“I’m serious. It’s true, we did kiss in the changing rooms, and I did ask her to meet me there. But we didn’t have sex.”
Tyler listens to me, with no reaction.
“And I wasn’t the one who started the rumour.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because no one believes me.”
“Who do you want to believe you?”
I shake my head and sit there in silence. I don’t know why I care so much about something that happened twenty years ago, or why I want her to believe me so badly. But I didn’t like the look I could see in her eyes, and Ireallydidn’t like the way I felt after knowing that she believed I would’ve done something like that.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why didn’t you make a move twenty years ago?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Come on…”
I slowly exhale the breath I’d been holding. “I never thought she’d have this effect on me,” I say, touching my stomach, “right here.”
Tyler smiles.
“I’d never even thought about it. Then we had that night together, and it was so different… And now she’s permanently on my mind. One of those niggling thoughts that never leaves, once you’ve let it in.”
“I get it.”
“And seeing that nothing has changed for her – that I’m still the same old self-centred arsehole…and now she’s making me sign that damn agreement…”
“And you think you haven’t had the chance to prove to her that you’ve changed?”
“I don’t know whether I reallyhavechanged.”
“Then before you do anything about this, you should ask yourself whether you really want this change.”
I look at him, exhausted.
“If you really want to step up and be a good dad, if you want to be there for your family, if you want her to see you for who you are now, instead of who you were twenty years ago.”
“I’ve accepted that stupid job, anyway.”
“Well, it’s what you’re good at – isn’t it?”
“I know how to play; I don’t know how to train a whole team. But, hey, it can’t be too difficult, can it?”
“Don’t ask me, mate. I haven’t played for…” he sighs. “Twenty years, maybe more. Not since we left school.”
“You weren’t bad, you know. And you’re in good shape.”
“Definitely better shape than you.”
I smile. “Maybe you should get back into it.”
“What are you talking about?”
