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“Brat,” I whispered against his lips, and after that, there was no more talking.
40
JORDAN
“Thanks for meeting with me.” Dean Lewin,Offsidemagazine’s digital editor, shook Theo’s hand and then mine. “You remember my colleague Adam?”
Adam cleared his throat, holding out his hand. “Nice to see you both again.”
Dean gave him a soft, private smile, and the pieces fell into place.
When Theo had decided to email his cousin, he’d discovered that Dean had already emailed him, offering his support. He’d mentioned that he was gay in the email, and when he’d informed Theo that he didn’t have anything to do with Theo’s side of the family because of his chosen profession and sexual orientation, Theo had found a kindred spirit. They’d been emailing back and forth for a couple of weeks, and now, here we were to do an interview.
My boyfriend was a fucking superstar, and I was so proud of him. This interview wasn’t only about football. Theo wanted to open up, to talk about his experiences with his sleeping pill addiction and how therapy had helped him, as well as his relationship with me and the highs and lows of us being the first out players in the Premier League.
The digital version of the article would be dropping the day before our first game of the season, and the expanded print version would be available in the following month’s issue. Finally, people would hear our side of the story, in our own words.
We seated ourselves on the comfortable sofas in the private room Dean had booked in a local hotel, and a member of staff came over to take our tea and coffee orders.
Dean placed a small recording device on the table between us. “If it’s okay with you both, I’d like to make this as natural as possible rather than me throwing questions at you. I’ll direct the conversation here and there, but mostly, I’d like you to just share your experiences. Afterwards, I’ll get the article written up, and then you and your legal team will receive copies to approve before we go to print. Does that sound okay?”
We both nodded, and he smiled. “Before we start, I just want to say thank you for trusting us with this. It means a lot.”
“You’re family,” Theo said, and I couldn’t help leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. I was so fucking happy that he’d connected with his cousin.
Adam hit the Record button, and we began.
“I’d like to start with you giving us some of the history of your relationship. Good and bad.”
Theo looked at me, a smirk curving over his lips. “When I was thirteen, the most aggravating, cocky boy I’d ever met walked into my life. Or perhaps ‘tripped’ into my life is more appropriate.”
I punched him on the arm, lightly, of course, because he was the love of my life, and I didn’t get off on causing him physical pain. Most of the time.
He laughed, loud and bright, and it made me warm inside.
“We were both attending the same football youth academy…”
After we’d both been through our history and subsequent animosity when I’d joined the team, Dean asked Theo about his sleeping pill addiction. We’d agreed beforehand that there would be no mention of his parents, so he simply stated that he’d struggled with sleeping issues for a long time. He described how both the medical and mental health support had helped him through the withdrawal process and how he still continued with his therapy sessions. I spoke a bit about my own experiences with therapy and how I believed that it could help so many people if they were willing to give it a try.
“Thank you for sharing that with us. Now, returning to your relationship, can you tell us when things changed between the two of you?”
Because we were bound by Black Diamond’s NDA, we’d decided to treat the therapy as if it had happened separately from our time on the island. Our official story was that we’d been sent away on a team-building break to teach us how to work together.
“I began to see Jordan in a different light. I’m not sure I could pinpoint when it happened, exactly, but the fact that we were forced to spend most of our waking hours together meant that we had to learn to get along, otherwise we would have both been miserable.”
“We’d probably have killed each other,” I interjected. “In fact, we had a near brush with death. We were hiking to a waterfall, and we got caught in a tropical storm…”
Between the two of us, we spoke about how our relationship had changed during our time away, and although we were both interested in being more than friends, we’d mutually agreed not to cross the line because of the pressures that we would face. And not only us but everyone at Glevum FC and our friends and families.
“What changed? What made you decide to take that step?” Dean leaned forwards in his seat, his elbows on his arms.
I met my boyfriend’s gaze. “Honestly? I tried to get over him, and time kept passing, but I still wanted him. I knew that I wanted a relationship with him. We’d both come out to several people. They’d taken it well, and it felt like…like maybe it wasn’t so impossible, after all. The day we beat Liverpool 1–0, I wanted to tell Theo that I wanted to be with him.”
Theo covered my hand with his. “For me, it was the same day. Jordan scored an amazing goal during the match. I looked across the pitch and saw him, and I just knew.”
My heart stuttered. “You knew what?”
“I knew that I loved you.”
