***
It took me mere minutes to make my way to Seb’s spacious office. It was light and airy because it was where he spoke to parents who were interested in sending their kids to the center. The wall outside was covered in flyers and programs selling all the services, and I picked up a couple that had fallen to the floor and put them back in.
I knocked on his door.
“It’s open.”
I pushed it inward and poked my head through. “You good to talk?”
“Give me two minutes, then yes.” He smiled over the top of his laptop, and I closed the door behind me before taking a seat on the sofa.
His trophies were everywhere. I’d never seen anyone have as many as he did, and I didn’t even know what half of them were. Photos of him in his pro and amateur days adorned the wall opposite me, and there was a box marked ‘NEW PHOTOS’ under the window.
That looked like Holley’s writing.
No wonder it was all still in the box.
“Right, done.” Seb looked over at me.
“Anyone ever told you that you need an assistant?”
“Daily. What’s up?”
“I wanted to talk about the football teams.”
He blinked. “The soccer teams. Right. What about them?”
“What are the plans?” I asked, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees. “What are the tournaments like around there? Are there any leagues that don’t require a lot of travel? How will you split out the current classes without stepping on any toes? Will you hire anyone else to run the soccer part of the center?”
Seb sat back but said nothing.
“Will you get AstroTurf put in so they can play outside even if it’s wet? Grass is great, but not if they’re always slipping up. Slipping up doesn’t win football games. Ask Steven Gerrard.”
“Who’s that?”
“Never mind. Starting these teams isn’t a walk in the park, and if you want me involved, I need to know that you know what you’re doing.”
A smile spread slowly across Seb’s face. “I don’t need to know what I’m doing, do I?”
“Of course you do.”
“No, I don’t. Not if I have you.” He tilted his head to the side, smile still in place. “I wasn’t going to do this yet, but since you asked…” He opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a brown envelope, only to throw it on the desk. “There. Look at that.”
“What is it?”
“Get it and see.”
Narrowing my eyes, I got up and walked to the desk to pick up the envelope. It was thick, and when I reached in and pulled it out, I froze. Contract of Employment was written at the top of the top sheet of paper. “What’s this?”
He motioned for me to keep going.
Director of Soccer.
“Director of Soccer? What does that mean? Is that—is this for me?” I stared at Seb in disbelief.
“Like I said, I wasn’t going to offer it to you yet, but you came up here for a reason.” He scratched his chin. “I’d bet that had something to do with your date with London last night, but yes, it’s yours. I don’t know a damn thing about soccer.” He laughed. “Dylan talked it over with me, and I realized that I can’t run the soccer section. I can do the baseball, but I don’t know what goes in to building a good soccer team. You do.”
“I—” I cleared my throat. “What does this mean?”
“Well, you’d get your own office. You’d handle the scheduling of all the soccer classes. You’ll form the teams and do all the necessary registrations and things like that. I still want you to be the coach of the actual teams we’re forming, but you’ll probably need to hire out the other sessions. There are provisions for an assistant coach for you and an admin assistant if you find you need one.”
I looked down at the contract.
“It’s a long contract, so don’t rush into it. Mason and Fortescue are the legal team I work with here, they’ll happily look over the contract and make sure it’s above board, and it won’t be the lawyer I work with, either. Take your time to decide. It’s a big job.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything. Not right now. A week would be great.”
I forced out a laugh and slid the contract back into the envelope. “Right. Thank you. I really appreciate this, I’m just in a bit of shock.”
“Why?” Seb smirked. “You walked in here asking the questions. If you can answer them all, Ollie, then you already know you’re cut out for the job.”
I could.
I knew I could find all of that information in a heartbeat, and if I couldn’t, I knew a woman who was very, very good at researching.
“Take it and think it over for a few days,” he said after a moment of me staring at the envelope. “I’m open to other suggestions, but it’s all yours if you want it. For what it’s worth, I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have do that.”