Leo woke up the next day and, for about five minutes, lay still.

All he could think was how that morning was one of the most expectant he’d been in a while.

He felt genuinely rested, both physically and mentally, which was something that he couldn’t claim in the past couple of weeks, at least not without lying about one of the two.

He’d be lying if he said that the thing with Vittoria hadn’t been sitting somewhere in the back of his mind for a while now.

He’d just learned to ignore it, but yesterday’s resolution had brought him more peace than he ever felt he had lost.

After a while, he swung his legs off the bed and got to his feet.

He washed his face a bit before picking up his toothbrush, and then in some five minutes, he was right back out of the bathroom.

"Wonder what she has to say," he muttered to himself, and then pulled on his running gear before he could spend any more time thinking about it.

Five miles out, five miles back and the city still quiet enough at that hour that he had most of the route to himself.

By the time he got back to the complex, his shirt was soaked through, and his legs had the good kind of heaviness in them.

He made his way back to his unit, and after resting for half an hour, he felt his legs returning to how they had been when he woke up.

After that, he stood in the shower for longer than strictly necessary and let the water do what it does, and he was back in his room, towelling off when his phone lit up on the bed.

Vittoria.

Are you up

He smiled at the screen for a bit before tossing the towel somewhere he knew he’d have a hard time finding, but at the moment, he didn’t really think about that.

He sat on the edge of the bed after that and began typing back.

They went back and forth for almost fifteen minutes, talking a whole lot but at the same time, about nothing in reality, and Leo was in the middle of a reply when the group chat notification came through and interrupted everything.

He switched over and saw the message was from the club, which was a statement talking about how training that morning would be an open session at the DW.

With the stadium having completed enough of its Premier League refurbishment, the club was trying to get the fans back in the stadium before the season began so they could have a feel for what was to come.

He was still reading it when Noah called.

"Morning," Noah said.

"Morning," Leo replied.

"I just got a call that the package they sent has arrived. Could you check for me?"

At that, Leo was already standing up. "

He navigated his way towards his Gmail app, and the moment he refreshed, he saw a notification that hadn’t come through because he had put his phone on do not disturb!

"Yeah, I just saw it."

"Well, go get it," Noah said, and Leo could hear that he was pleased about something. "Call me later."

The woman at the reception desk of the main building looked up when Leo came through the door and reached under the desk before he’d said a word.

"Just came in for you," she said, lifting a box onto the counter. "About an hour ago."

"Thank you," Leo said, tucked it under his arm before going back the way he’d come.

He opened the package only to find it holding three individual packages, which looked nothing other than his boots.

The ones that Skechers had promised to send over before his first training session.

The first two came out together, both having the inscription, ’Skechers Elite’ on them, with one in a vibrant standout red and the other in a dark neon green that was aggressive in the best way.

Both of them looked clean and well-made, and Leo could see himself rocking them, but on the third, Leo was stumped.

He unwrapped it slowly, and what came out was a diamond ice blue and white boot, with detailing that ran along the lateral side like something between structure and decoration.

Attached to the tag was a small card with a single word on it.

Razor.

Leo held it up and turned it in the light, which caught the bluish transparent studs.

The first two were good.

He’d wear either of them without hesitation.

But this one was something else; the gap between it and the other two was not a small gap.

He set it on the desk and looked at it for a moment with the appreciation of someone who understood that considerable thought had gone into what he was looking at.

"They’re really going all out," he said quietly, but in the next moment, a photo appeared on the screen of his phone.

Jake had posted in their group chat a picture of himself holding two boots up with the caption arrived and the energy of someone who had been waiting to do this since the package was confirmed.

Ezra followed three seconds later with his own picture, and like always and with a lot to say, Jake’s reply came immediately after Ezra’s.

We got the same colourway, bro, what

Leo typed into the chat.

Wait, was that all you got? I got 3. Same as both of yours, and then another one.

Then he took a picture of the Razor boots and sent it.\

The chat went quiet for about two seconds, and then Jake started typing with the specific frenzy that showed up as the three dots appearing and disappearing and reappearing.

THAT IS MAD BROCHACHO!

THAT IS NOT FAIR

WHY DOES HE GET THAT ONE

I WANT THAT

Leo put his phone face down on the desk after realising Jake wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, and looked at the time, which read 9:18.

He typed see you there into the chat and exited before Jake could build any more momentum.

After that, he switched to Vittoria’s chat, where her last message was still waiting.

’Going to get ready for training, he sent, and the reply came before he’d set the phone down. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Good luck!

He looked at it for a second.

Then he set the Razor boots to one side, picked up the dark neon green ones, gathered the rest of what he needed for the session, and looked at the time again, which now read 9:27.

He moved quickly after that, out of the room and down through the complex and out the front, where one of the staff was loading things into a club vehicle heading to the DW.

"Room for one?" Leo said.

The man looked at him, then at the boot bag over his shoulder.

"Get in," he said with a smile as Leo went round and sat in the passenger seat!