The Greyhounds | Jamie Tartt

Chapter 3

Jamie was so nervous to walk through that door. He had low-key been stalking Ashley online for the past day. In that time, he developed a keen interest in getting to know her. From her Instagram and Twitter, Jamie was excited to see the woman behind the social media. He found that she was from somewhere called Portland, loved cats, had a lot of famous American friends, traveled a ton, and was dating Grayson McGrath. Jamie hated Grayson McGrath. His arrogance on and off the field made Jamie have a general disdain for him for the 10 years that he knew him. Even when Jamie acted like a dick, Grayson always found a way to out-dick him. Why would she date him?

Getting ready for the day, Jamie made extra effort in order to try and look handsome. He was psyched up to get started. In the locker room, his teammates teased him about being coupled up with Ashley. 

"She's a proper fit ting, yeah?"

"Jamie, just don't let Grayson catch you!"

"I heard she knows Timothée Chalamet."

"OOH I see Jamie pampering himself extra today. He wants to be real pretty for Miss Lucciano"

Trying to ignore his teammates jabbering. He sprayed himself with his favorite scent of Lynx and made his way to the press room. Jamie's hands shook as he opened the door and made his way over to his new buddy, when he caught her staring daggers at him. And was that an eye roll? He stopped when he got to her, holding out his hand for a handshake. He had hoped she would be so friendly as to hug him. She gave him a limp, careless handshake and there was a silence. Another moment of silence. This is not how he wanted this meeting to go. Jamie, sensing the tension, decided to break the silence:

"Oh, Ashley, nice to meet you. I can already tell this is going to be a blast."

"Whatever man, let's just get through this season."

He looked her up and down and noticed her shirt. Man I Love Football, but the American kind? It had to be ironic, right?

"Nice shirt." Jamie said bluntly.

Ashley gave him a "Hmph!" Her expression changed into a grimace as she sniffed the air.

"Oh...oh what is that smell? It smells like a middle school boy who just discovered Axe spray is living in the vents." She said while waving her hands, trying to diffuse Jamie's strongly scented cologne. He suddenly felt humiliated.

She then walked away, joining her teammate and her respective partner. Jamie, absolutely floored, muttered to himself, and mocked what he would have liked to hear: 

"It's nice to meet you too, Jamie. I'm so excited to be partnered up with you. You seem so cool."

He shook his head. This is not how he pictured meeting Ashley to go. This is what he always did. Hype things up in his head and create expectations that could never be fulfilled according to his thoughts. Like the brand deal trip he took to Brazil with Keeley over the summer. He had thought it would be the perfect time to rekindle their romance, but instead Keeley explained that she wanted to keep their relationship strictly professional and platonic. Of course Jamie pictured things going wrong sometimes, but mostly he tried to be an optimist. But meeting Ashley was worse than the worst scenario that he played out in his head. What did he do to deserve such treatment? Could it be that Grayson had soured Ashley's opinion of Jamie?  That was the easy explanation. Obviously he would be able to change her opinion of him given the chance. Or perhaps was she just a diva that treated everyone like this, and Jamie had again created unattainable expectations about her in his head? And how would this dynamic work, going forward? Surely she can't treat everyone like this. He knew from experience it would only rip the team apart. Jamie used to act like a diva admittedly. So, he better put on his brave face and keep hoping for the best-case scenario. People should always be given second chances. 

                                                                                ***

The nerve! The heavy cologne! This is exactly how Grayson described Jamie Tartt. She decided that if she had to be around him, she would not indulge in his obvious ploy to...to what? That exchange hadn't gone too bad...what exactly did Grayson tell her about him again? She would need to call him when she got back to her hotel.

The girls said goodbye to their new partners as Coach Amy and Keeley rounded them up to finish the tour. The tour finished in the locker room. Obviously brand new, it felt like something from a TV show. Clean, pristine, and finally with some color on the walls. Ashley found her way to the locker with her name on it and set her things down. 

"We will have a quick training session today. Just a few drills to work on team chemistry and what not. But first, everyone will go around and share a fun fact about themselves so everyone can get to know each other a bit better!" Coach Amy enthused. 

After the ladies had changed into their training gear, they gathered in a circle. Ashley always loved doing ice breakers like this. They were an opportunity for her to humblebrag, and to learn a quick fact about people that she could engage with later on. For example, during this exercise, she learned that Shannon had never played professional football before, Adelaide is a classically trained pianist, Mara can speak 4 languages, Jordana once played soccer with Neymar, Allegra is a master chef, Natalia loves astronomy (which is different from astrology as Ashley found out after she shouted she was a Libra and was met with puzzled looks), Cosette loves to write poetry, Sumana is a skilled Thai dancer, Rosalind is an avid marine life conservationist, Eloise loves history and was going to go to school for it, Chick has a black-belt in taekwondo, Siham is a certified yoga instructor, and Gracia loves to scuba dive. Ashley learned so many interesting things about her teammates and she was so excited to get started playing soccer with them. Suddenly, it was her turn and she had no idea what to say. It seemed like everyone had such interesting lives and all of the sudden her only accomplishments were on the field. Then she reminded herself that she is Ashley Lucciano, and no one could be cooler than that. 

"Hi, I'm Ashley in case any of you forgot. Ummmm....a fun fact about me is that I went to New York Fashion Week last year and Sarah Jessica Parker complemented my shoes. Carrie Bradshaw herself complemented my shoes! Highlight of my life."

Everyone gave her an eager, yet slightly confused look. She supposed that Sex and the City wasn't as big in other countries as it was in the United States. She liked to think of herself as the Carrie Bradshaw of the pitch anyway. She glanced over to Keeley, who seemed very excited about what she had shared. At least somebody understood. 

The rest of the team shared their fun facts and all turned to Coach Amy for instruction. 

"Okay I have bad news, good news, and neutral news. What would you like to hear first?"

The team erupted in a good, bad, neutral discussion, no one could decide.

"Ok I guess what I'm going to say doesn't make sense until I give you the bad news first. The bad news is that your training grounds have not been finished yet. There was a delay and it will be a month before we can train there. The good news is is that the men's grounds are available for us to use! The neutral news is the time slot that is available for us overlaps with their training for about 40 minutes. So we are going to share a pitch for a bit! No big deal!"

No big deal. Just sharing. No integration of the teams. The team headed out to the training grounds to begin. They divided up into offense, defense, and second teams. The field wasn't split, like Ashley had hoped. She scanned the field, searching for the separate drill stations. And as she made her way over to the offense side, panic arose in her as Jamie Tartt slowly waved at her from the other side of the pitch.