“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.
