“Then that’s what we’re going to do. I already told them about our dietary restrictions, so don’t worry about that. If they’re hungry afterwards, they can grab something on the way back.”

“Yeah, but they’re sleeping over at your place, which wouldn’t be fair.”

I shrug. “I’ll survive. Maybe I can survive on the smell alone. Ha, imagine me huffing a take-out bag, Jesus Christ.” I laugh at myself, clasping Jesse’s hand tighter.

“How are you doing?” Jesse asks, and it throws me sometimes, how he always checks in.

I nod. “Pretty good. Excited for tomorrow, except Coach brought up the almost one-year anniversary of my injury and now it’s all I can think about.” I glance over at Jesse, who’s doing some nodding of his own, like he understands.

“It’s important to acknowledge it,” he says, and I wonder if he’s thinking about his past injury, too. As always, we’re kinda in the same boat. “But I’m not letting myself actively think about it, or dwell on it.”

“Yeah, well, how are you doing that? Teach me your ways, Windy.” I press my mouth to the back of his hand. “Teach me, teach me.”

“Now she’s trying to be cute,” he says, groaning, fidgeting in his seat.

“We don’t have to go to my apartment, you know. Unless you don’t want them knowing your address, which is fair. But then again, they still need it if we send them a taxi, or can you just give it to the taxi driver?” I muse to myself, and Jesse adjusts his trajectory to bring us to his place instead of going to mine.

“I’ll send a taxi to pick them up at your place,” he says, nodding. “They’ll probably be more comfortable that way.”

I hum an affirmative sound. “Sure, sure. Let me just make sure everyone’s ready,” I mumble, pulling up the group chat, shooting off quick messages, and now I have nothing else to do but wait for an answer. “I can’t believe it’s almost the middle of the week already. Like, they just got here, and they’re going to have to leave soon,” I sigh.

“You know how hard it is to stay friends after moving across the world like that? And yet, you three have managed it, somehow. That’s got to be worth something, doesn’t it?”

I squeeze my grip around Jesse’s hand, feeling a little down, thinking about Aria and Raleigh leaving again.

I’m fine when I’m training, when I have a goal in mind that I want to accomplish—I’m fine then, at that moment. It’s when I let myself think about them for too long that I really, really miss them.

Which is stupid, because they’re here, we’re all here, in the same city, and we’re going to live it up.

“Yeah, yeah. I know you’re right; I know. I’m excited for tomorrow’s game, though, excited to play. Plus, the end of the week, and the weekend off—I’m looking forward to it. I plan on going to the airport with them on Saturday,” I say, even though no one in their right mind would want to go to the airport for any reason at all, but I quite like Heathrow.

“I can drive you, if you’d like.”

I snort, but it sounds forced, even to my own ears. “And ruin your Saturday?”

“It’s not going to be ruined if I get to spend time with you.”

“Oh my God, you’re so cheesy, I love it. I love you, Jesse,” I laugh, pressing kisses all over the back of his hand, and he looks like he wants to lunge over his seat and kiss me, but he’s driving and needs to pay attention to the road.

I think I’m going to be in for it as soon as we get to his place, and honestly, I’m looking forward to getting kissed breathless by one of the top footballers in the world (besides me, of course).

“You’re going to come to that K-pop concert, right? We’ve got front-row tickets, right up against the barricade, or so Raleigh’s said. I’ve never been to a concert before, let alone in the standing area.”

“You’ve never been to a concert before? How did I not know that?”

I shrug, working my shoulders, not liking how tight they feel especially in between my shoulder blades. More stretching is in order, it looks like. “My dad said something once about taking me to a KISS concert when I was little, but honestly, I don’t remember any of that.” I stifle a yawn, twisting my head from side to side so something in my neck pops.

“Ah, so what are we cooking, good-looking?” I ask when Jesse parks his car, and we both get out and head to the mudroom. I go through first once my shoes and bag are discarded and left by the door.

“Maddie,” he groans, tripping over my bag, and I have to catch him around the waist to make sure he doesn’t face plant.

“How did you not see my bag? Honestly—”

I get kissed to within an inch of losing my life, the lack of oxygen making spots dance in front of my eyes, my breathing erratic when Jesse does pull back, contained again, restraining himself.

“Do you know how much you drive me crazy? Do you have any idea, at all?”

I shake my head, gulp, and press my mouth to his again. “Less talking, more kisses,” I order, moving my arms from around his waist to move around his shoulders, fingers in his hair, sighing against his mouth as he moves to press us closer together, pushing me up against the wall, our tongues tangling together.

I don’t even know how much time passes, only that my phone is buzzing in quick succession in the pocket of my joggers, and it could be important, it could be, but Jesse’s mouth is so addictive that I don’t want to let go.

He makes the decision for the both of us, pulling back until we’re both laughing at each other, at how out of breath we are, while I fish my phone out of my pocket and start checking all the notifications that have come in.

I press my fingers to my tingling mouth as Jesse presses in close, kissing my cheek, nuzzling into my temple, and wrapping his arms tightly around me in the world’s most satisfying hug. “Looks like we’re going to have company as soon as the taxi’s sent over,” I say, petting down Jesse’s hair, making sure he looks somewhat presentable even though we’re both in club shirts and joggers, in our version of comfy clothes.

I don’t care what he looks like or what I look like, and I’m not going to try and put some makeup on and stab my eye out with a mascara wand, no thank you.

“Come on,” I say, dragging a hand down to the back of his neck, giving him an affectionate squeeze. “We’ve got work to do.”