Archive of Our Own ^beta

one

Rebecca is already in her pajamas when the hotel’s fire alarm starts blaring. She’s tired, but mostly she’s bored. This trip had been a waste, the match a draw, and she had spent the day wooing a potential sponsor who had decided that his company should go with an EFL team instead. He also kept throwing questions at her to see if she “really knew football.” Higgins winced every time.

She’s wondering if maybe this is a fire drill – and she might kill the manager if it is – when there’s a quick knock on her door. God, she bloody hates Newcastle.

“Hey, boss, you in there?” It’s Ted, of course. He bangs two more times on the wood during the time it takes her to cross the room and open the door.

He’s fully dressed, even though it’s close to midnight, and bursts into the room.

“Boss, we gotta move. Things are pretty serious downstairs. Some brouhaha in the kitchen.” He stares around her room and grabs her coat for her. “Grab what you need and let’s haul.”

So she does. Her phone is on her nightstand, so she goes for that and her purse while Ted helps her with her coat. She leaves her impractical heels behind, going for the hotel slippers instead.

By the time they make it downstairs all of Richmond and the rest of the guests are outside in various stages of undress. Dani Rojas, who’s just in his boxers, gets handed a coat by Isaac. Everyone seems to be shaking a little, the Newscastle air chilling everyone to their bones fast.

Beard makes his way towards them, Higgins in tow. “Apparently there’s a massive gas leak in the kitchen. They called the firefighters.”

“Yes, quite.” Higgins picks up. “The manager said it’ll take a few hours until we can all go back to our rooms, but he recommended another hotel not far from here.”

He looks expectantly at Rebecca, who shrugs. They can’t stay out here. “Call them and tell them we’re on our way.”

They take the bus.

By the time they get to the front desk, it’s chaos. They’re not the only guests who are trying their luck here. Both receptionists are handing out key cards while Higgins speaks to the manager. Slowly, the hall to the hotel starts emptying out, the players and guests making their way to their own rooms.

By the time it’s just her, Ted, Higgins and Coach Beard the receptionist gives the manager a look and then whispers something to him. They keep trading whispers back and forth while giving them looks.

It’s Ted who snaps first. “Fellas, can you tell us what’s going on? We’re all pretty beat here.”

The manager clears his throat and then tells them. “I’m afraid there’s only one room left.”

“We could put cots in some of the rooms,” he continues. “Or you could try the Hampton. It’s five minutes away. Although,” and he barely stops herself from wincing, “there’s a medical convention and a ballroom dancing competition happening this weekend so there’s a chance they’re also fully booked.”

They settle on Higgins and Beard bunking with the players, an uncomfortable cot for each, and for Ted to head to Roy’s, leaving Rebecca with the room. It’s not the ideal outcome, but since she’s getting the last room and bed she can’t seem to bring herself to care.

Higgins and Beard head up, both ready to knock on some doors, while Ted and her approach the front desk again. She gets the keycard and Ted asks them to call up to Roy’s room, tell him he’s coming.

“Roy..?” The receptionist asks.

“My man, Roy Kent. You know, he’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere.” He shakes his hands as he says it. “Tell ya something, that guy sleeps like the dead so you’re gonna have to tell him I’m coming around for a sleepover, ready to braid his hair.”

Rebecca should leave, it’s just about to when the girl says. “I’m sorry, sir, we don’t have a Roy Kent staying with us.”

For a moment they panic. Ted asks her to check under a couple of Roy’s aliases and still they get nothing so they wonder if maybe he stayed behind, if he’s locked in his room, didn’t hear the commotion. He’s also not picking up his phone. Except she doesn’t remember seeing Roy after the match and neither does Ted. They also haven't seen him here tonight. And he wasn’t at dinner.

She calls Higgins, who also has no clue, but he asks one of the lads. She can hear Isaac’s voice telling him something.

“Er, Isaac says Roy left with Todd Kane and his wife after the match. They were mates back in Chelsea.” She’s relieved. “He’s likely staying with them, they have a house around here. He told Isaac he’d travel back with us.”

She relays the information back to Ted who tells the girl – Anna, her nametag says –, that he’ll take one of ‘em cots then as soon as he gets to one of the double rooms the players are staying at.

The girl looks at Rebecca nervously then at the manager and back at Ted but stays silent.

Rebecca feels a sense of dread when the night manager clears his throat. “We do apologize, but we’re also out of cots.” He makes a face. “A lot of our guests this weekend have children.”

Bloody kids. She looks at Ted, who’s staring back at her, and has no clue what to do.

It’s Anna, the girl, who brings it up. “Would it be possible for you to share the room?” The manager is hissing her name under his breath as she speaks.

The prospect is horrendous, but it’s past 1 AM by now and she’s tired and impatient. “Fucking Newcastle”, she says marching to the lifts, not looking back to see if Ted’s following her.

They fidget with the door for a moment, the hotel truly showing its colors, and then they walk in and Rebecca feels like she might head right back downstairs and bludgeon Anna with her bag. Right there in the middle of the room sits a bed. Just one bed. The bloody room is not even a double.

Ted gives her this look like he’s not too far off from wanting to do the same thing, which, well. “I guess I could ask them to recommend me another hotel, further away? Or I could just do the floor. I’m so ready to get some shut-eye that I could probably sleep in the bathtub, tell ya that much.”

Rebecca, who was looking inside the subpar bathroom tells him “No bathtubs, I’m afraid.”

She’s not sure what to do, but really, the thought of kicking Ted out, not even sure he’ll find a bed to sleep in doesn’t appeal to her. She’s not that cold-hearted. She eyes the bed, which seems quite large, and she sighs. Can’t believe what she’s about to tell him. “Maybe we can just share the bed?”

Ted looks like he wants to run away screaming from the room, which she can understand, but it also seems like an overreaction. It prickles at her a bit so she doubles down. “We’re both exhausted and we’re both adults. And I really don’t feel like we can trust that idiotic manager to find you a room. He’ll likely send you to bloody Sunderland.”

Ted nods like he knows where Sunderland is then makes a face at her. “Guess we’re sharing then.”

She’s already in her pajamas so all she does is put the few things she brought with her on top of the dresser tucked in the corner of the room as Ted heads for the bathroom. As she lays down, she wonders if Ted has a preferred side and then immediately puts the thought away. He can bloody well deal with sleeping on the left, the far left.

When Ted leaves the bathroom he’s just in her undershirt and his boxers. Rebecca gets the sudden urge to giggle but stops herself. Ted is a little red around the ears, but when he sees her trying to keep the smile off her face he gives her a shy one.

“Finally got a look at these, huh?” He wobbles his legs. “You guys don’t seem to do shorts over here. Like, casually, I mean. Back home gets pretty hot sometimes so I live in shorts during the summer,” he babbles as he moves towards the bed.

“Hopefully not that short,” she replies eying his legs.

Then he’s fully blushing and Rebecca can’t keep the sound that comes out of her mouth, she cackles. Then takes pity on him and tells him to just do it. “Come on, let’s get some sleep.”

Ted gets into bed, far enough from her that she barely feels the mattress dip under her. As he settles down the awkwardness of the situation returns.

“It was a good match today,” she says just to break the awkward silence that has settled in bed with them.

She feels more than sees Ted shrugging next to her. “Just one of ‘em days where nothing goes right.” And it hadn’t. Jamie missed two goals, Sam one and Colin took a fall and hurt his wrist. They had gotten their draw in the end, though.

“Nothing ever goes right in Newcastle.”

She feels Ted’s curious stare, so she looks at him. “Growing up I had a great aunt who lived here. One of those ancient states that costs an arm and a leg to keep, but she wouldn’t let go so the place was slowly falling apart. Every summer my father would insist that we came here and see Aunt Franny. It was miserable. Something always happened, a roof falling out, the car that broke down in the middle of nowhere, Aunt Franny deciding my mother was a gold digger who was after her house, my parents fighting. Just awful.” Ted seems interested so she keeps going. “Then later in Uni we had some sort of field assignment here, just visiting a local company, and I got attacked by some angry geese.” She feels Ted chuckle next to her while he settles down deeper on the bed. “During my marriage, we’ve been here twice, both were times where Rupert needed his wife on his arm for a business event or some other. Both times were terrible in their own way.” She doesn’t elaborate on that, trying not to think too hard about the fights, possibly the most vicious ones in the history of her marriage. “And now this. I supposed I should be glad the hotel wasn’t actually on fire.”

“Well,” Ted says and moves to turn off the light on the nightstand, “there’s still time for that.”

She chuckles. “Good night, Ted.”

“’Night, boss.”

Sleep comes surprisingly easy. When she wakes up her body feels more relaxed than it should feel on just five hours of sleep. As she moves in bed, she can tell Ted got closer to her during sleep or she did. Maybe they both met somewhere in the middle, going by their positions. His head and body fully turned towards her. It doesn’t spook her, not really, because she figures that after years of marriage both their bodies are too used to having someone else near them. Like some sort of gravitational pull.

Ted is still softly snoring by her side and she takes a moment to observe him. He looks younger when he’s asleep, face even more open than usual. She can see him blinking under his eyelids and she wonders what he’s dreaming about. His hand twitches and she looks down and sees that his hands are near her stomach, like at some point during the night he was asleep and felt like having a cuddle. Rebecca herself was never much a cuddler, she enjoys it after sex and that’s it, but going without it for so long, even before her marriage had ended, has made her miss the closeness. That and her desire to touch Ted’s hand is what has her tossing the blankets away from her and jumping from the bed.

Ted wakes up at the sudden movement and she’d feel guilty, but she marches to the bathroom instead and does quick work of things. Tells him she’ll see him by the front desk as they trade places. By the time he makes his way downstairs, some of the players already down as well, she had already called Higgins. “The hotel said we can collect our things.”

So they do. They don’t talk much beyond that.

two

They’re a good twenty minutes past Basingstoke when the team bus comes to a stop.

Rebecca is only on it because Roy, of all people, had insisted on it – something about Keeley yelling at him about how Rebecca was working too hard and could use a spot of fun. Why does Keeley think riding on a bus on her own with thirty other men would be her idea of fun is beyond her. And yet she had said agreed to it, which tells Rebecca that she maybe needs to get out more. That her self-imposed no dating just focus on work rule should maybe include a couple of breaks, even if Keeley was too busy with her new firm to accompany her. The way the boys had cheered when she got on the bus, though, along with Ted’s “well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, boss” made her think she might not regret this.

She was wrong.

They had beaten Southampton 1x0 – not their greatest work, but they still got their three points – so when Isaac told the team they should stop for a pint before heading back she agreed. The trip back to London was so short that she was sure she would still make it to bed by ten and be well-rested for her trainer and her meeting with one of the minor partners in the morning.

One pint had turned to two and that pint had come with fish and chips that Ted insisted she had some of. She introduced him to the joys of vinegar and smiled every time he ate a particularly sour chip and made this face like he couldn’t figure out if he liked it or not. He told her one day he’d like to take her to this sports bar they had in Kansas that served the best pigs in a blanket he ever had (“Do y’all have those here?”).

Ted seems relaxed this season, which is quite a turn from the way he was last year. There’s still a distance between them that didn’t use to be there, made even more awkward by their trip to Newcastle last month. But as she looks at his face while he tells her all about pigs and what constitutes the blanket, he looks open and kind and she thinks that they’re going to be okay. That they’re halfway there already and whatever heaviness that had settled upon him last year had lifted a tad, even if she didn’t know why or how.

She eats another chip while he takes a sip of his beer and then she drops her voice low. “Are you okay, Ted?” She thinks she knows the answer, but she still wants confirmation.

He frowns at her wondering why she’s asking, but she thinks something in her eyes must have given her away because his face goes serious while he nods. “I’m doing alright, boss.” She hasn’t gone to every single match they’ve had this year, but every time she does she keeps an eye on the pitch and another on him, watching for signs that he might not be doing well. She never sees any these days so whatever he did worked. She wants to ask him about it, make a joke about needing some tips. She doesn’t.

As she toys with the condensation on her glass, he returns the question. “What about yourself?” His attention is fully on her and she should have expected it, but it still catches her by surprise. She takes a moment to answer him, self-contemplation not really being one of her strengths, but she wants to be honest. Her eyes wander away from his to find Sam, who’s playing darts with Jamie. Whatever that was still stings, but more in embarrassment than anything else. She drags her eyes back to Ted. “I’m getting there.” Ted pats her knee as if to say he gets it. There’s beer on his mustache that he licks away. She tries to not stare.

When some of the players start getting too rowdy, Roy gets up and tells them they should all be heading back now before the pub’s patrons, and whose owner is clearly a Southampton fan, decide to throw them out.

Rebecca is right on the first seat, answering a couple of overdue emails on her phone. Coach Beard, a few rows back is somehow fast asleep, even though way from the back she can hear rap music and Colin badly singing some Kanye West song while the boys egg him on.

But as the bus sputters and their driver, Dave, quickly parks it by the layby everyone stops. Ted comes quickly down the corridor.

“Everything alright there, my man?”

Dave looks up at him. “Not sure what’s going on, guv. We’re overheating. I doubt we’ll reach Farnborough if we keep going and if we do that I fear the motor might catch on fire.”

At that, he opens the doors to the bus and jumps out. Ted and half of the team follow him. She watches them all stare at the motor one by one, like any of them have a bloody clue about buses and motors and could fix it with some sports tape. Roy, on his phone, seems to be calling help.

Rebecca watches the muscle on his jaw twitch and knows that they’re fucked somehow. She gets up, all business, and perches herself on the first step of the bus. “What is it, Roy?”

He raises a finger telling her to keep quiet then turns away from her. “So when can you be here?” A beat. “Fucking hell.” As he finishes the call he turns back to her. “Fuck.” He shakes his head. “There’s been a massive accident just ahead of us. A chemical spill of some kind. No one’s hurt, but they won’t let anyone pass until they clean up the spill and it’s safe.”

They all settle back on the bus. Rebecca sends a quick text to Keeley telling her she might kill her for letting her get roped into this. Someone turns on the music again, but the whole bus is antsy. She can see the coaches discussing something and Higgins pipes up, telling maybe they could do with a game of some sort. “Perhaps charades?” Ted being Ted immediately goes for it and Rebecca settles deeper on her seat, figuring she might as well get some work done as they play.

Ted goes to the front of the bus and whistles. “Hey, fellas, how about we play a game until rescue gets to us, huh?”

That gets their attention, and they spend the next couple of minutes discussing the rules – no hints ever, the theme is movies and it’s the right side of the bus against the left. Rebecca can hear some shuffling around as some of the players move seats to make the teams more evenly distributed.

After that, she mostly stops paying attention. Higgins goes first with waving his arm around like he’s about to throw a rope (“Thor”, guesses Jan Mass), then Zoreaux, Richard and so on. She winces as someone says Ratatouille, but it’s the wrong answer to whatever Jan Mass is mimicking. Going by the ohs and ahs she hears the game is neck and neck. From the corner of her eye she sees Ted making to the front of the bus and starting his pick. After a full minute of Ted doing his bit, which involves him trying to cross his legs while fully standing, the players seem lost and start shouting every movie under the sun. She looks up from her phone when the guesses get too bizarre. Ted’s eyes are gleaming when they find hers, a smile on his face because the right side, which is her side, is losing.

She watches him for a second longer (“Terminator”, Roy yells for the first time) and then pipes up “Basic Instinct.” As if it is the most obvious thing in the world because, well, it is.

The whole bus gets quiet and Ted stares at her for a beat. “Dang it, boss got it on one.”

There’s lots of yelling after that. Richard says that doesn’t count, she wasn’t playing, and Roy asks her how the hell did she get that from Ted doing the Can-can. Ted pretty much asks her the same as he leans over her seat.

She scoffs. “I guess this lot is a bit too young to remember what a scandal it was. I sneaked in a theater with Sassy to watch it. Told my mum we were going to see Beethoven.”

“Well, that one wasn’t bad either.” Then he gives her a quick glance over, eyeing the cream fabric of her dress over her crossed legs. “Still, nothing beats Sharon Stone with those long legs of hers.” His eyes glint as he moves back to his seat.

In the end, the team on the right wins, but just barely. It’s a little past ten and Roy has called the man again twice, but still no news. People are getting irritable and start settling down on the bus with a book or their headphones, too tired to talk or play. Rebecca has answered every email she could potentially answer, save one.

“Ted?”

“Yeah, boss?” He’s quick to come to her side.

“I have a meeting with Mr. Hawtrey, the owner of Tavery, soon. He tells me he would very much like to meet you.”

Ted hums. “This Mr. Hawtrey? How’s he like?” Ted has never once not come to a meeting with her if she’s asked, but he's still always curious about it.

Rebecca waves a hand dismissively. “Harold is an old man. He’s not a major sponsor, but he’s been with us for decades. And he’s one of the only ones who didn’t throw a fit when I told him Rupert wasn’t in charge of the club anymore.”

“Sounds like a great guy then. I’d be glad to meet him.”

“There’s a catch, though”, she continues. “Mr. Hawtrey hates the city, London in particular. Now, why does he support a London team while hating London I couldn’t tell you, but it’s always been like this. He lives outside of Dover so we usually meet somewhere in the middle.” She turns off the screen on her phone. “It’s a quick drive. Ollie drives me there and we have lunch and head back still in time for tea.”

“Well, as long as there are no chemical spills on the road,” Ted says and she winces. She’s going to kill Keeley. “But fine by me, just give me a couple of days’ notice and we’ll go meet this Mr. Hawtrey of yours.”

As he finishes, he pulls out a bag of M&Ms from his pocket. “Now don’t tell anyone because I think these might be the last snack we have on this bus. But I’ll share them with you, if you’re up for it.”

She’s still a little full from the chips from earlier, but fuck it, she could do with something sweet. She won’t tell him, but she would kill for one of his biscuits right now. Always gets famished when she’s nervous.

They share the bag of sweets, he brings up the game and they gently talk about the movies of their youth. Rebecca mentions how much she hates horror movies and how she’s never even seen the classics like Friday the 13th, even though her first boyfriend loved them. “Me neither”, Ted replies and there’s a story there that she wants to ask him about. When they finish the bag, she expects Ted to move back to one of the unoccupied double seats that might still be free, but he doesn’t. The whole bus is quiet and Dave dims the rest of the lights before moving from the driver’s seat to the back, looking for a more comfortable place while they all wait, she figures.

Ted looks tired and she knows how much match day takes out of them all. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep, Ted? It looks like we’ll be here a while.”

Ted shakes his head. “Can’t sleep while traveling, boss. Just ask Beard over there, I never sleep on a plane.”

“Good thing this is a bus then”, she jokes. “Just lean that seat back and just close your eyes then.” She gives him a pointed look. “You look like shit, Ted.”

He puts his hand to his heart mockingly like she hurt him but tells her he might try to meditate.

“Oh?” Ted didn’t seem like the type, whatever that is.

He shrugs his shoulders. “Something someone taught me.” There’s a beat and he looks away before he continues. “It was actually, Dr. Sharon. She’s taught me some things.”

There’s a full beat where Rebecca has no clue who Dr. Sharon is, but then she remembers. The team therapist Leslie had insisted they hire. Her eyebrows raise up. She had no idea Ted had gone to see her.

He’s still not looking at her when he keeps going. “Yeah, doc helped me out a lot. We talked a little,” he doesn’t elaborate. “She made me see some things.”

He’s staring at his shoes as if embarrassed by the admission and she thinks back on a conversation from long ago, a box of his biscuits between them, and she winces thinking on the things she’s said. Therapy is not something she’s interested in, she has no time or the will to self-reflect, but she’ll never think less of someone who gets something from it. Going by how better Ted seems to be this year – not to mention the players – whatever Dr. Sharon had said or done, it had worked. She tucks away the incredibly selfish thought that creeps inside her head, the hurt she feels that Ted hadn’t come to her, had, in fact, pushed her away when she had reached out. It’s not worth thinking about.

“Well, I’m glad,” she tells him patting his knee. He turns his head fast towards her as if surprised she’s not saying something else and Christ, what impression she had given him all those months ago? “I’m glad she helped you. Richmond is certainly better off now that she has paid us a visit.”

Ted smiles at that and moves away from the awkward subject. “So I guess I’ll try and do some of that mindfulness thing now.”

The partition between their seats is raised so as he shuffles on his seat his thighs and arms brush against hers, him sticking his hands inside the pockets of his blue jacket and settling on his seat. Finally, he closes his eyes and Rebecca can see him trying to relax, exhaling deep as he does.

She dims the screen on her phone and squints at some reports as Ted slowly does his breathing exercises next to her. It’s distracting at first because she wants to work, but all she can focus on is the feeling of his arm brushing against her every time he takes a deep breath. She shakes herself and concentrates on the phone in front of her. She feels his breath even out after a while and watches as he goes still next to her. So much for not being able to sleep, she thinks.

Eventually, his head lulls to the side and leans on her shoulder. She stares at it for a moment and considers waking him up, worried about what such position will do to his neck but decides against it. Let him sleep.

Keeley keeps sending her increasingly more deranged texts like she’s about to grab a car and come rescue them herself, all while Rebecca tries to read financial statements and Premier League official reports. Her phone vibrates again and again until she tells Keeley she’ll try to get some sleep as well. She doesn’t think she will, but she fears the vibration from her phone and the movement from her arms as she texts Keeley back will wake Ted up.

She’s right, she doesn’t fall asleep. Instead, it’s more like a trance than actual sleep. Through the dark window, she can see some stars and the full moon. Ted’s steady breath next to her seems to calm her and she can feel herself dozing off, like her own kind of meditation.

She only comes out of it when she feels a stare. It’s Roy. He’s on the phone and he does a sign with his hand meaning that the guy is five minutes away. She feels the bus waking up and turns on the screen on her phone: 12:03 AM. She puts her hand on Ted’s left knee and rubs it softly to wake him up.

“Ted? Road services are almost here.”

She feels him awaken, a deep sigh tickling her ear. She figures he’ll jump up from his seat and apologize, but he doesn’t, not immediately. Instead, he seems to stretch his legs and nuzzle her neck, just a little, just enough for her to shiver at the feel of his mustache. Then, finally aware of what he’s doing, he leans back.

“Sorry about that, boss.” He yawls. “Can’t believe I fell asleep.”

Roy, who seems to have watched the whole scene, clears his throat and gives her this pointed look and Rebecca fights the urge to blush. “Guy said he’ll be here in five. Hopefully we’ll get the fuck out of this bus soon.”

Whatever it was with the bus, something about a busted radiator, is easily fixed and they’re on their way not even fifteen minutes later. Everyone sighs in relief.

Rebecca figures Ted will go back to his seat, feeling too awkward about falling asleep on top of her earlier, but he doesn’t. He sits back on his seat and they spend the rest of the trip in silence, his leg firmly pressed against hers, the lull of the bus making her want to lean her aching head against his shoulder just like he had before.

She doesn’t.

three

They head out to meet Mr. Hawtrey a few weeks later.

Richmond is doing well. Sadly, so is West Ham. All the pundits seem to talk about lately is the rivalry that’s going on between West Ham and Richmond, Ted and Wonder Kid Nate, Rupert and Old Rebecca. It’s infuriating and every time the Google alert on her phone goes off Rebecca groans, knowing it’ll be related to that. Especially now that they’re facing West Ham for the first time this season next Wednesday.

It’ll be a home match, which is good, but she can feel the tension in the air every time she steps into the office. During work she can hear the players acting unruly, Roy yelling at them more often. In the mornings, when Ted drops off her biscuits, she pays attention to his body language and for signs that the tension is getting to him like it’s getting to her. He looks fine, although there are things they still don’t share so she still worries.

He worries for her as well, she can tell. It’s little things. An extra biscuit in the box the morning The Sun runs a cover pitting her and Bex against each other as if she had even seen the woman since the funeral, calling her from the pitch at the end of training so they can make her laugh when Rupert gives an interview and implies Higgins is the one truly running Richmond, coming around to her office with a flimsy excuse and having a drink with her. She finds it touching. They never discuss Rupert or West Ham or fucking Nate, that little prick (Rebecca will never forgive him for calling Trent Crimm), but it’s still nice to have Ted on her side.

She figures she might repay the favor with this lunch.

Harold is not their most demanding sponsor. He likes to see her twice a year to quickly discuss business, but he’s very hands-off and is alright with her setting up the dates. She considered setting up the meeting after their match with West Ham, but she wants to give Ted a break from his own head before then, even if he might feel he doesn’t need one. She had thought about just asking him for lunch or dinner, but she feels more comfortable having Harold around as a buffer for reasons she refuses to examine.

On Tuesday she tells Ted they could set up a meeting next Saturday as asks him if he’s free. They’re not playing that weekend.

“I just have to reschedule something, but sure”, he tells her as she hands him his water.

“Oh, no, you don’t have to”, she hurries to say. Doesn’t want to put him out. “We could do this any time.”

“Nah, it’s nothing important. But a day trip with me, you and the English countryside? Now that’s something.”

“And Ollie. Ollie and I will pick you up.”

Actually, not Ollie. Ollie’s very pregnant wife, Clare, had decided to go into labor two weeks early on Thursday that week. After sending her regards and asking Leslie to send flowers to the hospital, Rebecca thinks about calling Harold and telling him they would need to reschedule. She changes her mind by Friday.

She figures she can drive them down herself. The trip is really quite short and Rebecca does enjoy driving sometimes, she just hates traffic. That’s why she has Ollie. But there’s no traffic on the motorway so she figures she can do this.

She had told Ted Harold likes to meet somewhere in the middle, but this was one of the rare times where he had requested that she come to him. He lives just outside of Dover in a grand house with a glorious rose garden that is his wife Penelope’s pride and joy. They might still be in bloom and she’d like for Ted to see them.

She picks up Ted around lunch, figuring they’ll get to Howard by two, talk business, have some tea and then get home by seven. He gets inside her car, hands her a pink box and reaches for the seatbelt.

“Oh?” She’s surprised. Biscuits on a weekend.

“Figured biscuits with the boss is still on even if it happens during a road trip.” He clicks on the seatbelt and turns to her. “Where we’re heading then?”

She pulls away from the curb and explains all about Dover and where it is and that no, they won’t see any cliffs, as she devours the contents of the box she has settled between her legs. She has had a spot of lunch, but she can never resist these bloody biscuits of his. As she eats she gives Ted a glance. He’s not dressed like he usually does – no khakis or his Richmond jacket. Instead, he has on a pair of dark trousers and jumper, the trainers on his feet the only thing she recognizes and even those are more subdued than usual. It unsettles her somehow, like maybe he feels he has to impress their date. Which is ludicrous, of course. Ted will charm anyone and if somehow Howard doesn’t like Ted then clearly there must be something wrong with the old man.

She eats the biscuits embarrassingly fast, is grabbing the last one in the box, when Ted raises one eyebrow at her. “Guess someone didn’t have their lunch.”

She makes a face and he laughs. “Well, I’m glad you still like them.”

“You know, before,” and she waves her right hand around as if to say all of this, Richmond, me, us, “I thought you were buying them. I sent Higgins to every bakery in a five-mile radius after them. I only realized you made them yourself months later.”

He gives her a curious look. “Yeah? When?”

“When I got rid of Jamie Tartt and you were angry and still gave me those biscuits.”

He chuckles. “Yeah, I remember that.“

“God, I was such a bitch.” She groans.

“Hey now”, he says and he gives her knee a quick squeeze, “don’t be saying that. But still, I’m glad you still like ‘em. I was wondering if maybe it was time to change the recipe or maybe bake you a muffin sometimes. You know, for variety’s sake.”

“Don’t you bloody dare.” And she plucks the rest of the biscuit in her mouth for emphasis. “I’m not sure I could live without them now.”

Their trip is quite short and sadly lacking in landscapes. She takes some of the backroads instead of the most straightforward path just because she knows Ted would appreciate it. It’s not much, but he still keeps looking out of the window so she thinks he's enjoying it. They pass through a field of something, she’s not quite sure what, but it has him talking about the fields back in Kansas, how they’re filled with corn as far as the eye can see.

The weather, which has been grey since they left London, takes a turn for the worse when they’re still a good thirty minutes away from their destination. The wind picks up and the sky bursts open and the heavier the rain comes, the more she regrets her detour. They could have been at Harold’s already. At some point, she has the lights on the car fully on, but still can barely see two feet in front of her. She starts getting nervous and Ted feels the same because he gets his phone out of his pocket.

“Do you think maybe we should stop? Wait it out?” he asks her.

She thinks so, but where? Parking here where no one can see them seems even more dangerous than to just keep going. No car would even see them before they were right on top of them.

At her words, Ted shows her the GPS on his phone and how there’s some sort of venue a mile from where they’re from. Rebecca heads there at a glacial pace. As they stop the car right by the entrance a young man in a raining coat opens the door for her.

Ted looks at her. “Might as well have a coffee as we wait for this to pass.”

When she gets out of the car and rushes to the door she recognizes this place. Should have known when something about the curve on the road looked familiar. They’re at the Wanhurst House, one of those ancient English houses that permeates the countryside. Rebecca doesn’t know a lot about it, only that as the family was drowning in debt one of the Baron’s sons had the idea to turn the whole property into a venue for weddings and minibreaks a few decades back. She’s never liked this place.

A girl in uniform points them in the direction of the restaurant and they head that way. It’s quite full, even though it’s past lunch. The old clock hanging on the wall telling them it’s almost three, so much later than she imagined.

Instead of a table, they sit by two empty armchairs close to the door and make their order. Tea for herself and coffee for Ted, of course. They wait.

The clock strikes four and her bladder feels full from all the tea she’s had. Ted keeps fidgeting by her side and if he orders another expresso she feels she might have to stop him or otherwise he might just float away.

Despite the weather, the hotel looks busy. Some sort of party going on and, based on the clothes everyone has on, it must be a wedding. It’s a popular venue for a reception and the river not too far from where they are makes for a nice spot for a ceremony. Not today, though. Ted keeps shaking his leg like he wants to get moving and she can’t say she blames him. They would’ve been almost done with Howard by now.

Still, the rain doesn’t stop.

She feels like taking a walk around the place, just to give her something to do and she’s turning to ask if Ted wants to join her when someone behinds them goes “Aren’t you that Lasso bloke?”

They both turns and the man smiles wide. “Bloody hell, it really is you.” He nudges the shorter man that’s right next to him. “Tim is gonna go fucking mental.”

They’re both wearing the same shade of dark blue suit and Rebecca immediately pegs them as part of the wedding party. As they approach them the shorter man waves to someone behind Rebecca, as if telling them to join them.

“What are you even doing here?” His eyes scan Rebecca, but he clearly has no idea who she even is. “My girlfriend tells me she sees you all the time walking around back in London, but I never did. Can’t believe you’re here.”

A handsome man with a full beard and dark eyes approaches them as the shorter man goes “Tim, look who it is. It’s that wanker.”

Ted’s eyebrows raise up and Rebecca immediately feels like slapping the little twat. Tim, on the other hand, looks like he just met the Queen going by how large his smile is, and immediately steps in to shake Ted’s hand and pat him on the shoulder. “This is fucking mental.”

Ted chuckles. “Nice to meet y’all.”

“Fuck no. Nice to meet you.” The bloke, Tim, can’t seem to keep the smile from his face. “Never I thought I’d get to meet you.” Then he looks around as if looking for something. “Wait, is Roy Kent here too?”

He deflates a little when Ted tells him no, but he’s still smiling as he tells them how much of a Richmond fan he is. And how after years of being taken the piss by his friends (“Especially Paul”, he nods towards the short man, “he’s a West Ham fan”) he finally can tell how proud he is of being a Richmond fan.

She smiles warmly at Ted, who seems almost shy at all the compliments. Then Tim, who she should have guessed is the groom in all of this, his suit just a tad shinier than the others’, tells them they must come to his reception. “Lisa has no clue who you are, of course, but she won’t care. Please come.”

Ted looks at her as if asking if she wants to go and well, might as well do something.

Ted is pretty much the man of the hour after that. Rebecca winces a little at the commotion, sure that the bride won’t be too happy about all the men lining up to take pictures. But she’s smiling as she watches Ted patiently pose for pictures. Not all of them are Richmond fans, but everyone wants a picture with the American football coach who’s become a sensation.

A woman in a dark plum dress rolls her eyes at the lads and points Rebecca to an empty table. “Gerry told me Tim invited you all. You and your husband can sit over there if you want. I’m Jackie, by the way.” Rebecca thinks she might be the maid of honor. She doesn’t think about the rest of her comment.

At some point things seem to settle and Ted makes his way to her table. Two elderly couples are sitting with her, looking like they’d rather be having a nap. Rebecca can relate.

“So that was quite something.” Ted sits on the empty chair next to her. “You wanna go?”

Waiting here or at the lounge makes no difference. “You have quite a few fans, Coach Lasso.”

“I figured I’d be old news after two years, but I guess not.”

They watch as the bride enters the room and heads for the expectant groom. She looks beautiful, smiling so hard it must hurt. Tim gives her a soft kiss to her temple and helps her sit at their table. Their parents look on fondly.

The next part bores her to tears and Rebecca regrets not leaving, at least if she had she could fiddle with her phone, maybe call Sassy and Nora or even her mum. They listen to all the speeches – the man who first recognized Ted is the best man and he makes a joke about how all Tim ever wanted in life was for Lisa to marry him and for Richmond to win the Premier League so if Ted could help Tim cross that last item on his bucket list that would be excellent.

Finally, the bride and groom step in to have their first dance. It’s not a song Rebecca knows, but it’s quite beautiful and as she watches them on the dancefloor she remembers her own wedding. By the look on Ted’s face he’s remembering his as well.

Ted grabs them both a champagne flute from the passing waiter and they watch the room in companionable silence. One glass can’t hurt, not based on how it looks like they’ll be stuck here for hours yet so she takes a sip. Eventually, as both their glasses are empty, Ted gets up and extends his hand to her.

“How about it, boss?”

It feels like years since she’s danced with anyone, but she gets up and lets Ted drag her to the dancefloor. Some upbeat song is playing and they dance together, Ted waving her arms around and making her laugh. They split up and Ted dances with some of the other women around while Rebecca gets taken by a spin by some of the men.

She grabs more champagne and starts feeling tipsy, which feels like a mistake. As her feet start to hurt, she goes back to her seat and watches Ted. He can dance, she can give him that much. He dances with some older woman who might be Lisa’s mother and moves to a little girl in a poofy dress who giggles as he spins her round and round. Rebecca calls Howard and makes her apologies, even if the rain stops she and Ted will head back. Howard, who’s traveling to Calais in the morning, tells her they’ll reschedule.

As the song changes into something with a weird beat he makes his way back to her. He drops himself down on his chair. His hair is a tad messy, a couple of strands down on his forehead as he smiles at her, and Rebecca feels the urge to push them back in place with her hand. Instead, she takes another sip of champagne.

“You’ve got moves, Ted.”

He laughs then tells her he also does a mean robot. They grab another drink, something fruity this time, and she really should stop now, but the room is hot. Her coat is hanging on the back of her chair. Ted must feel the same because he gets up and removes his jumper and rolls the sleeves of his shirt up, forearms flexing as he does. Rebecca tries not to stare and thinks she really needs to stop drinking.

“Can’t remember the last time I was at a wedding,” he tells her.

She can’t either. She figures Roy and Keeley might be her next one – she can’t think they won’t get married at some point, not two people who are just so unbelievably perfect for each other.

“Rupert sent me an invitation to his.” She tosses back the rest of her drink. “I didn’t go, of course.”

Ted gapes at her then shakes his head. “The nerve of that man.” After a minute he speaks again. “Not sure I’d go to Michele’s wedding either if she invited me.” He looks at Rebecca and continues “I mean, it would be an honest invitation, ya know? Not a way to hurt me, but still.”

Rebecca knows what he means.

Their eyes settle on the newlyweds. They both look incredibly happy. She had as well, she thinks, back at her own wedding. She asks Ted about his.

“It wasn’t as fancy as all of this,” and Rebecca thinks on how much grander her own wedding had been. “But it was a lot of fun. Michele spilled wine on her dress, though, so all our wedding pictures have some elaborate poses going on. What about yours? I bet it was quite the shindig.”

It had been. All very elaborate with some very important guests. She had been happy, though. She had thought about it a lot, if there was some sign she had missed, but she can’t figure it out. Not a single red flag had been raised back then. Rupert had been her perfect match. She answers Ted. “Quite. The music was worse, though.” Rupert had hired a string quartet. Beautiful, but not fun in the least.

“Well, mine played all of the country classics, yeah? To make all the older Lassos happy.” And she can picture Ted line dancing at his wedding. She wonders if any of the guests were wearing cowboy hats. “But come, boss, let’s take another spin.” And he drags her to the dancefloor again.

They keep doing a back and forth of dancing together and with any guests who are up for it. Someone hands her another flute of champagne while she shakes her arse to some Prince and she tells herself she won’t drink it at the same moment she takes a sip. Her face starts hurting from smiling so much.

But as they make their way towards each other once more, the song changes to something softer and slower. She sways with Ted to the song, his hand firmly on her waist, not an inch lower. Lisa and Tim are dancing near them, looking hopelessly in love and Rebecca smiles to herself at the sight. Ted turns to look at what she’s looking at.

“I remember that,” it’s all he says.

She sighs. “Me too.”

“Would you ever do it again?”

Rebecca turns her head quite swiftly and stares at him. In her heels she’s taller than him. Ted is staring right back at her.

“I don’t know.” She wants to say more. That deep inside she would do it again, for the right person, but that she’s not sure she’ll ever find that someone. Not after Rupert or last year. It feels impossible. “What about you?”

Ted sways them for a moment and stares at Tim and Lisa again before he replies. “If it felt right.”

It’s nearing nine when Rebecca’s feet start giving out on her. She feels beat and Ted doesn’t seem much better and they both agree that they’ve had enough. They say their goodbyes to Tim and Lisa, Tim giving Ted the type of hug only a man who’s incredibly sloshed could give and they walk out of the room.

As they leave, Rebecca admits that she’s just a tad too drunk to drive, even if the weather lets up. Ted says the same. “Plus, I can’t drive a car with a steering wheel on the wrong side,” he jokes. “Maybe we should just grab us a couple of rooms for the night.”

Rebecca doesn’t think about that night back in Newcastle. Not even for a moment.

They ask for two rooms. “The wedding party has taken up most of our rooms,” a man at the front desk says as a way of explanation. “The weather, you see.” Rebecca wants to scream at the déjà vu of it all.

She stares at Ted who’s staring at her right back because of course they only have one room left. After a beat they burst into incredulous laughter.

“This is starting to become a pattern, boss,” Ted says.

They take the room.

They have no luggage, of course, or anything that could make their night remotely comfortable. The prospect of sharing a bed again has them both subdued as they enter the room and Rebecca heads for the bathroom almost immediately. She can’t say she doesn’t freak out a tad in there. She sits on the toilet and sends Keeley a quick text – have to share a hotel room with Ted again!!! with an open mouth shocked emoji. She expects Keeley to reply almost immediately, even though she’s not sure she’s up for explaining how this happened, hasn’t even told Keeley about the first time.

She stares at her phone for a moment longer, but gives up and goes wash her face. She uses the complimentary hotel toothpaste and her finger to wash the taste of champagne and canapés from her mouth and stares at herself in the mirror. She looks flushed from all the booze and her hair is in disarray – not her best look, but she’s not looking to impress anyone.

She leaves the bathroom and Ted walks in, shoulder brushing against her as he does. They don’t talk. As she’s alone in the room she considers her sleepwear choices, which are slim.

There’s the bathrobe hanging in the now occupied bathroom, her own clothes, and the slip she’s wearing underneath her yellow dress. She could also sleep naked and wrapped around a sheet, but that makes her drunk self laugh just picturing Ted’s face as he slips into bed with her.

She settles for the slip figuring that while it’s a nude-ish color, it still covers all of her proper bits. So removes her clothes and gets in bed, back against the pillows and she stares at her phone again, blankets higher than they’d normally be. Still no word from Keeley.

Ted seems to take longer in the bathroom than she did, enough for her to watch the door curiously a couple of times. Finally, when he steps out, he’s still wearing his trousers, but his shirt and shoes are on his hands, him only in his undershirt. He drops them by an armchair and then looks at her and then pointedly doesn’t anymore as he turns off the lights from the room.

“Is that okay?” he asks, still not looking at her. It’s 9:20, too early for bed.

She still says yes. “Yes, I’m quite tired.” Not quite a lie, but she’s still a bit too wired from the wedding. But if he wants to sleep then she might as well try too. What else would they do?

In the dark she can see enough to know that he’s removing his trousers before he slides into bed with her, as far away from her as he possibly could be. Still, somehow this is less awkward than it was the last time they did this and she chuckles softly to herself. She can’t believe this is not the first time Ted has slept beside her, that’s it’s not even the second time if they count the Southampton match.

Ted rubs his face when she tells him that. “Maybe we should start bringing sleeping bags with us on these trips.”

“Or just stay in better hotels.”

“Yeah? I don’t know, I kinda like this one.”

It is a gorgeous building and she can see why the ancient walls would appeal to an American. “I never did.” And she tells Ted about the last time she was here. How she and Rupert had come to meet Harold and had decided to make a weekend out of it. How they fought the whole time. How one of the other guests was some minor TV starlet who had joined them for dinner. How she had woken up late at night to an empty bed. How she had never asked.

As she finishes her story, she feels embarrassed. She hates how easy everything about her marriage spills out of her mouth when she’s with Ted. Hates how much everything Rupert did to her still stings.

Ted lets out a breath next to her and looks at her while shaking his head. “I’ll never understand that man,” like he can’t fathom a reason to leave her bed in the middle of the night.

It makes something inside Rebecca’s chest catch.

He tries to lighten up the mood by telling her about his honeymoon. How he and Michelle had gone to some hotel in the mountains in Colorado. How the room next to theirs had another couple of newlyweds, a couple in their 50s, and how every night it sounded like they were loudly murdering each other. “And I do mean loud, boss. Like a couple of fighting kitty cats.”

How one night he had enough and he had marched right to the room next door and asked them to keep it quiet and the lady, who was fully naked, had thrown a snow globe right at his head. How the cut had bled and how Michele had passed out at the sight of all the blood.

“Still got the scar right here,” he points at his temple.

Rebecca looks at him curiously. “Oh?” She reaches her hand to touch it. It’s hidden by his hair, but she can feel a raised line.

“Ended up needing five stitches. Almost ruined my honeymoon,” he chuckles. “Michele was so angry with me.”

She’s still touching his scar when she asks him if he misses being married. Then she immediately takes her hand back, wishing she hadn’t asked anything.

But Ted doesn’t seem to mind as he turns towards her, laying on his side. He looks sad and older when he replies. “I think we did the right thing in the end, partying our ways, but it still feels like defeat sometimes. But to answer your question,” he pauses and stares at a point beyond her like it pains him to admit what he’s about to say. “I think I do, yeah, but I don’t think I miss her, ya know?”

She nods. She knows exactly what he means. She doesn’t miss Rupert, ever. Would take back all the years she spent with him if she could, but she misses the companionship. Having someone to go home to, having conversations in bed like this. God, she even misses the predictability of married sex. Of reaching for the body next to her and knowing exactly what she’ll get.

She wants to tell Ted all of this, but she feels like she’s on shaky ground enough as it is so instead she just nods.

She falls asleep staring at his closed eyes.

She’s not sure what time it is when she wakes up, but it’s light out. No sun, but no rain either. She freezes as she becomes aware of the body almost sprawled against her back. Ted isn’t spooning her exactly, but he’s close, much closer than he was that first time back in Newcastle. She can feel his soft breath on the back of her neck and his arm is slung on top of her waist, almost like he wants to pull her closer. One of his feet is tangled between hers.

She can feel him waking up and so she panics and closes her eyes, pretending she’s still asleep. She feels Ted freeze next to her as he becomes fully awake, he removes the arm from her body, but he doesn’t move away from her immediately. Instead, he smells her hair. One, two deep breaths before he pushes himself away from her and locks himself in the bathroom.

It’s unexpected. Her own breath catching in her throat.

She throws the blankets away from herself, deciding to put whatever just happened out of her mind and to focus on getting dressed. She grabs her phone, it’s just a couple of minutes after seven, and then looks at what feels like a million notifications from Keeley.

what
WHAT
Rebecca, answer me
are you and Ted shagging?
pls text me back
what do you mean second time????
we are definitely having lunch

Rebecca is still going through her texts when Ted steps out of the bathroom fully dressed and oh, shit. She’s still wearing just her silk slip. It’s quite short and cut somewhat low, one of the straps has fallen down, which makes it askew and shows even more cleavage. Ted freezes in his tracks and tries really hard not to stare at her chest.

He fails. She feels a blush coming all over her body and bites her lip. One of Ted’s fists seems to clench and she feels her stomach drop and the air between them getting impossibly heavy. There’s something in Ted’s eyes she can’t quite figure out and that maddening lock of his hair is all she can see.

Then he blinks and the look is gone.

“Meet you by the front desk, boss.”

She lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when the door shuts behind him. As she puts on her clothes and tries to fix herself for the day, she thinks that her self-imposed dry spell needs to come to an end. Screw lunch, she and Keeley will go to a bar tonight.

It has stopped raining. She expects that their drive back to London will be horribly awkward, but it isn’t. At some point, she teaches Ted how to drive on British roads.

break

She heads for Liverpool on the jet, more of an excuse to see Sassy than anything else. Keeley couldn’t come so it’s just her and Flo for the day, Nora away at a friend’s house.

They win, though not quite spectacularly like the last time, and it feels like déjà vu. The same hotel and the same karaoke bar, Beard doing another Lady Gaga song. She sings an Adele song, but only because the boys insisted, but mostly watches Sassy flirt with Ted. The one thing that feels different is that Ted is okay this time. She watches him as Colin does a terrible rendition of a Madonna song and when he catches her eye, he gives her a shy smile and a nod, as if to say he’s thinking the same thing she’s thinking, but that he’s fine.

That’s enough for her and at Sassy’s next ciggie break she drinks up the rest of her drink and goes to say good night to her friend.

“Go have that shag,” she tells Sassy with a hug, but it feels weird in her mouth.

Sassy must notice it because she leans back and gives her a look. “Is everything okay?”

“Just tired. I’m off to a shower and will then just crawl into bed.”

Sassy doesn’t seem convinced, but she lets her go with plans for breakfast the next morning before Rebecca leaves.

She heads straight to her room when she gets back to the hotel, no desire to see if the waiter from that night is still around. She has slept with two different blokes in the last couple of weeks. Both great shags, but their texts have gone without a reply for the past couple of weeks. She hasn’t been up for it. She drops her purse and shoes and heads for the bathtub, making the water boiling hot and hoping it will get rid of whatever weight has settled on her chest.

After, when the water has gone lukewarm, she gets up and pats herself dry, gets in her pajamas, plugs in her phone and lies down. She hears female laughter in the corridor and wonders if it’s Sassy, if Ted is also staying on this floor. The voice she hears doesn’t sound like Ted’s, though, more like Jamie Tartt’s accent. She hears another female giggle and her mouth drops to the floor. Right on, Jamie.

She’s almost asleep when the bed breaks under her. It’s one of those ancient hotel beds made out of oak or some other wood that must weigh the same as a car so the noise is loud and it has her jumping out of bed before she’s even fully aware of what’s happening. She’s not sure what caused it, but the bed is now crooked so she calls reception requesting help. Rebecca feels cursed.

As she waits she thinks of another night in a different hotel in a different city and wonders what she’ll do if there are no other rooms available. Keeley isn’t here so they can’t very well send Roy to go bunk up with one of the boys – she’s pretty sure he and Beard are sharing a double room.

She thinks of Ted.

Ted, who must be with Sassy now. Would she have gone up if he wasn’t? Get in bed with him again and feel the urge the touch his hand as he snores softly beside her? She’s glad when someone from the hotel staff knocks on her door.

The woman takes one look at her bed and makes a face, then turns and tells her they have another room ready for her and if she could grab her things, she’ll meet her at room 607 after she grabs the keycard from reception.

Rebecca does as she says and settles herself in her new room, smaller than the other one, but with a working bed. She falls asleep almost instantly.

There’s a knock and Rebecca checks the clock and she hears “Stinky? It’s me” from the other side of the door. It’s almost 1 AM and she’s been asleep for maybe half an hour.

“Is something wrong?” she yawns as she lets Sassy in.

“I’m the one who should ask. Are you alone here? Reception told me you broke your bed and had to move rooms”, she gives Rebecca a scandalous look.

Rebecca ignores her. “I thought you were with Ted.”

Sassy shrugs. “I thought we might, you know, but when we got to the hotel I could tell his heart wasn’t in it, but that he still might do it just to be polite.” She shudders. “So I told him good night and came to find you. Don’t really feel like going back to an empty house tonight so I thought I might crash on your bed. Is that alright? Like a sleepover.”

Rebecca winces in sympathy at the right parts, but something in her stomach unclenches at her words. She immediately beats the thought into submission and puts it out of her mind. She won’t go there. She refuses.

“Should we order ice cream for this sleepover then?” She yawls as she grabs the phone to order them some room service.

four

The next time it happens it shouldn’t count. They’re in prison so it really feels like it shouldn’t, Rebecca thinks.

It’s a Friday night and Ted is in a nice suit, jacket off because it’s currently wrapped around her bare shoulders, hiding her naked back from some of the most unsavory types that are currently in the next cell over, even if they now can't see her.

It’s all Rupert’s fault, of course.

It goes like this: her thing with Sam got out at some point last week. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, in fact, it was the best way this could have happened for both of them. No pictures, just someone who saw them together last year somewhere “looking cozy.” The sort of thing that’s easy to deny and the type of gossip only the lowest rags in the country would run. After a few rushed calls with Keeley, they decided to just go full no comment, we won’t dignify this type of gossip with a response. It worked and soon the news was replaced with some new piece of royal scandal. But of course Rupert had read it and decided to deploy his venom at just the right moment.

They’re at a gala where Rebecca had just received some award, a plaque for the little team that could and the woman who did it all. It’s not much, mostly empty talks of equality from what it is still very much a boy’s club, but Keeley felt like it would be good PR so she and some of the blokes all put on their fanciest frocks and went. Ted, of course, plus Roy and Keeley and Coach Beard (the last one had come for the food and left almost immediately after dinner) and also some of the players.

Rupert was there representing West Ham, but they hadn’t acknowledged each other all night. His only gesture to her had been a sarcastic tipping of his glass the twat had sent her way as she made her way back towards the Richmond table after giving her very short thank you speech.

The whole thing is winding down and the Richmond party is saying their goodbyes by the exit. Jamie and the boys are calling a cab, heading towards some club somewhere, she’s sure – it’s a Friday night and they’re not playing this weekend – and Roy has disappeared somewhere. She and Keeley are waiting for their coats, Ted beside them.

“Nice work tonight, boss. We’re all proud of you,” Ted tells her and then gives her a nod. “Y’all have a good night now.”

She wants to stop him and maybe offer him a ride. She already has a cab waiting and surely they can take a detour and drop Ted off. Some sort of thank you for the look of pride on his face that she focused on throughout her speech. She doesn’t get the chance, though, because Rupert comes slithering his way onto her side.

“Yes, darling. Very good work.” He leans down and kisses her on the cheek like she’s still his wife. “I’m sure all the boys are so happy to have a woman giving it her all. What is it now? One down, twenty-one to go?” He smirks at her and then leans forward to whisper something even worse in her ear, but he never gets the chance to because he’s suddenly grabbed and hurled towards the door.

It’s Ted.

She and Keeley share a shocked look and then rush after them, everyone in the hall with them doing the same. When Rebecca finally shoulders her way to them, Rupert is hurling insults at Ted while Jamie tries to hold Ted back from going for Rupert again.

The police show up almost immediately. Rupert’s nose is bleeding all over his white dinner jacket and he looks murderous as he tells the cops his version of what happened. Rebecca can’t stand it so she goes for him as well, a slap landing on his cheek, and then it’s madness and chaos and Ted trying to pull her back while simultaneously wanting to beat the shit out of Rupert and Keeley is flailing in the background while Roy grabs the phone of the person who was filming it all.

By the time they’re booked they’re both thrown in the same cell together (“Didn’t ya birds fight for gender equality? Nothing more equal than this place on a Friday night, luv.”). The police station, just a couple of blocks away from the gala is packed full. As she and Ted walk in, she’s still only in her deep green dress, her back almost fully bare and there are whistles and bawdy cheers from the men and women in the cells and they walk in, their faces pressed against the glass on the doors. Ted steps behind her as if to shield her, but there’s not much he can do until they’re in their cell. Their own cell is empty, at least.

As their handcuffs are removed, Ted immediately drapes his jacket over her and thus begins the longest night of her life.

They chat a little, Rebecca telling her Keeley will have called her solicitor and Ted apologizing for putting them in this situation.

It is a little his fault, Rebecca thinks, but Rupert had it coming. She tells Ted as much.

“Right in one, boss.” Then he shakes his head. “The things he said to you. Sometimes all you can do is punch a man like that.”

They try to settle and wait for the man who will bail them out, but the shouting from the other cells becomes too much after a few minutes. After a particularly crude remark from a man and what he’d do to her breasts, Ted jumps up from next to her.

“Fellas,” he says “maybe cool with the remarks, huh?”

It’s fruitless, of course, and it just seems to egg them on until one of them yells “Wait, are you that wanker?”

The chants of wanker start up immediately, but the same guy keeps going. “Yeah, it’s that twat who coaches Richmond. It looked just like him.” And Christ, Rebecca thinks. When did Ted become one of the most recognizable faces in the country?

The whole place seems to hear the news while Ted and Rebecca give each other a look.

“That bloke has a mustache.”

“So does this one, you git.”

When everyone seems to agree that it is indeed the twat from Richmond, the wanker chant starts up again followed by a Richmond ‘til we die one. The whole place seems filled with Richmond fans. The whole experience is absolutely surreal. Ted gives her this look like he agrees, but he’s smiling.

When someone starts yelling rude things about her body again, Ted shouts. “Y’all wondering if I’m the Richmond coach? Yep, that’s me,” he yells and the whole place goes wild. It’s mad, surely they’ll be on the cover of The Sun tomorrow, but it works, they forget all about her.

Ted spends the next hour explaining all of his coaching choices to a bunch of boozed-up fans. Some Chelsea fan keeps heckling him, but every time he does someone threatens to shut him up so eventually he stops. Rebecca catches herself smiling at Ted’s words, how he has charmed a whole lot of angry people the same way he has charmed a whole football team, sponsors, reporters, a wedding party, and herself.

By the next time they break again into a Richmond ‘til we die chant one the coppers comes in and tells everyone to shut their fucking mouths or they’ll start putting people in the tank, whatever that might be. They dim the lights as they leave and it’s enough for people to finally start settling for the long night.

“Where the bloody hell is Winston?” Rebecca whispers to Ted who has come sit by her.

Ted shrugs. “Maybe he’s only able to get us out in the morning.”

“Perish the thought”, Rebecca says, picturing a whole night of sitting in this dirty cell.

“You know,” Ted says catching her eyes. “I’m used to jail cells. I never told you about that time I ended up in jail after prom.”

And so he does.

By the time he finishes his story she shares her own wild tales from her youth, most involving Sassy. They go back and forth, trading stories and when Ted settles on the bench, back pushing against the corner of the wall, she slides closer to him and hooks her right arm through his left. He seems to freeze for a moment but then relaxes and starts another story, this time involving a football team, American that is, Coach Beard, and a bottle of mezcal.

When she wakes up Ted is quietly shaking her awake.

“Hey, boss,” he whispers, “I think your guy is here.”

She has a crick in her neck and a policeman is unlocking their cell. She untangles herself from Ted. His arm was around her and she seemed to have settled somewhere on his chest. She can’t believe she fell asleep. Going by how quiet everything is she thinks everyone else is sleeping it off too.

“There’s a Winston Dalton waiting for you two”, the man tells them nodding towards the door. Ted and Rebecca both hurry towards the exit, glad to be leaving this place.

Winston is by the front desk, looking like someone just woke him up. “Good, I can go back to bed now.” He’s always had a temper. “That cunt said he’s not pressing charges so off you go.” By cunt he means Rupert. Winston’s dislike of her ex-husband is one of the reasons she has kept him on. Him being a ruthless solicitor who got her all she wanted in the divorce is the other.

They say their goodbyes by the front door and Rebecca sends a quick text to Keeley (“we’re out, thank you for calling Winston, talk to you tomorrow”) as Ollie pulls by the curb. She’s not sure how long he’s been waiting or who called him, but his bonus this year will have to be spectacular.

“Ollie, let’s drop off the lady first, shall we?” Ted tells him as they settle on the backseat. Rebecca wants to argue, but she’s just too tired. Ollie can drive Ted home after and then head home for the night.

When Ollie pulls by her house, Rebecca is surprised to see Ted getting out of the car with her. As they walk towards her front door, she flails on the inside for a bit wondering if he wants to come in. If she would let him.

After she unlocks her door she turns to him. “Quite a night.”

“Not what I was expecting” and his eyes crinkle as he smiles “but I still got to punch Rupert so I’d call it a net positive.”

Rebecca chuckles at that. “I can’t believe I missed it.”

Ted leans forward then and gives her a peck on the cheek, bold. “Don’t worry, boss, I’m sure it’ll happen again. You have a good night.”

As he goes down the couple of steps that will lead him back to the car she stops him. “Wait, Ted, your jacket.”

He turns and fixes his gaze at her. “Keep it.” He gives her a wink. “Looks better on you.”

She heads up to her bedroom, ready for a warm shower and bed. She removes his jacket when she gets to her bedroom and hangs it by the door – she’ll drop it off at the dry cleaner tomorrow and hand it back to him on Monday. As she touches the black material, she gets the urge to lean forward and take a deep breath.

Ted.

It only smells of Ted, no trace of anything else.

five

They absolutely trounce Man City. In Manchester.

Rebecca only came because it’s Keeley’s birthday and Keeley had told her that she wanted to celebrate even if they lost – “Have to cheer them up with a party if we do”, had been her words. They had flown in her jet late to the game, had in fact only sat on their seats when the ball was already rolling. Still, it was supposed to be a tough game, maybe their toughest this season, even if they weren’t doing badly. They were currently fighting with Tottenham for the fifth spot on the league table along with West Ham United, because who else could it be, of course. But Man City was at the top, only a single loss to them so far this season, a 2x1 against Chelsea, and even Ted’s optimism couldn’t keep the team from thinking they were aiming for a draw at best.

It ended in a 4x1. Two goals by Jamie Tartt, a beautiful corner goal from Sam, and Dani Rojas scoring the greatest goal of his career with a bicycle kick. Her and Keeley’s throats are raw from how much screaming they did during the match, Man City only able to score in the last five minutes.

The Richmond chant can be heard from the stairs that lead to the locker room and when they get there it’s pure madness. Both are immediately engulfed by a sea of sweaty players. Isaac goes for a high-five, and they hug everyone that comes near them, the celebratory mood of the room contagious. Even Sam, who has given Rebecca a somewhat of a wide berth ever since things with them went sour gives her a hug. Then Roy comes from the crowd, picks up Keeley from the floor to give her a big kiss and as he puts her down Rebecca sees Ted.

He beams at her and she can’t help herself, she walks to him and throws her arms around him tight. He hugs her right back, pulls her that much closer.

“See, boss? You just gotta believe we can do it”, he tells her in her ear.

It’s not the championship, not even close, but it feels like it is and she suddenly has to blink away the tears that form in her eyes. She feels absurd, getting emotional over football. “I stopped thinking there are things you can’t do ages ago, Ted”, she tells him as she pulls back.

“Nah, boss. Not me. Us.”

She opens her mouth to say something, anything, maybe hug him again, but then Jamie Tartt and Dani walk in, the last ones the reporters on the field let go, and then everyone is jumping up and down around them again and Roy is grabbing Jamie on a chokehold and both men are grinning like they’re best friends and Beard steps in to give Ted a chest bump and it’s all ridiculous and Rebecca can’t stop smiling.

Roy, of course, tells them they’re all off to get pissed and he’ll punch anyone who dares to not bloody come. And that they all better bring a gift.

Keeley, the birthday girl, picks a club. It’s a small, but flashy place and Richmond descends upon it like a plague of thirsty locusts. Someone orders what looks like all the booze and beer the club has and Keeley drops a martini on her hand as they both sit on one of the bright pink velvet couches that permeate the place. There’s a dancefloor and a DJ who’s playing a song some of the players must know because some are already there, spilling beer on the floor as they sway to the beat.

She sees Beard throwing back a pint with impressive gusto, but she doesn’t see Ted. She looks, though, eyes wondering everywhere in the pub. She can’t imagine he wouldn’t come and her head starts spinning with reasons why he wouldn’t. His son or maybe a panic attack. The latter, she knows, can happen after a particularly taxing experience, even if it was a happy one. She’s about to excuse herself from Keeley and go ask Beard where Ted is when he walks in, looking very much like he did on the pitch, navy Richmond jumper and all.

His eyes immediately find hers before the players see him and welcome him, dragging him to the bar so they can load him with beer while Keeley gets up and leads her to the dancefloor. “Come on, babe, let’s show this lot how it’s done.” They dance to songs Rebecca feels too old to listen to, Isaac showing them moves while Leslie joins them and air guitars his way through a song that most definitely doesn’t have a guitar.

They do this move from the dancefloor to their seats for most of the night, FaceTiming Sassy at some point who couldn’t join them for a quick trip and she sticks their tongue out at them telling them they owe her a night out and then wishing Keeley a happy birthday. Through it all she feels Ted’s eyes everywhere she goes and every time she catches him looking he doesn’t look away. He just smiles until Beard or Roy catch his attention again.

It makes her clumsy and awkward. She drops her drink as she puts it down, reaches for a glass that’s long empty, and shakes her legs up and down. Keeley keeps looking at her like she’s grown a second head until she realizes what’s happening.

“Why does Ted keep staring at you?”

“What? No, he doesn’t.”

“Have you shagged him yet?”

Rebecca almost spills her drink. “What? I’m not going to shag him.”

“Why not?”

Rebecca wants to tell her that it’s because she doesn’t want to shag him, but what comes out of her mouth is a list of why this would be a terrible idea. She’s his boss, Richmond needs him, there’s Sassy to think of and all the million little reasons that she finds inside herself.

Keeley nods along throughout it all like she gets it, but then says “Well, that’s bollocks.”

“Keeley,” Rebecca pleads.

“I mean, it is. If you want to shag him, shag him. It couldn’t be a worse idea than Sam.” She winces. “Sorry, babes.”

“You’re my PR. You’re supposed to stop me from doing mad things like shagging people the press would have a field day if they knew. Last year was--”. She tosses back her drink wincing at the burn of the alcohol. “That was madness, Keeley.”

“It was, yeah,” Keeley agrees. “But what’s also mad is sleeping with Ted twice and not shagging him. Not when he looks at you like he wants to have you for supper.”

Rebecca hides her face with her hands. She should never have told Keeley about it. Lately, she and Ted can barely exist around each other if Keeley is in the room, always squinting at them like she’s watching a BBC documentary on the mating habits of emperor penguins.

She’s let off the hook by someone walking in with a cake, Roy’s doing, she’s sure. The same Roy who has them all singing Happy Birthday while Keeley beams, ready to blow some candles. She doesn’t see him approaching her, but it’s the first time all night that Ted is near her, both clapping as they sing, and Rebecca blames Keeley and then the alcohol for making her so hyper-aware of all the places they’re not touching. Of the heat of his body as he claps. As she turns to tell Ted something, anything that will come out of her mouth that will maybe have her snap out of this madness, he’s long gone, hugging Keeley and wishing her a happy birthday.

She refuses the next drink that’s offered to her and the next one after that, but she’s still on edge.

After the cake is gone and Keeley has convinced Roy to join her for a dance, one of the club’s other guests sets his eyes on her from the bar and their eyes momentarily meet. He’s handsome. Her age or almost with a dimple on his chin and curly hair. He smiles at her and she doesn’t look away so he makes his way towards her. Tells her his name is Tariq. He has a gorgeous voice.

She thinks he knows who she is, even though he doesn’t say it. Still, she lets him chat her up while she’s sitting alone. It’s the first time tonight that she doesn’t feel Ted’s stare sending chills upon her back. When her eyes find him, he has his back half turned to her and is laughing at something Higgins has just told him.

Her attention goes back to Tariq and she pictures how easy it would be to leave the club right now, flag down a cab and take him to bed. He’s handsome to look at and something about him tells her they would have fun together. She could lose herself in him for the night. The impulse is there and as he gives her a smile she considers leaning in and whispering in his ear what he wants to her.

She doesn’t. Instead, she politely excuses herself and goes to the bathroom.

As far as club bathrooms go it’s one of the cleanest she’s seen. She goes about her business, washes her hands, and then busies herself with reapplying her lipstick, trying to focus on anything except whatever is happening to her tonight. The alcohol still flowing through her system.

She decides she’ll leave. Alone. She’ll find Keeley, hug her and go to the bed.

She meets Ted as she leaves the bathroom.

There’s a flush on his face and his hair is just this side of messy, like he has weaved his hand through it too many times tonight. He smiles slowly as he sees her, surprised to see her.

“Hi, boss.”

“Ted. Having fun?”

He steps in closer, just enough that she has to take a step back, but the wall is now pressed against her back.

“I am, boss. You? Saw you dancing all night.”

She nods. “With Keeley, yeah. Then some of the boys wanted a spin. Felt like they earned a dance after today.”

Ted is so close to her, their feet are almost touching, and she has to look down at him as they talk.

“Didn’t dance with me, though.” He’s grinning as he says it. “What does a guy have to do here? I thought you said I had moves.”

She remembers the wedding, dancing with him for what felt like hours then watching him from afar charming some of the female guests. “You certainly do.”

“I got some more moves I can teach ya.” There’s a glint in his eyes that feels positively devious.

Is he flirting with her? “Are you flirting with me?”

“Do you want me to?”, he asks her, grinning wider and leaning his left arm on the wall. It feels like a move and she can feel her heart beating faster.

She’s just about to answer him, although she’s not sure what she’ll say, when Dani finds them. Ted steps back from her as they both turn to him. “Coach, Coach told us you can teach us to do the robot.“ He looks at them with puppy eyes and moves one of his arms like he’s trying to make the correct dance move and failing and Ted needs to go with him right now because it’s a crisis. Ted goes.

She hits her head against the wall and shuts her own eyes hard. Tells herself to stop. To not think about Ted’s eyes full of mischief and how the drawl of his accent gets that much more pronounced when he’s in a flirty mood.

As she waits for Keeley to show up, she watches Ted teach Dani, Jamie and a couple of the others how to do the robot. As he sobers up, and Rebecca thinks it must be that, he stops looking at her. It’s the opposite of what’s been happening all night, actually, and he’s now pointedly not looking at her. It makes her feel cold, despite how warm the club is.

Roy and Keeley find her and as Keeley finishes her last drink, they ask her if she’d like a ride back to their hotel with them since she also wants to leave. She hesitates, figuring they’d rather be alone, but Keeley insists (“If you wait for a ride back with those guys there’s a 50-50 chance one of them might vomit on you”) so Rebecca grabs her bag and leaves the club. She doesn’t look at Ted.

Their hotel is ten minutes away, but Keeley makes them all stop for kebabs before they head there. Rebecca devours hers in what feels like three bites inside their cab, suddenly ravenous, and digs in her purse for a tissue she can use as a napkin.

The Hilton is their usual stay whenever they have a match in Manchester. She gives Roy and Keeley a kiss as they part ways, them heading for their room while Rebecca still needs the keycard to hers – both Keeley and she had gone from the airport straight to the stadium with instructions to where they could deliver their overnight bags.

Front desk hands her her key and Rebecca hurries for the lift, wanting to kick off her heels and maybe have a quick hot shower before bed. She stops in her tracks just as she climbs the three steps to the lift because right there hitting the button is Ted.

“Oh.” It’s all she says.

Ted turns, his eyes mirroring the surprise in hers and he gives her a nod but doesn’t say anything. The lift pings and opens its doors. They both step in, Ted hitting the button for the 18th floor, the same as hers.

The ride to their floor is quick, but it feels like it’s taking forever. The awkward silence almost too much to bear. When they finally get out of the lift, they both turn right.

She reaches her room before Ted gets to his, but he stops with her, turning to look at her. She can’t make out the look on his face.

“Good night, Ted.” It’s all she can think to say.

There’s a beat where he doesn’t say anything, but then he nods. “Good night, Rebecca.”

And he turns from her and walks away.

But before she can open the door to her room, he stops, turns to her again and stares right at her. “Do you want to use that key?”

She freezes. Her heart accelerates in her chest and her breath catches. She knows what he means by that. That she will use her key, shut the door behind her and go to bed. That if anything happens she will call reception and they will find her another room and she will still sleep alone. That tonight there are no excuses that could bring them together. She steadies herself and makes the impulsive choice. “No,” she answers.

He takes the three steps that separate them and kisses her.

Kissing Ted is nothing like she imagined and oh, she had. In secret. In the dark. She figured it would be soft, his mustache tickling her face while he gently cradled her to him. But it’s not like that at all. Kissing Ted, being kissed by Ted, feels like being hit by a hurricane. He’s everywhere. Pushing her towards the door, his body pressing against hers, his hand pulling her down to him. She drops her bag and grabs a handful of his sweater pulling him that much closer to her.

He breaks the kiss only when it feels like neither of them can breathe anymore, but he doesn’t step away. Instead he nuzzles at her neck, not unlike how he had all those months ago in the bus, except there’s intent this time. He kisses her underneath her ear, at a spot that raises goosebumps all over her arms and she moans, head turning so she can capture his mouth again. As she deepens the kiss, she can feel more than hear the groan that leaves his throat and she feels herself clench. It’s embarrassing how wet she feels already but going by the way Ted feels pressed against her, he’s not that far off.

As Ted digs his fingers into her waist and she sucks on his lower lip, the lift to their floor dings again and they jump apart as if on fire. No one steps out of it, thankfully, because there’s no way anyone would be fooled by them. Ted looks wrecked, his jumper askew and pupils blown wide. She feels a sort of teenage thrill that she’s the one who made him look like this.

As the doors to their lift close again, Ted steps closer to her again, caging her body with his and the wall. She thinks he’ll kiss her again, but he goes and leans his forehead on her shoulder, his right hand rubbing circles on her waist with his fingers. They stay like that for a beat, breathing heavily. “Please come to bed with me”, he asks muffled by her shoulder.

She does.

Sex with Ted is fun. That’s what lingers after they’re done.

There’s an awkwardness to them as they step inside his room, but as she removes her heels he jokes that he likes that.

“I like that you’re both taller and shorter than me, depending on the day. Keeps me on my toes,” he winks at her.

She scoffs, but that helps the heaviness from the room dissipate. He unwraps her like a present. Like this, and not the once-in-a-lifetime match from earlier, is the highlight of his day. His wide eyes every time he frees a little of her skin makes her blush and as he unbuttons her shirt and drops it from her shoulders, he chases the redness away with his mouth.

As his mouth licks that spot where her neck meets her shoulder, his hand goes to the zipper on her skirt. The fabric drops from her legs and she steps out of them as Ted leans back and gives her a once over, face splitting into a grin. She’s wearing white lace, something frilly, but comfortable.

“Maybe I should try that Pilates thing,” he says and she rolls her eyes at him, going for a mock slap.

But he grabs her hand and gives it a quick kiss, then pulls her towards him. He kisses her, more of a peck really, then tells her she’s beautiful. “Just perfect,” and he shakes his head like he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing her then leans again for another kiss, deeper this time.

They move until the back of her legs hit the bed and then they both fall, her on her back and Ted on top of her, some of his weight hitting the mattress on her side. They keep kissing each other, her hands clutching at his shoulder while his move everywhere, from her waist to her breasts to her arse, and when his thumb brushes one of her nipples she moans in their kiss.

His mouth moves from hers to leave a trail of wet kisses down her neck and chest. He lowers the cup of her bra and his mouth is so close to where she wants him she’s panting. When his lips finally close over a nipple she arches her back fully onto him, the groan that comes out of her mouth coming from deep.

He licks at her once then twice, the wire from the cup digging into her breast. As she moves her arms to unclasp it, he stops. “Is this okay?”

“Yes”, her reply is immediate, and he chuckles. Mouth lowering to her again. He gives both breasts equal attention, the feel of his mouth and the hair on his face driving her that much crazier. Her hand starts trailing down his body, wanting to touch skin, even though he’s still fully clothed, but he starts moving his mouth lower down her body, kissing and biting underneath her breasts then ribs then hips. When his head is between his legs he nuzzles at her, still covered by lace.

She grabs his hair and finally gets to do what she’s been wanting to for what feels like ages and brushes those damn strands away from his forehead. His eyes are closed as if lost in the sensation of her, but as she scratches her long nails on the back of his head his eyes open and stare right at her as he buries her nose against her again. She has her lips between her teeth, trying to keep herself from making a sound for reasons she can’t explain. His tongue darts out and he licks at her through the fabric once but pulls away to kiss the inside of her thigh. He then rubs his cheek against her, the feel of a day’s worth of scruff making her shiver. “Is this what you like?”

She thinks of Sassy’s eager to please comment from forever ago and then immediately locks it down somewhere deep in her brain, not wanting anyone but them to be in this space right now. But still, she wasn’t wrong. Ted wants reassurance, he needs her to tell him what she wants, how good what he’s doing to her feels.

So she does. She threads her fingers to his hair, watches and he pushes his head into her hand, just a little, and tells him. “Yes, it is. Now please get back to work,” she arches a brow at him.

He chuckles but doesn’t need to be told twice. He removes her underwear and God, who knew that bloody mustache of his would feel so good there where she’s most sensitive. She’s so wet it’s embarrassing and when he uses her fingers in her the noise that fills the rooms is practically obscene.

She’s close, too close, left hand clutching at the sheets while she fights the urge to grab at him, pull him that much closer to where she wants him. She loses that fight, but when she grabs a fistful of his hair it’s him that groans.

She comes with a groan, hand still tightly fisting his hair and he only stops after every aftershock has come and gone. She feels boneless as he climbs back towards her mouth and when she kisses him she can taste herself.

As she comes back down from wherever he took her, she decides it’s wholly unfair that she’s the only one naked so she hooks her legs around him and flips them so she’s the one on top. He goes with a whoomp, but his hands immediately settle on her waist.

He’s looking up at her and failing spectacularly at not staring at her breasts. “Keeley had mentioned that these bad boys were incredible, but that does not do them justice,” he tells her.

She rolls her eyes at him, embarrassed. Honestly, they’re just breasts, but she still arches on his hand when he touches her. Still, she doesn’t let it distract her – much that is – and focuses on the task at hand.

Those maddening layers, she thinks, as she removes his jumper then shirt and then undershirt. When he’s fully shirtless she eyes this man underneath her who has turned her whole life upside down. He’s not an athlete, doesn’t go through the brutal regime of training and a special diet, but she still appreciates what she sees. The hair that dusts his chest and how his stomach twitches as she gently uses her nails on him.

He looks wary for a moment, eyes not meeting hers. “I don’t this often,” he tells her, hand stilled on her waist. She thinks she knows what he means, but he continues. “And by this I mean being underneath a pretty lady half-naked.”

She sizes him up. “You prefer being on top?”

He gives her this look as if it say touché, but he doesn’t take the out she gives him. Instead he bares it all to her. “I’m yours in whatever way you want me in. But I mean, you know--”

“Casual sex. I know what you mean.” She can’t tell him the same.

“I’ve done it before,” he continues. “Since my marriage ended,” and they both know who he means. “But it never felt quite right, ya know? Good, but it’s just not me.” He turns his gaze from her to stare at a spot above her head. “So if we do this, Rebecca, then--”. He can’t seem to make himself go on.

Rebecca’s heart is beating too fast inside her chest. It feels like too much. She tries to focus on Ted, on the words he’s trying to get out.

“I saw you with that man tonight. Him leaning close. Handsome guy. Had to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face.” He shakes himself. “I stared at the mirror and I thought ‘it’s fine. There’s nothing between you and her’ but when I walked out of that bathroom and saw you…”

She remembers. How sloshed they both were, how close he was, how him flirting with her felt nothing like and totally like Ted at the same time. How for a moment it looked like he might kiss her.

“I wanted you. Right there.” He chuckles. “Dani is a swell guy, but I wanted to yell at him when he showed up.”

“I would have let you.” It’s all she says. “If you had kissed me there, I would have let you.”

His hands tighten on her hips and his eyes darken. He licks his lips. “What about that morning at the hotel? You know, after that wedding?”

She swallows hard, but nods. “There too.”

His hand goes to the back of her neck and he crushes her mouth to his. As she leans over him she feels him hard underneath her and fights the urge to grind herself against him. She doesn’t get the chance because he’s flipping them again, him between her legs and he’s the one pushing his hardness against her.

He tells her between kisses how much he wanted her back then. “I woke up with your smell under my nose and had to lock myself in that bathroom just to calm myself down.” He shakes his head as if he still can’t quite believe it. “Then I opened the door and you’re in that camisole thing of yours, hair all wild, those long legs bare.” He kisses a spot underneath her ear. “Do you know how hard it was for me to leave that room? How hard it was for me to share a bed with you? Even that first time?”

And she knows because she’s felt the same way, even though she can’t admit it until now. How ridiculous they were for thinking they could do this. She tells him as much.

“Yeah. Back in Newscastle I thought we could do it, right? It wasn’t the first time I had to share a bed.” He tells her about waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare and how close she had gotten to him during the night. How glad he felt that he wasn’t alone. How he watched her sleep until the lull of her breath calmed him down.

Her heart breaks as he says this, but he shushes her. “None of that now. Don’t mean to make you sad.”

So she tells him about their stalled bus and his mouth near her neck instead. How she had used Harold’s curiosity in her favor because she wanted to spend time with Ted and didn’t know how to ask. How she wanted to make him stop thinking about their West Ham match. She had seen the way his shoulders slumped whenever a journalist brought up Nate during their latest press conference. How that night in the police station had been one of the worst nights of her life and yet still okay because he was there with her and how, when he had walked her to her door she wondered if he would ask her to let her in. How she might have said yes.

“I wanted to. God, Rebecca, I--” but she pulls him down for a kiss.

He kisses her like he would have that night, then laughs. “You handed me my jacket back that week.”

She squints at him. “Was I supposed to keep it?”

“No, I was just disappointed you had it dry cleaned. It wouldn’t smell like you anymore.”

And God, how he can be like this? They lose themselves kissing for a while and then Rebecca realizes that she has strayed away from her task and her hands go to his belt. He’s still too overdressed for her liking. She undoes the belt then the button on those infuriating khakis of his that she has started to find entirely too appealing and then the zipper, reaching a hand inside to finally have a feel of his cock. She feels the groan that comes out of his mouth right between her legs as her hand closes around him. He’s perfect.

They kick his trousers down to the floor and then he rubs himself against her she chases him with her hips, wanting to feel as much of him as she can. He grinds himself against her, mouth locked to hers and they spend a few beats just rubbing against each other lost in the moment.

Finally, when she can’t stand it anymore, he leans back. “Right. Just a second” and jumps from the bed and goes in search of a condom. She’s leaning back on her arms, watching him as he searches, erection bobbing as he does. She likes what she sees, but it’s still a ridiculous sight so she barks up a laugh then puts a hand to her mouth.

He turns to her, smiling. “Do you think if we call reception, they’ll send one up? I really thought I had one on me.”

She throws one of the pillows at him. “Infuriating man.” She nods to her bag. “Check my bag, the inside pocket.”

He doesn’t have to be told twice and comes back triumphant, ripping off the package as he kneels between her legs. She bats his hands away and rolls the condom on herself, wanting to touch him and feeling too cold without him on top of her. Finally, when she’s done, she lies back down, dragging him with her and with a kiss he slowly enters her.

He’s maddeningly slow, stretching her inch by inch. “Ted,” she warns.

“What?”, he asks knowing exactly what he’s doing. Eventually he bottoms out and Rebecca feels too full. He gives them both a moment to get used to the sensation. Then he starts moving.

Both her feet are planted against the mattress, and they can’t stop kissing, Ted only letting go of her mouth to tell her how good she feels, to ask her if this feels okay. She can’t speak, only nod as she trails her nails through his back and that delicious arse of his, dragging him closer to her. He groans every time her nails dig in and she saves that thought, conjuring images of what she could do.

He quickens his pace, which feels positively perfect, and she hooks both her legs around his waist and he actually whimpers at how the angle inside of her changes. There’s sweat on his brow and she wants to watch him unravel, but first things first so one of her hands finds her clit and she moans at the delicious rhythm of her hand and his cock.

He looks down at their bodies joined. “God, Rebecca,” and his voice sounds much lower than usual, that accent of his that used to drive her bloody mad in the beginning making her clench around his cock. He falters when she does it, his thrusts missing a beat every time her muscles clench around him, so she keeps doing it. He retaliates by putting his mouth on her breast and giving it a nip, just barely, but enough for her whole back to arch off the bed. She’s close, too close for someone who came already, but he feels entirely too good so she continues rubbing herself, making herself that much wetter for him.

“It’s okay,” he tells her as he watches her near her peak.

And it is. She knows that deep in her bones. That she will let go and Ted will be there to catch her. So she does. She comes with a moan so loud she feels whoever is next door will hear and know it’s her, but she can’t seem to care. Ted is watching her in awe as she comes and she can’t take her eyes off his.

He leans down to kiss her deeply as she comes back down to Earth, his cock resting inside her. “Alright?”

And she nods, urging him on. He doesn’t have to be told twice. He grabs one of her thighs and pushes it up, hitting her that much deeper and picking up his pace. His mouth goes from her lips to her neck and it feels like he’s devouring her. The sensation so good that if he ever decides to shave she might have to kill him.

She clenches around him, once then twice, still too sensitive, but it’s enough for him to bury himself inside her and come with a groan. Not quite as loud as hers, but noisy and oh, she likes that.

For a moment his body falls heavily on top of her and she runs her fingers through the back of his head as he settles down. Then he leans back and drops himself next to her, getting rid of the condom and pulling her towards him. His head is leaning on her chest and they both stay quiet as they catch their breath, her fingers still caressing his hair as his hand rubs her from thigh to waist.

She feels weightless and bone tired. Exactly how she feels after a great shag. God, who knew?

“That was not how I expected my day to go,” she tells him honestly.

He looks up at her, looking as tired as she feels. “Yeah? Didn’t I tell you early? Sometimes you just gotta believe.”

Her laughter echoes throughout the room.

They have sex once more before they fall asleep, her hands driving him mad before he slides into her, both still on their side, unhurried. They fall asleep tangled around each other and wake up very much the same way, although Ted wakes up first, his mouth warm against her neck and waking her up with slow kisses. Going by how light it is outside she figures it must be closer to eight than seven. The bus, she knows, is supposed to leave by nine and her jet by nine-thirty at the very latest. She has lunch plans with a journalist.

They don’t have time for sex, but Ted can’t help himself and she comes quickly from his fingers working inside of her as she comes fully awake.

He drags himself out of bed and into the bathroom for a shower as she collects herself. She can hear the shower turning on and then off as she collects her clothes, wanting to head for her own room to do the same. When she’s ready to go she hesitates, not sure if she should say goodbye, but the door to the bathroom is open so she sticks her head inside. Ted has his pants on and is rubbing his wet hair with a towel.

“Ted?”

“Yeah?” He looks up from under the towel at her.

“I’m going now.” It sounds awkward and she doesn’t know what else to say. If she should kiss him goodbye. “See you for breakfast?”

“Yeah, alright,” he replies.

She closes the door of his room and walks towards hers, feeling awkward and stiff. As she does, Keeley steps out of the room she’s sharing with Roy, three doors down from hers. They both stop dead.

Keeley, of course, can’t help herself. “You slag. Tell me all about it. Who was it? Was it that man from the bar I saw you with? He was hot.” She’s about to continue, but then Ted steps out of his room.

“Wait, Rebecca, you left this behind.” It’s the keycard to her room, it must have fallen out of her bag while Ted was digging inside her purse for a condom. She freezes and Ted goes red from head to toe and Keeley gapes at them.

Ted has his shirt half undone, but he’s the one who acts first. He steps closer to her and hands her the key then kisses her on the cheek, just a barely-there brush of his lips. “I’ll see you downstairs.” He gives a nod, his eyes waiting until she looks at him. Then he looks at Keeley and nods. “Hey, Keeley.” Then walks back to his room to finish getting ready for the day.

Keeley, of course, loses her mind. Rebecca promises she’ll tell her all about it on the flight home. She won’t, not everything, but she will mention how kissing Ted didn’t feel like being struck by lightning at all. How instead he had felt like whirlwind, rearranging every atom in her body long before they had ever touched.

She and Ted have breakfast together. Then dinner later that night. She takes him to bed, her bed this time, and as they wrap themselves around each other, her head near his, her arm over his chest, she can already see a future where her bed will feel empty without him. It terrifies her.

But in the morning his heart beating underneath her hand is the first thing she feels. She’ll treat it gently. As he wakes up, he gives her a soft smile, eyes still heavy with sleep, and she knows he’ll do the same to hers. It’s enough.