Chapter Text
Chapter 5 (TL Missing Scene)
Mae rings the closing bell, ringing the end to the night and the AFC Richmond season.
“You sorry lot, you need to finish up your drinks, ring up your tabs and find your way on home.” Tiny as her stature may be, Mae’s voice could bring Nelson Road stadium to a standstill.
“On that note,” Beard looked at the buzz of his phone and an incoming message from Jane. “I’m going to leave you kids and be on my way to my next adventure.”
Ted meets his current pint glass with Beard’s, clinking glasses and downing the remainder of each of their pints.
“Until Monday, my friend,” Ted let out after downing his pint.
“Until then.” Beard finished his pint. “Rebecca,” Beard bowed to the Richmond owner as he made his way out of the booth and then made his way out of the pub.
“Oh my!” Exclaimed Ted, throwing his hands to his mouth.
“What has you so excited, Coach Lasso?” Rebecca, a few Gin & Tonics in, and growing fonder of the gaffer sitting beside her as the night drew on. Throughout the evening she took turns between listening and participating in the ritual Coach’s hydration session that involved no analysis of the season or heartbreaking game that just brought that season to an end.
“You just received the Beard bow of approval,” Ted let out in an excited pitch. “I mean, I knew you were a team player from day one.”
Rebecca shot him a look. Did he not remember her confession earlier this week?
“Yeah. Yeah. Nefarious intentions. Revenge. I could see right through that.” Ted picked up his empty pint glass and directed it towards the door where Beard just exited. “Beard is a little more of a late adapter. My cautious conscious, that’s my good friend. It took an entire season, but he is all in on the Welton Wagon.” Ted Lasso placed his empty pint glass down, a little louder than he intended, with smile from ear to ear.
“Ted, I think you’ve had enough to drink tonight.” Rebecca tried not to acknowledge the existence of a Welton Wagon or what being all in meant or the fact that the gaffer sitting right next to her said he saw right through her from day one.
“Coach Lasso. Ms. Welton.” Mae met the last pub patrons at the foot of the booth. “Staying the night at the Crown & Anchor will not make tonight’s game any different.” She eyes them both.
“Yes, ma’am.” They respond in unison. Again, why this fourteen-year-old been caught in the hallway mid-class feeling that was going around today.
“And, Rebecca,” Mae fixed her gaze on the Richmond owner. “Though it was a tough loss and move down from the Premier League, you better not get rid of this wanker.” She points to Coach Lasso. “Despite our loss, I have never seen the Richmond community more drawn together and pulling for the team. He might be a wanker, but he is our wanker.”
Mae takes the empty glasses from their table and heads back to the bar. “You two schoolkids get on your way.” She says over her shoulder.
“What is it about feeling like a 14-year-old school boy today?” Ted says out loud while he gets up from the table and without thinking about it offers Rebecca his arm just as if it was an everyday occasion.
Rebecca took her gaffer’s arm, as if it was an everyday occasion, and also took the occasion to poke him in the side with her elbow and commented, “I’m more curious about the comment ‘but he’s our wanker’.” She smiled but did not give her gaffer the satisfaction of her accompanying smile.
“Well, I think that has become some kind of term of endearment.” Ted let out, blushing and flustered like his 14 year old self.
“That might be a word lost in translation, Lasso.”
Damn, she meets him line by line, even whatever number of Gin & Tonics in at the end of the night.
“Your coat,” Ted held Rebecca’s coat out.
“Making a habit out of this, Ted.” Rebecca teased but relished in the familiarity and closeness just over the evening.
“And don’t forget your Richmond beanie,” Ted held out her new apparel. “Don’t forget it’s cold as a witch’s tit out there.” He grins a mile wide, proud of himself for getting that new expression out of his mouth before he could be scolded.
No scolding came. Rebecca couldn’t help but smile as she finished putting on the damn Richmond beanie.
“Like a schoolboy, Lasso. You’ve probably been waiting all night to let that one out.” Rebecca grinning and shaking her head from side to side, she waits for Ted to open the door.
“Guilty as charged, Welton.” Ted said quietly as Rebecca stepped out the door as he held it open. Outside the door, Ted was bringing his phone out of his pocket. “Should we be calling your driver to get you home?”
“Fuck me, Lasso, your Midwestern manners just don’t stop, do they?” Rebecca chuckled.
Ted was caught in mid sentence in how to respond. The words fuck and manners just didn’t normally appear in the same sentence where he came from. Rebecca always had him on his toes.
“Sorry, Ted. That is so kind of you. No, despite it being cold as a witch’s tit,” she smiled and let him take in the new weather term. He returned her smile with a grin and nod of appreciation. “You’re welcome. Despite the weather and the hour, I think I’ll walk home.”
Hell with new weather terms that were vaguely risqué, Rebecca never ceased to amaze him. He stopped in his tracks and mouth agape.
“Cat got your tongue, Coach Lasso?”
“You’re telling me you live within walking distance of the Crown & Anchor? Walking distance within my flat? Nelson Road?”
Rebecca grins ear to ear.
“Christ on a bike! Isn’t that your expression?” Ted looked at Rebecca with incredulity. “What’s with the driver and your Rolls? Rebecca you have some ‘splaining to do.” Ted, now the one poking her in the side with his elbow, as they return to walking side by side arm in arm.
Rebecca’s cheeks turn a darker shade of pink. “I’ll tell you.” She inhales and thinks about how this man, this Midwestern wanker, with his kindness, his humor, his endless energy, his earnestness, his everything, has her dismantling all her damn walls. And, not stopping there but having her reveal ugly truths about her own self. Her insecurities.
“Remember, Rebecca,” Ted stops, sensing his friend’s insecurity, and steps in front of her, facing her eye to eye, without her designer heels on tonight. “I’m all on in on the Welton Wagon.”
That brings out a slight smile and chuckle from Rebecca. “Alliteration is not always a good thing, Ted.”
“Will work on a better metaphor. Got it, Boss.” Ted let out his smirk and moved to take Rebecca’s arm again. “So, Dorothy, lead the way.”
“Ted, you don’t stop, do you?” Rebecca shakes her head and can’t help but smile at the grown up looking 14 year old school boy walking beside her. “I live across the Richmond Green. About a five minute walk.” She says it all quietly, and her head is looking down at the Richmond walkway just right in font of her feet, not believing that she is revealing her secrets so readily. Damn, this man.
“Fuck me,” Ted let’s out.
“You’re stealing all my lines tonight, Ted.” Rebecca smiles, as they continue to walk across the Green arm in arm.
“Sorry, about that Boss.” Ted still trying to take in this new information, again more scintillating than his new learned weather term.
“I know. It’s horrible. I promise to plant trees or donate to environmental causes for all the destruction my needless drives to the clubhouse this season.” She draws in her breath and continues, “But, my new found club ownership was being questioned and analyzed by every newspaper rag in the country and I just needed to assert my dominance,” she drew in another big breath, “assert my power one way or another. I thought a clear visual would be me arriving each day in my Rolls with my driver.”
“And how much longer does it take you to get from there to there by said Rolls Royce and driver?” Ted stops for a second and points from one side of the green to the other.
“With London traffic and the number of damn lights and one way streets, about twenty, twenty-five minutes,” Rebecca quietly lets out. “I know. I say it out loud and it’s humiliating. Makes me look small.”
“Rebecca, it just makes you look human.” Ted stops and steps closer to Rebecca, lightly tugging on her coat lapels. “And being human is a good thing. I’m kind of fond of them. Humans, I mean.” He follows with silence and a smile, hands still on her coat.
Truth telling followed by comfortable and uncomfortable silences, intermittently. When did this new normal start? Or had it been there all season? Biscuits with the boss, the Gala, Liverpool, random Q&A’s from Welton’s office window down to the pitch.
“You are too kind, Ted.” Rebecca didn’t avert her eyes. She did eventually put out her arm and Ted got back in step walking side by side.
Comfortable silence followed them for a good part of the way across the Green.
“Ted, how do you and Beard do it?” Rebecca broke the silence.
“Do what?”
“How do you finish a game and a heartbreaking defeat and then leave it all behind within an hour and talk about anything but the game and even the sport in general? I’ve just never known a coach, player, owner, well just about anyone that loves the sport in general be so quick to put it behind them. That has to be a conscious decision that you and Beard make and by the ease in which you two did that this evening, I imagine it’s a tried and true practice.”
They walked arm in arm, pulling closer to one another as they walked further across the Green and the temperature dropped even further.
“We didn’t put the game or the season behind us. We just decided early on that of all games and times to analyze said game, a losing game that ends your season is no time to work or analyze. For our mental health, and the mental health of the young men we work with, showing by doing, we just decide that night of all nights, we enjoy each other’s company and talk anything but the game and the sport.”
With every word, Rebecca’s heart softened for this American wanker that much more. Hiring him because of a viral video and the absurdity of his actions, but learning he was a human being and a giving, and kind, and generous, and patient one at that was something else. Definitely more than her actions deserved. Regardless of what she deserved, at that moment walking on the Green past 2 a.m. on one of the coldest nights, she felt the safest she’d felt in over a decade. The warmth of her gaffer’s jacket, the kindness and familiarity of walking in step and arm in arm, her heart was full.
Filling a gap in silence and sensing Rebecca’s earnest inquiry, Ted continued filling in his coaching and life philosophy.
“There’s so much more to this world and our lives than one game or one sport. Now, the game and any particular sport can help you better learn the world and how to react to everyday situations. That’s what I love about coaching, helping young men learn to be better versions of themselves. But part of that is taking a step back from the sport and putting it perspective.”
They had crossed the street at the end of the other side of the Green and walked a half a block down the road. Rebecca slowed to a stop. Ted was slow to match her pace. Their arms slowly untangling with their growing distance. Rebecca reached for the tips of his fingers before he got too far from her. He returned her touch with a gentle grasp of her fingertips. The momentum of the tug between them helping to turn him around. Save him from wandering the late night streets of London by himself.
“This is me.” Rebecca broke the silence, nodding towards the impressive piece of architecture to her right with beautiful old growth trees and foliage, making the architecture that much more impressive.
“Right. Uh. Yeah.” Ted was having trouble finding words, the English ones, his native language, the ones that he had been using with over abundance for his whole planetary existence.
Rebecca responded with a slight smile and a squeeze to his hand. She released her hand and started taking off her big warm over coat.
“Rebecca, wha? It’s colder than you know what out?”
“Ted, censoring yourself at this late hour, now, are we?” She teased as she continued to shake her coat off and handed it to her gaffer to hold on to which he readily accepted, draping it over his arm, again as if they had been doing this their whole lives. Going from bumbling 14 year old behavior to old married couple behavior in one short evening. Rebecca unzipped her gaffers jacket and eased herself out of the layer of warmth that had been protecting her the whole evening.
“You can keep that, you know, Becca.” Ted says quietly, now realizing that they are in some semblance of a posh neighborhood and maybe they should not be lollygagging out on the sidewalk at some ungodly hour. “I think there might be a whole store of similar merchandise a few yards from my office.” His lips upturned and the dimples shining bright in the dark of night.
“You tease.” Rebecca responds while taking her coat from Ted’s arm and replacing it with the folded gaffers jacket.
“I do.” No denial. Just facts. “But, seriously, Becca you can keep this. You might need it again.”
Rebecca holds up her coat to him. Without asking he takes it from her and helps her get it back on. No rush, despite the hour. He pulls it tight around her and with his hands still on the stylish lapels of her coat he presses a gentle kiss to her temple, an extra layer of warmth to replace the loss of his game jacket.
“I just might. And when I do, I’ll find you somewhere in the middle of the hallway. I know where you work, Lasso.”
The shine of his smile and those damn dimples, like a bright blinding light.
“Until Monday,” Rebecca said as she took a few steps backwards towards her door.
“Until Monday,” Ted gave her a salute and started walking backwards towards the green. He points behind him, “I’m just going to walk myself back home.”
Rebecca just smiled, pulling her coat tight. She was already missing the warmth of her gaffer’s jacket.
Ted finally turned away from Rebecca and back towards the direction of the Green, towards his flat. Despite the loss, the relegation, he was energized and did a little Charlie Chaplin jump that was executed with more impulse than planning and almost landed him face first on the pavement as he crossed the street to the green.
“Teeeed,” Rebecca hadn’t moved closer to her door, not wanting to bring a close to the season, to the night just yet. Catching herself in thought and watching her goofy gaffer pulling some theatrical choreography in the middle of the Richmond streets in the dark early morning, her hands went from her coat lapels to her temples.
Ted caught himself before falling and hearing Rebecca’s voice he turned back her way across the street.
“Let’s pretend we didn’t just see that.” Ted felt like a damn 14 year old again.
“Night, Ted.” Rebecca responded, as if she were doing just as her silly gaffer asked. Seeing the best in him and looking past his shortcomings.
“Night, Becca.”