stands. I’m prepared for there to be a lot of pacing.
“I know about the two of you,” Mateo says, the pacing beginning.
“Vera,” Thalia mutters angrily under her breath.
“No, it wasn’t Vera,” Mateo says, then shakes his head, looking aghast. “Wait, did you tell Vera? Does she know?”
Thalia’s lips go together in a firm line and she doesn’t say anything.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Alejo told me as much.”
“What?” Thalia exclaims, looking to me in shock.
“This was a long time ago,” he adds.
“But wait, you mean he knew and you didn’t tell me?” she asks me.
I guess I did kind of sweep that one under the rug. “Please,” I say to her. “I didn’t want to trouble you with it. It was after Manchester and he said he figured it out between us. At the time we were on a break—”
“Which clearly didn’t last,” Mateo says gruffly, “even though you promised me it would.”
“I don’t recall promising you anything,” I tell him, narrowing my eyes. I would never promise something like that.
“So then you should have promised me,” Mateo says. “Look, you guys. You both know that this is against the rules. No member of the staff, whether that includes the trainers, the doctors, the coaches, or the therapists, can have any relationship or sexual contact with the players. This will get you fired, Thalia.”
“So, you’re firing me,” she says softly.
“No,” he says, running his hand down his face. “Look, I’m not. I’m not…that’s not going to be up to me, do you understand?”
I shake my head. “I don’t. Explain.”
Grumbling, Mateo pulls out his phone, swipes through a few pictures and then comes to one on someone’s Instagram post.
It’s a picture of me and Thalia at the airport, I think before we flew to Tenerife.
“Who took that?” Thalia asks. “I never saw that pic.”
“I don’t know, some Madridista super fan,” Mateo says. “It was posted on his Instagram yesterday. He was excited he saw you at the airport Alejo and wasn’t able to post until now. And so first of all, I need you to explain this picture to me. What’s happening? You both are together, you have tickets in hand, where are you going?”
“I took her to Tenerife to spend Christmas with me and my family.”
Mateo nods. “Okay.”
“So?”
“So, Dr. Costa is the one who found this photo. I don’t know how, maybe he knows hashtags, but regardless he found it and sent it to me this morning.”
“Oh fuck,” Thalia whimpers, covering her face with her hands.
“He’s going to bring it up with Jose tomorrow. I had to come over here and get a backstory for this.”
“Well that’s the backstory,” I tell him, even though panic is starting to claw through my chest. “The truth.”
“But I can’t tell him the whole truth,” Mateo says. “Just that you became friends because of your knee and you knew she was spending Christmas alone so you invited her. Thankfully you both had the sense to at least behave respectably in public.” He pauses and gives me a sympathetic look. “But here is where the problem starts. I’m going to tell Dr. Costa and Jose this and they’re going to believe it. They’ll believe it because they believe me and they trust me. But they’re going to be suspicious of you both and they are going to watch you like a hawk. Believe me when I say Dr. Costa would rather you be gone, Thalia, don’t think he won’t look for the first opportunity.”
“Okay, we’ll just…be even more discreet,” I say. “We can handle that.”
“I don’t think you understand, Alejo,” Mateo says, wincing at his own words. “I can’t keep covering for you. I’ll do it this time so that Thalia can save her job but that’s it. I’ve got my own problems and my own matters to take care of. I have a whole team. We need to focus on that, I need to focus on that. This…it’s a distraction from the big picture and I wish there was another way but, honestly, I don’t think there is.”
“So you’re breaking us apart,” I tell him bitterly, starting to feel anger swell through me. “Because it’s too distracting to you.”
“No, Alejo,” Thalia speaks up, her voice emotionless. She stares at the floor. “He’s leaving it in our hands. For us to make our own decisions.”
“I’m sorry,” Mateo says, walking toward the door. “But this is the way it’s got to be.”
I get up and walk toward him. “You of all people are supposed to understand!” I