You're The One

Chapter 26

May 2021 - north London, England

It was finally the off-season. We had played our final match a few days before against Aston Villa, and despite it ending in a 0-0 draw, we were still able to secure third place and a Champion's League place. A few of us on the team had another cooking date, with Lisa filming it along the way. It was fun and a perfect way to celebrate our success. Although barely scraping third place was not necessarily commendable, it was still a wonderful feeling knowing we achieved something we had been working for the past couple of months.

It was interesting being off football, for some reason the season felt much shorter than it actually was. Almost as if I didn't yet deserve a break. Unfortunately, I still had the Olympics to train for. Of course I was so appreciative of the fact that I could go and compete for the title, I just wondered what it would be like to have a break. Looking forward, the next summers were going to be packed as well, with the Euros and then the World Cup and then the Olympics again. I wondered whether I would ever get some proper time off. Only when I retire, I guess!

"So how's it going with Leah? Any updates post 'not a thing'" Jill asked me as we sat around the coffee table, making fake quotation marks with her hand when saying the final words. The rest of the group had gone out on a walk, but I had stayed back with Jill since she was feeling a little unwell.

"No updates, nothing to say." I responded bluntly, and although I was telling the truth, she didn't believe me.

"I deserve to know the full story!" She expressed with fake anger, "I mean, your cooking gave me food poisoning."

"You are so dramatic. We know it was the chicken you ate beforehand. You were the only one to eat it, and you were the only one to get sick." I answered, rolling my eyes. "You know, I think you would've had a lot of success as an actor."

"That was so uncalled for." She said back, crossing her arms. "Based off the way you gas yourself up, your cooking should be able to cure me, not leave me sprawled over the toilet in the middle of the night."

"Oh, shut up you silly goose."

"So tell me!"

"Jillie, I'm telling you the absolute truth. There's nothing else apart from 'not a thing', sorry if that breaks your delusional bubble. Bearing in mind you're not even being delusional about your own life!"

"Why has there not been any progress?" She questioned curiously, "You guys look like you're attached at the hip."

"You're actually insane. We live together, of course we're going to be coming to things together, leaving things together. Besides, it's only been a week or so since this became official, well no, half official."

"A week is like a year in relationship terms, don't even try to lie to me."

"I'm not lying!"

"Well I want something to happen before I move out. I want to witness the peak of this love story firsthand." It had been announced at the start of the month that Jill would be leaving Arsenal to go to Wolfsburg. Best believe I was furious! Of course I wanted her to succeed, and she clearly wanted a move to Germany, but we only just started playing with each other! We had such a good connection, with Viv especially.

"I'm still mad at you for that. You might have been able to if you weren't leaving to join the big bad green wolves!"

"Oh my god, so it is going to happen?" She exclaimed, standing up and jumping. She was a very interesting character, that's for sure. And definitely not sick. Drama queen.