Page 39 of Set Play

I whip my head around to see Sarge standing in the main doorway. “Ye of little faith,” Élise admonishes the trio. But when she turns back to me, I can’t help but smirk alongside the others.

Yeah, if I get my way, one of them will definitely be collecting on that bet.

“All of you suck, you know that?”

That causes everyone to laugh, so she slaps her hands on her thighs and stands up. “Well, I’m leaving now. I need to finish reviewing the players’ health files with Baxter to see about personalized regimens to help with old injuries.”

The sound of laughter follows her as she heads down the hallway, but she dutifully ignores it. Just before she rounds the corner, she peers over her shoulder and catches my eyes before raising her middle finger in farewell. I blow her a kiss and shoot her a wink, chuckling when her shoulders rise and fall with a huff.

With a swish of her ponytail, she disappears from view, leaving me alone with the three Stooges still making jokes about how long this ‘relationship’ will last and asking me to either draw out or expedite the ‘courting’ process.

Élise

“So, Elliott’s knee has been a concern over the last three seasons?” I confirm with Baxter. He’s standoffish, and I’m pretty sure he just doesn’t like working with or answering to women.

Rolling his eyes, he replies, “Obviously.”

“And have you ever tried modifying his training regimen to strengthen the muscles and connective tissue in that knee to prevent a more serious injury?” I have to bite my tongue when he rolls his eyes again.

Rather than answering me, Baxter gets up and leaves in the middle of our meeting. Stunned, I sit there for several seconds until it’s clear he has no intention of coming back to finish our discussion. Slamming my notebooks closed, I get up and shove them into my bag.

“Woah,” a slightly airy voice exclaims. “You seem hella pissed off, girly. What’s going on?”

I can’t help but notice she says ‘going’ more like ‘go-een’ rather than pronouncing the second g. When I turn, I’m surprised to see a woman around my age, with golden blonde hair.

“Hey, I’m Gracie. One of the athletic trainers here. You must be Élise. I’ve been out on PTO, so I haven’t met you quite yet.”

“Oh, right,” I say, mentally shaking myself. “It’s lovely to meet you. Sorry about slamming things around. Your fellow trainer is a douchecanoe. I was trying to talk to him about customizing Cooper’s training regimen to strengthen that left knee, but he walked out on me.”

Gracie nods, like she’s not even the least bit surprised. “Yeah, that checks out. He’s hella annoying in my opinion. I’d offer to hear you out on Ell’s training, but we each have assigned players and I really don’t want to hear him whine if I ‘overstep’.”

I nod, completely understanding her position. “I get it; no worries. I’ll talk to Sarge and let him approach the issue. Maybe it’ll sound better coming from a male.” The reassuring nod she gives me settles my worry that Sarge won’t listen either.

Deciding that subject has run its course, I change it entirely. “So on a completely different topic, are you from NorCal? You have a slight accent that kind of sounds like the few people I’ve met from over that way. Plus you say ‘hella’ and, not to be stereotypical but, that screams ‘NorCal’ to me.”

She snorts with obvious amusement. “Yeah. My brother, Theo, and I were born and raised there. He’s one of the midfielders alongside your boo-thang.”

I almost choke on air at her proclamation. How the hell does she know about Mateo and me ‘dating’? We aren’t releasing our official statement until later this week.

After fighting for oxygen, I stare at her, trying to figure out how to ask her how she knows without sounding like I am hiding anything, when she breaks out into laughter.

This time, it’s not a snort; it’s a full belly laugh that leaves her bent over with her hands on her knees. “Girly, calm down! I’m pretty close with the team. I noticed Reyes acting a bit different lately and asked Theo about it. He said that there was a girl. And then Ryan spilled the beans in his ‘return to work’ email.”

Before I can ask why Ryan would tell an athletic trainer about a player’s dating life, she continues, “He told me so I can be aware of any potential extra cardio outside of Mateo’s workout regimen.”

I don’t even know what to say to that, but I feel my face flush. “Uh, right. Well. I’m just going to go crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment. It was great to meet you, Gracie. Maybe we can meet up in the afterlife for margs or something.”

“Don’t be embarrassed! But I am always down for margs. Maybe instead of meeting up in the afterlife, we can just get together after work?”

Now it’s my turn to laugh, “You know what? I’d like that. Hey.” I don’t second guess myself before continuing, “you know a few friends and I are having a girls’ night this weekend. Do you want to join us?”

“Hell yes!” We exchange numbers and I quickly add her to the existing group I share with Niamh and Reya. Within the time it takes me to leave the trainers’ office, the chat has blown up.

Today 3:17PM

Me:

Found a fourth for this weekend! Now we don't have to fight over who sits out for each game.