Chapter 45 - Between Heart and Field
Later That Evening
They sat across from each other in a quiet Italian place off Deansgate, the kind of spot with wine-stained menus and candlelight that flickered with every laugh.
Conversation flowed like it had always been waiting for this moment.
She asked about the match—not the tactics or the drama—but what it felt like.
"To score and still lose…" she said. "What's that like?"
Nathan leaned back, thinking.
"It's like punching through a wall only to realize there's another one behind it. And then another. And you just keep swinging."
Lauren nodded, scribbling invisible notes on her napkin with her finger. "Sounds exhausting."
"It is," he said. "But it's also why I love it."
Then he turned the questions back on her.
Why journalism?
Why football?
Why the café?
She told him she grew up watching her older brothers play, and she fell in love with the stories behind the goals. The look on a striker's face when he missed.
