Page 39 of The Fullback
Mostly because he thought they were both hot. And in love.
As much as he tried to hide it, Bailey was a romantic at heart. It was why he’d always find all the romance options in games and follow them all, even if he had to replay it multiple times. I was tempted to get himDate Everythingand watch him try to figure out who to start with.
I wondered if Aiden was a romantic too or if he didn’t really care. It shouldn’t have mattered—it wasn’t like we had that kind of relationship—but I still wanted to know.
“I always liked Dionysus,” Stevie said. “Evie likes Ares. And Artemis.”
We kept chatting about games, swapping stories about our gaming fails and favourites and silly anecdotes about things we’d done. I was still aware of Stevie doing things, especially when he picked up the callipers for the skinfold test, but then he’d asked me a question about my favourite game series and I’d found myself wandering off down a rabbit hole of rankingAssassin’s CreedagainstFallout,Call of Duty, andPokémon. I’d barely noticed the pinches, which I guessed was the point, and I was proud of myself for letting my mind drift away onto something else.
It was the first time I’d really been able to do that.
Maybe it helped that I was also remembering the year Bailey and I had obsessively walked around Ibiza playingPokémon Go,drunk out our arsesat three in the morning. That’d been fun.
I had a vague memory of a group of drunk girls coming towards us out of a club, and Bailey yelling something like, “Don’t worry, I’m trying to catch that Sandshrew. It’s a shiny!” They’d ended up joining us walking around for an hour trying to catch Pokémon, and it had ended surprisingly wholesomely with Bailey and me walking them back to their hotel.
Bailey had then ended up falling in the pool because he’d been trying to catch a Lapras and we’d been chased off the premises by security.
If we’d been hoping to get laid, we’d failed spectacularly. But he’d still caught the Lapras.
I guessed that said something about his priorities.
“All done,” Stevie said. “You can put your shirt on again.”
“Oh, that was… easy.”
“You did great. I know this is difficult for you.” His expression was proud as I pulled the rest of my kit on. “Got any questions for me?”
“What do… Do you think there’ll be a lot of changes? I know you won’t give me the results, but I’m wondering if my programme will be similar to what I’ve been doing? Or last season’s, I guess, since we’re actually into the season now, not pre. I liked that one.”
“Yeah, I think we can use that,” Stevie said. “I’ll chat to Gavin, Clive, and Wayne, but if it worked for you, I think we can stick to it.”
“Cool, great. Thanks.” There was a strange feeling of relief sitting under my ribs. I’d liked what we’d done last season, and it had given me the structure my brain craved, but with clear boundaries for me to stick to. The food had worked out well for me too. And Bailey, since we usually cooked together outside of our meals at the club.
“Do you need anything from me? Want to talk to anyone now you’re done?”
“Nope. I just wanna get out of here and go and throw a ball around.”
“Sounds good. I think you’re outside after lunch,” he said, checking his watch. “I’ll come down to the canteen with you. Then I’ll grab the backs after lunch.”
“Not like they usually do much,” I said with a wry chuckle. I wasn’t sure I was feeling particularly hungry, but I knew I needed to eat. “Pretty sure last week they were all playing ‘it’ instead of doing any work.”
Stevie snorted. “Who won?”
“Devon. He teamed up with Danny to take everyone out then turned on him. Danny wouldn’t stop whining about it for hours.” Technically, Devon had cheated, but it was Danny and they all lovingly considered him fair game. Probably because of his terrible mullet and moustache combo. Why Ezra thought it was sexy was beyond me.
“Sounds about right,” Stevie said, flicking off the lights as we walked out of the treatment room he’d set up shop in, iPad tucked under his arm.
We chatted a bit more as we walked downstairs towards the canteen, where I noticed Bailey lingering by the door for me. There was a worried expression on his face he couldn’t hide, not even when he spotted me and smiled.
“There you are,” he said as Stevie slipped past us into the canteen, which was already packed and noisy. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Sure? Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not much to talk about,” I said, my gaze roaming across the tables through the glass, trying to see what was on offer for lunch. It looked like there was maybe some salmon? Or some chicken. Salmon would be good. With broccoli. And maybe a few new potatoes because I needed carbs. I could manage that. Maybe some fruit salad. They had cookies too, but I didn’t know if I wanted one.
Cookies made me think of Aiden.
