CHAPTER 33
casey
R iley meets us at Harrison’s apartment at midday on Thursday and we drive to the club together. The timing of the meeting means there won’t be many players or staff around, but I still feel a hitch of nerves as I drive us to the club.
Harrison and I returned to work on Monday morning, both of us strolling in together like nothing had happened.
We didn’t hide the fact that we arrived together, nor that we have left together at the end of each day.
But we were extra cautious with all our interactions at the club, leaving nothing for speculation.
We pull into the player’s carpark and none of us moves for a minute. Harrison reaches over and squeezes my hand, giving me the shot of confidence I need.
“You both ready for this?” Riley asks from the backseat.
“Yep. Let’s do this,” I say.
We walk into the club together, borrowing confidence from each other as Riley takes the lead. We make our way to Coach’s office but find it empty when we knock. Dean walks past on his way to his office.
“I think he’s in the boardroom,” he tells us on his way through.
We glance at each other before heading towards the business section of the club where the corporate happenings happen.
Riley knocks on the open door to the boardroom a moment later and I see Coach rise to his feet.
He gestures us inside and that’s when I see the rest of the cast of a thousand who have turned up for today’s little chat.
Harrison pauses at my side, and I can see the confusion on his face too as we eye the almost full room. This is not what we were expecting.
An elegant woman in a pink pencil skirt and silk blouse stands at the entrance where she points to a legal document on the table.
“If you could all sign the NDA before we start,” she says, handing me a pen.
Riley plucks it from my grasp before he bends down to flick through the multipage NDA, landing on the final page which contains the signatures of everyone else in the room.
“It’s fully standard,” the woman tuts. “Nothing to be afraid of. It’s for Casey’s and Harrison’s protection above all and means everything spoken in this room today is bound by confidentiality. ”
“Fine,” Riley says, signing his name in his allotted spot before motioning for Harrison and me to do the same. As soon as we’ve all signed our lives away, the woman collects the document and moves to a seat on the other side of the table.
Coach clears his throat. “Casey. Harrison. Good of you to call this meeting,” he says. “It’s probably become a bit bigger than you expected but I’ll do some quick introductions around the room. You remember Alan Davies, Chairman of the Board for the Fever?”
I flick my gaze towards Alan to find him smiling and nodding at me so I do the same back.
Coach continues the introductions pointing first to Renee—Head of HR, Nikki—Head of PR, and Alice, the woman in the pink pencil skirt who is Head of Legal.
There is one man remaining in the room and our eyes fall on him before he rises and holds out a hand to us to shake.
“Larry Kimber, AFL Player’s Association representative. Riley asked me to join,” he tells us. That’s when I note the slight tension in the room between the guy who acts for the player’s union and the club who probably wanted to keep this in house.
“Riley Hart, Casey’s agent,” Riley adds for finality. “And I think you all know Casey and Harrison.”
Harrison and I sit quietly while all this transpires around us, the nerves ratcheting up with each passing moment. The entire room looks at us expectantly and I guess that’s my cue to start.
I squirm in my seat. “Guess you all want to know the goss about me and Harrison, huh?” Harrison snickers under his breath beside me and my shoulders loosen a notch.
Coach cuts in. “Maybe if you can just cut to the chase here, Casey.”
“Yeah. Okay so, yeah, Harrison and I are in a relationship. Guess that’s not all that surprising given how many of you are here for today’s meeting,” I say. A glance around the room confirms that no, nobody here is surprised by this revelation.
Renee from HR steps in at this point and all eyes turn her way. “And how long have you been in a relationship?” she asks.
Harrison and I glance at each other, wondering if she wants the real story or the fun story. I go with the easier answer. “Around two or three months.”
“And forgive the intrusion, this is a sexual relationship?” Renee asks.
“Is this really necessary?” Larry Kimber cuts in.
“We need to know the extent of the relationship before we can consider the implications,” Renee cuts back.
I glance at Harrison. He steps in for me. “Yes, it’s a sexual relationship.”
“Also for around the three-month mark?” she adds, jotting notes down on her notepad.
“Yes,” Harrison confirms.
“There’s nothing in a player’s contract that forbids relationships outside of one where there are power dynamics in play,” Larry adds and I’m feeling kind of glad Riley invited him along.
“That’s where the concern lies,” Renee replies, eyeing Larry with a touch of ice. “Harrison’s role at the club puts him in a position of authority over Casey—”
“That’s incorrect,” Coach cuts in. “Harrison is not in a position of authority over Casey.”
“Not in a hierarchical reporting line,” Renee agrees. “But he does have authority to decide on Casey’s fitness to play games.”
Renee silences the room for a moment and Harrison and I both squirm in our seats. Riley had instructed us not to speak unless directly asked a question so neither of us volunteers anything.
“That is true in a sense,” Coach concedes.
“However, none of those decisions on Casey’s playing fitness are made in isolation by Harrison.
His advice is instrumental and obviously holds appropriate weight, but every decision made on Casey’s match fitness is done so in concert with Ben McLean, Tim Masters and myself. ”
“There,” Larry says. “There are no power dynamics in play.”
“That doesn’t remove the potential for conflicts of interest,” Renee cuts back in.
“Not entirely,” Alice from Legal adds. “But relationships between players and staff are not without precedent. We can record a conflict of interest on the register and ensure proper procedures are put in place to ensure Harrison has no delegation for decisions on Casey’s fitness.”
“Easy,” Coach agrees with a nod. It’s nice to realise how much he is on our side. “We can fix that without any trouble and ensure Ben signs off on all of Harrison’s decisions relating to Casey.”
I let out a breath of air. It kind of feels like this has come back in our favour somewhat but I’m not completely at ease yet.
“Alice? Can we do this?” Larry asks.
“I’ll sign off on this provided Harrison and Casey sign an acknowledgement of conflict of interest and we formalise the delegation,” she says.
“Harrison? Casey?” Coach asks, eyes on us.
“That works for me,” Harrison says, and I nod along because this all sounds far too corporate and wordy for me. I did not go to university for good reason.
“Okay. Good. Good,” Coach says, smiling at us before nodding at the table.
“The other issue will be Harrison’s ongoing contract with the Fever,” Riley says. “There may be some issues with the non-compete clause from Tottenham come the end of the contract.”
“Ah, yes,” Coach mulls, eyes on Harrison. “I never thought that would come back to bite us. Let’s get Alice to look into that offline.”
“I can do that,” Alice confirms.
“If it’s necessary, I’ll quit my position with both clubs so that I can stay with Casey,” Harrison says. I still. This is not something we discussed in our many discussions this week. I go to speak but Harrison silences me with a squeeze to my thigh. Later . We’ll talk about it later.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Coach says kindly. “You’ve been an invaluable asset to the club, Harrison.”
“Thank you, Mick,” Harrison replies.
Only Nikki from PR has yet to speak but I can see she’s gearing up for her turn as she shuffles the papers in front of her. I’ve met Nikki a few times for player photo shoots, and I’ve always liked her. Her high energy has always clicked with me.
“That about covers the legal side of things,” Coach continues.
“How do you both want to go about handling everything from here? As you know, we’ve all signed an NDA here today.
We can all walk away from here and not one word will be leaked about what was discussed today.
But I have a feeling that’s not what you want. ”
He eyeballs us, and Harrison and I share a quick glance. I take a breath before I speak.
“No. We don’t want to hide our relationship anymore. We want to go public,” I say. “We don’t want it to be anything big or formal but … yeah.”
Nikki smiles at us and it’s so broad it’s like I’ve given her a Christmas present but Alan Davies steps in before she can speak.
“I hope you both know you have the full backing of the East Coast Fever,” he says. “I speak for the Board when I say you will be given everything necessary for a smooth process including any counselling services. We’ve always prided ourselves on being the most inclusive club in the league.”
“Thank you, Alan,” I say.
“Nikki? I think you have some ideas?” Coach adds.
Finally, Nikki gets her moment to shine, and she gathers her notes, all attention on her. “Well, firstly, let me just say we are very excited about the chance to be the first club to celebrate an openly gay player.”
“Um, can we not say gay?” I murmur. “I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate.”
“Oh, right, um, sure, that’s no problem at all,” she says, quick to recover.
“Maybe no labels is best,” Riley cuts in. “We can just say Casey is in a relationship with Harrison and leave it at that.”
“Yes. Agreed. Of course,” Nikki says. “I have loads of ideas. We could do a press release from the club, and we can arrange a full press conference where you can speak directly to the media. That way we can control the narrative a little easier.”
“I think Harrison and I were thinking something slightly less formal,” I say, sharing a look with Harrison who smiles encouragingly at me.
“Okay. What did you have in mind?” Nikki asks.
***
Late on Friday afternoon, two days before our next home game at the Fever Pitch, Harrison sits beside me as I hit Share on the photo we took at the club earlier today.
Nikki is on FaceTime on Harrison’s phone, and she waits all of three seconds before she shares my post from the official East Coast Fever’s social media accounts. She kept their comments simple per our request, just a quiet #Proud accompanied by a rainbow flag and a pair of navy and silver hearts.
Sonny, Izak, James and at least half the guys on the football team instantly love heart the pic, leaving a trail of supportive comments underneath.
We say goodbye to Nikki and then smile at our post one last time.
It’s a cute shot, if I’m allowed to say that of myself but I think it’s more to do with the gorgeous guy and his tumble of beautiful brown curls at my side.
It’s a picture of us standing out in the middle of the Fever Pitch.
Harrison’s back is slightly turned to the camera, displaying the name Calloway across the Fever jersey he’s wearing.
I’m in my Fever training gear, the one request of the club to be seen in their colours.
I’m holding a football and leaning on Harrison’s shoulder.
We look adorable, close and cosy. Not a lot of room for doubt there in that shot.
There’s less room for doubt in my caption: I’ll always play for your team it says alongside a sneaky rainbow flag and a red heart.
I close out of the app and then we both switch our phones off. It’s done now. There’s nothing we can do to pull that story back in, but I don’t want to watch it roll out at the same time.
Harrison holds me close, just me and the love of my life, and we smile at each other as the evening turns to night.