Page 174 of Off the Pitch

“I had a little help,” I confessed with a chuckle. “Gael is incredibly efficient.”

“You’re amazing,” Hugo said. He finally released the platter, placing it on the floor, so he could lean over and draw me into a kiss. “Seriously. This is… this is perfect. Just like you, mon coeur.”

He kissed me again, and I felt the love radiating off him. It was strange to think I hadn’t even known Hugo a year, and yet it felt like I’d known him my whole life. I already knew I was going to be with him forever. He was my perfect match, my soulmate. And I was the luckiest man in the universe.

Hugo sat back, grinning gleefully as he looked at the plate. I’d never seen a man so happy when presented with a plate of cheese. It was like I’d given him the moon.

“So,” he said, picking up a knife. “Where shall we start?”

The End

Chapter One

December

#nomoreweddings

Jordan

I really wasn’t convinced Adele was the best musical choice for a wedding. Sure, I knew she must have some more romantic stuff, but all I ever thought about was how much of her music was dedicated to soul-crushing break-up ballads. But since it wasn’t my wedding, I didn’t get a say in the matter.

The glittering lights in the hotel ballroom illuminated the dance floor, while giant glowing letters spelled LOVE next to it. Hundreds of tables sat around the dance floor, each one adorned with a flower arrangement I’d spent nearly four months helping the groom choose. He hadn’t been indecisive; he just had terrible taste. Like truly fucking awful.

Guests mingled, eating bits of wedding cake from the six-tier stunner that sat in the corner, or flocked to the packed, polished dance floor where Lily King, who was more used to playing club sets in Ibiza than weddings, was working her way through a carefully curated playlist. There were at least six hundred people in attendance, and even though it was nearly eleven, it didn’t seem like many people were making a move to leave. Not even my Greenwich Athletic teammates, who I’d last seen doing shots of tequila at the bar. They were really gonna fucking regret that tomorrow when Trossero, our head coach, had us running laps around the pitch.

We were a week from our Christmas matches, which meant four games in twelve days, but they seemed to have forgotten that tonight. Not that I blamed them. If anyone fancied getting wasted, it was me.

And in the middle of everything, twirling around without a care in the world and looking happier than I’d ever seen him, was one of my best friends in the whole world: Liam Gold. His arms were wrapped around Ali, his new wife. Ali’s designer gown, her second dress of the day, sparkled in the soft lighting, making her look more radiant than ever.

A pleased feeling flared in my chest—the exhausted satisfaction of a job well done and the ecstatic revelation that I’dneverhave to do this again. I’d been helping Liam plan his wedding for nearly a year, but fucking hell, it had felt like longer.

Liam might be my best mate, but I’d been closer to murdering him over the last six weeks than I’d ever dreamed possible. I’d been tempted to film him and see if they were still making that crazy showBridezillas. I shook my head and smiled as I watched him and Ali. Looking at him now, you’d never know he’d had a melt down two weeks ago over chair covers. I knew he’d wanted the day to be perfect, but I’d wanted to strangle him.

I’d met Liam on my first day of training at Greenwich when I’d transferred there three years ago. I’d just turned twenty, and I was fucking terrified I wasn’t going to live up to the expectations the club had for me. Plus, I didn’t know anybody. I was from Tottenham in North London, so I hadn’t exactly grown up a Greenwich fan.

Then Liam had grabbed me for a partner exercise and started chatting nineteen to the dozen about some TV show he’d been watching and that was it. He’d adopted me as his friend. Within a week, we were inseparable, and after a month, it felt like I’d known him my whole life.

Liam knew me better than anyone else in the world. We spent so much time together Ali had always joked that it was like we were an old married couple, and that I was gonna hijack their wedding and the two of us would run off into the sunset together. She joked, but I’d put too much effort into planning the damn wedding for anything to go wrong.

The major flaw in her plan was that Liam was straight and loved Ali more than anything else on earth. Seriously. Their relationship ranged from being cute to downright vomit inducing at times. Plus, after this whole wedding-planning thing, I don’t think I’d have coped being married to him. God only knew what he’d be like if they chose to have kids one day.

I sighed and rubbed my face before taking a sip of the beer I’d acquired from the hotel bar. There’d been wine served throughout the meal, but I’d never really liked it, so I’d hit the bar as soon as it opened. I wasn’t wasted, just pleasantly buzzed. I still had another couple of hours to get through before I could crash, and I needed to stay awake.

The rest of the Greenwich lads had all reappeared on the dance floor with their wives or girlfriends, and it was sweet, in a sickening kind of way, to see how much they all cared, sweeping their girls into their arms and looking at them like they’d hung the moon. There were some notable exceptions though. Our strikers, Christian and Hugo, were both sitting nearby with their boyfriends, none of them quite touching.

There was a longing on Christian’s face that broke my fucking heart.

The team knew he was gay and happily living with his boyfriend, David, but he wasn’t out to the public at all. And since there were so many people here, not to mention photographers, it meant he and David had to pretend to be good friends and nothing more. Not unless they wanted to suddenly end up trending on Twitter. It was the same for Kit and Hugo.

Hugo seemed a bit more laissez-faire about the whole dating a man thing, but he was also pretty private, and he’d never made a public statement. He was also incredibly protective of Kit. Not that I blamed him. I’d only met Kit a few times, but each time I got the feeling he was the kinda person who’d go to Tesco for some eggs and come out two hours later with everything but.

Still, it sucked that the four of them had been relegated to watching everyone else be happy. I was surprised they were still here. Especially since Christian and David seemed unable to keep their hands off each other. I’d learnt that the hard way when I’d picked up Christian’s phone after a match once. I’d thought David would be sending him sappy love notes about how proud he was. The reality left me wanting to bleach my brain. I’d had trouble looking both of them in the eye for weeks afterwards.

I’d never really been much for relationships, especially not in the past couple of years, but the constant displays of affection in front of me were starting to get under my skin. I wasn’t quite sure why. After all, I was single by choice.

“Hey, you okay?” Micah, one of my teammates, flopped into the seat next to me. I’d deliberately chosen a table a little way back from the dance floor, hoping no one would notice me trying not to fall asleep. Apparently not.

“Yeah, mate. Just knackered,” I said, rubbing my face again. “I’ve been up since four when Liam woke me up jabbering about his fucking tie.” I rolled my eyes and chuckled to myself. “I wouldn’t have minded being woken up if we hadn’t had the exact same conversation four fucking times this week.”

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