Page 4 of Off the Pitch

I didn’t know she was a student here. Last I’d heard, she was DJing various sellout clubs, but I guessed she must have gotten bored after a couple of years and decided to do this instead.

Fuck my fucking life.

Somehow, I made it through the hour. Even if all I could think about was Christian. Why the fuck hadn’t I checked the class list more closely? Still, I doubted I would have put two and two together. King wasn’t exactly the most uncommon surname. Besides, I never thought in a million years that Lily would show up here of all places. When the end of the hour finally, mercifully, arrived, I shoved my stuff back into my bag as fast as I could, making out that I had another class to teach across campus when really I was only going down a floor. I had just made it out the door, thinking stupidly that I was safe, when Lily appeared at my elbow.

“David,” she said. I froze.

“Lily, did you have a question?” I asked, trying to play it cool even though I knew I was making a complete idiot of myself. She raised her eyebrow and stared at me. It was the same look she’d always given me when she was cross. The sort of look that would make anyone quail.

“Yes, I do actually.” The grin she was giving me made my blood run cold. “Will you meet me for coffee later?”

“I’d, um, I’d love to—” I started to say, but before I could get an excuse out, she cut me off.

“Perfect! Here’s my number. Text me when you’re free.” Lily handed me a scrap of paper before strolling off down the corridor, leaving me standing there wondering why the universe hated me so much.

I didn’t dare try and get out of it. Not if grownup Lily was anything like teenage Lily. Which was how I found myself sitting in Starbucks, eating a giant chocolate muffin, anxiously waiting for her. I felt like I was awaiting execution, but I still wasn’t sure what my crime was. I shifted nervously in my seat. Goodbye intellectual, self-confident David; hello nervous wreck.

“Thanks for coming,” Lily said, as she suddenly dropped into the seat opposite me. “I thought you might back out.”

I snorted. “Fat chance. I’m still scared of you.” I had still not forgotten the missing eyebrow incident of 2009. Lily had shaved one of them off while I’d been asleep because I’d been an asshole to her all afternoon. I’d not done so again.

“Good.” She took a slurp of the large, frothy drink in front of her—that happened to be the same shade as her hair—and smiled softly. “So, how’ve you been? It’s been what, six years?”

Her sweetness caught me off guard for a minute. “About that, but I’m good, I guess. How’re you?”

“I’m fine. Back in London for the year.”

“Great.” Fuck, I sucked at small talk. “Where are you staying?”

Lily smirked. “With Christian.” She dropped his name casually, but it was like a bomb exploding in slow motion. My stomach felt like it was twisting itself into knots, and it suddenly felt a billion degrees warmer than it had two minutes ago. So many thoughts and questions swarmed in my head like angry wasps, fighting to get out, but I didn’t know where to start.

“How is he?” was what I settled on. My insides swirled, and I couldn’t help wondering whether this was how everyone deals with bumping into their ex’s family and suddenly having to engage in conversation about them.

Lily stared at me, as if trying to guess my true intentions. Whether I was being friendly or nosey or just waiting for her to drop some juicy gossip that I could sell to the highest bidder.

“He’s okay,” she said finally and shrugged. “I think he’s playing well.”

“That’s the understatement of the year.” Too late I realised that I’d fallen straight into her trap. She smiled sweetly, and I shivered.

“Oh really? Been keeping up with Chrissie’s career?”

“Well… I just meant that he’s one of the rising stars of English football… and I, well, it would be… fuck, I’m not fooling you, am I?”

“Nope,” she laughed. But there was no malice behind it. “I’m glad, and now I know you still like him. We can be friends again!”

She’d said it so calmly that it didn’t register in the moment. It was only much later, after two coffees and another muffin, when I was lazily riding the escalator down to the tube, that her words came back to smack me in the face.

You still like him.

Chapter Three

KING OF ENGLAND?

King joins England Squad for Georgia match

“I’m feeling confident,” says Greenwich striker

Daily Mail

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