LENNOX ▸ RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK

TWELVE • DAMAGE CONTROL

The group of friends were lazying about around the girls' hotel room when Ruben brought the inevitable question up.

"So how come Kylian Mbappé is commenting on your instagrams, Lenny?"

Rebekah's eyes widened as Lenny looked up and caught her gaze. The two girls were quiet for a moment, both contemplating what she should say.

"Why?" Lenny smirked. "You jealous, Rubes?"

Ruben shrugged, fingers twiddling with the tassels on the throw pillow he held. "Just curious is all."

"He told me he followed my ballet. He was just being nice."

"And he's super cute!" Logan yelled from the balcony of their room, where she sat beside Marcus, Jesse and Emma.

Ruben silently pondered on why the French player was suddenly showing an interest in Lennox. His thoughts came crashing back down to earth when she placed her hands on his shoulders. She had come to stand in front of where he sat on the edge of the bed, between his legs. His arm wrapped around her waist, fingers massaging her side.

"You don't have to worry about Kylian," she promised him when he looked up into her eyes. "I promise."

"Yeah," Bekah snorted. "It's not like he was the one texting Lenny when you two were mattress dancing after Jesse's party."

"Wait, what?" Ruben immediately asked.

In an effort to try and divert the conversation from the car crash it was headed towards, Lennox turned to her friend with her nose scrunched up. "Mattress dancing?"

"What? It's a good name. Would you prefer makin' bacon? Or maybe bumping uglies?"

"Lennox." Ruben brought her attention back to him as she rolled her eyes at Rebekah. "Who's Rebekah talking about?"

Lennox watched as her friend shot her an apologetic look before quietly slipping out onto the balcony with her friends and shutting the door behind her. Len took a seat on the ottoman in front of Ruben, sighing.

"My dad's coming tomorrow for the first game and we're about to get ready for a French party tonight. Can't this wait for another time?"

Ruben's eyes narrowed down on her. "Lennox. Come on. Just tell me."

"Trent."

"Trent... Alexander-Arnold?" Lenny nodded. "He was texting you when we were..."

She nodded again, eyes fluttering over to where Rebekah stood. "Mattress dancing, yeah. Kind of out of the blue. He said we should grab coffee sometime." Ruben motioned for her to go on, clearly wanting to know how she replied. "And I said no. Come on, obviously. I don't like him like that."

"But he likes you like that," Ruben started.

"Why does that matter?"

"It doesn't," he tried. "I just don't appreciate other guys trying to dig their claws into you."

Lennox resisted the urge to lead the conversation to the dreadful question: what were they?

Obviously Ruben didn't like the idea of sharing Lennox with other guys but at the same time, the couple weren't exclusive. Well, not technically; neither Lennox nor Ruben had slept with other people but it wasn't off limits. They'd never truly discussed the boundaries of whatever they had and Lennox wondered if now was a good time to do so.

"Are you trying to make this exclusive, Rubes?"

That caught him off guard. He wasn't prepared to talk about their relationship; it was a messy and complicated subject.

"I—I'm just trying to—to make sure you don't do anything you might regret," he stumbled out. Clearly, he was not ready to talk about whatever they had between them.

Lenny rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to do anything I might regret." She tilted her head towards he balcony where her friends sat. "Why do you think I brought the girls along? Damage control."

Ruben laughed at that, at the complete and utter icon that was Lennox Rousseau, thanking his lucky stars to have reconnected with her.