Chapter 20 Dominic
DOMINIC
Archie doesn’t show up to the Board meeting, even though my father calls him, Barry calls him, I call him, Kasia calls him, even Jordan bloody Sumner calls him.
He doesn’t answer.
It’s just gone back to how things were while he was gone.
My father still tries to plead Archie’s case, but the Board members are angry. There’s no talking them out of it when the decision is made to suspend Archie for the remainder of the season and not renew his contract at the end of it.
My father storms out of the boardroom, and when they all leave, it’s just Kasia and I in the room. She stares at me across the table, tapping her manicured nails on the shiny tabletop.
“You’re his father, you didn’t see this coming?” She asks, her elegant Polish accent colouring her words.
I shrug, slumping back in the chair. “I should have.”
“Yes.” The word is like an accusatory bullet straight across the table at me. “He has been a little shit for years now. But no one here wanted to pull him into line. And now, well, now we have the fine mess.”
“Yes, we do.”
Kasia gets to her feet, gathering up her planner and phone from the table. “It will be better for everyone when he is gone, and I hate to say that. But it will be.” She pulls a face at the table. “Especially for his wife.”
“His wife?”
Kasia gives a sharp nod. “Yes, his wife. Have you seen who he was in Spain with? The woman he was cheating with?”
I shake my head, and before I can ask any more questions, Kasia brings up a photo with three sharp clicks of her nails on her phone screen.
“Here.” She shows me a picture of a young blonde woman in a red bikini, on a beach in Spain somewhere. “Libby Mills. The actress from the stupid rich people show, the one set in the old times.”
My eyes drop to the caption of the photo. Darnham Abbey actress Libby Mills was having an affair with Arlington FC striker Archie Graves for a year before Spanish split.
“A year?” My eyes flash up to Kasia’s. “A fucking year?”
Kasia nods, locking her phone. “One instagram post even said she was pregnant.”
My heart stops for a second, then starts hammering so hard against my chest I think I’m going to be sick. “Pregnant?”
Kasia’s shoulder twitches in a sort of half-shrug.
“Only a rumour. But the way Archie was telling Mr Graves about Mia not being able to have children, it feels like it could be a possibility, that he was buttering everyone up.” She starts to stride out of the room, accompanied by the clack-clack of her high heels on the floor.
“But why would a pregnant woman break up with the baby’s father?”
Kasia turns to me with a knowing smile. “Who says she broke up with him?” She leaves me with that question and exits the room, and now nothing makes sense at all.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, my head starting to pound. I knew today would be a mess, but this is a mess I wasn’t prepared for. I look out the window of the board room, at the darkening sky, the training field stretching out below me.
I need to get out of here.
My phone is lighting up almost constantly, one message and email after another flooding in.
I go back to Mia’s message, realising I never responded.
I start to write something, then stop. Maybe she doesn’t even want to see me again.
Sure, she had fun last night, but what if that was all it was?
Just some fun, to get her mind off things.
Fuck’s sakes, Graves. You’re too old for this shit. Write her and ask her over.
I type out a quick response before I can second guess myself again.
I’m leaving the club now. Fancy dinner at mine?
I stare at my phone as I walk down to my car, blindly greeting everyone whose path I cross on the way. The message shows as read, but no response comes. I sit in my car for another ten minutes, waiting.
Nothing happens.
I huff out a breath, and start the engine. Maybe she’s mad I didn’t respond all day. Maybe I am an old fool. Or maybe I’m reading too much into things and need to calm the fuck down.
The drive home is slow, the London traffic heavy. Rain starts to fall as I pull into the parking garage, and by the time I’m up in my flat, it’s pelting heavily against the full-length windows.
I check my phone again, and there’s still nothing from Mia. I huff out a sigh. She’s probably too busy. Or she’s upset about Archie. Who knows. I need to give her space, this is all hard for her, too.
I set about getting ingredients ready for dinner. I could order something in, but I need to settle my thoughts after today, and cooking has always relaxed me. I pour myself some wine as classical music drifts from the speakers in the ceiling.
The music cuts out for a second, and the doorbell sounds through the flat.
I wipe my hands on a tea towel, hurrying to the intercom, and can’t suppress a smile as Mia’s face appears on the screen.
“Hiya,” I say, and her face breaks into a smile.
“You going to let me in?” She asks, giving the camera a dramatic wave as the door buzzes. “Ta very much!” Her voice drifts off into the distance, and the door closes behind her.
I glance around my flat, like some panicked bachelor trying to impress his date. Everything looks fine, it’s clean, I don’t know why I’m worrying. I consider running off to quickly get changed, but I give myself a mental slap and scold myself for being so daft.
She’s here for dinner, nothing else, you randy old bastard.
I open the door, and there’s a soft ding as the lift reaches my floor. Mia steps out, looking stunning in a tight, long-sleeved black dress over stockings and high boots. Her red coat is slung over her arm, and she runs a hand through her loose hair as she strides down the corridor towards me.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I say, and she laughs.
“Yeah, some old codger who lives here invited me for dinner.” She steps inside the flat, standing opposite me as I close the door behind her. She gazes up at me with a small smile. “I think I made it over here without anyone noticing. No flashing cameras in the bushes.”
I want to touch her, but I don’t know if that would be the wrong thing to do right now. “I thought you were angry with me.”
Mia’s eyebrow’s shoot up. “Angry? What for?”
“I… I don’t know. Ignoring you all day, or-”
“You were at work.” She rolls her eyes and leans against me, leaning up to press a warm kiss to my lips. “I weren’t angry. I did think about you all day though.”
“So did I.” I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her against me for another deeper, more lingering kiss. “And I’ve been wanting to do that all day too.”
“Hopefully more than that.”
I step away reluctantly to hang her coat by the door, and head back to the kitchen as Mia slips off her boots, gazing around the flat.
“Well, this is nice,” she says, crossing the room in her stockinged feet to gaze out the windows. “Extremely posh.”
“Thanks. You haven’t seen this place, have you?” I pour her a glass of wine and walk over to the window to bring it to her.
“No, the last place of yours I saw was the house in Shepherd’s Bush.” She takes the wine with a a pinched expression. “I guess that’s Cynthia’s house now?”
I nod with a sigh. “She was rather adamant that she keep it. Said she spent a lot of time remodelling the garden.”
“Doesn’t seem the gardening type, that one.” Mia says with a crooked grin.
“I will have you know she was very good at supervising the gardeners,” I reply, and Mia chuckles into her wine.
“Ah, well, in that case.”
“Indeed.” I go back to the kitchen, and Mia pads after me.
“So what we having?” She perches on a bar stool and surveys the counter before her. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”
“Nothing special, mushroom chicken, some greens, and rice.”
“Looks special to me, I’m a terrible cook.” She leans on her elbows on the counter and watches as I work. “I hear Archie didn’t make it in today.”
I pull a face at the frying pan as I set it on to heat. “No, he didn’t. Which, if I’m honest, surprised me a little.”
“Me, too.” Mia shakes her head, gazing over at the windows as rain continues to pelt against them.
“I thought he’d for sure come in and act like god’s gift.
He thinks he’s the be-all and end-all of that club.
Even Jordan didn’t expect that.” She looks back at me.
“I saw you didn’t announce that he’s not contracted for next season. ”
“No,” I say carefully, frying the mushrooms in a healthy amount of butter. “The Board felt it would be wise to only release the details of his suspension. Not… not that he’s leaving altogether.”
“Makes sense.” Mia takes a sip of her wine and narrows her eyes at me. “How you holding up?”
I shrug, scraping the mushrooms out of a pan and into a bowl. “Fine. How can I be anything else?”
“Dominic.” She smiles at me, a soft smile that sends warmth spreading through my chest. “You don’t have to be fine with me. Archie might be what he is, but he’s still your son. It’s understandable if you’re hurting.”
I frown as I scrape the chicken from the board into the pan, and watch it sizzle for a moment. “Kasia scolded me.”
Mia lets out a short laugh. “Did she now?”
“Said I should have seen it coming, since I’m his father.” I give Mia a weak smile. “That day you came in, raging over that pile of red lingerie, it occurred to me, you know? I’d not been involved, not like I should have been. I didn’t know you like I should have.”
Mia cocks an eyebrow. “You certainly know me now.”
My face flushes, and I laugh. “Yes, well… I mean, I should have made more of an effort earlier. We all knew things between you weren’t great.”
Mia purses her lips and taps her nails against the foot of her glass. “I feel a bit the same way.”
“You do?” I pause my stirring to frown at her. “Why?”
She shrugs, her eyes travelling along the ceiling. “I… I remember at our wedding, you were there with Anita, and you two were not speaking to each other, everyone could see things were bad.”