Page 144 of Off the Pitch

“I’m sorry to disturb you,” I said, chewing my lip. “I, um, is David around?”

“Sure,” Christian said, hustling me inside and closing the door. He called out, “Babe, come down here,” as I slid my bag off and left it by the door.

“Two minutes,” David responded from upstairs, and given Christian’s appearance, I assumed he was getting dressed.

“Do you want a drink?” Christian asked, giving me another one of his warm, kind smiles. “I can make you some tea or maybe hot chocolate.”

“Tea would be lovely. Thank you.” I followed him into the kitchen, unsure where to put myself as he filled the kettle and rummaged around for some mugs. I’d never felt so unsure or out of place in my own body. I couldn’t even work out what I was feeling. Everything inside my brain was a mess.

Christian placed a pretty yellow mug on the kitchen counter in front of me, alongside a dark blue tin of biscuits. It was a selection of chocolate ones and my fingers hesitated over them.

“Chocolate biscuits and tea will cure most things,” Christian said. “At least, that’s what my mum always says.”

“I think she might be right,” I said, trying for a smile.

“My mum usually is.”

I picked up a chocolate finger, carefully dunking it into my tea and nibbling the end. If they were longer, chocolate fingers might make quite good straws to drink tea through, although if you weren’t careful you would probably end up with quite a lot of biscuit paste at the bottom of your mug. Probably not such a good idea then.

“Hey,” David said, striding through the kitchen door as I popped the last of my biscuit into my mouth. He pressed a quick kiss to Christian’s temple and looked at me. “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

“Maybe? I think I’m just being rather stupid again,” I said, setting my mug down as my fingers started to wobble. “When we got back to Hugo’s after the football, Hélène was there.”

“Hélène?”

“Hugo’s ex-wife,” Christian added.

“Yes. I’ve never met her before,” I said. “Anyway, she was sitting on the sofa, so I assume she must still have keys to Hugo’s flat.” David made a low sound, and Christian sighed, shaking his head. “She, um, she said she made a mistake letting Hugo go. I think she wants them to get back together.”

“And what was Hugo’s response?” David asked, his voice almost a growl.

“He was… well, he seemed shocked that she was there, but I left after she said that.” I chewed my lip, twirling my fingers together. “I wasn’t sure I was wanted.”

To my shock, a tear slid down my cheek, quickly followed by another.

“Oh, Kit.” David pulled me into his arms, squeezing me so tightly I wasn’t sure I could breathe. Now that the tears had started, I wasn’t quite sure how to stop them, and I sobbed into David’s t-shirt. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” he said, soothingly, his fingers stroking my hair. “It’s going to be okay.”

When I could breathe again, and the flood of tears seemed to be receding, I tried to step back to wipe my eyes, but David wouldn’t release me.

“I’m terribly sorry,” I said against his shoulder. “That was highly embarrassing, and I made your t-shirt wet.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Did you know you’ve got it on inside out?”

David chuckled. “It wouldn’t surprise me.” He hugged me tightly for another few seconds then released me enough to take my hand and pull me out of the kitchen. “Come on. Let’s go sit down.”

Christian had disappeared at some point while I was crying, but as David steered me onto one of the large, squishy sofas in their sitting room, I did notice two mugs of tea and the tin of biscuits had migrated to the coffee table.

“Okay,” David said as I curled up on one end of the sofa, tea and biscuits in hand. If I was going to be miserable, then I was going to eat all the chocolate biscuits within reach. “Now, I haven’t seen you in forever because of my fucking thesis, but I get the feeling I’m missing something. There’s something you’re not telling me. What happened in Scotland?”

“How do you always do that?” I asked, trying to look cross but failing.

“Do what?”

“Read me like an open book. How do you know something’s different or that something changed?”

“Lucky guess. But also because I know you, and you only ever cry when things break your heart a little, like when dogs die in films. And you looked fucking devastated when I saw you, so I’m pretty certain you’re really worried about something happening with Hugo, and that leads me to believe something’s changed and you have very strong feelings for him.”

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