Anne had been stewing on that disastrous date for three days.
It was objectively silly.
She sat in the luxurious quiet of her Hollywood studio trailer, staring blankly at her flip phone resting on her vanity.
They had only gone on six dates.
They had only formally been going out for three weeks.
In the grand scheme of her life, it was a small blip.
But despite all her logical reasoning, Anne had gotten attached.
There was a gravity to him that she couldn’t shake.
She replayed the argument in the Italian restaurant over and over in her head.
She knew, deep down, that they were on borrowed time.
She was anchored to the soundstages of Los Angeles, and his destiny was undeniably written in Europe.
A long-distance relationship across the Atlantic Ocean was a logistical nightmare that was impossible long term.
But as she traced the edge of her phone, a sigh escaped her lips.
She still wanted to enjoy it while she could.
The connection they shared was once in a lifetime.
Why should she throw away the present just because the future has an expiration date?
Meanwhile, across the city, Rico had been stewing on that same date.
Sitting in the LA Galaxy locker room, Rico laced up his boots.
Rico was a professional; he was never one to let his personal life affect his demeanour on the pitch.
When he crossed the white line, he was a machine.
But today, the machine was malfunctioning.
The image of Anne standing up from that velvet booth, her beautiful doe eyes shattered with disappointment, haunted his every waking thought.
He had liked Anne.
More than liked her, if he was being completely honest with himself.
And honestly, he was kidding himself because there was no way they could be together.
Their respective careers made them incompatible.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try.
He wasn’t a quitter.
He was going to figure out a way to fix it.
But right now, he couldn’t fix his relationship.
He had to play a football match against the Colorado Rapids.
From the referee’s opening whistle, the game between the LA Galaxy and the Colorado Rapids was a brutal, physical affair.
Rico started the match playing with a terrifying anger.
Barely five minutes in, a Colorado Rapids player attempted to shield the ball near the halfway line.
Rico dropped his shoulder and barged the veteran sending him crashing to the ground.
Rico seamlessly took the ball and began to turn, but the referee sharply blew his whistle, calling the play back for a foul.
Rico threw his hands up in the air, unapologetic for the violence of the challenge.
The game continued, its temperature rapidly rising.
Minutes later, Rico received a sharp pass in the centre circle.
He glided past his first marker and carried the ball up the pitch.
Seeing the teenager breaking the lines, a retreating Colorado midfielder hacked at Rico’s ankles, kicking him hard from behind to stop the counter-attack.
Rico stumbled but immediately turned around, and shoved the player backwards, sending the grown man to the floor.
The referee rushed in, blowing his whistle frantically to break up the escalating confrontation.
Without hesitation, the official pulled a yellow card from his pocket and showed it to Rico.
“I’m the one getting booked,” Rico spat, staring down the official.
“He just fucking kicked me.” The referee looked slightly sympathetic but held his ground.
“I agree with you.” Rico let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head as he walked away to take his position.
“Then don’t give me a card.
Just fucking shit man.
Every week.” The injustice only poured gasoline on his fire.
The referee awarded LA Galaxy the free kick just past the halfway line.
The ball was played short to Rico.
He took a heavy touch, dribbling the ball up the pitch with terrifying long-strides.
The Colorado defence backed off, terrified of his pace.
That was a fatal mistake.
Rico leathered it from twenty-eight yards out.
The ball rifled through the air like a cruise missile, slamming into the top corner.
The Colorado keeper didn’t even dive; he could only plant his feet, watch, and stare in disbelief.
1-0.
Rico wasn’t satisfied with just one.
Rico kept setting up his teammates with impeccable deliveries, pinging crosses and perfectly weighted through balls right into their paths.
It was a playmaking masterclass, yet every single time, the LA Galaxy forwards squandered the opportunities.
They continuously scuffed their shots wide, awkwardly stumbled over the turf, or fired wildly over the crossbar into the stands.
Rico was visibly getting pissed off by the lack of clinical finishing.
He threw his arms up in the air, cursing at the incompetence.
That incompetence was epotimized moments later when Alex Lalas, under virtually no pressure, gave a terrible pass that was behind Rico.
A Colorado Rapids midfielder intercepted the loose ball and launched into a counter-attack but Rico closed the gap and launched into a slide tackle, winning the ball as it was knocked cleanly off the attacker’s shins as it deflected out for a goal kick.
Rico immediately popped up from the grass and glared at his teammate “How hard is to play to my feet?” Rico yelled, he furiously pointed down at his boots.
“Come on man.” Later in the match, the Colorado Rapids tried to push forward and earned a corner.
The ball was whipped high toward the back post.
A towering Colorado player leaped and headed the ball firmly back across the face of the goal.
The LA Galaxy keeper had committed, moving over to the wrong side of the net but Rico had dropped perfectly onto the goal line and headed the ball off the line, clearing the immediate danger.
But the Rapids kept coming.
They launched another attack, playing a swift ball out to their right winger.
Rico sprinted over to cover and forced the winger out wide toward the touchline before he stepped in front of the winger to shield the ball out of play.
Frustrated by the teenager’s dominance, the Colorado player cynically kicked Rico in the back of the calves.
Rico stepped back, intentionally letting the winger get back in front of him to collect the ball.
The second the winger took a touch, Rico barged the player sending him sent flying off the pitch and crashing heavily into the plastic advertising boards.
As the game restarted, the LA Galaxy goalkeeper smashed the ball high up the pitch.
A Colorado defender rose and won the first header, nodding it high into the air.
Rico perfectly tracked the dropping ball and won the second ball, sending a curling and looping header behind the Colorado defensive line.
It fell perfectly into the path of Carlos Ruiz, who finally managed to do his job, running onto the ball and slotting it past the keeper to score.
2-0.
Rico continued to generate high-quality scoring chances, orchestrating the attack.
However, the LA Galaxy players kept missing the target as Rico kept getting more and more frustrated, even more so as the Colorado Rapids players resorted to fouling him.
The chaotic nature of the match took a twist when a Rapids forward dove spectacularly inside the LA penalty area.
Without hesitation, the official awarded a dodgy penalty despite zero contact being made.
The controversial decision infuriated the home crowd.
The Rapids designated taker stepped up and calmly slotted the ball past the diving goalkeeper, shifting the game’s momentum as they scored, making it a two to one game.
The injustice of the penalty severed whatever thin thread of restraint Rico had left.
Moments after the restart, Rico received the ball in the centre of the pitch.
Instantly, a Colorado player stepped up and grabbed a fistful of Rico’s jersey, dragging him backwards in a tactical foul.
Rico spun around, grabbed the offending player by the arm, and swung him to the ground like a ragdoll.
“Fuck off,” Rico barked.
The referee blew his whistle sharply, stopping play and sprinting over to confront the towering teenager, pulling him aside to deliver a final warning.
“I’m the one getting a warning when they’re the one fouling me,” Rico argued furiously, towering over the official, exhausted by the incompetence of the league’s officiating.
The referee backed away, awarding the free kick to LA Galaxy for the initial jersey pull.
The LA defender stepped up to take the free kick, but misread the play, passing the ball directly past Rico.
Rico chased the loose ball down near the touchline as Pablo Mastroeni arrived at the same time.
Mastroeni turned his body to shield the ball out of bounds, but as Rico pressed up against his back, Mastroeni threw his trailing arm backwards, hitting Rico flush in the face.
That was the final straw.
Rico punched Pablo Mastroeni in the face.
Mastroeni stumbled to the ground as the stadium erupted into a frenzy of shock and noise The referee came sprinting over, his hand reaching into his back pocket.
But Rico didn’t even wait to see the colour of the card.
He already knew exactly what he had done.
He was already starting to walk off the pitch as the referee formally raised the red card as he was sent straight off.
As Rico marched down the concrete tunnel, he had one thought.
He couldn’t stay in this league any longer.
A/N) The first red card he gets is for punching an Argentine (who grew up in America) in the face.
That’s my Englishman.
I’m just playing.
Anne is not in the next chapter.
She’s in the chapter after.
Let me know what you think of this idea.
Basically what my idea is they spent the next twenty days having the time of their lifes ending them having sex and it’s kind of like they’re goodbye to each other.
Then I have the protagonist do trials maybe at Porto and then Fulham.
Maybe some more, but those are the main two.
I’ll do Fulham first and then Porto.
At Porto, he could be told he would be given a starting role.
And he celebrates and ends up in a club.
It could be a while party that spirals as he ends up with sleeping someone but he realises, he doesn’t want anybody but Anne.
The next night, he could have a talk with his mother who knows something is up and he confides that he’s willing to choose Fulham if Anne goes with him as his mom is just kind of in disbelief because his actions are kind of stupid as he lets love cloud his judgement as Rico knows his actions are dumb but he wants to do it anyway.
So, he flies back to America and they talk, Rico is like I got something to tell you and Anne is like I got something to tell you and Anne goes first as then Rico is like Yeah, I’m fine going to London even if it’s just for four more months.
And Anne who just had gotten a role for Les Mis (it was shot in London) agrees to come for four months.
But then baby.
So four months quickly turns to 23 years.
(Also, I’m not saying it will, the kid is born in 2004, say in like 2024, the protagonist could become a grandfather) I find that interesting, but what do you guys think?