It's Coming Home

Chapter 5

June 2021

Within 2 days, Amy found herself on the plane heading towards the Love Island villa, but arriving in Majorca wasn't exactly how she'd imagined. Her flight was delayed and then the minute she arrived there was someone waiting at arrivals to take her straight to a hotel for a 10 day quarantine due to the pandemic. The hotel room itself was okay, slightly bigger than average and when she threw herself down on it, she discovered that the king sized bed was pretty comfy. She reached for the remote control and switched the TV on. It went straight onto the BBC who were discussing the England team selection.

'So much for avoiding it' she muttered.

She went to turn it off just as Jack's face came up on the screen. She recognised that smile, he was bursting with pride in his official team photo. He looked well though. His hair was longer and he'd clearly had some new highlights done, his skin was tanned and he had definitely become far more muscular. He'd changed a lot over the last few years, he'd certainly never skipped leg day that's for sure. She smiled at the memory of his skin care collection, it was at least double, if not triple the size of hers, and he'd always taken longer than her to do his hair. It had been the best of times when they were together.

Amy realised that this was the first time she'd really allowed herself to look at him again since they'd split. This was surely a good sign, she didn't want to cry or hurt him and surely they was a sign that she was definitely moving on. She had changed too though. She wondered if Jack would see her on the show, would he look at her as she was looking at him, or would he turn away?

Amy's quarantine ended on the same day as the first England game of Euro 2020 against Croatia, and whilst Jack and the rest of the team were pulling on their white shirts, she was nervously slipping into her green jungle print bikini that she'd chosen for her entrance. It felt strange wearing a bikini in front of cameras, just knowing she was so fully on view to the world made her feel naked and it gave her a churning feeling in the pit of her stomach that just wouldn't go. She gave herself one last check in the mirror, her hair was in loose beach waves and she had decided to go natural with her make up, she certainly didn't want to catfish anyone. If she was going to do this, she was doing it her way.

As she was hurried through the lobby of the hotel and towards the car with blacked out windows that was waiting for her, there was a commotion from in front of a huge tv screen. She stole a quick look on her way past, only to see a group of England fans draped in their flags shouting as the England team were showed warming up.

'Good luck Jack' she whispered to herself. 'And good luck to me too' she thought.

The drive to the villa was quick and uneventful, but Amy's heart was almost beating out of her chest and her mind was racing. What if she was the ugliest in the villa? What if they all hated her? What if she hated them? Oh there was so much to worry about. She was told that she was the third girl to enter and they ran through where she would walk and then fitted her microphone. This was it. She took a deep breath and walked in as confidently as she could. She introduced herself and then took her place next to the pool to await the arrival of the other two girls and then of course the 5 boys

*****

Despite winning against Croatia the day before, Jack wasn't happy. At all. He'd been desperate to get off the bench and involved in the game but Southgate wouldn't hear of it. The way Jack saw it was he could either give up now and throw the towel in, or work even harder in training to show that he was a good choice. All he wanted was a start in a game. Was that too much to ask? He shut the shower off, dried himself and put some boxers on. Time to chill now and have an early night, he thought but when he walked out of the bathroom he found his room mate Phil Foden glued to the TV.