Sage had been living with me for three months now, and the news story's kept flooding in. The current story still focusing on our holiday. I rolled my eyes as I flicked through the story, paparazzi shots being scattered through the article.
FOOTBALLWEEKLY: Grealish enjoying break before the new season with girlfriend Sage Western
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'What an awful picture' I groaned to myself turning my phone off and standing up, heading over to where Sage was baking cookies in the kitchen.
'What's an awful photo?' She asked, spinning around as soon as I entered the kitchen.
'Nah your not seeing it' I replied dipping my finger into the mixture and tasting some 'nice dough by the way' I smirked heading back out of the kitchen and to the garden where my football was.
'Show me the photo you little shit!' I heard Sage yell from the house, I turned to see her standing in the door way with her hand on her hip, the other on the doorframe.
'Absolutely not' I shouted back kicking the ball up and volleying it into the back of the net. Sage was making her way over to me, her hand outstretched hinting that she wanted my phone.
'Ball or phone, your choice' she gave me my options and I pondered for a moment. Dribbling the ball towards her I positioned myself in front of her giving her the illusion she could have the ball before quickly dodging past her and running inside.
'GREALISH!' She shouted chasing me inside and up the stairs into our bedroom. I hid behind the door jumping out when she came in causing her to scream. I wrapped my arms around her waist spinning her around in our spacious bedroom.
'Jack!' Sage giggled 'put me down' she commanded and I lay her on the bed, hovering above her, holding myself up on my elbows. I scanned her body, taking in every detail of this breath taking girl.
'What would I do without you' I asked, sort of to myself but loud enough for Sage to hear me, she blushed and pecked my lips, licking her own afterwards.
'Have cookie dough around your mouth forever?' She giggled, standing up from the bed and heading over to the door.
'Wait, Sage, I need to talk to you' I sighed, it was now or never, I had known for some time that I'd have to have this conversation with Sage sooner or later, I was just really hoping it could be more of a later kind of topic.
'What's up?' Her facial expression turned from happy to concerned in seconds and it tugged at my heart to see her so concerned.
'The media have hold of your full name' I sighed, laying back on the bed and covering my face with my arms.
'They what!?' Sage yelped jumping up from her position in the door way and walking over to me, I sat up again and looked at her, searching his eyes for emotion.
'I saw it online' I huffed, handing her my phone so that she could see the article I'd read earlier, forgetting all about the awful photo I watched as she read through the story.
'For fuck sake' she groaned handing my phone back to me, I slid it into my pocket and brought Sage under my arm. 'What if people hate on me or you know' she started, and I ran my fingers through her hair in an attempt to calm her down.
'Hey, if anyone comes for you, you tell me and we sort it together' I demanded, looking Sage dead in the eye and pressing a kiss to her forehead.
*** The rest of the day was spent watching films on the sofa and eating whatever snacks we could find in the house.
'We really need to go shopping' Sage shouted from the kitchen as she searched through the empty cupboards.
'Ugh I hate shopping' I groaned turning to tv off and heading over to the kitchen 'what do we need?'
'Literally everything' Sage giggled stepping aside so I could see the very empty fridge.
'Oh' I scratched the back of neck and finally gave in, hoping into the car with Sage and driving to the nearest supermarket. I put my sunglasses on and a hat attempting to keep a low profile behind the shopping cart whilst Sage wondered through the aisles.
'You'd look good in this' she giggled holding up a bright yellow jumper.
'Absolutely not' I grumbled walking away from her and picking up the best of what we needed from that aisle. We got what we needed and headed back to the car.
'Come on' Sage chirped grabbed the keys from my pocket.
'Thought you were grabbing something else' I winked and she blushed as we got in the car.
Driving down the roads we pulled up at the park just as the sun was setting. We got out and sat on the grass. Laying with her head on my chest, Sage began fiddling with my fingers whilst we watched the clouds going over head.
'Jack' Sage spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence that had formed around us.
'Hmm' I hummed in response, enjoying the way her hands shaped into mine perfectly.
'When do you go back to training?' I hadn't really had time to think about going back to England training since the break, I'd try to avoid the topic honestly.
'On Monday', Monday was only three days away. Not entirely sure where the direction of the conversation was going I sat up and looked at Sage, her eyes were watery and her smile was weak, tugging at my heart.
'What are we gonna do, I'll hardly see you' I could see her point, I spend three weeks away at the England training camp, then it's pretty much back to back games throughout the euros plus it was my first major tournament so I needed to be focused.
'What do you mean?' I asked, I know exactly what she meant I just didn't want to think about it.
'Well, your going to be training, I'm going to be back at University, how do we make time for us?' She sat up and held onto both of my hands, looking down at her lap.
'Hey' I lifted her chin up to look at me and pecked her lips gently causing her to smile, I smiled back and leant our foreheads together. 'We can make this work' trying to reassure her when I wasn't even sure myself was probably the biggest challenge.
'Jack' she sighed again this time deeper, slower and les controlled than before, I could tell she was becoming emotional as the conversation went on and I was now sure I knew where this was going.
'No, no Sage, we're not giving up on this, on us, it's not happening' I firmly said, squeezing her hands together with mine in an attempt to show her my determination for this to work.
'A month and a half living completely different lives with only a phone keeping us together' she started, her voice was quiet, shaky, at a whisper almost 'How do we do that?' She asked me and I looked around, hoping the answer would appear from behind one of the trees that lined the park.
'I love you, Sage, that's how we do it' bringing her in for a hug I could feel her small body start to shake and small sniffles began to escape her mouth. I squeezed her tighter and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head and stroking her hair every so often.
