Rebecca's News

Jamie sat next to Roy in the press room; Rebecca had called a meeting with the team and heads of all of the different departments. She was no where to be seen but Jamie wasn't the last person into the room so he knew he wasn't late. He spotted Keeley standing near the door and waved. She smiled back at him but didn't come over to the spare seat on his left. Sam slipped into the seat and Jamie nudged him with his elbow to say hey.

"What's goin' on?" Jamie asked Sam.

Sam looked shifty and shrugged.

Jamie had no fucking idea how the other man expected to keep his relationship with the boss secret if he couldn't even tell a simple lie like that one without being caught.

The room grew silent and Jamie turned his head to see Rebecca walk into the room. She came to stand in front of the desk and looked at them all.

"Thank you for coming," she started. "I wanted to do this in one go and I will be emailing all staff the news following this meeting. One month from today, I will be taking a one-year sabbatical as maternity leave. In answer to the first three questions I assume you are going to gossip about later – no, I'm not pregnant I'm having this baby via surrogate. No, I am not in a relationship with the father. Yes, I am planning on raising this baby alone. Leslie and I have been making plans regarding the person to stand in while I'm away and we have final interviews tomorrow and Friday. We have asked Keeley to handle the announcement which will be made this afternoon at a press conference."

"Mate," Jamie whispered into Sam's ear.

Sam shook his head and shushed Jamie.

Jamie looked at Roy who looked surprised too. Roy's shoulders hitched in an aborted shrug, so Jamie turned back to the front.

"I am sure that you are all aware that I am the only female owner of a Premier League club, as a result, there will no doubt be a lot of speculation regarding my age, my suitability to be a parent, the unfairness of my ability to take a year of maternity leave, my choice to be a single parent, along with many other speculations that are unworthy of me mentioning. You may be asked questions about it; your opinions are your own and will be treated as such but when commenting in an official capacity refer them to Keeley or our Media department. Are there any questions?"

Rebecca looked around the room and Jamie knew a bunch of people had questions…he had questions but wasn't gonna…his arm shot up.

"Yes, Jamie?"

"Me mummy's a single mum, innit, and I'm your best footballer," Jamie paused so the team could boo him gently. "So, I figure those twats can twat off and congratulations."

Rebecca smiled. "Thank you, Jamie. Anything else?"

There were some heads shaking around the room. Rebecca nodded and walked out; the moment she was gone the room exploded in noise.

"Sam," Jamie said. "Kit room."

Sam nodded and followed Jamie into the kit room.

"Are you still dating the boss?"

"Yes, Jamie, the baby was conceived long before Rebecca and I started seeing one another, we're going to keep doing so just as quietly."

"Mate," Jamie said. "Babies is the best, there were so many of 'em on the estate and they all loved me, yeah, it might not be your baby, yeah, but this is super cool. I'm gonna buy it some little footy boots, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be mint."

Jamie hugged Sam and bounced out the room.

Jamie went into the locker room, and it was absolutely exploding with noise. Jamie walked into Roy's office and sat in the chair in the corner, he pulled out his phone and started hunting around for some baby footy boots.

"Whistle!" Roy yelled and the other room fell silent. Jamie pocketed his phone and went into the locker room. "Right, the boss is pregnant, and you're all gonna get over that and get ready for fucking training."

Roy took them out and trained them damn hard. As soon as they were done, Jamie went into the training room for Anita to listen to murder podcasts and work the fucking hell out of his hamstrings. He had just showered when the note from the front desk was handed to him – there was someone waiting for him at reception; weird.

Jamie walked out, not sure who it could be and the first thing he noticed was red hair…oh, it was…fuck, what had her name been…fuck, fuck, fuck…Annie?

"Hello?" Jamie said.

"Hi," she said. "Do you remember me?"

"Course."

She smiled. "Can we go somewhere to chat?"

Oh, crap, she had a bloody sex disease…nah, he'd been tested before he and Roy did anything really fun so it couldn't be that. She was looking at him strangely.

"Sure, yeah, course, just give me a minute, yeah?"

She nodded. He went back to the locker room. He ducked his head into Roy's office, but the man was no where to be seen. He scrawled a note on a post-it and stuck it on the desk and then grabbed his shit and went back out the front.

"There's a nice café around the corner, yeah?"

"That sounds good."

"Great, we can walk? I don't have me car."

She nodded. "I caught the bus so walking's good."

They set out and he realised there was no way he could get around being honest. "I'm really sorry, yeah, but I can't remember ya name. I remember you, but I'm a bit shit with names, always have been. It started with an A, yeah?"

She nodded, anxiously playing with the strap of her bag. "Anya."

"Hey Anya, nice to see you again, yeah."

"Yeah," she said, rubbing her lips together.

Jamie knew anxious and she was about ready to vibrate out of her skin, but he didn't think she was quite ready to tell him what was wrong yet.

"You said you was studying, to be a fucking teacher, right?"

"Yes," she breathed. "Just finished a prac, it was great, little school in Kent near where my parents live. We normally do urban schools, but we can ask to try out different things. I'd like to teach at a smaller school but I'll probably stick to London for a while, my cousin teaches at a school near here and…" she kept going, and Jamie was listening but he could breath now that she wasn't quite so stressed – he let her monographing carry them down the road alongside the Dog Track and then around to the little café that didn't care too much about who came in; they liked to ignore the footballers and wouldn't let anyone mess with anyone else there so it was popular for sneaky lunchtime treats. They took a seat in the back corner, near the kitchen, and ordered a couple of drinks – he decided something about this meeting meant he needed to use his cheat card and ordered himself an almond chai latte.

Anya kept talking about teaching, the kids in her last class, and the kids from the class she volunteered in, she chatted through the arrival of her drink, through Jamie waiting for his drink to be cool enough to drink and then she ran out of steam.

"I needed to talk to you," Anya said.

"Yeah, I assumed."

"I'm pregnant."

Jamie froze. "What?"

"I'm pregnant, I found out when I was in Kent. I wasn't sure what to do but I've always loved kids and I…well, you don't need to know all of the background but I had a pretty shit relationship when I was finishing school and up until about a year ago, so I decided to have the baby and you don't need to be involved but-"

Jamie laid his hand over Anya's, she blinked and looked at him. Jamie knew condoms weren't always able to stop their little men from doing what they wanted, couldn't grow up without knowing that – especially with a single mum who made sure he knew what to do with girls to protect them both. He hadn't expected this to ever happen to him though. Didn't matter now, it was happening now and he felt that bubble in his chest.

"I'm in a relationship, with Roy Kent…do you know who that is?" Anya nodded and opened her mouth, but he shook his head. "So, I don't wanna like date you or anything because I really fucking love Roy but I love kids, and I wanna be a dad to this kid, this is fucking mint, I mean like terrifying too because me dad is a right…umm…bad guy but I think when I realised the enormity of this and all I'll be really happy but for now I'm just gonna say that I'm gonna be here for all of it, yeah, because no matter what; this kid is also me kid and I've always hated dads who aren't there for their fucking kids. Ya know?"

Anya blinked for a moment and then nodded. "You don't have to decide now."

Jamie shook his head. "If there is a kid out there that's mine then I'm going to be their dad no matter what…it's so weird, me boss just announced she's having a baby today, gonna be so many little greyhounds running around…I need to buy another pair of footy boots."

"What?"

"What are you doing tonight, come back to mine for dinner? I wanna know everything."

Anya nodded. "I really didn't expect telling you to go like this."

"Because people think I'm still a prick."

"I have a mate, she's really into football and she told me who you were the next day."

"Yeah, I try not to make a big deal of it anymore, but I have a reputation from before."

"And Roy, were you with him when we were together?"

"Fuck, no, I used to do that shit but not anymore, especially not with Roy. I'm gonna marry that grumpy fucker someday."

"Good, my ex cheated on me all the fucking time, but I only found out about it later."

"Finish your drink," Jamie said. "Then we'll go back to mine."

Anya nodded and picked up her glass. Jamie paid and then got an uber.

"Come in, he'll be in the kitchen," he took her straight into the kitchen and caught Roy's attention.

"Hey, Roy."

"Jamie?" Roy's eyes flitted over to Anya standing next to the kitchen bench with a surprised frown on her face.

"This is Anya. Anya, this is Roy – me boyfriend. Roy, Anya and I hooked up one night after Brazil and she's pregnant. I'm gonna be part of the baby's life, yeah. Gonna be a fucking father. Wanted both of you to know one another straight away, yeah."

"Fuck," Roy said.

"That's his way of saying he's surprised," Jamie explained to Anya.

"You're gonna be a fucking dad?"

"Yeah, just found out. This is pretty scary but also fucking exciting. Me mummy's gonna lose her mind."

Anya's eyebrows quirked at the use of mummy.

"My mummy's wonderful," Jamie explained. "But me dad's a right cock so he won't be involved."

Anya smiled. "Okay."

"Roy?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah?" Roy croaked out.

"You okay?"

Roy nodded and came over; he held out his hand to Anya. "Nice to met you, I'm Roy Kent."

She smiled. "Anya Baker."

"It's nice to meet you."

"Mint," Jamie said looking between them. "Who wants tea?"

TBC...