Chapter 413: A Man.........With A Plan.....Sort Of!
[The next morning]
Leo returned from his morning run carrying a paper tray balanced in one hand and a small brown bag tucked beneath his arm.
By the time he nudged the apartment door shut with his foot, Vittoria had made it as far as the kitchen island, though only just.
Her hair still carried the untidy evidence of sleep, and despite that, Leo couldn’t help smiling as he looked at her.
She looked up slowly before folding her arms when she saw Leo.
"Good morning," she said.
"I brought compensation," Leo replied instantly as he walked forward.
"What do you mean by compensation? I never said I was angry," she said, only for Leo to gesture towards her face.
"That smile tells me otherwise," he answered as he set the tray down, took one of the cups and slid it gently across the counter towards her.
The coffee was still steaming, the thick layer of foam dusted lightly with cocoa.
Vittoria wrapped both hands around it before taking a slow sip.
Her shoulders loosened almost immediately as she let out a contented sigh.
Leo watched her over the lid of his own cup before nodding towards her.
"What’s with the smile?"
She looked at him over the rim before looking back towards the biggest window in the apartment.
"I won an argument."
"...Congratulations?"
"Online."
"That’s impressive," Leo said with an indulgent look as she nodded proudly.
"I made an anonymous account yesterday," she suddenly said, and that got his attention fully.
"You made a burner account?"
"I did," she repeated, sounding all proud.
"What for?" he asked as she took another sip before answering.
"Someone was talking nonsense about you."
Leo sighed.
"And..."
"Don’t ’andd’ me," she said as she pointed at him with her cup.
"I defended your honour," she said, making Leo chuckle as she went on.
"He was saying he heard a bit about you and watched some of your performances, and the only conclusion was that it was just senseless hype for someone just passing the ball around."
"He even called you overrated," she finished.
"So naturally..." Leo motioned for her to go on.
"I corrected him," she said with a grin that made Leo narrow his eyes at her, though he couldn’t keep the smile off his face at the thought of his girlfriend defending him.
"...Corrected?"
"I destroyed him. I rallied a lot more friendlies, and we all went at him, spamming his posts with jokes and telling him off."
"Come on, Tori. I thought Mia was the only one who did things like this."
"Mia also does this?" Vittoria inquired before picking her phone up.
"What are you doing?"
"Gathering more firepower," she answered after Leo asked before looking back at her phone and then sending Mia a text.
When Leo shook her head, she shrugged in return.
"I have responsibilities too."
"You have responsibilities?"
"I’m the girlfriend. I am supposed to be causing trouble, but I don’t, so let me do this," she said with complete seriousness.
"I can’t afford to slack off."
Leo laughed harder this time as she smiled into her coffee before shaking her head.
"I don’t understand people."
"They can’t just let Wigan enjoy a good start."
"It always has to be luck."
"It always has to be someone else playing badly."
"It can’t just be that you’re... good or that you are doing well."
Hearing that, Leo reached into the paper bag and pulled out the sandwiches he’d ordered that early morning, still packed neatly inside a clear container.
He slid them across to her as he shook his head at her earlier words.
"It just doesn’t really work like that."
"What doesn’t?"
"The Premier League."
He opened the container as he spoke.
"The more we win..."
"...the more pressure everyone else feels."
He shrugged as he also sat down.
"If a newly promoted team keeps picking up results, clubs that are supposed to finish above us lose the excuse of saying they’re rebuilding or still finding themselves."
"They’re expected to be better since they’d spent more time acclimatising to the state of the league."
"So when they aren’t winning or giving results..."
"They get criticised."
Vittoria nodded slowly.
"I suppose that’s true."
"It is," Leo confirmed as he smiled.
"But one thing they tend to forget is that the other promoted clubs are having rougher starts to the new league."
He picked up half a sandwich and bit almost half of it away, all while Vittoria watched him, waiting for him to continue.
"So people are going to keep trying to explain us away."
"But that’s fine."
"We’ll just keep working."
He took a bite before adding with complete confidence,
"And besides..."
"Dawson always seems to have a plan."
...
Across town, Shaun Dawson slumped forward until his forehead landed gently on the stack of papers covering his desk.
"I do not have a plan."
His voice disappeared into the paperwork as the office remained completely silent.
After a few seconds, he lifted his head just enough to squint at the tactical reports scattered across the desk.
Fulham had taken enough work, and now it was Wolverhampton.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he was spent.
He thought so much that he’d even started thinking about a career change.
He picked his head up a while later and picked up one page, put it down, picked up another and then sighed.
"...Something will come to me."
He said that and sat alone for a while, close to half an hour, but nothing did as he scribbled nonsense onto a sheet of paper.
He leaned back in his chair, rubbed both hands across his face and looked at the ceiling.
"It’ll sort itself out," he said with a pause.
"...Hopefully," he continued even though he didn’t really believe his own words.
The room stayed stubbornly quiet as Dawson sighed once more before reaching for the nearest notebook.
"Right," he muttered.
"Let’s pretend I know what I’m doing."
Comments