“Made some good passes, didn’t drop the ball,” he said in between pants, giving Ezra a nod as he picked out some chocolate.
“You know, if you’re looking for content ideas, I vote that you and Adam join us for training one afternoon,” I said. “We can film you trying out all the stuff we have to go through, see how you get on.”
I grinned, really hoping he’d say yes because I wanted to see Ezra in gym shorts running up and down the pitch. We’d still not managed to find time for a gym session together, since I went every morning and the training centre gym was for players only, but I was holding out hope we’d get there one day.
Mostly because I really wanted to see what Ezra’s dick looked like in shorts.
“That’d be so funny,” Charlie said. “You should totally join us. We’d go easy on you.”
Ezra raised his eyebrow and shot me a look that told me I was going to be in so much trouble later. I couldn’t wait.
So I decided to make it worse.
“Right?” I turned my head to see who else was following us off the pitch. “Mason, West, Jaden—don’t you think it would be fun to get Ezra and Adam to join us for training one day? Get them in the content they’re making for once instead of us.”
“Could definitely be fun,” Jaden said as he swigged from a large bottle of water.
“Yeah, like show off how difficult this shit really is,” I said.
“Sort of content team versus rugby team?” West asked, wiping his massive brow.
“I mean we’ve done drag queens versus rugby team, so why not?” Mason grinned and I resisted the urge to do a little victory dance, because if he was on board, then other people would be too. Mason was pretty good at swaying people with his relaxed, easy charm, although he did have a sharp side too. A couple of times he’d snapped at me when I’d pushed too hard and asked shitty questions, like the time I’d tried to ask West about bottoming and Mason had nearly ripped my head off.
At the time I’d been pissed because I was only trying to ask a question, but later I’d realised what a dick I’d been when everything had come out about West’s homophobic housemate. I’d hated knowing I’d crossed the line between banter and bullying, and it’d forced me to start to reconsider what I said to people. Because even if I didn’t think things were a big deal, it wasn’t up to me to decide how people felt about what I’d said.
Clive had framed it as putting ourselves in each other’s shoes and choosing kindness over trying to be clever and one-upping each other. And that’d made me realise how much I’d hate people asking me the sort of things I’d asked West.
I’d probably never have gotten to the point I was now if they had. I’d have lashed out and become a complete wanker instead.
“See, I knew you’d agree with me,” I said, looking at Ezra in the hope I’d be able to see how frustrated he was.
Oh, I was going to be in a fucking delicious amount of trouble later.
I couldn’t fucking wait.
That would teach him for asking me nonsense questions after training.
“I’ll think about it,” Ezra said with a polite smile. “I’d have to talk to Adam, obviously. And Clive. I wouldn’t want to intrude on your work.”
“I’m sure they’d be fine with it,” Mason said.
“Yeah, we might even be able to get them to join in,” Jaden said, a slightly vindictive smile on his lips. He was clearly angling to get a bit of petty revenge after today. I didn’t blame him.
“Oooh, coaches versus players. That’d be fun,” West added.
“Oh yeah, definitely add that to the list,” I said with a nod. “See, aren’t we being helpful?”
“So helpful,” Ezra said, his polite smile stretched to its limit but his eyes twinkling with amusement.
“You can tell him to sod off if he’s being annoying,” Charlie said, grabbing me playfully around the neck and ruffling my hair. “It’s the mullet. It’s full of bad ideas.”
“Fuck off, the mullet is hot!” I laughed as I pushed him away, trying to tidy my hair up despite the fact the sweat had ruined it anyway. I looked more like a scruffy, wet dog right now than the sexy bastard I usually was.
“Says who?”
“Says me!” I stuck my tongue out at him as I flipped him off.
“All right, if you’re done, can I ask this lot my question, please, so I can get back to work?” Ezra asked, giving Charlie and me a wry smile as he held up the bowl of chocolates and shook them vaguely towards West, Mason, and Jaden.
