Page 168 of Off the Pitch

Neither of us were sure whether she’d have said that if his career hadn’t taken off the way it had, but it was a nice sentiment either way. As Kit had said afterwards, he’d take what he could get.

His first exhibition at the Daaé Gallery had been a wild success. All his paintings had sold within the first week and Hélène had immediately commissioned another exhibition for nine months later.

A few months later a couple of private collectors had gotten in touch, asking if Kit had anything else to sell because they loved his work. At that point, we’d only just moved into the new house and virtually everything was still in boxes, so Kit had had to say no. They hadn’t been put off, though, and had asked him to get in touch as soon as he had work to sell.

Kit had come off the phone looking both surprised and nauseous, and I’d been so ridiculously proud of him I’d run around our living room cheering until we both collapsed onto the sofa, giggling like idiots. The next day I’d bought him the largest bouquet of cupcakes I could find, and we’d eaten them all in one sitting.

Ever since then, Kit hadn’t been out of work. After a year, he’d cut down on his digital work to give himself a chance to paint more, and last year he’d packed it in completely because there was so little time. The only time he drew digitally now was when he did commissions for a few select friends—mostly Volt, Ozzie, and Flash, although they were just as keen to buy his paint and charcoal work.

They’d flown over especially for the wedding, and we’d picked them up at the airport. It had been adorable to watch three, rather large, muscular guys enveloping my fiancé in a giant hug in the middle of Edinburgh airport and hearing them tell him how proud they all were of him.

Volt, whose real name turned out to be Jackson, had taken me aside that night and thanked me for making Kit so happy. We’d then spent the whole evening talking about sports and fitness and coaching, since Volt had spent his college years playing linebacker and now spent a lot of his time coaching various groups, including a local American football team for LGBTQ youth.

I’d finally retired from playing professionally last season, and at Lucas’s encouragement, moved into the coaching and management side of football. It had been an interesting transition, but I was enjoying the challenge, and I’d recently been offered the chance to manage the Greenwich under-eighteens team.

They’d managed to make me feel almost ancient, considering I was nearly thirty-five, but they were a good group of players, and I had high hopes for several of them. Plus, none of them had even blinked an eye when they’d found out I was marrying a man, which gave me a lot of hope for the next generation.

I’d ended up coming out at the same time as Christian, the summer after Kit and I had bought our house, right after the World Cup in Italy. It had been easier to go through the whole process together. The fact that there were a few of us and we weren’t doing it alone had meant we weren’t individual targets. Besides, Jordan’s public declaration of love in the middle of the press conference had gottenfarmore coverage than Christian and I had gotten… combined.

Still, the press had gotten bored quickly, moving on to their next topic of gossip within a week or two. It was still brought up sometimes, but we’d learnt to shut it down or redirect it to another topic.

“Shall we go down near the lake?” Dan asked, interrupting my thoughts. Kit was looking at me, as if waiting for my answer. “We might get a bit wet,” Dan continued, “but we can get to the bit of woodland on the edge of the grounds from there too, and I think it would make for great photos.”

“Sounds good,” I said, giving Kit a quick look to make sure we weren’t on totally opposite pages.

“Excellent,” Kit said, giving me a beaming smile. “If it rains and we need extra time for photos, we can always take some after dinner and our first dance, just as long as I get some cake first.”

“Perfect,” I said, leaning down for a quick kiss as we started walking down the lawn, thick purple clouds rolling in above us. It didn’t matter to me if it rained, I had my best friend and my true love by my side, and we had all the time in the world.

The End

Silverware

Silverware

Kit & Hugo

Kit

“Hello? Anyone home?” David’s voice echoed around my loft space as his head appeared over the steps, and he looked around. His dark hair looked vaguely windswept and there was a leaf stuck in the top of it.

“You have a leaf in your hair,” I said, poking my head around the pile of blank canvases I was buried behind. “Right there.” I gestured to said flora. David chuckled as he removed it.

“I’ve been calling you for the last five minutes. If I’d have been a burglar, you wouldn’t have even noticed I was here!”

“Well,” I said as I shoved the last of the canvases into place. “If you were a burglar, I hardly think you’d go around announcing yourself and looking for me. It would defeat the point of the exercise.” I looked at him again, noticing the full suit he was wearing, which seemed like unusual attire for David. Even when he went to work, he usually just wore a shirt and a jumper.

I stood up, shaking out the pins and needles in my feet as I stepped towards my newly installed worktable and ran my hands lovingly across the wooden surface. It was still relatively clean and shiny, the odd splatter of paint marking it here and there, but nothing like it would look one day. It had been a Christmas present from Hugo, and he’d had it installed while I’d been out with David one day. I wasn’t sure how he’d managed to keep it a secret, but he had. It was beautiful, and I loved it. “You look smart. Are you going somewhere?”

“I had an important meeting at work.”

“You never wear a tie to work though.”

“Did you not hear what I said about the important meeting?” David asked, a note of casual exasperation in his voice.

“I did, but that still doesn’t explain it.”

“I’ve, um, I’ve been promoted,” David said. There was a sheepish grin little on his face as if he couldn’t quite believe the words. “They wanted someone to run the outreach and education programme, so I applied, and I had the interview this morning. They told me I got the job before I left this afternoon.”

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