Chapter 1
Jack found herself dragged into the stadium. She had just flew in from the US and she had been invited to a Richmond game to meet the boss of the company she financed. It was crazy they hadn’t met yet, she thought, but that was just how it was in that world. All Jack knew was that the founder’s name was Keeley, and that she was pretty young. She was a former model, a PR at Richmond and a recurring face on gossip newspapers. That was it. Jack couldn’t tell why she had found herself financing that project in a heartbeat; she just felt it, in her gut. She was great at her job and kinda a big deal in the corporation, so no one had anything to say when she said yes, even though she was the only woman in the room, as usual.
Since then, Jack had been eager to meet up with Keeley, so when they were finally able to set up a day she had found herself waiting impatiently to get on the plane to London.
And now, there she was. Standing in a stadium hall.
“Oi, I’ll meet you in the lounge. Gotta go to the bathroom”.
Rebecca nodded and Keeley ran to go find a bathroom. “Fucking period”. She wandered through the empty alleys until she find it eventually. She let out a sigh of relief when she sat on the toilet, but just to find out she had ran out of tampons. She kept looking in her bag, but nothing. “Shite. God’s sake-“, she blurted.
“You need help?”. A voice came from the toilet next to hers.
“Yeah, I... got a bit of a situation here”, Keeley said.
The mysterious woman - all Keeley could notice were her brand new white shoes - slid her hand under the bathroom wall to give her some toilet paper.
“Oh, sorry. It’s another kind of situation. Do you have-“, but the woman was already sliding her a tampon. “Code red, got it.”
“Oh God, you are a lifesaver. I fucking love you!”, Keeley screamed. The other woman let out a genuine laugh.
“Oi, I love your shoes by the way”.
“Thanks”, and she left the bathroom.
Keeley tried to speed up and stormed out the toilet. She wanted to see the face of her savior, but she was gone. Keeley sighed and stood there, looking at herself in the mirror. “You’re a disaster”, she said to her reflection.
“Where have you been?”, Rebecca grabbed her arm. “I thought you got lost in the alleys - or worse, that Rupert had made his evil little elves kidnap you”.
Keeley laughed seeing the blonde’s serious grin. “Had an emergency. I’m not gonna leave you again, promise”, she winked.
“It’s fine. Higgins tried to distract me with a bunch of very bad jokes.”
“They weren’t that bad”, he defended himself, overhearing from behind Keeley.
“Plus, I met your boss. Jack.”, Rebecca added.
“Fucking- is he here already?”, Keeley looked around, “Where the fuck is Barbara now, she was supposed to warn me”.
“About that, it’s not-“ Rebecca interrupted herself as she saw Barbara coming towards them with another woman.
“What, babe?” Keeley asked looking up to Rebecca.
“Hello”, Barbara greeted them, “I know that you have already introduced yourselves”, she said pointing to Rebecca and the mysterious brunette, “but Keeley, I wanted you to meet your- our boss”.
The woman put out her hand. “I’m Jack. Hi”, she said. An embarrassing silence fell among them. Keeley just stood there for a moment, but then she shook her hand “Oh, sorry, I-I’m Keeley”.
“Yeah, I know.”, Jack smiled. “I think we already met, actually”.
Keeley was confused. How was this possible? She was sure she would remember a face like that, a woman like that. Jack was one of the most charming people she had ever seen. She was tiny and maybe shorter than she was, but her face was immaculate. She radiated a kind of light that was impossible to describe, but once you had seen it you could not turn your eyes away from it. She was magnetic. And when she gave her that wide, genuine smile, Keeley felt weak in her knees. She looked at her again, from head to toe, and that’s when she noticed. The shoes.
“Fuck I- you-“ she put a hand on her mouth “Sorry, I don’t always swear like this”.
“Yes you do!” Rebecca blurted out and Keeley punched her lightly. Barbara sighed heavily in disapproval.
“Yeah I could tell. I recognized your voice”, Jack smiled again and Keeley really hoped she wasn’t gonna do it again. She had embarrassed herself enough already and the gay panic wasn’t helping at all.
They remained all silent again, but after a second they all laughed in embarassment.
“This is weird”, Keeley said.
“Yeah, mainly because we all thought you were a man”, Rebecca said. Jack laughed loudly, “Definitely the first time”.
“Yeah is Jack short for... Jacqueline?”, Higgins was curious.
“Uh, no, actually it’s short for ‘My father wanted a boy’”, Jack joked. Higgins blushed, embarrassed, and Keeley grinned in amusement. Jack looked at her in the eyes and Keeley could swear that she blushed.
Jack laughed thinking about her father and the name he gave her. It could seem weird, but she loved it despite it all. She had always seen it as her own, original way to get her revenge on him and the way he had treated her throughout her youth. That and being born a woman, obviously.
Jack looked at Keeley again. She was taller than she imagined, even though she didn’t look like it standing next to Rebecca. She had a great sense of fashion and Jack could tell she had a past in modeling by the way she carried herself, with consciousness but not superiority. She was stunning and Jack had to take a moment before looking at her while talking to avoid blushing. But when she made that joke about her father and Keeley smiled she couldn’t help but felt her cheeks get hotter. She knew she was blushing hard, and the look Keeley was giving her right in the eyes was making it worse.
“So, should we go find our seats?”, Rebecca said interrupting her embarrassment.
They followed her outside, on the stadium stairs, and Jack found herself into an excited crowd. There were flags, signs, football shirts everywhere and down there the green football field. The players were still warming up but you could feel tension building up on the stands. Higgins, Rebecca and Keeley seated in the front row, leaving Jack next to Barbara. They awkwardly sat there in silence for a minute, but then Barbara started telling Jack fun facts about London, about the office, about anything at all. But Jack kept looking around. The stadium gave her chills. She wasn’t a football fan at all, but that place was so full of heat and tension and excitement that it overwhelmed her. It made her feel alive, in the moment.
Someone patted on her knee and she came back to reality to see Keeley looking up at her. “You okay?”, she asked, and then mouthed “Is Barbara boring you?”
Jack grinned, “All good. Actually, I Have to confess...”, she added leaning over to whisper into Keeley’s ear, “This is the first time I’m watching a football game in a stadium”.
“WHAT? Are you kidding?”, Keeley screamed making even Barbara look up from her phone.
“Nope, that’s true”, she admitted, and added as she saw Keeley’s incredulity, “But in my defense I played a little when I was in high school. And I hated it.”
Keeley opened her mouth in disbelief and scoffed. “This is not helping you at all, you know right?”, she joked.
“Well, maybe you’ll change my mind.”
“Oh you can bet on it”, Keeley said persuasively, “But if I win, you’ll buy me a beer”, she winked.
“Deal”, Jack agreed and looked at her with defiance.
But she already knew that she would ask Keeley to get that beer anyway.