This whole time she’d written me off.
“Got any plans for the weekend?” Freddie, our youngest and newest player, fell into step beside me as we all trudged, soaked with sweat, across the field toward the locker room. Freddie had replaced Botan, a Japanese player who’d left to return to Kyoto this season. The coaches had run us ragged this morning in preparation for this weekend’s final.
“Not really,” I muttered. I wasn’t in the mood for small talk. But the team was pissed about the loss of Botan, and Freddie had been taking the brunt of that. Baumann and some of the other lads were giving him a hard time. I forced myself to be polite. “You?”
“Jumping on a train to see my girlfriend.” Freddie grinned like a man in love. Bloody hell. Poor lad.
“She live far?”
“Ae?” he asked like he hadn’t heard the question.
“Does she live far away?” I repeated.
“Ae.”
I cut him a sharp look to see if he was being deliberately annoying. “Eh?” I copied him.
Freddie frowned. “I said Ae.”
“I know you saideh. Can you no’ hear me? I asked where does she live?” For fuck’s sake. Why was everyone being deliberately exasperating today?
Freddie was equally exasperated. “She lives in fucking Ae. A. E. The village.”
Muffled laughter sounded behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to find Callan and John practically falling over themselves in hysterics. At my expense. “Like I was supposed to know there’s a village that sounds like a Scot asking a fucking question!”
At that, they all burst out laughing and I stormed ahead.
It wasn’t like me.
Usually, I’d be peeing my pants at the situation.
Maia was messing with my sense of humor, and that pissed me off too.
Surprisingly, the lads let me be. We all showered, everybody giving me space. But once I was tying on my trainers, Callan stopped in front of me. He had all his gear on, ready to go. “Fancy grabbing a bite with me and John?”
I nodded because I was being a pissant and I didn’t want to be.
Not long later, we’d settled in at a New Town pub near my place. As soon as we’d ordered food, Callan said, “What’s wrong? First, you nearly tear Baumann apart for being his usual prickish self and then you didn’t find the Ae thing funny. That’s just no’ you.” I could see his lips twitching like he wanted to laugh at it again.
John was outright grinning about it.
It cut through my black mood. “It was funny.”
“Really funny.” Callan cleared his throat. “Anyway, what’s going on?”
I considered how to phrase what I needed to ask them without giving away the truth of the situation with Maia. “Would … would Beth be pissed off if you flirted with another woman? Like, I’ve seen you around other blokes with her and know you get pissed when they flirt with her … so …?”
Heand John exchanged a knowing look.
Unsurprisingly at this point, it annoyed me. “What was that?”
Callan eyed me. “Is Maia pissed off because you’re flirting with other women?”
Kind of. Just not for the reason my mate would assume. Or for the reason I wished. When she first approached, flashing her engagement ring at Sophie, the sassy redhead, I thought she was jealous. I was elated!
I was wrong.
“Aye.”
