Chapter Text
“Please, please, please.”
“I don’t know how you ever got me to say yes to this in the first place.”
“Well, I did,” Ted puts his hands on his hips, “and now you’re already here, and dressed fro the occasion. No one is around, not even the janitors, so—come on. Get your butt over here."
Rebecca ties the laces on her sneaker into a double knot, making sure the shoe is secure on her foot before getting off the bench and taking a step towards the pitch. “I couldn’t even tell you the last time I did this.”
“Well, that makes two of us,” Ted holds his arms out to his sides. “I’m getting the hang of this coaching football thing, but playing football? Uh uh, I have two left feet.”
Rebecca smiles at that, rolling a football beneath her foot, trying to get a feel for it. She kicks it a few feet in front of her, following behind it at a jog, then kicks it again.
“Yeah!” Ted encourages her, running over to one end of the field and standing beside the goalposts. “Come on boss, hit me with your best shot!”
“Ted, no—“
“Rebecca,” he drags out the last vowel, tilting his head. “It’s midnight on Friday, the whole team is downtown celebrating this morning’s win—just take a shot! What’s the worst that could happen?”
“I could miss,” she says honestly.
“Then you’ll have scored just as many goals as Jamie did today,” Ted says, holding up a zero with his hands. “Nil.”
She lets out a breath. “Fine.”
“Alright,” he claps his hands together, standing on the goal line with his hands held up in front of him. “Ready when you are.”
She squares her shoulders, visualizes her mark, and—kicks the ball into the lower left corner.
Ted makes an overly dramatic dive to the opposite side, making Rebecca snort, and pretends to hold his head in shame when he sees the ball in the corner of the net.
He’s up two seconds later. “She’s done it!” he holds out his arms, running in a big loop around the ’18. “Rebecca Welton has scored the game winning goal for AFC Richmond—and the crowd goes wild!”
The very empty stadium seats covered in shadows say nothing back, but Ted cups his hands over his mouth and mimics the roar of a sold out crowd.
Rebecca laughs from her place by the penalty spot, covering her mouth with her hands to try to hide her giggles.
Ted scoops her up and spins her around in his arms, smiling at the way she laughs before setting her back on her feet, his arms still wrapped around her waist.
“You’ve just won the Premier League for your team,” he pretends to speak into a microphone, “what are you going to do now?”
“You are a ridiculous, ridiculous man, Coach Lasso,” she giggles, framing his face with her hands.
“The correct answer was I’m going to Disneyland! and you just lost your endorsement from the mouse,” he grins. “But I liked your answer too.”
She kisses him in the middle of the pitch, under the one light on in the stadium, wrapped up in nothing but each other—and smiling against his mouth the entire time.