Page 53 of The Wing
“Yes, Hemi!” Charlie and I scream when Hemi scores a try, jumping in the stands and ignoring the disgruntled Brits. Her blonde hair is braided tightly down her back, and if they keep playing like this, the family reunion will be doubly sweet with a win on top. I flew over at the beginning of November and have followed the team around—not staying with Hemi unfortunately. No one but the team is allowed in the hotel rooms, but it’s been fun sightseeing when we can and being closer to each other without a time difference. The enormous silver lining we’ve found about my writing career is that I can write anywhere. It doesn’t have to be at home in my green office. It can be at a hotel one street over from Hemi in Edinburgh or three streets away in Dublin since the tour included Ireland this year.
I convinced Charlie to fly over for the last game and take a break from work and use some of her annual leave instead of letting it sit there. She met me outside the stadium after arriving in London last night, and Daisy set up a ticket for her so we can surprise Hemi. Then she’s off on her solo travel—she wants to see the old houses and Jane Austen stuff, but I didn’t think that would be Hemi’s idea of fun—and we’ll meet up in a few weeks for Christmas.
“Come on, Johnny!” she screeches, and I wince. She turns to me and says, “We’ll need to find a pub that doesn’t have anyone moping,” entirely too loud when we’re surrounded by white jerseys.
“That might be difficult,” I mutter, but she doesn’t hear me.
It’s like England knew it was our last game and decided to put on newbies. Unfortunately for them, it backfires.
The Northern Tour completes with shouts and cheers from the few spectators wearing black jerseys and groans and yells from the English. We stand quickly and make our way down the steep stairs to the gate stopping the general public from entering the field, and flash our passes at security. The woman lets us through, and Hemi spies us from the metal benches the team’s gathered on and jogs over. When he sees Charlie, he speeds up and greets us with a wide grin.
“What are you doing here? When did you get here?” He yanks her into a hug, which she quickly untangles herself from with a grimace. Hemi’s covered in sweat, and while hugging him is the best thing on earth, being hugged by a sweaty man when you’re dry and don’t have access to the changing shed showers, it’s less than ideal.
But I let him drag me into a hug, and he slowly rocks us side to side. “Congratulations,” I whisper in his ear.
“Thanks. I’m more excited about what’s happening next.” He pulls away and brushes hair off my forehead before leaning infor a quick kiss in front of the entire stadium. I tense but force myself to relax. Hemi’s planning on talking to the reporters tonight about our relationship since he’s now on holiday, and in a different country, so hopefully the gossip will die down by the time we get back to NZ.
Except he just jumped the gun and did it in front of the entire stadium instead of the reporters, but if that’s what he wants, then I’m happy.
We’ve managed to keep our relationship secret for the past two months, and by secret, I mean Hemi has neither confirmed nor denied it when people ask, but there are enough photos of us to put it together.
Hemi pulls away, and it feels like the stadium has gone quiet, but that’s probably just in my head. His clammy hand reaches for mine and laces our fingers together.
“I arrived last night and crashed before coming here,” Charlie finally responds with dry amusement on her face. “Thought you were gonna announce it, not make out in front of the stadium.”
“Iamgoing to announce it, but I thought the media would fall over themselves for the photos and leave me alone.” Hemi takes us to the team who are packing up and heading down the tunnel to the sheds.
Daisy shoots me a smirk but gets distracted when Jamie takes her bag. They’re finally together after a close call with HR, but they couldn’t stay in the UK with us. They’re heading straight home to NZ to move in together. And rumour has it he’s retiring after his recent injury. He barely healed enough to play the last two games of the season.
As we pass them, her smirk softens into a smile, and she squeezes my arm.
“Are we allowed down here?” Charlie asks as we enter the tunnel. She often visits Hemi in the sheds after a game, but only ever in Auckland.
“Yeah, it’s fine, I cleared it with Coach.” Hemi sets us up outside the room where we wait for the team to cool down and shower, but I don’t miss the way Charlie’s hazel eyes flash when Hemi mentions their coach or the way she scans the room, looking for him.
We wait outside the room as different staff members rush past, including Daisy, who tells us they won’t be long.
And she’s right. Hemi reappears with glowing skin, styled hair, and a fresh jersey with Daisy beside him and joins our little group.
“Are you guys sure about this?” she asks with a glance down the large hallway in the direction of the media room.
I smile at Hemi, who nods. “We’re sure.”
Daisy sucks in a long breath. “Well, okay. Let’s get this show on the road.”
We follow her to the end of the hall and enter the room. I flinch as flashes cloud my vision. Someone takes my hand and I know it’s Hemi, so I follow where he takes me as black and white dots ruin my eyes. When we stop walking and he releases my hand, I blink a few times to see what’s happening.
“You good?”
I nod and with a gentle squeeze of my hand, he leaves me in a corner with Daisy and Charlie while he takes a seat beside Alex and faces the reporters who can’t decide who they should point their cameras at.
They don’t bother asking about the game, instead choosing to volley questions at Alex and Hemi about me and the kiss on the field. Are we in a relationship? How long have we been together? Is it affecting his game?
“Yes, we are in a relationship and have been since October,” Hemi talks into the microphone with a calm voice and stares at me instead of the cameras. He ignores the questions and recites the speech Daisy, Jamie, Charlie, Alex, the PR team, and I all read before we finalised a version. The fact that we have to go through this rigmarole because we’re two guys in a relationship when none of the straight players do is frustrating. ‘We’re in a relationship, no questions please’ is enough for them. But no, we have to announce it to the media.
But Hemi and I decided to ignore the frustration, make the announcement, and move on with our lives instead of focusing on the media. Hopefully, they’ll let us.
“We fell in love when I was in Wanaka working on my mental health. We went hiking and argued over Faramir and Boromir, which we still do by the way,” Hemi says dryly and gets a laugh out of the reporters. “We want everyone to know we are extremely happy and our family and friends support us. While we understand the interest in our relationship, we would appreciate privacy, especially during the off-season.” There are a few nods in the crowd and lots of scribbling hands rushing to write down quotes while others smile faintly at him. So far, going pretty good.
