Status: In Progress.

Cheating Across the Pond

Introductions

“This is the training room, where the magic happens,” I joked as I gave Stephen a tour. The game wouldn’t start for another few hours and the rest of the staff wouldn’t arrive for another 30 minutes at least.

“Is it really?” A wicked smile spread across Stephen’s face. He leaned in, his hand cradling my neck-

“Allie, yah in here? Jen said- Oh,” Rio walked in, still dressed in his street clothes.

I quickly jumped away from Stephen, my face flushing hot and red. “Hi Rio, um, this is Stephen, my fiancé. He just got in yesterday. I was just finishing up giving him a tour of the place.”

Rio quirked an eyebrow, “Okay,” he said slowly, as he looked Stephen up and down. “Hello, there, I’m Rio, it’s nice to finally meet you,” He extended his hand, “I’ve heard loads about you.”

Stephen shook Rio’s hand, “I hope only good things. And it’s a great to meet you too.”

“So are you a fan of football? Or soccer as you Yanks call it?” Rio asked cheekily, laying on the accent thicker than usual.

Oh God. The question. In Rio’s mind, if you weren’t even at least remotely aware of soccer, you were the scum of the earth. So I knew Rio wasn’t going to like what he was going to hear.

“Well I’m more of a baseball guy myself. Lyssa here is the soccer fan, but I’m sure you knew that already.”

“Yes, we do,” Rio said through gritted teeth. The muscles in his arm tensed as he gave Stephen an extra squeeze and let go of the handshake.

“I got Stephen a spot in the sky box for the game today, hopefully he’ll be able to appreciate the game from there. Um Stephen, why don’t you head over to the VIP lounge, while I help Rio with whatever he needs?”

“Yeah sure, I remember the way back,” Stephen turned on his heel and walked out of the training room.

Once he was out of ear shot, Rio turned to face me, “Really? That is your great guy?”

“He’s,” I paused, “Not everyone’s type. Once you warm up to him, I’m sure you’ll love him. Hell, I didn’t even like him the first time I met him.”

“He doesn’t even like footy!”

“Rio seriously why is your accent so thick right now?”

“Oh right,” he reverted back to his ‘normal’ speaking voice, “I do that sometimes with you Yanks. I think it’s a bit intimidating.”

“Well it’s not,” I said flatly. “Was there something you needed? Or do you like just barging in?”

“I’d hate to think what would have happened if I didn’t march in! Were you guys really going to do it in the training room? We get treatment here!”

“In the training room, really? We’re not teenagers, we have self-control.”

“Right,” Gave me a look of disbelief, “I wanted to ask if I could use your nail clippers.”

“Nail clippers? You came in here for nail clippers?”

“Yeah,” Rio said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Rob keeps stock of these really nice ones from Switzerland or something.”

“Seriously?” I shrugged, “They’re like a quid at Superdrug.” I went fishing through my kit for the pair of clipper I kept in my pack.

“What? He just get’s them from Superdrug? I would be more mad but aw look at you and using British slang. You’re getting less and less septic by the day!” Rio’s face went from pure horror to utter glee in one breath of air. Truly talented this one.

“Yeah he buys them from Superdrug,” I handed him the clippers. “Septic?”

“You know rhyming slang like ‘apples and pears’ for stairs, so you just say ‘I ran up the apples.’ Dog and bone for telephone. Septic tank for Yank.”

“Are you even from the East End?”

“I’m close enough.”

I rolled my eyes. “At least do it over a trash can. Come on Rio, I do treatment in here,” I teased.

He groaned as he had to hunch over the large trashcan as he clipped his nails.

Image


Thankfully we won the game. I doubt the team would have wanted to meet Stephen if they were grumbling after a loss, or worse a draw.

“Hi, Rob,” I grabbed Stephen by the hand, “This is my fiancé, Stephen. He just came in yesterday and I figure I ought to introduce him to everyone as soon as possible.”

“Hello, I’m Rob, Allie’s boss,” Rob shook Stephen’s hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

“All the boys are still in the locker room, if you want to get them in one swoop,” Rob pointed out.

“Oh really? Great,” I walked over to the locker room, knocking on the door, “Everyone decent?”

A chorus of ‘yeah’s and ‘yup’s echoed through the door.

“Alright, coming in,” I opened the door and found most of the guys in either their street clothes or at least with a towel around their waists. Thank God. I didn’t need Stephen seeing the half the team’s junk.

“So everyone, I wanted to introduce you to my fiancé, Stephen. He just got in yesterday and I wanted all of you to meet him so now you can put a face to a name,” I gestured to Stephen, who stood at my side, with a bottle of beer from the VIP lounge in his left hand. “Does anyone know where, Alex is?”

“Just missed him. He’s probably up in his office right now,” Michael answered. “It’s nice to meet you Stephen. Welcome to the Man U family,” He laughed.

“Well they’re not married yet,” Alex said from behind us, “Once they get married, then we can welcome to Stephen to the family.” He shook Stephen’s hand, “Nice to meet you, boy. Did you enjoy the game?”

“He’s not a fan of soccer, sir,” Rio quipped, his accent once again magically thick making it sound like he said socc-uh.

“Oh well then,” Alex quirked an eyebrow, “I’m sure we can try and fix that,” He laughed, patting Stephen on the shoulder.

“I’m more of a baseball fan myself,” Stephen responded, “But I’m sure I can come to appreciate so- football.”

“Baseball?” Alex asked.

“It’s like American cricket,” Rio then pursed his lips as he thought, “But not. It’s played with a bat and a ball.”

“Ah, well I’ll leave you two lovebirds. I’m glad your transfer went through. Some lads would kill to be where you are,” Alex winked at me. “Right, Ronny boy,” He patted Cristiano on the shoulder, who was trying to leave the locker room as stealthily as possible. Oh God. Such a loaded sentence.

Everyone knew he wanted to go to Real Madrid and everyone knew that Cristiano wanted to be more than friends with me.

Everyone except Stephen.
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So I don't really have Stephen interacting much with others right now. So I'm sorry if he seems like a lifeless blob with a drink in his hand, at the moment. I'll definitely try to give him more of a role and personality in the coming chapters.

Please tell me what you think in the comments! I tried to make this a little more of a light chapter and not so deadly serious.