PAUSE

Four.

"What do you want?" I whisper in French.

"When are you going to let me see you?" He replied, is native French accent much stronger than my forced one, years of French lessons can't teach that.

"Alex, I told you, that's not happening again. Lying is a bad habit of yours and I don't plan on seeing you at all if I have anything to do with it."

That's another reason I didn't want to be in England, my ex.

When I was in high school, I did an exchange program where I stayed with a French family for one whole semester and I grew so close to them that I would visit in the summer after I would visit Raheem. Of course, my dumb adolescent brain made me fall in what I thought was love with an arrogant, and now professional, footballer. Alex and I were together whenever I was in France and attempted long distance relationships when I returned back to my home in Los Angeles. We were fine until he moved to an English club, that's when he began to lie. Almost immediately after signing he entered a very public relationship with another woman and even though I cut things off with him prior, he wanted to proceed like we were still together and he wasn't with someone else. Long story short, our "relationship" has been a hot mess since then.

"So we can't get along as adults Sydney? You're so bull-headed I can't stand it" and the line went dead. I roll my eyes. I'm just glad he hung up before I did, because one thing I won't do is argue with people.

I pushed myself to forget about our fifty second "conversation", if you could even call it that, and went to return to the meeting room just as the manager, Gareth Southgate was getting everyone's attention. One good thing did come from that call though, I was reminded to change my number.

Southgate allowed me to introduce myself to the team and I couldn't help but notice how everyone had their eyes locked on me. I'm pretty sure Jadon Sancho caught a fly in his mouth since it was hanging open the entire time.

After the full staff introduction Gareth let us know that we had to hop on the bus to the airport so we could get to Bulgaria as soon as possible to settle in and have our first team dinner so that the boys would be ready for practice in the morning. I was not looking forward to yet another flight so soon, but it was only three hours and a mere two hour time difference, I suppose I could cope. I grab my coat and purse from my office and head for the exit.

As the boys head toward the bus I turn my jets on so that I could be one of the first ones on and head to the back to review the players' medical notes. I swiftly put my bag in the overhead compartment when I feel eyes on me. I look to my right and see Jesse coming down the aisle with his eye glued to my behind. As I turn to give him a look that says "Seriously?", his eyes trail up my waist, lingering on my now exposed bellybutton ring, and eventually make it to my face.

"I was just going to ask if you needed some help gorgeous" he says behind a cheeky grin. I roll my eyes and close the compartment and lounge in my seat. I put my AirPods in and get to work before everyone is even seated and eventually the bus takes off.

We reach the airport in about 20 minutes but it felt like 5. On a positive note, I got through my notes pretty quickly and outlined the players I wanted to work with directly to speed up their recovery. I hope Walker, Marcus, Dele, and Alex are ready to spend a lot time with me.

We get of the bus and step into the tarmac where the boys huddle up and pose for pictures while the bags are loaded. England's media team is around 24/7 so I'm going to have to put in work to dodge them. Every time I'm pictured with an athlete the Shade Room pushes the narrative like I'm sleeping with them, they must think it's in my job description at this point.