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11:00p.m. November 12th Manchester, England
“Babe?” Christen calls from the bathroom.
“Yeah?” Tobin yawns tiredly from the bed.
“Please remember to turn off your phone,” she calls out.
“Oh, right,” Tobin nods, setting down her book and reaching for her phone and powering down the device. She sets it back on the nightstand and smiles at Christen approaches the bed. “You ready for this?”
Christen beams at her, sliding under the covers and looking at her, “So ready,” she says. Tobin sees how she’s practically glowing. “I am too,” she replies, grinning at her, “I can’t believe it worked,”
Christen holds up a finger, “It’s not a done deal until the draft,”
“Which is in,” she tries to calculate it, “like three hours,”
“I hope it all goes through,” Christen murmurs as she flicks off the light and moves closer to Tobin in the darkness.
“It will, babe,” Tobin assures her, “Christy is a good man,” she states, “his word is solid.”
“I need you to distract me so I can sleep,” Christen sighs, extending her neck out and Tobin obliges by tossing her book to the floor and placing a series of kisses along the soft skin.
“Oh, I’ll make you forget about the whole thing,” she boasts and chuckles against her.
“Prove it, Heath,” Christen chuckles and then squeals when Tobin’s hands tickles her sides.
August, Louisville, Kentucky
“Well, it’s a pretty cool skyline,” Tobin observes from the hotel window. Christen slips her arms around her waist and rests her chin on her shoulder as she joins her against the glass and hums as she looks.
Tobin turns her head and puckers her lips and Christen leans in and kisses her softly. She leans her head against Tobin’s cheek, feeling Tobin absently stroke the back of her hand and lift her other hand to caress her cheek as they stare out into the late August night sky.
“I kinda can’t believe we’re thinking of doing this,” Tobin says quietly, “I mean,” she turns wraps her arms around Christen’s hips, “I’m excited,” she smiles at her, “I know leaving Portland will be huge,” she acknowledges, “but if it means playing with you,” she shakes her head, beaming at her, “it’s a no brainer.”
“It just all is playing right into our hands,” Christen agrees, “I really liked the girls on the Royals,” she shrugs her shoulders, “but Kelley wants out, the coaching staff is a mess and ownership is racist. Since I’m so well known for flaking out on Houston,” she raises her eyebrows, “I have no problem demanding to leave Utah. I can handle being the bad guy again. This is my life and I want to play with my wife.”
Tobin flexes her arms and brings her in closer, “There’s no way Portland will protect me after getting Crystal and they won’t give up Lynds.”
Christen nods, “First we need to find out if we like the city,”
Tobin nods with agreement, “All the research we did online makes it seem pretty legit,” she crinkles her nose, “for a red state,”
“Hopefully the country won’t be red for much longer,” Christen sighs, “I can’t wait for November.”
“If the Cheeto gets elected again, I say we just bounce around Europe for as long as we can,” Tobin suggests, “Vlatko is cool about it,”
“I’m not sure the NWSL would be,” Christen frowns, “but hey, we’re here to check it out and see if we like it,”
“On the down low,” Tobin smirks, “in our ‘costumes’,” she air quotes.
“We don’t want anyone to recognize us!” Christen argues but she can’t help laughing.
“We’re in and for a day and half,” Tobin reasons, “we have a rental car, we drive around, check out the neighborhoods we researched and get out,”
Christen nods with her, this was the plan they made when they decided to actually fly out here to look the city over. “We’ll only be an hour and a half from the clothing factory in Asheville,” she smiles, “and I’d really like to find more sources here in the US for our products.”
Tobin nods, “Kling and Pinoe are gonna shit themselves,” she chuckles, thinking of their partners reaction to their plan if they succeed in making it happen.
“Yes, at first,” Christen agrees, “but then they’ll be happy we can be together,”
“I know my hot, smart CEO will make it work,” Tobin grins broadly at her, “just like we have it all set up for working from Manchester,”
Christen nods, “Once we know,” she says, “after we talk to Christy and commit, we’ll have to call Alex,”
“Oh yeah,” Tobin can’t stop smiling, she is so excited about this, “she can have LA, she wants it more than you. We’ll play here for a few years, retire, pop out some babies and run the company, move wherever.”
Christen lets her hands drop down to grip Tobin’s muscular ass, squeezing it hard and pressing their chests together, “I can’t wait to pop out babies with you,” she kisses her.
When they break free, Tobin eyes the city, “What do you say we get a coffee to go and take a cruise around?”
“It’s eleven o’clock at night, babe,” Christen reminds her, “no coffee, you’ll be up all night,”
Tobin shrugs, “Fine, we’ll grab a couple of shakes,” she says, dropping her arms and heading for the door, picking up her bucket hat ad the new black button down sample she had brought with her to put on over her t-shirt. It's sample she's reviewing for a later clothing drop. Christen had forbidden her bringing any snapbacks, claiming Tobin ould be too identifiable with one and relenting with the bucket hat.
The next day they drive around the city, getting a feel for the vibe, checking out Butchertown, Clifton, Highlands and South Point. There was a certain Portland-like vibe in the areas that they both liked. They walked some of the areas, being careful not to linger anywhere too long and possibly be recognized. They had lunch on the go, finding a food truck and eating in the car. Dinner was room service in their room and they spent the rest of the night talking about the pros and cons of this decision they were contemplating.
Christen was at the desk, typing into her laptop, making lists of possibilities of the actions with Portland and Utah, the added new clause they just heard about with allocation money and how it could all trickle down and make it work for in their favor. It seemed too easy.
“I would think Christy would find us useful for a first year team,” Tobin noted, “two National Team players would be a draw,”
Christen nods, looking over her glasses at Tobin who is sprawled on her stomach across the bed, “Let’s not forget the ‘are they together or aren’t they factor,”
Tobin laughs, “Babe,” she sputters, “I think everyone knows we are,” she coughs from her laughter, “we’re not so subtle,”
Christen smiles, “It’s worth a shot,” she argues, “we keep it mysterious enough,”
“Okay,” her wife chuckles, finding it hilarious.
Once they review the scenarios for a final time, they call it a night, satisfied they were doing the best thing for them as a couple.
“So, you’ll call Christie in the morning?” Christen asks her, looking up from behind her screen, referenicng Christie Rampone who is married to the Louisville Head Coach Christie Holly.
“Yeah,” Tobin nods, “I’ll just say like, ‘Hey Cap, how’s it going? Me and Chris are in town today, any chance we can meet you and the hubby on the downlow for lunch?’”
“Knowing Christie, she’ll probably invite us over for lunch at the house,” Christen guesses.
That’s exactly what the former Captain of the National does. Lunch stretches out two hours before Tobin and Christen must leave for the airport. Christy Holly shakes their hands, promising he’ll make it work and keep in touch. For right now, only the four of them has this information. Christie promises he’ll be in touch and they can hash out details in October, but as of now, it would be a done deal as long as Utah leaves Christen unprotected. Christen states confidently she can make that happen. With the turmoil of the team and ownership, it will be easy for her to deny her return and convince them they’ll need the allocation money to survive. She’ll hint about overseas and them getting nothing in return for a trade. Tobin’s situation is more straight forward, the writing is on the wall and Portland can only hope that Louisville wouldn’t be bold enough to take their fan favorite.
They leave feeling good and relieved their visit went unnoticed in the following days.
In September and October communication begins to trickle in with Christie claiming he thinks it’s going to happen. When the protected list comes out the first week of November, Tobin is left unprotected and so is Christen. She had worked her magic with the front office. The two are settling in to Manchester nicely, really liking their new teammates and Casey Stoney. They like part of the city they’re living in and everything seems to be falling into place.
November 12th Manchester, England
The Source drop went very well, Tobin grinning proudly while she scrolls through the website two days ago, loving how they laid it out. There were a few sell outs and the numbers were high on most of the products, even the top coat. After practice today, right after receiving the call from Christie it was going down, they called their families and Pinoe and Kling, cryptically stating they knew this would happen. The rest of the their friends and families would find out at the draft.
"You know," Christen opens, looking at Tobin with a grin, "nobody is going to think we'll ever play for Louisville," she points out.
"Yeah," Tobin shakes her head, "they'll all think we want to be in LA," she snorts, "like, we don't want to play soccer? I mean, playing with Yuki? Babe, you're gonna score so many goals."
Christen shrugs, "They'll think what they'll think. We can't change that. We just have to do us," she nods primly. "Like they all think they know what's going on in our heads,"
"But we'll tell Christie if it works out for Louisville to take a deal, then he should," Tobin reminds her.
"Well, of course," she agrees, "I just don't see how they'll do it. LA really kind of wants Alex," she states, "to get us, they'd have to be pretty creative."
"Ah," Tobin waves her arms as if pushing the thought away, "I just want to play," she says, "with you from now on."
Now, as the sweat from their last bout of lovemaking dries on their skin and their breathing slowly returns to normal they lie in the darkness. They had done it , the deal was confirmed and they celebrated by pleasing one another for a couple of hours.
“Damnit,” Tobin curses, causing Christen alarm.
“What is it, babe?” she asks with concern.
“I just realized something,” Tobin says in the darkness.
“What is it?” her wife questions, her concern growing.
“We should have asked if we could something about the purple,” Tobin states, pausing dramatically, “I hate how I look in purple,” she laughs.
Christen rolls to her side, laying her hand on Tobin’s sternum, giving her a serious look, "You look hot in whatever you wear,”
“Yeah, right,” Tobin snorts, smirking at her.
“Um, do you remember the shorts you wore to the victory parade?” Christen questions, moving to lay on top of her, “Quite possibly the ugliest shorts on the planet and yet, somehow, you looked hot in them,”
“But those weren’t purple!” Tobin whines from underneath her.
“For the last time,” she chuckles, “it’s lavender, sweetie.”
Tobin barks out a laugh, “I don’t even care!” she exclaims, rolling to the side to switch their places, “I just care that I get to play with you!”
Christen breathes in deeply, all of the waiting these last couple of months have finally paid off and she finally feels like she can breath freely, “I can’t wait to play with you, honey,” she says, kissing her.
“Me too,” Tobin says, kissing her back, slowly creeping down the bed, “I can’t wait to get to do this with you all the time,” she looks up at her, “we’re finally going to play on a club team together,” she beams, letting out a happy sigh, “I love you so much,”
“I love you, too,” Christen looks down at her, trailing her hair through Tobin’s long hair as she lowers herself in between her legs.
“My super duper smart CEO,” Tobin mumbles, kissing the inside of Christen’s thigh, “my super duper hot CEO,” she kisses the other thigh, “my super duper amazing wife,” she looks at her and winks, then her bends her head down and Christen gasps.
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