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Mali lasts exactly eight minutes after the announcements are made before she needs to leave. Zach’s hugged everyone on the team—she checked. She’s spent most of the time hugging Frankie. But now she’s waited long enough for him, and now she gets to keep him, she wants the rest of her life to start right now.

“I’m taking Zach home,” Mali says. She doesn’t care who hears her. She doesn’t care if they have another bet about when they’re going to have sex. She doesn’t care. He’s staying. Here. With her. And it’s his choice.

“Love you,” she says, kissing Frankie on the cheek. Frankie mumbles that she loves her back, but she’s half dancing with Cam already.

“Love you too,” Mali says, standing on her tiptoes to kiss Ezra on the cheek. He grunts, but he bends down so she can reach. Zach is talking to Kai and a couple other players, and she should feel bad about interrupting them, but she doesn’t. She grabs Zach’s hand.

He smiles when he looks at her. “Hey, baby.”

“Hi,” she says, then waves to the guys. “Wanna get out of here?”

He smiles brightly at her, then looks to Kai. “Bye.”

It’s not cold tonight, and Mali strolls home with Zach’s hand in hers. She can’t stop looking over at him. Every time she does, he’s already looking at her, and she blushes like a schoolgirl with a crush.

“Wanna walk along the river?” he asks. “I’m obsessed with it now.”

“Yeah?”

He hums, and she links her arm with his. He kisses her on the forehead, and she wants to stop and kiss him for real, but she’s been thinking about sleeping with him for the longest time, and it doesn’t happen on a bench outside.

“Yeah. It meant nothing to me at all until we walked home together months ago, and I barely managed to say a word to you. Now, I dunno, feels like our spot. No one else is allowed there. It’s just for us.”

“Maybe we should get it written into law or something.”

“You probably could,” Zach replies, with a laugh. “You can do anything.”

Mali holds his arm tighter. They’re still a few roads away from the river, and home, but she doesn’t mind the stroll.

“You know, I had no idea you loved me,” Zach says. “You were running around saving me from Scotland, and I spent all my time wondering if you might like me enough to want to answer my call once a month.”

“You’re a ridiculous man,” she whispers, and he smiles. She wants to take a photo of his silhouette against the starry night sky, but she knows it would never do it justice. She wonders how to get this image of him seared onto her skin.

“Well, I knew you had the hots for me, so bad,” Zach says.

Mali giggles, and he holds her hand against his chest. “I do have the hots for you.”

“I just didn’t realise it could ever be more than that. I thought you’d think I was hot and a bit grumpy and reclusive.”

“I do think you’re hot and a bit grumpy and reclusive,” she replies. “You’re my favourite thing in the world.”

He kisses her knuckles. It’s quiet again, apart from the way her heels click along the cobblestones, but Mali has just one question.

“You know I’d want to be with you regardless, right?”

He looks down at her. “I do know that.”

“Okay. Because the Dougals are still in the premiership, and if you want that—I support you, because you deserve anything that you want. The spreadsheets are still valid. I still want that life with you.”

He could go, but Mali knows he won’t. She knows he wants to stay with her because he loves her, and she knows it as surely as she knows the sun will rise tomorrow.

Zach halts. The glow from the corner-shop sign is the only thing she can see beyond his face.

“I want you. I want you, and our house, and Buffy, and children running around that go to the rugby club we love. I want to stay at the Titans, help them get to the premiership. I want to retire there, and I want you. Everything I have, everything good in my life, has happened because of you. I don’t want to be anywhere you’re not.”

Mali smiles, then shrugs. “’Kay.”

Zach laughs, pulling her against him as they walk again.

“I can post whatever I want on my socials, now, right?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Mali replies, their hands swinging. “Unless it’s shoes. Did you read the contract I sent?”

“Yeah, yeah, but like, personal stuff?”

“Oh, yeah. Whatever you want, honey.”

“’Ight.”

It’s quiet for a moment, and she feels him keep looking at her. “What?” she says with a laugh.

He raises his eyebrows a couple times. “I posted something.”

“Do you want me to look?”

Zach shrugs. “If you hate me, just say that.”

Mali stops him in the middle of the pavement. They only made it about twelve steps from where they stopped the last time. She wonders if anyone can see them from their house. She pulls her phone out from her purse, and Zach watches her the whole time. He bounces on his feet, and she’s already excited to see the photo of Buffy. Then, when she gets there, it’s her. Ten photos of her. Photos she never knew he’d taken. Her face isn’t in them, and her hair changes colour most of the time, but it’s her. Photos of her hiding behind her work laptop. Photos of her in the stands while Zach’s at training. Photos of her in the garden. Photos of her. For everyone to see.

The caption reads: “The brightest part of my life. - Shakespeare, probably.”

“It’s me.”

Zach hums. “It’s a soft launch, whatever the fuck that means, but Frankie told me you’d be proud of me.”

She sniffs, and Zach wipes away a tear before it can even touch her cheek. “I am very proud of you.”

“I just wanna show you off all the time,” he says, with a shrug. “But I can’t post you fully because I haven’t even asked you to be my girlfriend yet.”

She laughs. “Why haven’t you?”

“It needs to be romantic, and it’s not even raining, Mal.”

Mali laughs harder, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You are the most romantic person I know.” She moves to kiss him, but he pulls back.

“Wait,” he says, and he pulls her into the corner shop. It’s the only place in town that opens as late as the bar. God forbid people don’t have access to milk at midnight. Zach grabs a water bottle and a packet of fruit pastels, and Mali frowns as they head to the counter. Then she sees the pineapple Fanta and grabs a can. Corner shops always have the most random items; they truly are a treasure. The cashier puts his crossword down, but he doesn’t look happy about it.

He frowns, scanning the items. “Aren’t you Zachariah Azan?”

Zach looks up at him. “Yeah.”

“You gonna get us to the prem this year or what?”

Mali laughs, her hand still securely in his. “Hopefully,” Zach replies. “You gonna come watch?”

“Yeah.” Then he looks at Mali. “This your bird?”

Mali smiles, and Zach pulls her closer. “Yeah.”

“Tight. Two eighty-eight.”

Zach taps his phone, and they leave. He won’t tell her anything until they’re by the river, so she spends the next three minutes giggling every time he tries to make them walk faster.

When they get to their bench, Zach makes her stand on the path, and he goes to place his phone down. She wonders if he’s going to ask her to be his girlfriend right here. She’d say yes, of course. He positions her a few times and then grabs his water bottle, pulling the stopper up. “Hold this, and when I say let go, you gotta throw your arms up and squeeze it.”

She frowns. “We’ll get wet.”

He smiles. “Trust me?”

“Yes.”

Zach does something on his phone, and then he picks her up, spinning them around a few times. She looks at him, the smile on his face, and she kisses him. He spins them around faster, and she squeals. “Go, baby!”

Mali throws her arms up, squeezing the bottle, and water sprays all over them. She’s laughing harder than she has in ages, but it’s always with Zach. The massive, grumpy man the media thinks is nothing but a pretty face. The guy who could barely speak two words to her months ago, who has taken the time to figure out something that really, he could have just asked her. But he didn’t, because he knew she’d like it.

Mali kisses him because she can. She kisses him because she loves him. She kisses him because he says he could probably get some kid at the park to put Buffy in the video for him.

When he shows her his phone, she starts crying, but to be fair, she knew she would. It’s them, the moonlight illuminating behind them, and then they slow down, and the water looks like rain. It could be from a movie, and she guesses that’s the point. Mali doesn’t remember telling Zach she likes romantic gestures, but she must have. Or he figured it out. Either way, he remembered, and he made it happen for her.

“Why are you the most romantic guy of all time?”

He laughs, his hand under her chin. “Mali Okeye…”

She giggles, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Yes?”

“Will you please be my girlfriend?”

“Ye—”

“Forever,” he tacks onto the end, and she knows deep in her soul that it’s true.

“Yes.”