When dinner was cleared, everyone returned to their seats. Rupert Mannion stood alone on the stage. The room went wild. It seemed that despite the public knowledge that the man was a cheat and a philanderer the crowd still loved him. Rupert announced that the first player up for auction was Jamie Tartt.
"Babe, you have to win me." Jamie begged Keeley.
"I can't bid on my own boyfriend." She disagreed. "I'll look pathetic."
"Babe, it's 2020. Women can do whatever they want." He insisted.
"No. It's not happening." She shook her head. "C'mon get out there!" She raised her voice so the surrounding tables could here. "You look hot!"
The room clapped and cheered, encouraging Jamie as he walked towards the stage. Rupert started the bidding at five thousand pounds. Immediately the elderly woman from before raised her paddle. This time laughter came not just from Bailey's table but several around the room. Keeley let Jamie sweat it out for a minute before finally raiser her paddle when Rupert offered six thousand for a third time. A third bidder jumped into the game raising the price to ten thousand.
This ignited a spark of jealous in Keeley. She raised the bid by an additional two thousand pounds. The third bidder, a beautiful tall blonde woman in an emerald green dress, jumped her next bid to fourteen thousand pounds. The two women went back and forth until Keeley scored the winning bid of Twenty-five thousand pounds.
Looking both satisfied with her victory and pissed off that she had to pay for a date with her own boyfriend, Keeley slammed her paddle down on the table. Jamie walked back to the table with a wide I-got-my-way grin on his face. The room's attention was easily diverted to the stage again as the next player was introduced by Rupert.
"You owe me." Keeley snapped at him. Jamie didn't care. He'd won in his mind. "Bailey, why don't you bid on a date?" She looked away from Jamie. She watched Ted's eye go wide at the idea.
"Well for starters, I don't have twenty-five thousand pounds." Bailey laughed.
"They don't all go for that much." Keeley assured her. "It's for charity. I could always float you some money."
"I'll keep that in mind." Bailey told her even though she knew she wouldn't. There was only one person in the room she wanted to go on a date with and he wouldn't be up for auction.
Rupert announced that the auction would take a break to give anyone a chance to refresh their drinks or go to the loo. Jamie and Roy both headed to the bar. Keeley excused herself to the restroom. Nate was one table over talking with Collin and Ivan.
"So, you an' Roy Kent." Ted observed.
"I really wasn't planning on coming." Bailey told him with a sigh. "But Roy offered, and it was nice to have someone ask me."
"I would have asked you if I could." He told her.
"I know." She nodded. "But it doesn't change the fact that you didn't and you can't."
"You look beautiful." He said quietly.
"Thank you." Was all she could think to say.
"Is he treatn' you okay, Roy I mean?" Ted asked gently. "He seems like he'll be a good boyfriend."
"Boyfriend? Ted, Roy and I…I don't see how that's any of your business." Bailey told him. Yes, she'd told him that she had feelings for him and yes, he'd said he felt the same but he'd also told her he was trying to work things out with his wife. He'd told her his family deserved his best effort to make that work. She didn't want to be the reason he couldn't do that. If that meant letting him think there was more to her and Roy than a friendship, Bailey were willing to tell a little white lie here and there.
"When we had our talk last week, you said you'd wait for me, if I asked." He reminded her. The words were tumbling out of his mouth before he could really stop himself. "Would you still, if I asked?"
"Hang on, I just told you that whatever's happening between me and Roy is none of your business and you think now is the time to ask me not to see anyone else?" She'd told him she would wait forever if he asked her to, and she'd meant that up until the very second that he was asking. Bailey could see the jealousy in his eyes. He wasn't asking her to wait as a promise of a future together. He was asking her to wait for him so that no one else could have her. It was spiteful and it was cruel. Two things Ted Lasso was not.
"No." She said flatly. "I don't know how you could say that you care about me and then see me moving forward and ask me to stop. I could never do that to you. I'd never ask that of you, because I love you and I want you to be happy. Even if you being happy means that you're with someone else."
"I'm just trying to make sense of what's happen' right now." Ted blinked. "You told me that you love me, an' you told me that you'd wait for me, but it took you less than a week to move on."
He had no right to accuse her of being fair weathered. She'd been nothing but loyal to Ted as a co-worker and a friend for the past two years. He'd also been aware of her romantic interest in him for a while now. It hurt her that he felt her head could be turned so easily.
"I'm going to get up from the table now before either of us says something we regret." Bailey told him calmly. She pushed back her chair and got to her feet.
"Bailey, I didn't have you pinned for the type who'd go back on your word." He mumbled thinking she couldn't hear him.
"Excuse me?" She snapped at him. It was at this time that Jamie and Roy had arrived back at the table from the bar. The two men had reached a mutual understanding that while they didn't have to like each other, they could at least put their differences aside on the pitch and work together. Their comradery nearly fell apart at the sight of Bailey glaring down the Head Coach.
"My money's on Bailey." Jamie whispered before sitting in his seat.
"What the hell's going on here?" Roy huffed.
"Nothing." She declared before walking off.
Bailey dashed off to the one place she knew Roy or Ted couldn't follow her. The lady's room. She pushed open the door, nearly toppling the person on the other side. It was Rebecca.
"Oh shit!" She exclaimed. "I'm so sorry."
"Everything alright, Bailey?" Rebecca questioned.
"Yes. No. I don't know." Bailey sighed. She moved to sit down on the sofa. That was when she noticed Keeley was also in the bathroom, already occupying one half of the sofa.
"Join the fucking club." Keeley chimed in. "That girl in the green dress, yeah? Rebecca said she's Jamie's other plus one."
"What?" Bailey plopped down in the seat next to her. "That's mental. Are you going to saying something to him?"
"I dunknow." Keeley shrugged. "What's got you so down, Babes? You looked like you were actually starting to have fun earlier."
"It's a long story. One I do not want to relive again so soon." She told them.
"I've got to get back out there. See what other surprises Rupert has cooked up in my absence." Rebecca announced. "If I might offer you ladies some advice, don't ever apologize for taking something that you want."
"Rebecca, if it helps," Bailey called out to her as she opened the door. "Your ex-husband seems like a huge asshole." Rebecca laughed.
"It helps a great deal, Bailey. Thank you. I expect to see you both back out here in five minutes." She declared before leaving the rest room.
"She's not so bad, her." Keeley told Bailey when Rebecca was gone.