Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ezra
My plan had been to go straight up to Clive’s office as soon as I arrived, but when I knocked on the door, I didn’t get a response. I tried again, but nothing happened.
Fuck, okay, it looked like I was going with option two, which was to try and corner him in between my meetings and his busy training schedule. And hope that, in the meantime, he didn’t hear it from Danny first.
Not that it mattered who told him, but since Danny had to come out to the team, I figured I should take on some of the responsibility for our relationship.
My morning was full of back-to-back meetings, at least two of which were pointless as fuck, but I did manage to turn my camera off for part of them and spend the time messaging Shane to let him know how things had gone with Danny.
I got back four voice notes and fifteen messages, the general gist of which was excitement for me, happiness that it had all worked out, mild gloating that I should listen to him more often, and a list of dates for me to pick from so he and Eric could come down and meet him.
I was surprised they hadn’t simply turned up, but then I realised the dates were weekends when Danny wasn’t playing, and I was touched at how much thought he’d put into it.
Even if it was just because he wanted to be nosy.
I managed to slip out of my office at lunch because I desperately needed to stretch my legs and get away from a screen. And as the door clicked shut behind me, I saw Clive heading towards his office with a clipboard tucked under his arm. It was going to have to be now; food and a break could wait.
“Clive,” I called, striding towards him like my arse was on fire.
He turned and raised an eyebrow, looking slightly concerned about the way I’d made a beeline for him. “You all right? Is there something wrong?”
“Not wrong, I just need to talk to you quickly. Have you got five minutes?”
“Sure, come in.”
He smiled as he waved me into his large office, pointing at a couple of padded chairs near the window as he headed over to a little table in the corner where he had a small coffee machine set up.
“Grab a seat. Do you want a coffee? I don’t have any biscuits, though.
I keep forgetting to restock after I’ve eaten them. ”
“Coffee would be great, thanks.” I’d planned to go down to the canteen to grab something to eat, and hopefully they’d still be serving when I got there.
I looked out of the window, trying to ignore the tightening in my chest as the machine whirred, the smell of fresh coffee not doing anything to settle my anxiety.
Clive and I had always gotten on well in the past few months since I’d started working here.
But that friendliness was about to be put to the test because I still wasn’t convinced he’d take kindly to me fucking around with one of his players.
Danny was sure it would all be fine since we were both consenting adults and I had nothing to do with his career or training, but that could mean fuck all if there were rules against this that I’d somehow missed.
Not that I’d bothered to look at the rules.
At the very least I could get hauled up in front of HR and put through a disciplinary procedure, and since I still hadn’t quite completed my six-month probation period, they could easily decide to throw me out on my arse.
The future still felt unsteady beneath my feet, despite how much more confident I felt about it.
I had Danny at least, and that was the important thing. The rest of it could be figured out when we got to it. And I’d always been good at thinking on my feet.
Clive offered me milk and sugar before bringing two mugs over to the chair, handing me one before he sat down.
There was another long moment of silence as we both took a sip, and I debated whether I could find any room in the budget for a coffee machine for our office because this was so much better than what they had in the canteen.
“So, do you wanna tell me what’s going on?
” he asked, his gaze meeting mine. It was kind but curious, and I wondered if he already had an idea of what I was going to say.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he already knew.
He seemed like the sort of man who saw and heard everything, even things people tried to keep secret.
“I’m dating Danny Wheeler. We started messaging just before the team came back for preseason training and everything went from there.
We’ve been keeping it to ourselves while Danny figured some things out, but he’s decided he’s ready to tell people and I said I’d mention it to you.
But he’ll probably want to say something to you as well. ”
Clive hummed and nodded, sitting back in his chair as a small smile played across his lips. “This decision wouldn’t have anything to do with West seeing you yesterday, would it?”
I stared, feeling like a teenager who’d been busted by their favourite teacher. Clive chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I was going to leave it for a couple of days before I said anything. Figured you’d both want time to get your shit together.”
“How did you…” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer. For someone who’d always been so sure of what to say, suddenly I had no words.
“You weren’t being subtle. Next time you want to make out, shut a bloody door behind you.” He shook his head as he sipped his coffee, his eyes drifting over to the window. “Always wondered but I never wanted to say anything.”
“About us?”
“Him,” he said. “Just had a feeling. It’s the mullet. I had one myself in the nineties. Alan still says it’s the worst haircut he’s ever seen.”
“I think it suits him,” I said, a little smile pulling at the edge of my lips. “I’m sorry, I know this is a bit of a mess. But I don’t have any regrets. And this is more of a common courtesy than asking permission. Unless there’s some fine print that says I have to.”
“Not as far as I’m aware. It’s not ideal, but we don’t exactly do things by the book around here.
Look at me for a start, then Jonny and Devon.
” He shrugged casually. “There’s no rules against players dating, though, because nobody ever thought they’d need them.
Might be different if we had a women’s team, but I still wouldn’t enforce it. ”
“What about staff and players?”
“More of a grey area,” he said. “But you’re not coaching, medical, or support staff, so it’s not like you have anything directly to do with his career.”
“That’s what I thought. Sometimes I do deal with sponsorships but I can ask someone else to handle Danny’s.
And Adam’s doing all the video editing for TikTok, so there won’t be any favouritism there.
In fact, I can ask Adam to deal with all of that, and whoever we get in to cover Leigh’s maternity leave. ”
“How’s she doing?” Clive asked, his concern obvious.
“Not great,” I said, my mouth pulling in the corner as I frowned.
“Last time we spoke she said she could barely get out of bed. She’s been signed off by the doctor for six weeks to see how she gets on, but I don’t know if she’ll actually come back until after she has the baby.
I’d rather she took care of herself than try and rush back to work. ”
“Fuck, that sounds rough. We’ll make sure she’s taken care of, though. I’ll speak to the powers that be.”
I nodded. I’d never known a manager to be so closely involved in the admin side of running the club, but Clive knew everyone, and he really seemed to care.
He was the first person anyone went to with problems and the one who always had solutions, whether it was his job or not.
“Cheers. I’ve spoken to a few people, but we’ll see what happens. ”
“If all else fails, give the lads your phone to film each other and their days. It’ll probably be nonsense, but it’ll be funny.”
“It’s not a bad idea.” Neither was Danny’s idea to get Adam and me, or the coaching staff involved in training, and I already knew he’d be very happy to gloat about how clever he was.
And I’d be happy to reward him. “Danny suggested Adam and I join you for training as well, and Jaden and Mason suggested something about coaches versus players too.”
Clive laughed. “If you want me to veto that, just say so. I don’t know if I can cope with an afternoon of Gavin’s drills.
I could maybe do a couple of the games Tommy uses, but I’d have to lie down afterwards.
My body is fucked, mate. I spent two days lying on the floor after that drag game.
Alan kept shooting me this smug look saying he’d told me so. ”
I sipped my coffee to try and hide my laughter. “Veto it, please. I can’t cope with Danny calling me an old man. Although my body aches are from being wildly irresponsible in my twenties.”
“Bit of a party boy?”
“Something like that.”
“Don’t let the boys drag you out then,” he said. “From what I hear, it can get messy. They take care of each other, though. Always have. They’re a good bunch of lads, even when they do dumb shit.”
“Hey, if you can’t do it with your friends, when can you?”
“Exactly.” He paused for a second. “Danny hasn’t said anything yet, but when he does, they’ll sort it out and they’ll all be fine. He might annoy the shit out of them sometimes, but that’s just being a winger. He’s their brother, though, and they love him. That’s not going to change.”
“West said something similar,” I said. “He went to talk some stuff through with Danny last night, and I think that helped.”
“Yeah, West’ll sort it. He’s good with people, and he gets it. Wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up as England captain someday.”
I nodded. “He is. I don’t know what he said, but I got the feeling they’ve got similar backgrounds.
” I couldn’t say more, but Clive probably knew more than me anyway.
I hadn’t asked Danny much about his conversation with West, and I didn’t plan to.
It was private and I didn’t feel the need to know what they’d talked about.
If Danny wanted to share, I’d listen, but if not, I’d be fine never knowing.
As long as Danny was happy, that was all that mattered. Because he meant everything to me.
He’d breathed life back into me while I was fragile and broken, carefully putting me back together and reminding me that even if things were shit, there were still things to look forward to. Danny had given me a reason to start living again. And I was going to live every moment to the full.
“Take care of him, Ezra,” Clive said with a smile. “He’s a good lad, and he deserves to be happy.”
“I plan on it,” I said, taking a long sip of my coffee and draining the mug.
I took care of everything that was mine.