goal to my heart | s. jake

eight

"Don't get your hopes up too much," Jake patted his shoulder, leaving the locker room, "But let's see what Cordoso wants."

Antonio Cordoso the current manager of Bridgeport United. He had been coaching for multiple years since his retirement from his professional football career. Prior to getting fired, Cordoso used to be one of the most successful managers as he kept Alahambra FC in the number one spot for years in LaLiga. So after Alahambra's dreadful season in 2018, Cordoso was fired and Bridgeport United took this to their advantage, hiring him.

"You wanted to see me Cordoso?" Jake questioned upon entering his office.

"Ah, Jake, good to see you. Take a seat," Antonio exclaimed, pointing to the chairs in front of his desk. Jake nodded as he listened and sat in front of his manager.

"So, I've noticed that you've been excelling during practice throughout the past week and this week. I'm proud of you. Your improvements and commitment is why it was a good decision to let you enter the pitch again thus why we subbed you in on the match against Sheffield. I know you weren't expecting it but since your slump and whatever else you were doing, it was nice to see you get back into your rhythm. Anyways, as you know, Bridgeport's match against Wolves is in two days. I'm willing to put you on the starting line up, but I need to know if you are committed to this and practice. So are you Jake?"

Jake eagerly nodded his head, "Yes, Cordoso. Thank you so much."

**

"Astrid, I saw some great ratings from the article you just published," Susan exclaimed as she approached Astrid's desk.

It had been a week since she had published her article on Jake's departure with his sport's agent Gabriel Crawford. Excitement filled chatter went around the football world as the public went hunting for Jay Park's credentials, Astrid Park's article getting over 150k reads in over a night. It was truly one of her best works.

"Thank you Ms. Skeeter, I will not disappoint you."

"Anyhow, I wanted to talk to you about Bridgeport's game against Wolves. I secured two VIP tickets for the game. There's a specific area the press gets to observe during the match so I want you to go along with another one of my journalists."

Susan Skeeter motioned to a tall scrawny ginger man, "Tom over here."

Tom walked over to Susan and Astrid.

"Tom Fawn, nice to meet you, Astrid," he exclaimed warmly, sticking his hand out for a handshake, "I look forward to working with you. Skeeter told me a lot about you."

It was almost 5 pm. Astrid and Tom had been chatting while Astrid was gaining insight on Tom's works. She had learned that he had been with the Football Stage Daily for 4 years now, this year being his 5th. He's written a plethora of articles, his main focus being Man City.

"So Astrid, tell me about you? I heard you got into a little situation with Jake Sim."

Astrid chuckled nervously, "It's a long story."

**

2 days later...

It had been a while since Jake had last contacted her, but no news was probably better than gaining any news. She could only hope that Jake would be subbed again, getting some play time as he was lucky to be subbed in a week ago.

As Astrid was getting ready to leave for Wolverhamptom with Tom she received a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Astrid! It's me, Roman."

"Oh, hi," she giggled with relief, "How are you? I know it's been a while since we saw each other."

"Nothing much. I know finals are coming around the corner and it's really last minute, but do you want to go to a sports bar to catch Bridgeport's game tonight?" There was a slight hesitance in Roman's voice.

Astrid felt her heart sink with slight guilt, "Roman, I'm sorry, I can't tonight. I actually have to go to the game for the internship."

"Oh," Roman was stunned, "W-well that's exciting. I hope you have a lot of fun tonight. Dress warmly too. You know how brutal the winters are in England."

"Thank you, Roman. I'm sorry. Maybe we can do something together before I leave."

"Leave?" Roman sounded genuinely confused.

"Yeah, you know I'm only staying in London till the end of the semester... right?" Astrid's voice trailed off, "I'm going back to Mass once I'm done with finals and I graduate at Georgetown in May. I might come back to London in the summer or there's a chance I won't if I get a job offer back home."

"Oh, right. How silly of me to forget. Well, I'm wishing you all the best. Bye, Astrid." Roman hung up the phone, discouraged, and slumped into the chair of his desk.

"You good?" Evelyn asked, noticing how down Roman looked. The two of them had been studying in a common area of University, preparing for final exams.

"Was it even worth it to bother with Astrid in the first place? Our lives are so different. Hell, she's going to Wolverhamptom to watch the Bridgeport game tonight!" Roman exclaimed with exasperation.

"If you guys are meant to be, then everything would happen naturally," Evelyn said, "With time things can work out, but if not then life goes on. Don't be too hard on yourself or her."

"You're right," he sighed, "But how do I accept this when I like her so much."

"Roman, you're delusional."