Page 94 of Fever Dream
“Ah, yes,” Coach mulls, eyes on Harrison. “I never thought that would come back to bite us. Let’s get Alice to look into that offline.”
“I can do that,” Alice confirms.
“If it’s necessary, I’ll quit my position with both clubs so that I can stay with Casey,” Harrison says. I still. This is not something we discussed in our many discussions this week. I go to speak but Harrison silences me with a squeeze to my thigh.Later. We’ll talk about it later.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Coach says kindly. “You’ve been an invaluable asset to the club, Harrison.”
“Thank you, Mick,” Harrison replies.
Only Nikki from PR has yet to speak but I can see she’s gearing up for her turn as she shuffles the papers in front of her. I’ve met Nikki a few times for player photo shoots, and I’ve always liked her. Her high energy has always clicked with me.
“That about covers the legal side of things,” Coach continues. “How do you both want to go about handling everything from here? As you know, we’ve all signed an NDA here today. We can all walk away from here and not one word will be leaked about what was discussed today. But I have a feeling that’s not what you want.”
He eyeballs us, and Harrison and I share a quick glance. I take a breath before I speak.
“No. We don’t want to hide our relationship anymore. We want to go public,” I say. “We don’t want it to be anything big or formal but … yeah.”
Nikki smiles at us and it’s so broad it’s like I’ve given her a Christmas present but Alan Davies steps in before she can speak.
“I hope you both know you have the full backing of the East Coast Fever,” he says. “I speak for the Board when I say you will be given everything necessary for a smooth process including any counselling services. We’ve always prided ourselves on being the most inclusive club in the league.”
“Thank you, Alan,” I say.
“Nikki? I think you have some ideas?” Coach adds.
Finally, Nikki gets her moment to shine, and she gathers her notes, all attention on her. “Well, firstly, let me just say we areveryexcited about the chance to be the first club to celebrate an openly gay player.”
“Um, can we not say gay?” I murmur. “I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate.”
“Oh, right, um, sure, that’s no problem at all,” she says, quick to recover.
“Maybe no labels is best,” Riley cuts in. “We can just say Casey is in a relationship with Harrison and leave it at that.”
“Yes. Agreed. Of course,” Nikki says. “I have loads of ideas. We could do a press release from the club, and we can arrange a full press conference where you can speak directly to the media. That way we can control the narrative a little easier.”
“I think Harrison and I were thinking something slightly less formal,” I say, sharing a look with Harrison who smiles encouragingly at me.
“Okay. What did you have in mind?” Nikki asks.
***
Late on Friday afternoon, two days before our next home game at the Fever Pitch, Harrison sits beside me as I hit Share on the photo we took at the club earlier today.
Nikki is on FaceTime on Harrison’s phone, and she waits all of three seconds before she shares my post from the official East Coast Fever’s social media accounts. She kept their comments simple per our request, just a quiet#Proudaccompanied by a rainbow flag and a pair of navy and silver hearts.
Sonny, Izak, James and at least half the guys on the football team instantly love heart the pic, leaving a trail of supportive comments underneath.
We say goodbye to Nikki and then smile at our post one last time. It’s a cute shot, if I’m allowed to say that of myself but I think it’s more to do with the gorgeous guy and his tumble of beautiful brown curls at my side. It’s a picture of us standing out in the middle of the Fever Pitch. Harrison’s back is slightly turned to the camera, displaying the nameCallowayacross the Fever jersey he’s wearing. I’m in my Fever training gear, the one request of the club to be seen in their colours. I’m holding afootball and leaning on Harrison’s shoulder. We look adorable, close and cosy. Not a lot of room for doubt there in that shot.
There’s less room for doubt in my caption:I’ll always play for your teamit says alongside a sneaky rainbow flag and a red heart.
I close out of the app and then we both switch our phones off. It’s done now. There’s nothing we can do to pull that story back in, but I don’t want to watch it roll out at the same time.
Harrison holds me close, just me and the love of my life, and we smile at each other as the evening turns to night.
EPILOGUE 1
harrison
