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Zach’s alarm vibrates from behind him, but he can’t move to reach it because Mali is asleep on his arm. Buffy pushes his paws into Zach’s back, a fair warning that he’ll scratch him if the noise doesn’t stop.

“If you don’t go to the Fun Day, Frankie’s going to kick you off the team,” Mali mumbles. But her hand is wrapped around his thumb, so he’s probably going to stay right here. Zach bends like an acrobat to turn his alarm off without moving Mali and without disturbing Buffy. He frowns when Buffy moves moments later. Zach wonders if Buff will sleep downstairs when they get another cat, or if he’ll become territorial and sleep on his face. Mali shuffles, and Zach grumbles.

“No…” He pulls her closer.

Her legs slide between his, and she’s so warm it should be criminal. “I’m not getting her to let you back on when she does.”

She kisses his forearm once, twice, three times. Mali stretches, and Buffy jumps off the bed, sauntering out of the room like he’s done with them. Her bum drags across his erection, but he’ll let it slide, just this once.

Zach kisses her shoulder. “You will.”

It’s been a full week of being her boyfriend, and he never wants to be anything else. He gets to wake up with her, he gets to hear her pillow thoughts, he gets to love her. He gets to touch her when she wakes up from a filthy dream.

She moves against him again with a moan. “How long until you have to leave?”

“You just said I’d get kicked off the team if I didn’t get up right this second,” he whispers, but his hand is already against her thigh. She laughs, but she tilts to accommodate him.

She links her fingers with his, pressing her lips to his knuckles. He leans over until he can whisper in her ear.

“On your knees, honey.”

Mali brushes powder over her face as she dances to Beyoncé. The Titanian Fun Day is today, and she’s silly excited. Ezra has been working so hard behind the scenes. Hopefully, they’ll be able to announce the junior league when the press gets there. Mali wonders if Cam is going to turn up. She’s supposed to be Ezra’s cheerleader, but she’s been bailing from so many events lately. Mali packs the spare Adebayo jersey she has just in case. She’ll get her dad to fill in for Zach. It’ll be cute, and traumatic.

The past week has been better than Mali thought it would be. Zach’s happy—genuinely happy—and he seems so much lighter now that he’s not constantly thinking about leaving, that there’s no grand upheaval in his future. She wonders if he’s going to talk to his brother ever again. Devon has dropped off letters, but Zach hasn’t opened them yet. Mali won’t force him to. She has no idea what that kind of betrayal would feel like, but she does know Zach. Still, she’ll give it a couple weeks.

Her phone buzzes next to her, and she can’t wait for Miriam to move in so she can turn the sound off. She smiles when Zach’s name comes up.

Bro of my life: Can you grab my wallet

Bro of my life: i miss you

Bro of my life: and can you grab my wallet pls

Bro of my life: I love you

Mali: where is it? But yes

Mali: even though you didn’t send me the voice notes from before you knew you were staying

Mali: I love you anyway

As she expected, he sends them all through, and she immediately mutes Beyoncé and presses play.

Mali: I muted the Queen for you

Bro of my life: i knew you loved me more than Bey!

Mali laughs, but she stops the moment his voice comes through the microphone. She doesn’t want to miss a moment.

“It’s been six hours since Frankie went home,” Zach says in the recording. He’s whispering. “You’re asleep right now. Well, I think you are. I want to check, but what if you’re awake and then I have to figure out how to leave? Unlikely, baby. I love you. That’s all. Goodnight.”

She presses play on the next one.

“I was talking to Teddy, and I told him that when I talk to myself, like in my mind, I use ‘literally’ every other sentence. I say ‘like’ like it’s going outta fashion, Mal. I say ‘innit’ in your posh voice. I miss you, and it’s been hours since I last saw you, and I can’t see how I can unfuck this, but I need to try. How mad will you be if I break my leg? I love you. I’m sorry.”

“You’re in the kitchen, and I miss you.”

“Do you think penguins are cute?”

“The shops are so busy. God, remember when you had the hots for me in ASDA?”

“I googled romantic movie scenes because you deserve one, and why do they all expect me to own a boombox? Baby, where am I going to get a boombox? I bet your dad has one. I don’t want the big romantic gesture to be because I’m sorry that I have to leave. I want it to be because it’s a Thursday and you smiled at me, and I can’t think of a single place I’d rather be... I’m gonna text your dad.”

Mali doesn’t cry, because she’s just done her eyeliner and Zach is right here. The sadness in his voice doesn’t mean anything bad anymore. All it means is that he loves her, and he didn’t want to leave. They got their wish, and the new contract is stuck to the fridge with a love-heart magnet Zach bought her from the tourist shop down by the beach.

Still, she listens to the rest. He tells her what he’s cooking. He tells her his thoughts as he drives around completing errands for his mum. He repeats Shakespeare quotes that she barely understands, but she listens because he’s been trying this whole time.

Mali pulls on her cheerleading outfit, and the voice note clicks off again. She goes to press play, but it’s the last one. Maybe it’s a butt-dial this time, but then the sound of him moving comes out of her speaker. She wonders what he was doing. Was he in her room? Or trying to fall asleep? Maybe she’ll get lucky and he’ll tell her.

“Hey,” he whispers. “I miss you. I’m thinking about you, and how selfish it would be to ask you to be with me even though I have to move. Do you think you’d call me? I want you to call me. I want to call you too. I thought maybe I shouldn’t, but I don’t wanna go another second with you thinking there’s anything I want in life other than you. And yeah, I get that it’s my fault, and I’m sorry. I will be, forever and a day, if that’s even a thing. If we never see each other again—which makes me want to crawl into a hole, so please, let’s not do that—anyway, what was I saying? Mal, baby, stop distracting me. Oh yeah, if we never see each other again, I will be hopelessly, uselessly yours, forever. I do fear my words ain’t Shakespeare, honey, but I hope you know I love you completely. From the dawn of the dinosaurs and until the end of the Earth, I am yours. You can do what you like with me; I’m here for you. I hope you’ll call. Bye, baby. I love you.”

Mali’s almost at the office, and she can see the players on the pitch. There’s bunting across the entire width of the field, and Mali wonders how mad Ezra is that he had to put it all up. She decides to walk over the grass today. The stalls are out already, and the players are all here early. There’s already a small queue of people in the carpark, so she thinks today will be a success. She hopes so anyway.

She spots Zach stretching, and she wants to leave him a voice note, so she pulls out her phone and starts recording.

“This isn’t quite a call, but it counts. I can see you. You look so hot in your uniform,” she says, smiling when he spots her. His eyes go wide, and she wonders if he’s a stereotypical guy that likes cheerleading uniforms. She’s going to ask, and then she’s going to get whatever he likes.

“I listened to all your voice notes, and I think you’ve spoiled me forever. I never thought I’d get a guy as cute as you, that has such good thighs and a magical—wait, don’t listen to this with anyone. Never mind, I’m not saying it out loud anyway. But you’re really hot. Remember when you could only talk to me in weather terms? Well, it’s sunny this weekend. Wanna have a barbeque? You’re looking right at me. Your brow is all furrowed. You’re so cute. I love you so much. Bye.”

“Hey,” she says, walking up to him. He hugs her, kissing her once.

“Hi,” he replies, looking her over. “You look hot as fuck.”

She spins. “Thanks.”

Zach’s eyes are still wide when she stops spinning. “Who were you talking to?”

Mali shrugs, letting her fingers linger against his stomach. “You’ll never know. Is Cam here?”

Zach laughs. “’Ight. Er, I haven’t seen Cam, but Sweet Tooth stuff is here. And our parents are going to be here soon, but Frankie has us waiting out here.”

“Dammit,” she mumbles. Zach holds her hands.

“You don’t think she’s coming?”

“I dunno. I have a backup plan.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll wear Ezra’s name. Daraki can’t move his hips that well,” she says, and Zach laughs, then frowns. Mali drops his hands, moving away.

“Mal,” he says quickly. “Baby, if you’re wearing his name, who’s wearing mine?”

She shrugs, but she’s glad he’s not sad about it. He frowns further, and she walks away.

“It’s your dad, isn’t it?!”

“I’ve gotta go!” she calls out. “Bye!”

“Mal,” he shouts, and she turns around. Everyone’s looking at her, but so is Zach, so she doesn’t care. “I love you.”

She smiles. “I love you too.”

Cheerleading is about as embarrassing as Mali expected it to be when Cam mentioned it weeks ago. She never needs to see her father in a skirt ever again. But people are cheering, and Frankie cries with laughter when Imani waves her pompoms in her face, F. ADEBAYO on her jersey. Zach videos them the entire time, but his gaze is always on her. That’s all she ever cares about.

The local business came through, and Mali reckons they can get a few partnerships up and running for the community throughout the summer. The Fun Day is more successful than she ever though it would be. She gets the number 9 painted on her left cheek, because Zach always kisses her on the right. Her dad gets the number 12 on both of his cheeks and takes about a million selfies. Mali wonders if he’ll have a midlife crisis when Ezra retires. She gets to watch the moment Zach announces the junior league, and he does an on-camera interview that should (but probably won’t) go viral for all the right reasons. She wonders if he’ll end up on the back of the papers this week.

Mali sits on the bench, smiling at the sun. Summer is truly around the corner. Zach keeps telling her spring is lying. There will be another spring awakening and a month of rain before summer starts fully. She knows that, of course. There’s nothing about a British summer that isn’t half downpour. For right now, she smiles at the sun.

“Hey,” Mali says, when Ezra comes over.

“Nice performance,” he says. “Though I dunno if I’ll forgive you for making Mum dress up.”

Mali laughs. “I saw way too much of my dad. Got many junior sign ups?” When she looks up at Ezra, he’s frowning. Ezra is always frowning, but it’s different today. She wonders if he’s down because Cam isn’t here.

“A couple, I think,” he mutters. Mali smiles, but Ezra stays standing next to her, looking out onto the pitch. “Zach tells me you want me to do a The Proposal -style thing?”

Traitor.

Mali’s eyes go wide, but Ezra looks about as amused as he’ll allow, so she explains. “It was a silly thought! Besides, it was back when we had no other sponsorships, and I thought the public would go nuts over you being in a relationship.”

He hums, sitting on the bench next to her. “Well, I had to watch the movie, so you owe me a cookie or something for that—”

“Sandra Bullock is the world’s greatest actress, and I’ll do no such thing.”

Ezra grunts. “Anyway, that sounds like hell, but if you want… I can go over sponsorship options with you next week.”

She hides the gasp as well as she can. It’s not that well. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I need a distraction.” Is Ezra trying to talk to her? Are they having girl talk?

“What’s up?”

He shrugs. “Nothing. Just… I dunno how much longer I’ll be on the pitch.”

Mali raises her eyebrows. She’s thought about Ezra retiring. He’s the oldest on the team. Thirty-two, she thinks, but his wiki page is out of date, and he won’t tell anyone when his birthday is. Only Frankie knows, and she’s a vault.Cam probably knows too, but she's not here.

“You know people will want you for things other than rugby, right? Whatever you wanna do after, you’ve got a ton of options.”

“You think?” He looks at her once, and she’s never seen him look unsure. It’s the strangest look; it doesn’t suit him.

“Are you joking? You’re Ezra Adebayo.”

He smiles. A real, not quite large enough for anyone to notice but it counts smile.

“Monday?” he asks.

“Innit.”

He laughs. “You use that wrong, but it’s hilarious.” Ezra goes to leave, but he turns back around. “I’m glad everything worked out with Zach. Just so you know, I was basically his wingman. Y’know, if he’s thinking about who’ll be best man, or godfather.”

Mali rolls her eyes. “Go save your sister from the gaggle of rugby mums.”

Ezra laughs. “She’s already had an argument with one chick, but I think it’s because she fancies her and doesn’t know how to play it cool.”

Mali gets up as fast as her legs allow. “’Kay, wait, I’m coming.” She walks with him, and she can see Frankie fuming as they walk. There’s a woman with dark skin and her hair thrown up in a big clip. She looks a little like a stereotypical housewife. That’s the woman Frankie is blushing over. She’s so obvious. Mali grabs hold of Zach’s hand as she walks past, and he follows her.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hey,” she replies. “Ezra wants to be your best man, and we’re going to save Frank. Wanna come?”

“Lead the way.”

“Oh,” she says quieter, and Zach leans his head down to hear her, “and you’re in trouble for telling Ezra about my pillow thoughts.”

Zach laughs, pressing his lips to her temple. “How much trouble?”

“So much.”

“Can’t wait.”