MASTERMIND | Jamie Tartt

THIRTEEN: SECRET RENDEZVOUS

Almost two weeks had passed since Billie said goodbye to Jamie, a goodbye that she still didn't know how to feel about. They'd texted occasionally, but it was normally about work, Jamie would text her about her recent social media photos for the club and Billie would text him when City won a match, which was a regular occurrence.

Billie hadn't told anyone at the club about her kiss with Jamie, she didn't really know how to, she also didn't think it was relevant. She considered telling Keeley, but she didn't see the point, Keeley had moved on, and besides, it was one kiss, they were hardly engaged.

But both Keeley and Rebecca could tell that Billie wasn't her same chipper self, not that they knew why. So the three women found themselves spending a lot of time together between work, eating lunch in Rebecca's office, gossiping in Rebecca's office, and drinking wine in Rebecca's office.

Alfie and Madison knew about the kiss, of course they knew. Madison could see it on Billie's face when she came home from work the day that Jamie had left, so like any good friends they continued to grill her about it until she gave in.

It was a Friday, not just any Friday, but the Friday when Richmond would travel up to Liverpool in the hope of breaking their sixty year long running loss streak against Everton. In an effort to cheer up their less than sunny friend, Rebecca and Keeley had declared it a girls' weekend, with the three women planning to stay together in Rebecca's suite.

"You stay out of trouble while you're up there, alright?" Alfie smiled as he handed Billie her suitcase from the boot of his car as she held onto her tote bag full of her work kit.

With Friday being his work from home day, Alfie had offered to drop Billie off at Richmond's training ground so that she didn't have to haul her bags across town.

"It's a match weekend, I'll be fine," Billie remarked, "It'll be the same as every away match, dinner, team movie night, bed by eleven."

"You know, Manchester is less than an hour from Liverpool by train," Alfie pursed his lips as he leant against the side of his car.

"I know." Billie nodded.

"So, would it hurt if you missed a movie night for the sake of visiting that footballing friend of yours?" Alfie replied, hoping that perhaps it would cheer his friend up to see the man she'd been missing.

"Marcus Rashford?"

"You know exactly who I'm talking about, Billie Kent," Alfie furrowed his eyebrows with a smile, "What's stopping you?"

"We've barely spoken since he left, I don't want to just invite myself to Manchester and make it weird," Billie sighed.

"Bils, he's at Man City, he's probably barely looking at his phone, Pep has them training like machines," Alfie reminded her, and she knew he was right, he was a sports journalist with inside knowledge of course.

"I just don't know if it's a good idea," Billie muttered.

"I know that you're worried that history will repeat itself, but this is something new, what's stopping you from just having some gold old-fashioned fun?" Alfie had always been good at pep talks, especially when Billie needed them most, even when he was at university in Edinburgh and she was in Manchester, he'd call her and talk her down or up, whatever she needed.

"So you think I should just turn up and surprise him?" Billie sighed.

"That's exactly what I think," Alfie smiled, "Who doesn't love surprises?"

"My brother."

"But I bet Mr Tartt loves them," Alfie grinned, "So tell your brother and the others that you're visiting uni friends and then hop on a train to Tartt-Town."