Team Tomás (The Saints Team #2) (11 page)

Chapter 21

Game day and my first working game day for the Saints—I
was a little nervous even though I was mainly in gatekeeper mode looking after
what had already been set up. There was no post-morning glow and snuggling up
to Tomás—he had a match to play and he was up super early. I felt his hand on
my back, he nuzzled into my neck and told me not to get up, and after touching his
lips on my neck, he rose and got to it. I wished him good luck and watched his
superb body as he strode out of the room. I heard him down in the kitchen for a
while and then in the shower but I kept out of his way to let him do his
pre-game routines. I was happy to enjoy his scent in the bed just that little
bit longer. I heard his motorbike start and he was gone.

I stretched out in his huge bed
for another fifteen minutes or so before getting up. No hot yoga for me today,
I had already enjoyed a good workout. Mm, I felt wet just thinking about it. Our
next sex class was going to be penetration—Tomás’s words not mine—the official
deflowering. I couldn’t wait, just take it Tomás, the sooner the better.

I forced myself out of his bed and
away from the scene of the sex crime and into the shower. I put on my work
outfit, this time with panties, and headed out. As I locked the front door,
Valentina drove up in a sporty little red convertible and gave me a wave. She
jumped out of the car, locking it.

“Alice,” she said. Bless her for
remembering my name. That was hopeful.

“Hi Valentina,” I said, “I’m just
heading off to work. Tomás has already gone.”

“Call me Tina, everyone does. I’m
sorry we didn’t get a chance to catch up.”

“Thanks, me too.” I smiled. “Are
you coming to the game?”

“Not today,” she said. “I often do
but I’ve got a rehearsal. I sing at a jazz club on a Saturday and Sunday
night,” she explained.

“Oh wow, that’s fantastic.”

“Come if you can; it would be
great to see you there.” She sat back, leaning on the bonnet of her car. “Tomás
is picking up a family friend from the airport this evening so he won’t be able
to come with you, but bring a friend if you like.”

“I’d love to,” I said. “I used to
love Sunday jazz afternoons at Clifton Street; I’d go with some of my college
friends.”

“I’ve sung there,” she said. “It’s
a good little venue. I’ll leave two tickets at the door under your name at the
Buzz
Club
. I’m on early from six to seven, then a jazz swing band comes on from eight.
Don’t sweat it if you can’t make it, there’s no set seating, they’re just entry
tickets.”

“Thanks Tina, sounds great. I’d best
get to work then,” I said and gave her a wave, departing. I still felt like a
kid beside her, she was so voluptuous.

*****

I had gone to the first few Saints’ games with Mia on
Lucas’s tickets but now that I was working with the Saints, I had my own two
tickets allocated to me. I gave those to my brother Ryan and one of his
friends. The staff seats weren’t as good as the WAG seats but they were still
damn good.

I parked in the staff area and being
nice and early, it was still easy to get around the grounds. The crowds
wouldn’t start to arrive in earnest for about another thirty minutes or so. I
took a few moments to get my mind on the job and check I had everything I
needed—I wanted to make sure my boss Jim was happy with my performance today.

My predecessor had done a good
job; today for my first day I just had to follow through... check that the
Saints’ mascot showed up—another college student doing a part-time job in a
large Saint Bernard dog suit—check the kids’ entertainers arrived and the post-game
band was sorted, check the catering had arrived for the trainers and physios,
and a few other bits and pieces were in place. It was all going like clockwork.

In no time the crowds were pouring
in and thirty minutes before game time, I finished the event work I had to do
on my checklist. I checked in at the VIP membership marquee to see if Jim and
Kay needed a hand, then checked with Sasha in the media box to see if she was okay.
Everyone was good, so, I was free to head up to the grandstand and sit next to
Mia.

Earlier, Mia was doing work
experience in the physio rooms but Lucas wanted her seated before he ran onto
the ground so he could look for her, like a lucky charm. Tomás and I were new at
this and we weren’t official, so while he offered me his complimentary seats in
the WAG section, he didn’t mention anything about needing to spot me in the
crowd. Damn shame.

Spotting Mia in place, I dropped
into the seat next to her. She gave me a quick hug. She was always nervous
before a match, and now we both were. And then the boys took to the grounds.
The crowd was full on and the rival team—the Columbus Cats from Ohio—brought
their own fans with them. They must have flown in by the thousands. The atmosphere
was electric and only added to the tension. We gave the Cats a round of
applause as they ran past our stand, but not everyone was as generous.

Then our Saints appeared, coming
out of the run with Lucas in the lead. We saved our cheers for them and now my
vested interest was even bigger. Behind Lucas I could see The Russian. Ed was
in the pack, and I recognized German Nik from meeting him fleetingly at Lucas’s
pre-season party and then my man Tomás appeared. Lucas looked our way and Mia smiled
at him. He didn’t return it, just took it in and kept moving. Tomás didn’t look
my way, but he was the picture of concentration; I guess there was a lot of
pressure being a goalkeeper—if you let an opposition’s ball into the net and
they score, it could be all over for your team unless the boot of Lucas and
other players put more through the net at the other end. The game was much more
exciting to me now that I knew some of the players personally and one in
particular intimately.

Our team looked so good; so fit
and ready as they did their warm-up around the grounds. The crowd was seriously
enormous, and the stadium was bursting; it must have been both exciting and
daunting to play in front of them. It was the first time we had played the Cats
this season, but we had won against them twice last year and lost one, so they
weren’t going to be a walkover. The players got into position and the siren
blasted. The game was on.

I didn’t breathe for the first
quarter, so it’s a wonder I’m still alive. Twice the ball went towards Tomás
and he was totally on guard, not making any mistakes. The Cats were doing all
they could to get the ball past him, and Tomás had the area well and truly
covered. The Saints were having a good match but there was nothing in it yet.
Neither team had scored until Harry in the striker position slipped one past
the Cats’ goalkeeper and scored. It was his first ever goal for the Saints as a
new kid on the block and the team and crowd loved it.

By halftime Lucas had put a goal
in and it was a big score by soccer standards. Tomás had been under enormous
pressure and the guys seated in front—I was eavesdropping for their
commentary—said he had done a brilliant job. I smiled a satisfied smile—great
on the ground and in bed... what more would you want?

I held my breath as the Cats
worked the ball back down their end of the ground again and Tomás came alive,
moving in for the attack before they came too close to the goal. Backing him
up, Jackson in defence was holding his own but the Cats still had a shot at
goal and I inhaled sharply, watching the ball travel through the air as if it
was in slow motion to the goal.

Tomás intervened, stopping the
goal, and you could hear a collective sigh of relief followed by the roar from
the Saints’ fans. He held the ball as if he was born with it in his hands,
looked around for an unmarked Saints player and kicked it well over forty yards
down the field, landing it in the secure orbit of Nik or the Kaiser as the boys
called him. I breathed again. I didn’t know how I was going to get through the
season. The Russian was having a solid game too, he was solid in every
respect—that man was a wall.

When the fulltime siren went—thank
the Lord because I was exhausted from watching—the Saints had won the game two
goals to nil. The players were pumped, celebrating in a huddle, and the fans
streamed onto the ground. Security tried to keep them back and get the players
off the field but they had their work cut out for them. Mia and I hugged each other
with relief. Praise the Saints for our Saints winning! I squirmed with pleasure,
thinking where one Saints’ player’s tongue had been last night.

Chapter 22

I didn’t see Tomás after the game; he had to go to
the club rooms for the usual post-match discussions, physio and media
interviews. Then he was going straight to the airport. I sent him a text to
congratulate him on a brilliant game. I wasn’t expecting a text back until he
had access to his phone later and got sorted.

The usual post-match drinks were
on at the
Shaken Not Stirred
bar, but I decided not to go this time; now
that I worked in the office I didn’t want to O.D. on Saints—I saw plenty of some
of the guys and didn’t want to look like a major groupie. Besides, my college
friends weren’t going either because exam week was upon us. I was lucky that my
final assessments were assignments and I didn’t have to cram for an exam.

Mind you, if I was with Tomás tonight,
I would have gone to the post-match party, but he had to pick up
that
friend from the airport. Julieta—I wondered how friendly she really was. Luckily,
I didn’t have to worry about going alone though to hear Valentina. Mia wanted
to come with me at six and then she organized to meet Lucas at the
Shaken Not
Stirred
bar at seven-thirty. Valentina was performing for only an hour and
I could drop Mia off to the bar on my way home and have a much-needed early
night. It had been a huge week with work, Tomás’s sex classes and the
conference—I was seriously wiped out. It didn’t help that I hadn’t been
sleeping because Tomás dominated my every thought... so worth the sleep
deprivation.

Mia looked up the address of the
Buzz
Club
on her phone, while I drove in what I thought was the general
direction.

“I love that you are coming with
me, but you don’t have to,” I reminded her.

“I want to,” she said, with a
quick glance in my direction. “We haven’t been to a jazz club for ages and with
work and study we don’t see much of each other now, and I see plenty of Lucas.
He won’t even notice I’m not there for the first hour while he dissects the
game with the boys,” she said, pointing to the right hand turn up ahead.

“Oh he’ll notice, he likes to keep
you in sight,” I teased. “It’s cute.”

“It is kind-of in a non-stalker
way.” She grinned. “Do you see him in the office much?”

I shook my head. “Only once in my
first week. My department, marketing, is on the other side of the building from
football management, so unless they’re coming to see us about appearances or
wanting merchandise, or to visit Ed and The Russian, we don’t see the players
much.”

“What’s it like working next door
to Ed and The Russian?” Mia asked. “They’re both hot.”

“I’m sorry, but aren’t you with
the hottest guy in the team, except maybe for my Tomás?” I nudged her.

She laughed. “Yeah but I’m not
dead, I can appreciate good art when I see it. The Russian is so big and Ed...
mm, that velvety skin and those big soulful eyes.” She sighed.

I shook my head.

“What? You haven’t noticed?” She
narrowed her eyes at me.

I bit my lip while I thought about
it. “I might have.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right. I heard
The Russian has broken up with Leesa. She hasn’t been at the last few games.”

“I noticed. I only met her once
though, and she was nice,” I agreed.

“Turn next left and we should be
there,” Mia said. “He hasn’t said anything? The Russian?”

I shook my head. “No, he probably
wouldn’t mention it around me or the girls anyway. You know what guys are like,
they hardly wear their hearts on their sleeves.”

I pulled my car into the parking
lot of the jazz bar, which was already packed and found a spot. We exited the
car, I locked it and we made our way in. The doorman marked my name off and
welcomed us. Inside the
Buzz Club
was great; moody and atmospheric. We
grabbed a wine from the bar and found a few seats along the bench rows that
faced the small, elevated stage. Tables were dotted around the room and a large
oval dance space had attracted one slow dancing couple in front of the stage.
Valentina was already on stage and her voice was perfectly soulful; she was all
woman as she swayed and played up to her three piece band—one on keyboard,
another on the sax and one on the horn. Her sound was rich and throaty and she
wore a fitted black dress, low cut to show her full figure. I bet she was one
of those girls at school who had curves years before the rest of us.

“Is that her?” Mia asked,
whispering in my ear.

I nodded and touched her glass
with mine in a toast.

“Wow,” Mia said. “I can see a bit
of resemblance with Tomás, but she’s something.”

“I know.” We tapped along as
Valentina started a new song: “
Someone to Watch over Me
” attracting
whistles and applause—it must have been a favorite of her regulars.

More couples moved onto the dance
floor, swaying in rhythm. She was mesmerizing and the song was so beautiful it
made me a bit teary. Next she was joined on stage by an older man in a
three-piece suit wearing a hat that suited him no end and they did a wonderful
duet of
When I Fall in Love
.

“I’m so glad we came,” Mia said,
her eyes wide.

“I know; how good is the mood in
here?” I agreed. “I just wish Lucas and Tomás were with us and we could slow
dance.”

Mia scoffed. “Yeah, not sure I
could get Lucas on the dance floor unless he had a guitar in his hands.”

I imagined Tomás in a dark suit
slow dancing with me to this song—I was in heaven just thinking about it. His
sister was so talented. I wondered if she moved here to try and get more work
or to launch her career.

Valentina had just started her
third number when Mia nudged me. “We better get going then,” she said,
finishing off her wine with one large gulp.

I looked at my watch. It was
nearing quarter to seven and Valentina was only on until seven; still plenty of
time to get Mia to the
Shaken Not Stirred
bar by seven-thirty.

“Oh, okay. Aren’t you enjoying
this?” I asked, wondering why she wanted to cut early when she had been happy
to stay for the one hour set beforehand.

“It’s great, but I’ve got to go to
the ladies’ and it’s getting packed in here,” she said, looking over at the
ladies’ toilet. “Perhaps we should start exiting.”

“Sure.” I shrugged. I finished my
few sips of wine and grabbed my bag to follow her. She grabbed my arm with some
urgency and then I saw why. I heard why first—someone yelled out the name ‘Tomás’
and I looked to Valentina whose face had lit up as she looked to the door. Tomás
was standing there and under his arm and wrapped around him was a beautiful
woman—slim, with dark long-flowing hair, big breasts and a tiny waist, she just
came up to his shoulders. I turned to Mia and she was biting her lip, looking
at me.

I looked back. I couldn’t take my
eyes off the scene at the door. Tomás grinned at Valentina as if he was
delighted to get there in time while she was still performing. A waiter showed
them to a small reserved table at the front right of stage. Tomás and Julieta—assuming
that was her—were more than friends by the look of it, much, much more and
Valentina was delighted to see them. Then, to put an end to any of my doubts,
Valentina said, “ah ladies and gentlemen, my brother Tomás who you may know and
his girlfriend, Julieta. Did you win?” she asked him.

I couldn’t see Tomás for a moment
but everyone cheered acknowledging he did. Mia said my name and I nodded.

“Let’s go,” I agreed. We forgot
about the trip to the ladies’ toilet and made out way towards the door. I
wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Tides of nausea and grief were riding up
from my stomach. I had fallen in love with this man; my lips were on him late
last night and early this morning. Was he seeing other people all that time and
just making sure I had a memorable loss of virginity experience? Had I read it
so completely wrong? Was it completely my fault and was I a total idiot?

Mia’s hand looped through my arm
and she took over, leading the way to the door—I walked there in a daze. There
were lots of people moving around and I tried to blend in behind them and not
make eye contact but I couldn’t help but look at them. They were this beautiful,
sexy couple, the royalty of the room—it was a horror movie. I expected everyone
to turn and look at me in unison and laugh.

As we got near the door Tomás
looked away from her and towards the waiter who passed me. His eyes flicked
from the waiter to me and realization dawned. I saw his eyes widen and his lips
said my name and then I was gone, through the door with Mia and racing towards
my car. I unlocked it and we fell into it. I just wanted to get away as fast as
I could. I started the car, drove forward and turned right up the street. Mia
said nothing; she reached over and put her hand on my leg which was shaking.

“I’ll come home with you,” she
said.

I shook my head. “Thanks, M, but
there’s nothing you can do. I have to process this.”

“We can talk, have a wine or a
coffee, work through it,” she insisted.

I touched her hand on top of my
leg and squeezed it. I knew I was white. I could feel the color draining from
me and that awful clammy feeling of vacillating between hot and cold.

“I appreciate it, really, but I
need to be alone. I’m okay.” I glanced at her and back at the road. “I just
need to process it all and I’ve got work tomorrow. I’ll be busy. I’ll keep
busy.” I felt like I was having an out of body experience—it was so surreal.

Why did he go there with her?
Because he knew I would probably be at
Shaken Not Stirred
with Mia or at
home? Why didn’t he tell me? If I hadn’t seen them, when would he have told me?
After we’d done the final ‘class’?

I heard my phone ringing in my
bag.

“Do you want that?” Mia asked and
I shook my head in the negative.

She knew how badly I’d fallen for
him. She’d had daily reports except for the sex classes and she had promised it
would all stay in the vault. Thank God no one else in the club knew we were an
item other than a bit of flirting. How humiliating that would have been.

“Do you think Valentina knew when
she gave you the tickets? Do you think she knew they would be there?” Mia
asked. “Maybe she really likes that other woman and wanted you to back off Tomás.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know,
but I don’t think so. Tina seems so lovely and she told me Tomás wouldn’t be
there because he had an airport run. I doubt she even remembered to tell Tomás
she gave me the tickets. He was gone when she got home this morning,” I said.

I could be wrong, but I didn’t
believe that of her, she seemed so genuine and I wanted to give her the benefit
of the doubt. She hadn’t been judgmental of me the first time she found me in Tomás’s
bed; she had been really accepting.

I pulled up outside the
Shaken Not
Stirred
bar and left the car running as I turned to Mia. “Thanks for coming
with me, thank God you were there,” I said.

 “Why don’t you come in for a
while? Just have a drink and dance, distract yourself,” she suggested.

I thought about it for a second
but I knew I would be terrible company; totally in my head
analyzing
it all and morose.

“No,” I whispered, “I’ll just go
home and...” I let the sentence trail off.

“I’ll leave my phone on and I’ll
be up, so no matter what time you need to talk, you call me, okay? No matter
what time,” she said, with emphasis.

I smiled and nodded. “Thanks.
Please don’t tell Lucas, or anyone.”

“Never,” she said, and leaning
over Mia kissed me on the cheek and got out of the car. I saw her watching me drive
away.

I wanted to do something but I
didn’t know what—I felt like crying but the tears wouldn’t come. I wanted to
scream but nothing would come out. I think I might have been in some sort of
shock if it applied to love. I didn’t know what to do and so I drove home on
automatic pilot. I now knew why people avoided being in love too; so painful,
so excruciatingly painful... why would anyone put themselves through this? The
highs were great but the lows were just so very low.

I pulled into the garage at home
and I heard my phone ringing again. I turned off the car ignition, grabbed the
phone from my bag and put it on silent. It was Tomás calling and there was
another missed call and a message. I didn’t want to hear from him that it was
over before it started with us and I didn’t want to hear his excuses. He knew
she was coming and yet he didn’t tell me, he still dated me and slept with me.
What could he say now?

If he had been honest with me, I
could have made the choice to keep it casual or not progress with him but he
didn’t give me that option. He held all the cards. I couldn’t get the picture
out of my head of her snuggling into Tomás’s body as if she was designed to fit
against him. Then again, maybe it was my fault… maybe I read way too much into what
we had going on.

I took a deep breath, exited the
car and went into the house. Ryan was in his room on his computer and probably
would be for the rest of the night. Dad was having a coffee in front of the
golf on the television.

“Hello love, great game today,
your boy did well,” Dad said.

“He did. It was a great win. I’m
so exhausted...”

“Of course, it’s been a big week
for you,” Dad agreed.

“I’m going to shower and turn in
now.”

“All right love. I’ve got a seven
o’clock meeting onsite in the morning so if I don’t see you, I’ll see you
tomorrow night? I’ll be home at six to help you with the move to Cassie’s place.”

I couldn’t think about that right
now.

 “Thanks Dad. Night,” I said, and
kissed him on the cheek as I passed.

Dad was an engineer who had to do
onsite reports throughout construction processes. I guessed the first few weeks
without me around were going to be hard for him because I’m adorable, okay, I
cooked dinner, so it was good if he was busy. I’m not sure if Ryan would notice
I was gone. At least the move was another thing to look forward to and focus
on—so much was happening so quickly.