LOGINAvery's POVGerald had not called me yet. It was nearly one week now.I had spoken to Pat on Friday. She had said talk to Gerald on Monday. Monday had come and gone and it was now Thursday evening and the numbers in my banking app had not improved and the mortgage payment was due in four days.I was at the kitchen table with my laptop open and the numbers on the screen. I had a piece of paper where I had written the same sum three different ways trying to find an arrangement that worked. There was none. Three hundred and twelve dollars short regardless of the order.I did not hear my mum come down the stairs. I only knew she was there when she pulled out the chair across from me and sat down and looked at the paper on the table with the expression she had when she was deciding whether to say something."How long have you been at that?" she asked."A while."She looked at the numbers, then at me. "You forgot to eat again.""I had something.""What did you have?""Toast.""That is not a
Avery's POVall I wanted to do when I got home was to tell Jade about the new guy that I met. I didn't consider having feelings for him because I still love Liam, but I just wanted to tell my best friend about the nice guy that I met at the coffee shop. She was still not talking to me yet. I thought she was at least going to say hello at practice on Saturday, but she pretended like I was a total stranger. I came out of my front door in the morning at eight fifty-three and Jade came out of hers about a minute later.We both stopped.Not for long. A second, maybe two, the brief pause of two people who had not expected to encounter each other and were recalibrating. She had her bag over one shoulder and her keys in her hand, dressed for the day, hair done, jacket on — the Jade that existed for the outside world rather than the one I saw at home. I was dressed for the day too. Both of us were ready to be somewhere else and neither of us expected the other to be in the space between o
Avery's POVHe was at the table again on Monday.Same seat. The one by the outlet. He was already there when I came in and he looked up when the door opened and said, "You came back.""It is a good table.""It is the best table," he said. "I have done the research. The outlet works, the light is right, and the barista on the Monday afternoon shift does not force small talk on customers.""That last one is actually important.""It is the most important. I do not need to be asked how my day is going by someone who cannot help with the answer." He looked at the chair across from him. "Pull one up."I pulled up the chair across from him. The barista came over without me asking. I ordered an oat latte, Ethan ordered another coffee, the barista went away, and neither of us said anything."Did you try the frame?" Ethan asked."What frame?""What the system is trying to solve. For the module. I said it might make the case studies more readable.""I forgot.""Fair enough.""I have had a week."
Avery's POVI was alone in the coffee shop on the south side of campus with nothing in front of me because I had not ordered anything and was not sure I was going to.The barista from the week before was not on shift. There was a different one today, younger, who had taken one look at me, asked if I needed a minute before ordering, and I had said yes. That had been twenty minutes ago. At some point I was going to have to either order or leave and I was not ready to do either.My phone was in my bag.I had put it in there before leaving the house because the alternative was spending the afternoon watching the share count on footage of my own face. I had done enough of that this week to know what it cost me.I looked at the wall."Do you mind if I sit here?"I looked up.A man from one of my lectures. He had been in the same room as me for one class all semester and we had been in a seminar group together briefly in July. I knew his name because the lecturer used it. He asked good ques
Avery's POVVega called an emergency meeting for Wednesday at four.The message went to the full squad list. Mandatory attendance. Meeting room off the main corridor. Thirty minutes. I read it and put my phone down and thought about what thirty minutes in a room with all of them again was going to feel like.Then I stopped because it did not change what it was going to be.I got there first and took the seat at the end of the table nearest the window. Behind me I could see the athletics building and the car park and Liam's usual parking spot which was empty at this hour. I looked at the whiteboard instead. Someone had written a formation count on it in blue marker that had never been fully wiped and underneath it in lighter marks from two or three meetings ago were other diagrams that had become ghosts.I kept my eyes on the whiteboard and waited.They came in. Mia took the chair to my left. Chloe took the seat across from me, put her hands on the table, and looked at nothing. Brianna
Avery's POVI got to the gym early and stood in the middle of the floor with nobody else in it and breathed.I had about eight minutes before the first person arrived. I had the floor under my feet and the lights overhead and the quiet of a space that was waiting to be used. I needed those eight minutes. Because the practice was the one part of the week I was certain about and I wanted to stand in it before it got complicated again.They started coming in at five forty.Mia was first. She walked in, looked at me, said nothing, dropped her bag by the wall, and started stretching. I felt a bit hurt because she didn't walk up to me, but I understood. Right now she meant nothing elaborate. Just I am here, let us get to work.Chloe came in second. She said, "Morning, captain," said with the care Chloe used when she was choosing her words. Not unfriendly. Careful. I had known her long enough to know which one this was.Five more came in together talking about something that stopped when the
Avery's POVWe were less than ten steps away when Liam reached across and took my hand.Not as a statement. Just his hand finding mine, fingers folding around naturally, and I exhaled the breath I had been holding since Colton stepped onto our path and started talking trash.I looked back. I did no
Liam's POVI got to the training facility at quarter past seven and sat on the bench outside the side entrance with my kit bag between my feet and waited.The car park was almost empty. Three staff cars, the head coach's Range Rover parked at its usual angle like he owned the whole row, a grey morn
Avery's POVLiam had left and I was at home alone. He had some personal things to go and sort out. My phone buzzed on the nightstand where I left it because I had gone to my room to rest a bit.I picked it up expecting nothing in particular and read the first line of the message and sat up.It was
Jade's POVI closed the door and stood in my front room and listened to the silence.They were gone. I had watched them walk back across to Avery's door from the corner of the window and then I had let the curtain fall and stood there in the quiet of my own house with the echo of the last few words







