The Runner and Number 30 (Charlie Curnow)

Chapter 3

Monique's Pov

I woke up the next morning when my alarm went off at 8 am. I got out of bed and had a quick shower, then I decided to wear my black leggings and the Carlton polo I was given on the weekend, along with my Nike shoes and then had a quick breakfast and got into my car to drive to the club.

once I arrived at the club, I entered through the main entrance and saw Kelly in the Cafe area so I made my way over, "Heyy Kelly" I said approaching her "Hey Monique, welcome back, would you like a coffee?" she asked, "I would love one" I smiled as I sat down with her and she got up to order us some coffees, I looked around the club, there were trophies separating the cafe from the main entrance walkway. players were slowly coming in one by one when they arrived. "I apologize for the late call and rushed introduction," Kelly said as she sat back down with our coffees "Thank you, and no problem, this honestly came as such a shock, I was quite pleased just being a water runner, what piqued their interest?" I asked out of curiosity "Well they didn't really say, they just said they really liked you and thought you might like some extra credit for your degree" She shrugged "Oh okay, so it was just random?" I asked "Oh it was not random, apparently you were recommended," she said and I looked at her confused, who would have recommended me. "you ready to meet the other sports therapist?" she asked standing up "yeah let's go" I said standing up with her and following her out of the cafe area.

we walked through the private club areas and up to a door in the middle of the indoor training yard, kelly knocked on the door "come in" the voice on the other side said, Kelly opened the door and allowed me to enter first "Lauren this is Monique, she is the training sports therapist who will be working with you the rest of the season" Kelly said "Nice to meet you Monique, i'm lauren" she smiled "nice to meet you too" i replied "ill let you two get accquainted ill be around if you need anything Monique, but lauren will be able to help you as much as possible" Kelly said as she left the room "so, welcome to the club, just a few ground rules, we deal with all the players at this club, both men and women, secondly, this is a professional space, so all talk with players must remain strictly professional, some of them, especially the young boys will try to have conversation with you other than their injuries, you are welcome to be civil but dont let anything get out of hand" Lauren said "okay no worries" i nodded "thats it for rules, but while im on the topic, it can be hard sometimes to keep it professional the boys love to banter and flirt, its what they do, banter is okay as long as its professional, once it crosses that line it becomes unprofessional, however it is a very fine line" she explained smiling "im glad i have someone that has dealt with it to talk to about it" i said "it is good, it was hard when it was just me, also we have 2 therapy rooms, one has my name on the door, we will both be using this one for the time being, i will be reporting back to the club on how you are going, and if they deem you good enough that second room is yours" she smiled "wait, so i could get a permenant job here?" i asked "if you do well, yes" she smiled "oh wow, thats like a dream ccome true" i smiled "it is pretty cool" she said "for the first few weeks you will just be consulting with me so i will do the therapy you will watch and learn, there will be times where i will get you to apply your knowledge or be more hands on but for duty of care for the players im limited on what i can ask you to do" she said "no problems" i smiled. I still couldn't believe this was happening, this was a dream come true and I couldn't believe it. "today will just be an introductory day, we will be more hands on tomorrow, as players are just in meetings today, it is important that we spend tomorrow examining all the injuries that happened the weekend just gone so that we can control them and give the coach information on if they would be available to play next week" she said "sounds straight forward" i answered. 

we spent the rest of the day running through the ins and outs of the club. Lauren was in the middle of giving me a tour of the club, "these are the players locker rooms, you might find yourself in here quite a bit if players cant move or on game days specifically." she explained, i nodded in response "just fair warning, these are boys we are talking about, there might be times when you come in here and they are walking around in just there shorts, they dont care that your here or that it might not be okay for women to see them like that, again, they dont care, they are guys that know they look good, they are going to show it off whenever they get a chance" Lauren laughed "noted" i laughed as well, Lauren and i were getting along really well "exhibit A" Lauren said laughing harder as a group of guy came walking in shirtless, i looked at them and laughed in response to Lauren, Blake Acres, Matthew Kennedy, Jack Silvagni and Charlie Curnow, i looked at the ground as soon as Charlie made eye contact with me "please put some clothes on" Lauren laughed throwing a towel in their direction and then leaving the room, as did I "i will introduce you to all the players when they are fully clothed" she said "sounds like a good idea" i laughed. still trying to comprehend what I just saw.

we finished the tour at the cafe "Well that's all I've got for you today, tomorrow ill introduce you to the players and we will get down to business, when you come in just come straight to my office" she said "No worries thank you so much for this opportunity" i smiled "no worries, have a good day and ill see you tomorrow" Lauren smiled "see you tomorrow" i smiled and walked out the doors of the club, it was about 1 pm now and i was hungry so i decided to put my stuff in the car and head back into the cafe to eat something. I ordered a ham and cheese toastie and then sat down at a table, the lady said she would bring it out to me, and I decided to text my friends about the events of the day.

Monique: Hey guys, just finished my first day at the club! it's so good and I might actually get a permanent job out of it!

Jenny: oh my god that's amazing!

Amy: I'm so happy for you!

Jenny: so? any updated gossip? was Charlie there?

I knew this was bound to come up even if I didn't bring it up myself 

Monique: yeah most of the players were here

Jenny: and? I want details!

Monique: well we were on a tour of the club and we were in the locker rooms and Lauren was explaining to me about how I need to be cautious when coming in here cause it's a boy's locker room and they don't care about being seen shirtless and whatever.

Jenny: Ughh you're dragging this! did you see Charlie shirtless or not?!

Monique: yes I did

Jenny: OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!

Jenny: WHAT WAS IT LIKE?!

Jenny: I BET HE WAS SO HOT!

Monique: alright I'm putting you on mute now, I don't want to talk about this

as I sent that message the lady came over with my toastie, "thank you" I smiled, and as I looked up to thank her I saw some of the players in the cafe, Charlie, Jack, Jacob, and Patrick they were waiting to orders, I realized at that moment that I didn't choose the best seating position, my back was to the counted and I was sitting basically directly in front of it, meaning if any of the players had looked down at me they would have seen my phone and therefore seen my messages, I decided I was going to leave now, I didn't want to deal with that thought while they were standing directly behind me, I didn't want that attention or embarrassment. I got up and left the cafe and got in my car, then sat in my car and ate my toastie and then left to go home. 

Charlie's Pov 

"dude," Jack said bumping my shoulder, we were standing in the cafe waiting to order, and the new water girl was sitting in the cafe directly behind us, of course i noticed her, I hadn't been able to stop noticing her since the other night in the locker rooms, there was just something about her. "what?" i said in response to jack "that chick that just left, did you see her phone?" he asked "what are you on about?" i asked confused "her phone! she was talking all about you on her phone!" Jack elaborated "What?" I asked still confused "She was calling you hot!" Jack said laughing making the other guys laugh as well "Ha-ha very funny Jack" I said and rolled my eyes "Wait wasn't she the girl in the locker room with Lauren when we walked in shirtless?" Jack asked, "I don't know was she?" I asked playing dumb, of course, it was her, but I highly doubted she would say that about me "Oh my god, she saw you shirtless and was telling someone about it" Jacob said laughing while the other boys were still laughing "yeah, yeah whatever" I said turning my back on them to order my food. I knew I wasn't going to live this down, especially today, I just hope the boys dont tell anyone else. 

I asked Voss about her, and I said she was really efficient and the other guys thought so too, she was doing more than she should, I've never seen a water girl hang up our jerseys, or initiate giving us water in the huddle, they all just stand on the outside waiting for us to come to them, she was smart. I told Voss that she was good and that he should give that feedback to Kelly, he said he would, but that didn't explain why she was here today, with Lauren touring around the club, what did he do?

ANOTHER CHAPTER WOOHOO

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