still be up at the crack of dawn, putting in extra hours at the gym.

"You already know the answer," I say, taking a sip of my water.

Luca shakes his head, amused.

"You need to loosen up, man.We won. Relax a little."

But I don’twantto relax.

I want to push myself harder.

I want to keep going.

I want to make sure that we get to the final, and that when the final comes, I’m at my absolute best.

I barely hear the rest of their conversation as I scan the room -

And that’s when I seeher.

Auburn hair, big green eyes, and an expression that tells me she’snotenjoying herself.

She’s standing slightly off to the side, arms crossed, clearly unimpressed with whatever Mark Chapman - the journalist beside her - is saying. He leans in slightly, smirking as he talks, but she doesn’t laugh, doesn’t lean back towards him.

If anything, she looks like she’s barely tolerating his presence.

I can’t hear their conversation, but I don’t need to. I’ve been in enough of these rooms to recognise the dynamic.

He’s talkingather, not with her.

I study her for a moment, intrigued.

I’d noticed her earlier, of course - it would be near impossiblenotto. She’s stunning, but it’s more than that.

It’s the way she held herself in that press conference.

The way she pushed back when I expected her to back down.

Women don’t usually look at me like that - don't usually talk to me like that, either.

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