Gold Rush

The 80th Minute

1 Week Later

Ryan was bored.
Frustrated.
Restless.
And hungry to get back to life as he knew it.

He'd been mostly confined to his room for days now, struggling to pin point a moment where he could finally make his move and win Sophie back. He was impressed at how easy it had been to discreetly follow her around the hotel for most of the week, even using the gym at the same time, the stupid bitch didn't suspect a single thing.

Ryan decided that tonight would be the night.. after the game. She'd come back to her room and he'd make her listen to him. He needed to make her see how perfect things could be again, for her. For them.

*

ENG vs ALB - Wembley

The Albania game had been smooth and sleek so far, with England quickly racking up 5 goals against the opposition.

Much to Sophie's relief, Millie had left the England camp not long after the incident, insisting there was a family emergency and therefore wouldn't be coming back. The damage had been done.

The lads had it in hand, with all of the 5 goals being scored in the first half. Gareth made the most of this by letting the substitutes have some game time and at 63 minutes the whistle blew for the changes to take place. Sophie felt she could finally relax in her pitch side seat, accompanied by fellow medic Louis, of course her friend and Coach Kate, and Jamie in the form of Physio support.

She carefully listened as the surrounding tanoys loudly blared out the announcement

Harry Kane OFF – Tammy Abraham ON

Kalvin Phillips OFF – Jude Bellingham ON

Phil Foden OFF – Jack Grealish ON

Against her will, just like all those times before, her heart began fluttering itself into a frenzy, which in turn stirred the sleepy butterflies in her abdomen.

She thought back to the week that had passed since the last match, Jack had respectfully given her the distance she needed. They had a couple of encounters on a professional basis, but they had never been alone together since. She couldn't face the pure embarrassment of him being nice to her out of sympathy.

John Stones had been keeping her company during their downtime most days and he was pretty much back on speaking terms with Jack, not that he really had a choice, they played together in both country and club teams. It wasn't like they'd leave the England camp and it would be forgotten, all of this would continue to bubble over, it would just be extended up to the North West.

John's previous words echoed in her mind from one of their many conversations of 'dissecting the brain of Jack Grealish.'

'He's proper gutted and misses you. I know he's been a prick, this is what he does Soph. I've seen it time and time again. The lad's daft.'
John paused for a couple of seconds before continuing,
'But I have to admit, the way he was with you.. I've never seen him like that.. He was smitten and I do think you need to clear the air. He's shit scared of upsetting you again.'

Sophie came crashing back down to earth as Jack darted past her, running onto the pitch, finally happy to get some game time under his belt.

*

80th Minute

Jack didn't know what to do with himself.
He was happy to get on the pitch to burn off some of the fizzing and torturous energy he'd had buzzing inside for the past few days.