10. Chapter 10
Ava
Iknow this is a mistake the moment Chloe puts her coffee down and gives me her full attention.
That look means she has already decided I am not leaving this table without a full debrief.
“So,” she says. “Tell us about the football man.”
AJ immediately groans. “Can we not call him that?”
“What should I call him? The smoking hot football hero?”
“You could call him by his name.”
Chloe ignores him completely. “Is he nice or is he one of those men who thinks being famous counts as a personality?”
“He’s nice,” I say.
“Nice how?”
“Just… normal nice.”
Chloe squints at me. “That’s suspiciously vague.”
“I interviewed him. He answered questions. That was the assignment.”
“And?”
“And nothing.”
“You’re hiding something.”
“I’m not hiding anything.”
AJ points his spoon at me. “You are doing that thing where you go very factual when you’re avoiding emotion.”
“I do not do that.”
“You absolutely do.”
Chloe leans forward. “Did you like him?”
“I liked interviewing him.”
“That was not the question.”
“He was easy to talk to,” I admit.
Chloe notices the wording immediately. Of course she does.
“Easy how?”
I shrug. “He just… listens properly. Doesn’t interrupt. Doesn’t try to impress you every five seconds.”
AJ nods. “So emotionally functional. Again, the bar is subterranean.”
“I mean it,” I say. “He seems very… steady.”
“Steady is sexy,” Chloe says.
“I did not say sexy.”
“You didn’t have to.”
I take a long sip of tea to buy myself thinking time.
“Nothing happened,” I say.
Chloe tilts her head. “I didn’t say something happened.”
I blink. “What?”
“So if you’re saying nothing happened,” she continues calmly, “that means something definitely happened.”
AJ frowns. “I cannot follow that logic.”
Chloe doesn’t even look at him. “Female logic.”
“That is not logic.”
“It is pattern recognition.”
“It is word traps.”
“Something happened,” Chloe concludes.
AJ looks between us. “Did you shag him?”
I nearly inhale my tea.
“No!”
Both of them stare at me.
“No?” AJ repeats.
“No,” I say again, far too quickly. “Obviously not.”
“Obviously?” Chloe says.
“I was working!”
“People have shagged under far more professional circumstances,” Chloe says with a smirk.
“I did not shag him.”
AJ raises his hands. “Good. Progress. We have established no shagging.”
Chloe narrows her eyes. “But?”
“There is no but.”
“There is always a but.”
I sigh.
“There was just… a moment.”
Chloe leans back immediately, deeply satisfied. “There it is.”
“It was just… we were standing close and then we realised we were standing close and then I left.”
“That is peak romance novel behaviour,” Chloe says dryly.
AJ pushes his chair back slightly. “I feel like I should start having lunch with the sports desk.”
“You wouldn’t survive five minutes,” Chloe says. “They talk about hamstrings and protein.”
“That already sounds better than this.”
“You’re staying,” she tells him.
He stays.
“Ava, come on. What exactly happened,” AJ groans because despite his threat of leaving, he is an old gossip and of course wants me to spill the beans.
“I… we almost kissed. I think.” There. I said it. I said the words I’ve been trying to convince myself weren’t true.
There’s a small pause then. The teasing settling into something quieter.
Chloe studies me properly now.
“Okay,” she says gently. “Jokes aside. Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
AJ nods. “You don’t usually… have moments.”
“That makes me sound like a robot.”
“You know what I mean.”
I do. I’m not really known for dating. I have, of course. Just not in a long time. Not since Chloe and AJ have known me.
“I just wasn’t expecting him to be… like that,” I admit.
“Like what?” Chloe asks.
“Kind.”
That lands quietly between us.
“Not charming. Not trying to impress. Just… decent.”
AJ shakes his head slowly. “Is that what women want?”
Chloe watches me for another second, then asks the question I knew was coming.
“So… are you dating?”
“No,” I say immediately. “We haven’t even talked about anything like that.”
“But you almost kissed.”
I shake my head. “It was just one of those moments. Nothing has actually happened. No asking me out. No dinner. No anything.”
Chloe gives me a look that suggests she’s seen this before.
“I had one of those moments with Tom,” she says casually.
AJ looks up. “You absolutely did not describe it like that at the time.”
“I’m editing for clarity.”
She turns back to me. “One minute we had a disagreement about tomato sauce, the next he was standing too close in my kitchen. Now he basically lives in my flat every weekend, has in-depth conversations with Hadrian like they’re old university friends, and—"
She takes a sip of coffee.
“—gives me the best sex of my life. Like that man’s dick reaches spots in me… mind-blowing.”
AJ stares at the ceiling. “I am never emotionally recovering from knowing that.”
Chloe pats his arm. “You’ll survive.”
“I feel like there should be content warnings before these lunches.
“You’re forty-two, AJ, not twelve.”
“I did not consent to performance reviews of Tom.”
I can’t help laughing. “That escalated quickly.”
Chloe shrugs. “I’m just saying sometimes those moments are not random.”
AJ straightens slightly. “Alright, serious question.”
He hesitates like he knows he’s stepping onto dangerous ground.
“At the risk of losing my status as the alpha male of this group—"
Chloe and I both snort so loudly people at the next table look over.
“Alpha male?” Chloe repeats. “Since when?”
“I regret everything already.”
“You lost that title when you cried at that dog rescue video,” I say.
“That dog had three legs.”
“You sobbed.”
“It was brave.”
Chloe waves her hand. “Ask your question, fallen alpha.”
AJ sighs. “Would you want to date him?”
I look down at my cup, tracing the rim with my thumb.
“I don’t know,” I admit.
They both stay quiet.
“I don’t even know what he thinks,” I add.
AJ nods. “So you don’t know if this is attraction or proximity.”
“Exactly.”
I stare into my coffee again.
“I think what’s throwing me is that nothing has been said. And I’m not twenty-five. I’m not doing guessing games.”
Chloe smiles slightly. “Good.”
“I mean it. If someone wants to date me they can say so. I’m too old for decoding eye contact.”
AJ raises his cup. “That should be on a mug.”
“And yet,” Chloe says quietly, “you’re still thinking about him.”
I don’t answer that.
Because I am.
And they both know it.
“I just… don’t know what this is,” I admit. ‘And maybe I just imagined it all.”
Chloe reaches across and squeezes my hand briefly.
I exhale slowly.
“London will probably make things clearer,” I say.
They both go very still.
Chloe blinks. “London?”
AJ frowns. “Why London?”
Oh fudge—
“Oh. Yes. That.” I clear my throat. “I’m travelling with the team for the away game. For the article.”
Chloe’s face changes instantly into something between delight and scandal.
“You’re going on a trip with him?”
“I am going for work.”
“With him.”
“With the team.”
AJ leans forward. “Overnight?”
“Yes.”
Chloe puts her hand flat on the table. “Right. So. This is how it starts.”
“It is not how anything starts.”
“This is absolutely how things start. Hotel bar. Late conversations. Him walking you back to your room like a gentleman. Probably some ridiculously charming restaurant where he pretends he doesn’t know he’s attractive.”
“I am going to a football match,” I say. “Not a Richard Curtis film.”
AJ nods. “Still. London. There are expectations.”
“There are no expectations.”
Chloe is already building the fantasy. “He’ll take you somewhere with candles. You’ll say you don’t want dessert. He’ll order it anyway. You’ll share it.”
“I will be eating whatever the team hotel serves athletes.”
“He’ll walk you along London Bridge—”
“Tower Bridge,” I correct automatically.
“What?”
“You mean Tower Bridge. London Bridge is just… a very disappointing stone bridge. Completely unromantic. You’d walk across it and think you’d taken a wrong turn.”
AJ laughs. “That is the most Ava correction imaginable.”
“I’m just saying, if we’re constructing fictional romance scenarios, we should at least get the infrastructure right.”
Chloe waves that away. “Fine. Tower Bridge. Dramatic lights. Wind in your hair.”
“I have a bob. There is very little wind drama available.”
“He’ll say something meaningful.”
“He’ll probably say don’t miss the team bus.”
AJ grins. “He’ll still try to impress you.”
“He doesn’t seem like someone who tries to impress people.”
“That’s worse,” Chloe says. “That’s the dangerous category again.”
“I am literally going to be sitting in a press area taking notes about substitutions.”
“Press areas can be sexy,” she says.
“They absolutely cannot.”
AJ considers this. “I feel like we’re missing the important question.”
“What important question?” I ask cautiously.
“Are you sharing transport?”
“Yes. Coach down.”
“Five plus hours trapped together,” Chloe says.
“With forty other people.”
“That’s still proximity.”
“It’s logistics.”
AJ grins. “Window seat flirting is a real thing.”
“I will be working.”
“You keep saying that” Chloe says, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Because it is true.”
She smiles. “And yet you corrected me about London Bridge like someone who has already imagined walking across it.”
I open my mouth.
Close it again.
Because annoyingly she is not entirely wrong. I could ask Marie-Louise to send someone else for the away fixtures. I mulled it over the whole night. It would be the sensible option. The professional option.
I won’t.
Because for the first time in a very long time I don’t want distance. I want to see what happens if I stay.
“I just like accuracy,” I say.
AJ stands. “Well. If nothing else, this will at least give us material.”
“For what?”
“For when you come back pretending nothing happened.”
Chloe nods. “And then slowly admit something happened.”
“I hate how well you both know me.”
“That’s because you’re very predictable emotionally,” AJ says.
“I am not predictable.”
“You absolutely are.”
Chloe slings her bag over her shoulder. “Just promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“If he does try to woo you on Tower Bridge…”
“He won’t.”
“…at least wear nice underwear. One should always be prepared.”
AJ walks away immediately. “I am done. I am going back to my desk where nobody talks about underwear strategy.”
Chloe calls after him, “That’s why you’re single!”
“I am single because I have standards!”
I laugh out loud as we head back toward the office.
But as their teasing fades and I walk the last few steps alone, one thought lingers quietly underneath it all.
London suddenly doesn’t feel like just an assignment anymore.