Page 31 of Off the Pitch

Chapter Fourteen

GREENWICH DRAW DORTMUND IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LAST 16

Greenwich Athletic will face German giants Borussia Dortmund in the Last 16 in their toughest matchup so far!

Daily Mail

Christian

“Pick up four.”

“That’s cheating!”

“No, it’s in the rules, Pro-fes-sor. You have to pick up four cards.”

“You sneaky bastard. You did that on purpose.”

“Of course. There’s nothing that says I can’t.” Kit shrugged, grinning smugly at David, who was staring at him open-mouthed across the table. “This is my revenge for you not letting me have Ben & Jerry’s for breakfast yesterday.”

“Phish Food is not breakfast.”

“But I hadn’t slept, so was it technically breakfast?”

“I hate you.”

“No, you love me.” Kit winked, settling back in his chair with a handful of Maltesers. David sighed, begrudgingly collecting his extra cards before shooting me his best impression of puppy eyes.

“See! See what I have to live with?”

“I know. He’s so mean to you,” I said, trying desperately to keep a straight face.

“Thanks. That’s not patronising at all,” David said, rolling his eyes with the best wounded expression he could muster. “Ugh, you all suck.”

I laughed, looking down at my own hand of cards. Part of me was tempted to lean over and whisper in his ear ‘that could be arranged’, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Maybe if it had just been the two of us, it would have been a different story.

Instead, there were four of us, casually sitting around the kitchen table playing Uno on a Tuesday evening.

Lily had been badgering me for weeks to invite David and Kit around for dinner, and I’d finally given in and done as I was told. It was either I asked or she would, and that seemed like the easiest way to create a really awkward situation between David and me. After all, it wasn’t that I didn’t want him to come to our house, I was just worried about what he and Lily would cook up together when I wasn’t listening. Either that or Lily would spend the whole time interrogating him, even though I knew she could have done it by now if she wanted to, considering David was still teaching her seminar.

Honestly, though, I wasn’t sure why I’d been worried. This evening had been fun.

I’d sweet-talked Monika into making something for all of us by promising to do all the dishes afterwards. Even though it was her job to cook meals for me, I always felt like I was taking advantage when I asked her to make extra food. Monika often felt more like family than an employee, and I enjoyed spending time chatting with her when I got back in the afternoons. Most of her family still lived in Poland, and she was already looking forward to going back for Christmas. I loved hearing her talk about her family and their food. Her mum and grandmother had both taught her to cook, and I was dying to try out some their recipes because they sounded so good. Monika had already promised to make me pierogi when the football season ended because, despite all my begging, she’d repeatedly told me they weren’t healthy enough for my meal plan.

I’d decided not to push it, because she didn’t know about the volume of snacks I’d consumed over the past couple of weeks with David. I’d get a complete earful if Monika found out. Plus, she’d probably rat me out to the coaches at the club and then refuse to make me any more puddings. Having a boyfriend was not good for my diet.

“Chrissie, it’s your turn.” Lily’s voice startled me, and I could hear her giggling as I tried to focus on my cards.

“Sorry, I totally missed what happened,” I admitted.

“Don’t worry,” David said, leaning over to kiss my temple. I froze. We’d never done this before—deliberately shown any sort of affection for each other in front of people. Especially people who knew us. Sure, we’d been caught kissing by Kit, but that had felt different. That hadn’t been deliberate. I could feel my body tensing, the warning siren in my brain firing up. I glanced around to see the others’ reactions.

Nothing.

Kit was eating more sweets, and Lily was tapping at her phone. They hadn’t even noticed.

Instantly, my body relaxed. The tension drained out of me faster than it had arrived.

They hadn’t noticed. And even if they had, would they even have cared? The answer was probably a huge, resounding no. Lily just wanted me to be happy, and Kit had never batted an eye. They were the last people who were going to make a fuss or pull a face or berate me for being gay. So why was I still so uptight? That was a question I had no idea how to answer.

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