Page 26 of Off the Pitch

As usual, I thought I’d have to be the voice of reason. Again.

“So,” I said, interrupting their sniping. “What do you want in a ring?”

We hit the jewellers on Bond Street as soon as training was over, each stopping off briefly at our various houses on our way into Central London to change into jeans rather than football kits and jogging bottoms. Somehow, I didn’t think the guys at Tiffany’s or Boodle’s would appreciate that.

Liam was uncharacteristically quiet as we browsed the counters in Tiffany’s, his face taking on a pale shade of green.

“Are you okay?” I asked as quietly as possible, pulling him to one side and giving him my best look of concern. Liam chewed his lip, staring down at the floor.

“What if I get it wrong?” he whispered. “What if I choose wrong and she hates it?”

I suppressed another laugh because of all the things to be worried about, this seemed like such a trivial one. “She won’t. You know her too well to pick something she’d hate. Besides, you must have some idea of what she wants. Lily knows what she wants, and she’s not dating anyone.”

I didn’t tell Liam that this was because Lily had very strong views on jewellery in general, and she’d once told me she’d dump her partner on the spot if they didn’t let her choose her own ring. She was very strong-willed, my sister.

“I guess.”

“And if she hates it that much, I’m sure they’ll let you exchange it. It’ll just be a funny story that you tell everyone in the future.” Liam laughed and nudged my shoulder, shaking his head.

“That’s true. Plus, Ali knows I have horrible taste already.”

“Can’t be that bad. You picked her.”

We dragged ourselves back to the counter, and I left Liam alone to peruse by himself, whispering in Jordan’s ear to give him some space. I thought it would probably be easier if Liam didn’t have us offering our opinions every two seconds. Besides, it wasn’t like we knew Ali as well as Liam did.

A counter filled with men’s rings caught my eye, and, despite the fact that my anxiety was still ruling my every decision, I couldn’t resist looking at them. If all else failed, I could pretend I was looking at possible wedding rings for Liam.

David and I were hardly dating, but deep down, part of me longed for us to have a future together.

Most of the rings were quite simple – bands of varying metals and colours, one or two studded with the occasional diamond, nothing near the ostentatious engagement rings that Liam had been examining. None of them looked particularly interesting to me. They were just pieces of shiny metal and nothing I could see ever giving to anyone.

Except the knot one.

Tucked at the back was a silver ring, designed to look like two loops of rope knotted together in an open pattern. Something inside me clicked. That was it. If I was ever going to ask David to marry me, it would be with that ring.

“Christian, come look at this,” Liam called, beckoning me over to where he was standing with Jordan, peering closely at something the assistant was holding.

I nodded, pushing all thoughts of the silver ring into the back of my brain.

It was never going to happen.

Chapter Twelve

A NEW ERA?

King double ensures England beat Italy in final friendly of 2018

The Guardian

David

I loved teaching my students, honestly, I did… but oh my fucking God were some of them idiots.

I got it. I did. My first years were all used to being at college or sixth form, where the teachers would practically spoon-feed them the information or instructions for their assessments. They were used to having their hands held. And now they were at university, and suddenly some grumpy-as-fuck PhD student with too much work and not enough caffeine was handing them a list of questions and pointing them towards the library.

In my defence, I had also given up lots of my time to keep office hours so they could come see me and panic as it got closer and closer to December, when they had to hand in their first assignment, and they still didn’t understand to how find something. I’d been asked the same question fifty times this week, and I wasthisclose to banging my head against a brick wall and calling it quits.

It wasn’t as if I didn’t have my own work to do.

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