Chapter Text
Tobin Heath was happy with her life.
She was a star midfielder for LAFC and the USWNT, she had supportive family and the best friends she could have asked for, she had a wild social life but she didn’t have somebody to love; it wasn’t for the want of her trying, there had been everything from wild flings to serious relationships that prompted the possibility of marriage, but ultimately Tobin was alone in that sense, but she was more than happy with it; her friends on the other hand, not so much.
“She needs to find someone,” Alex huffed out over dinner, teal painted nails tapping against the side of the glass of water, “Nobody is happy alone.”
“Speak for yourself.” Kelley scoffed, leaning back in her chair. “I’m alone, and I’m happy.”
“You were crying at the Titanic, alone in bed, with an empty box of chocolates last night.” Alex reminded her, smirking when Kelley’s cheeks turned crimson, but that didn’t deter the striker turned defender;
“Tobin is just Tobin – she’s happy alone, drop it.” Kelley cut short the conversation and pulled the menu in front of her face to scan the list of pastas.
“What about Christen?”
“What about Christen?” Kelley asks, peeking over the top of the menu; her interest peaking at the name of her best friend from college. Alex hesitated allowing the all-so-familiar scheming smile to appear on her face, and Kelley’s face drops when she catches on to Alex’s train of thought. “Absolutely not.” She deadpans, “You are not setting Tobin and Christen up.”
“Give me one good reason why, Kel.” Alex pushes, and it causes a heaving sigh to escape the freckled woman’s lips as she places the menu flat on the table.
“Christen is my friend, Alex.” Kelley finally says
“So? Tobin’s your friend too.” Alex shoots back
“The answer is no, you’re not setting them up.” Kelley tries to end the topic, but Alex isn’t giving up that easily, in fact; Alex being the schemer she is, has been thinking about setting Christen and Tobin up for the last six months; and with Christen now single (and having waited an appropriate period of time between the rebound stage and I’m ready to start dating again), Alex feels now is better than any other time to put her scheming to good use, but if she could only get Kelley to agree, and Kelley catches Alex staring at her, impatiently. “Alex if you don’t give up this crazy idea, I’ll tell Allie.”
It wasn’t so much of a threat, it’s just out of the four roommates; Allie Long was the most mature on a process of elimination.
“Allie agrees!” Alex exclaims receiving pointed stares and heads turning to look at the table in the corner of the restaurant. “Allie thinks Tobin needs to meet someone, hell, none of us are getting any younger.” Alex continues, clearly exasperated.
“Speak for yourself.” Kelley chuckles, gesturing to herself, “I just don’t understand why you’re so wound up over Tobin dating, shouldn’t you be focused on your own?” Kelley teases, taking a sip of water and winking over to the other brunette. Alex rolls her eyes, leaning further back in her chair as she absentmindedly taps against the edge of the hardwood table.
“I’ve got my eyes on somebody…” Alex trails off, and again, Kelley’s interest is peaked.
“Alex Morgan chasing somebody? Isn’t this a first?” Kelley laughs, and she ignores the uneasy feeling bubbling in her stomach, placing it down to the fact that the pair had been in the restaurant for nearly thirty minutes and hadn’t yet ordered anything for dinner.
“I date!” Alex protests, again too loudly for the confined space that they are in. “I just don’t do it often.”
“And the reason for that is because you’re so obsessed with your friends’ relationships?” Kelley wonders, cocking her eyebrow,
“You’re just jealous that I’m not interested in your dating life.” Alex shoots back, feeling satisfied when Kelley takes too long to offer up a response.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night. Can we order now?” Kelley whines, pointing at the menu.
“Sure Kel.”
They are both more than a little tipsy after returning back to the house after lunch, and Kelley places the blame on the second pitcher of margaritas, she stumbles into the house first, and after a quick shout and no response; she’s sure that they are the only two here, well except for Alex’s beloved Golden Retriever, Riley who comes bounding towards the front door when he hears the two women return home.
“H-Hey buddy.” Alex grins a lopsided smile as she falls to her knees, scratching behind the dog’s ears, and hugging him close to her, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “That’s my good – boy.” Alex mumbles into his fair before clumsily pulling herself to her feet and following Kelley into the living room where the defender has already kicked her shoes off and collapsed onto the couch with the remote in her hand. Alex follows suit and Riley jumps in-between the pair, resting his head atop of Alex’s thigh.
They both settle on a rerun of Say Yes To The Dress and it takes two and a half episodes and an hour of scratching behind the dog’s ears for an idea to spring to Alex’s mind, and she excitedly slaps Kelley’s arm, bringing the older woman (unhappily) out of her almost slumber to glare at her.
“What the fuck Al? Get off.” Kelley pushes Alex’s hand off her, moody from her disturbed attempt at sleep.
“I just had the best idea ever. I’m a genius Kelley and Tobin is going to love me for it.”
“I find that incredibly hard to believe.” Kelley scoffs, rolling her eyes but that doesn’t put Alex off,
“I know it’s going to work, I don’t know why I never thought of it before.” Alex is in a slight instance of shock
“Wake me up when it crashes and burns, okay?” Kelley yawns as she tosses the remote into Alex’s hand.
“It’s gonna’ work.” Alex mutters, determinedly
*****
Alex sifts through the cupboards, humming and furrowing her eyebrows; she was a hundred percent sure it was somewhere in one the cupboards; Riley is scratching at her ankle, impatiently waiting for his food when Alex catches a glimpse of it; she pulls out the long out-of-date can of dog food,
“I knew there was a reason I didn’t throw this away.” Alex grins triumphantly, swiveling and starting to empty half of the contents into the bowl.
Admittedly; it wasn’t the smartest idea that Alex had ever had, essentially she was trying to (nearly) poison her dog with out-of-date food, but after racking her brain the night before as sleep evaded her; this was the best idea she had to stage a ‘chance meeting of destiny’. She finished preparing the food and placed the bowl on the floor, Riley clearly not noticing the difference, lunged forward and started downing the food. Satisfied, Alex throws the rest of the dog food in the trash and waltzes into the living room where a less than enthusiastic Kelley is entering the room with an even less enthusiastic Allie is following her.
“Ready?” Alex asks, swinging back and forth on her heels as she swipes her car keys from the table.
“It’s only Costco Al, why did we have to get up at an ungodly hour?” Allie yawns, clearly unimpressed.
“It’s 7:30AM Alexandra; it’s not an ungodly hour.” Alex corrects,
“You’re unusually chipper, what did you do?” Kelley asked, narrowing her eyes at her friend’s eagerness.
“Can’t a girl be happy?” Alex asks, shrugging as she heads towards the door.
“Not on a Monday morning they can’t!” Kelley calls over her shoulder as Alex opens the front door.
The three leave, and Tobin is the only one left in the house, she wakes up around two and a half hours after her friends have left and she sleepily makes her way downstairs and into the living room, yawning and barely able to keep her eyes open she doesn’t notice the floor until her Arsenal socked foot steps in something squidgy, and when she looks down she jumps back, shaking off her foot at the vomit on the floor, and the fact Riley is in the back garden, throwing up.
It takes about a minute for Tobin to register everything, and when she does, she panics.
She hops over the sick, and rushes out into the garden, kneeling down beside the dog, she lifts Riley’s head and notices the clouding over in his eyes, and her stomach churns as she charges back into the house, spinning and frantically searching various surfaces for her phone, and when she does, she finds Alex’s number as quickly as she can through her shaking hands, having never experienced a situation when she was in the company alone of a sick dog, Tobin is clueless at what to do, and so she needs Alex’s advice.
“Hey Tobs, finally out of bed?” Alex’s cheery voice comes through on the other line.
“Al – uh – something’s wrong.” Tobin manages to get out, and there’s a brief silence.
“What do you mean something’s wrong?” Alex asks, her tone lowering and Tobin’s heartbeat speeds up as she begins to hear Riley retching in the background again.
“R-Riley’s sick – what do I do?” Tobin questions, looking over her shoulder at the dog in the garden, Alex is silent on the other line and Tobin is getting antsier with every second she’s stuck without any way forward.
“The vet.” Alex finally says, “Take him to the clinic.”
“Vet, right – okay, I can do that.” Tobin mutters mainly to herself, “Uh – thanks.” She quickly ends the call, and after cleaning up the mess in the living room; she manages to haul Riley back into the house and put his leash on him, and grabbing her shoes, and keys she leaves the house and leads the dog to the car, carefully lifting him up and laying him down on the back seat. “Don’t throw up buddy, these were expensive.” She laughs nervously to calm herself down before climbing into her jeep and heading off to the veterinarian. She winces when she hears the dog’s heavy breathing from the backseat and tries to speed the journey up, at this rate; she was more than willing to break the speed limit to get there sooner.
Once she arrives; she haphazardly parks her car and lets Riley hop out, she leads him inside and rushes to the front desk, stopping in front of the young receptionist. “Hi, how can I help you?” She asks,
“My – uh my friend’s dog is sick, like, really sick.” Tobin tries to explain but can’t find a better explanation than that, the receptionist looks at Riley, who in all honesty looks seconds away from passing out and she stands up, waving to a woman in a white jacket,
“Christen; sick dog – wait – is this Riley?” Morgan’s question goes unheard,
The aforementioned Christen walks into Tobin’s eye line and smiles sympathetically, “Hi, I’m Dr. Press; follow me.” She offers Tobin a quick, toothy smile before leading the midfielder and Riley into one of the examination rooms. She shuts the door and lifts Riley onto the table, “What’s this cutie’s name?” Christen asks, smiling as she strokes the top of the dog’s head,
“Riley, his name is – uh, Riley.” Tobin stammers, unable to tear her eyes away from the woman in front of her.
“Hey Riley,” Christen soothes, pressing against the dog’s stomach, “That’s a good boy,” She continues to keep the dog in a subdued state as she performs a quick few examinations.
Tobin backs up until she’s leaning against the wall, waiting patiently as Christen switches between testing Riley’s eyes and logging into the computer, “What has he eaten today? Do you know?” Christen asks and Tobin jumps slightly, causing a small but sweet laugh to escape Christen’s lips, “Has he eaten today?” She repeats the question at a softer register.
Tobin thinks back, she barely noticed but figured Alex wouldn’t leave the house without feeding him first, and she doesn’t seem to remember his food bowl being full when she was in the kitchen. “I think so, just his normal food?” Tobin answers, although unsure but Christen doesn’t seem too disappointed in the response. The door swings open, and another veterinarian with long blonde hair strolls into the room,
“Chris, Mr. Jackson’s here with his – freakishly annoying parrot.” The blonde rolls her eyes as she heads over to one of the cabinets and begins sifting through it.
“Thanks Jules, I’ll head over when I’m finished here.” Christen smiled, glancing up for a second.
“I’ll let him know, you know, I think he has a thing for you.” The blonde chuckled causing a faint blush to take over Christen’s cheeks,
“He’s not my type.” Christen chuckles back, Julie grabs the package she was looking for, and strokes Riley’s nose before quickly leaving the room, shutting the door over behind her.
“Right,” Christen stands up straight, whilst still brushing her hand through Riley’s thick fur. “Can you tell me what happened? Why you brought him in?”
“I woke up and found him throwing up,” Tobin answers, looking between Christen and Riley. “I didn’t know what else to do, my friend told me to bring him here.”
Christen nods and hums for a second before sliding across the floor and back to her computer, and Tobin watches her, and actually notices her; she notices the way her hair is pulled back into a messy bun that had probably only been done minutes before she arrived at the clinic, she also notices that Christen has her bottom lip tugged between her teeth as she concentrates on what is on the screen, and really, the main thing she notices is just how attractive this woman is.
“Okay, well, I don’t think it’s anything too serious.” Christen speaks up, turning away from her computer. “If anything, I think we could be dealing with a bout of food poisoning; nothing to be too concerned with, but I would definitely suggest a lot of rest and water for this little cutie pie.” Christen starts smiling bashfully again as she runs a hand through Riley’s fur. “I would suggest,” Christen walks over to the cabinet and pulls out a small box before handing it to Tobin. “This is hydrogen peroxide, just to induce vomiting; it’s probably best for him to get it all out of his system, and of course, refrain from giving him anymore food; but I think he’s going to be just fine.”
“Thank you – I – for your help, Alex, my friend Alex would probably kill me if something was seriously wrong.” Tobin laughs nervously thinking about how scared Alex would be if it was something more serious than food poisoning.
“Alex? As in, Alex Morgan?” Christen asks and Tobin furrows her eyebrows,
“Y-Yeah – that Alex, you know her?”
“We’re friends,” She nods and looks down at Riley. “Hey there buddy, hi, hey Riley it’s been a while, huh?” She asks, finally recognizing the dog, after having everything thrown off by not seeing Alex with the dog, she didn’t recognize him – or maybe it’s because it gets hard to remember every dog with the amount she sees to each week.
“Sorry,” the Morgan barges in, “Sorry, hi, you,” she points to Tobin, “I need some – uh – details about this.” Morgan smiles sheepishly at both women before Tobin nods and pushes herself off the wall.
“I’ll bring him out, don’t worry.” Christen tells her and so Tobin follows Morgan back out to the reception.
Tobin is finalizing the details when she hears the patter of footsteps heading in her direction and Christen hands over Riley’s leash to her, “If he doesn’t seem to be getting better or you’re worried, you can call this number, or just bring him back; I wouldn’t mind seeing him again, he’s a cutie pie.”
Tobin takes the card, and ignores the soft feeling of Christen’s hand in her own for a second before slipping the card into her pocket. “Thank you.” Tobin tells her, sincerely, and Christen nods.
“Anytime, goodbye – uh sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”
“Tobin, Tobin Heath.”
“Well, Tobin Heath; it was lovely to meet you, and see Riley again but if you’ll excuse me, I have a fussy parrot and an even fussier owner to go and see to.” She slowly backs away before turning and entering another examination room. Tobin turns and finds Morgan looking at her, almost wearing a smug smile and she feels her own cheeks heating up,
“Thanks, bye.” Tobin quickly rushes out before leading herself and Riley out of the clinic.
On the drive home, Tobin can’t get the thought of Christen Press out of her mind, but at least Riley’s retching has stopped.
Alex is more than grateful when Tobin and Riley return home, thanking her friend for looking after her favorite boy, and things settle down after that.
*****
Their weekly Friday night dinner comes at the four quicker than they would have liked, and things are left to Tobin and Kelley to rush around the supermarket finding something to cook that evening after training, and only after they lost three rounds of; rock, paper, scissors to Allie who decided to make the most of her free afternoon by going to get her nails done, whilst Tobin and Kelley stood in the third aisle of the supermarket and argued over which pasta was better.
“Cannelloni is better than fettuccine; everybody knows this Tobin.” Kelley sighs irritated, massaging her temples as Tobin refuses to make a decision on which pasta to buy.
“I don’t understand why Alex is so obsessed with Friday night dinners.” Tobin shrugs as she tosses the bag of cannelloni into the cart and the bag of fettuccine back on the shelf.
“They’re a tradition Tobs.” Kelley replies, leaning against the cart as they continue their way down the aisle. “They have been since the three of us lived together, remember our first Friday night dinner – in New York, our dinner table was a cardboard box and we ate cold pizza with a flickering lamp that nearly burnt down the apartment the next week?” Kelley smiles at the memory and Tobin laughs when she remembers it; they were freezing in that apartment, all sharing blankets and silently eating because they were in the middle of a fight because the stress of moving was getting to them.
“I’m glad we can say our dinners aren’t that depressing anymore.”
“We have more friends now, for one.” Kelley adds, “And Alex finally learnt how to use an oven.”
“We have central heating,” Tobin chips in
“And chairs,” Kelley laughs, “We’ve had so many dinners over the years but our first, that crappy one in New York will always be my favorite.”
“Mine too,” Tobin smiles fondly as the two round the corner.
They finish their shopping and head home, and Kelley starts panicking when she realizes it’s nearly 5PM and everybody will be on their way home soon, and the dinner the pair were planning on cooking that evening was still untouched in the grocery bags on the kitchen counter but when Tobin waves the remote in her direction and suggests catching up with the last of Narcos they have to catch up, Kelley finds herself making a dive for the couch and the fuzzy plaid blanket from the back of the sofa as they settle down to watch their current favorite TV show.
Alex and Allie return home thirty minutes or so later, and roll their eyes when they walk in to find the credits of Narcos rolling and Tobin asleep with a sleeping Kelley sprawled across her lap and the other end of the couch. “I told you.” Allie laughed as she walked through and into the kitchen.
“Hey, you dumbasses, wake up.” Alex kicks at Tobin’s ankle causing the older woman to jolt forward, confused and dazed from being woken up. “Ash and Ali are going to be here soon; don’t you have dinner to cook?” Alex wonders and Tobin nods, as she stretches and yawns before nudging Kelley and waking her up.
“Time to be world-class chefs, KO.”
“Five more minutes,” the defender mumbles, wiping at the drool on her chin and closing her eyes again.
“No, wake up, come on.” Tobin hauls Kelley off the couch and to her feet, the latter begrudgingly following Tobin into the kitchen as they begin to empty the bags and figuring out what they’re going to cook, what they’re going to need and whether they have enough time to cook before it.
Once the pair get into the rhythm of things; Kelley and Tobin work as a team to prepare and begin cooking a spinach and ricotta cannelloni and not because that’s the only thing they have both cooked before and not burnt; but that’s also a major part of why they are cooking it. The doorbell rings whilst Kelley and Tobin are sitting on the counter, waiting for the timer to go off; Allie answers the door and hears four distinctive voices; Ashlyn and Ali and their two children; Ethan and Olivia. Ethan catches the sight of Tobin’s ponytail before yelling ‘Toby’ at the top of his voice and racing into the kitchen, his eyes lighting up when he sees both Tobin and Kelley,
“Hey champ; how’s it going?” Tobin jumps down from the counter and lifts the seven year old up, swinging him around causing him to erupt in a fit of laughter.
“C-Can we play soccer?” He asks through his unbridled laughter.
“Later, if you’re good and eat your dinner.” Tobin tells him, ruffling his hair.
“Oh Tobin, you’re becoming more of a mom every day.” Kelley sighs, placing her hand on her heart and she should have expected the dish towel to the face that Tobin tosses at her.
Tobin is walking downstairs when the doorbell rings again, and she pokes her head into the living room. “I know we’re not the best cooks in the house but you didn’t need to order pizza.” She sarcastically says to Alex who just shrugs, Tobin walks to the door and opens it and her jaw drops when she sees who is standing on the doorstep.
“Hi Tobin.” Christen smiles softly at her, clutching the bottle of wine under her right arm.
“Christen!” Tobin says too excitedly, and so she coughs before calmly speaking again.
“Hey, it’s good to – uh – to see you again.” Tobin stammers nervously,
“You too, can I come in?” She asks, and Tobin nods, not trusting her voice as she steps aside to let Christen in, and as she’s shutting the door; Tobin catches Alex smirking in her direction and she shakes her head, of course.
Christen immediately slides into a conversation with Ali and Tobin walks into the living room, grabbing Alex’s arm and pulling her into the kitchen. “What did you do?” Tobin immediately questions.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Alex plays the innocent card, batting her eyelashes at the midfielder.
“Liar.” Tobin huffs, “Alex.”
“Fine,” Alex concedes, much easier than she usually would have. “I gave Riley some out of date dog food to plan a chance meeting with you and Christen.” Alex admits, and Tobin is frozen to the spot, she narrows her eyes before she shakes her head.
“Al, you don’t plan a chance meeting – that’s why it’s called a chance meeting.” Tobin states with an eye roll.
“I had to do something; you are – so – alone and I have wanted to set you up with Christen for months but you would never let me set you up – and Allie thinks it’s good too, and okay, Kelley told me not to but what does Kelley know, she hasn’t been on a date in over a year, but seriously Tobs, Christen is really sweet-” Tobin holds her hand up to stop Alex’s rambling,
“Everyone knew about this? Allie? Kelley?” Tobin wonders aloud.
“And, Ali and Ash…” Alex trails off, smiling nervously as she tries to decipher Tobin’s reaction.
“You poisoned your dog so I could meet your friend?” Tobin asked again to make sure, after all; this was somewhat hard to believe.
“It wasn’t my smartest idea – I know,” Alex concedes, wringing her hands together.
“It was stupid, and you call me and KO dumbasses.” Tobin states with an eye roll, leaning back against the kitchen counter.
“Tobin, please, can you just give her a chance?” Alex pleads, and Tobin doesn’t react,
“Why are you so desperate for me to meet someone?” Tobin switches the subject, “I’m happy being single.”
“I know-”
“You told her?” Kelley is the one to cut her off this time, walking into the kitchen with an empty bottle of wine,
“She asked me.” Alex held her hands up, and Kelley turned to Tobin who was still pursing her lips, looking past both of her friends, “You haven’t stopped staring at her this whole time we have been talking.” Alex states, and Tobin finally tears her eyes away from Christen.
“Okay, my turn, go away.” Kelley pushes Alex out of the kitchen before pushing Tobin out of the house and onto the patio, sitting on the steps. “What are you thinking?” Kelley asks, nudging Tobin’s shoulder.
“I don’t know, a lot of things, why Alex is stupid, why Alex can’t see I’m happy the way things are, why Alex cares more about my love life than her own.”
“I’m sensing a theme,” Kelley chuckles, “She only did it because she loves you, she wants you to be happy and even I know you miss being in a relationship.” Kelley tells her honestly, “I’ll admit I wasn’t originally happy with Alex wanting to set you two up but even I can see how good you two would be together, how good that she could be for you, and vice versa.”
“I’m not over-”
“Stop using that excuse, Tobin.” Kelley interjects, “You were over her a long time ago, you’re just scared of putting yourself back in that position and you’re missing out on new experiences, other shots at happiness, and I mean the true happiness you felt with her. I’m not saying you’re going to marry Christen but you won’t know anything unless you give her a chance.”
“Does Christen know this is a set-up?” Tobin wonders, leaning forward,
“I don’t know; but she’s a smart woman, she would probably figure it out.” Kelley tells her, “So, what do you say? Will you give her a chance?”
Tobin turns to Kelley and grins whilst nodding, “It’s worth a shot.”
*****
They laugh, they laugh to the point where they think they’re going to cry, the empty plates are piled in the kitchen but the friends are still sitting around the table, as Ashlyn and Ali take it in turns to see who can embarrass their kids most, and by the way Ethan was burrowed in Tobin’s arms, begging Ashlyn to stop talking; his mama was winning by a long-shot.
“Okay, that’s enough; you’re going to traumatize him.” Tobin cut the story of Ethan’s first goal (own-goal) for his club soccer team.
“Shit, it’s nearly midnight; we should probably go.” Ali curses when she looks down at her phone, Olivia sleeping soundly in her lap. “Thanks guys, dinner was great; as always.” Ali stood up, draping her five year old over her shoulder as Ethan crawled out of Tobin’s arms and yawned before running ahead of Ashlyn to grab his coat.
“Thank you Auntie Alex, Auntie Allie, Auntie KO and Auntie Toby!” Ethan gives his four aunts a big hug each before running and slipping his hand into Ashlyn’s, as the two women say their goodbyes and hug their friends before leaving.
It doesn’t take long for Christen to announce she is leaving also, with an early morning in the clinic ahead of her, she bids her farewells, taking longer when saying goodbye to Riley, before she grabs her coat, purse and heads to the door; Tobin turns towards the kitchen where Kelley is staring at her, and gesturing to her to follow Christen out, and Tobin knows better than to disobey Kelley, so she pulls herself up and follows, and finds Christen still at the door, her hand on the handle.
“Thanks for tonight, I never realized how much fun you were.”
“That’s just the beginning, I’m a comedy genius.” Tobin winks, but internally feels herself cringing but Christen overlooks it, out of politeness, Tobin is sure of that.
“I guess I’m going to have to stick around and get to know this comedy genius.” She says kindly before leaning in and kissing Tobin’s cheek.
“Also,” she whispers, “next time don’t make your friends be the ones to ask me on a dinner date.” Christen leans back and waves goodbye to the other guys before leaving, and Tobin turns around to find the three of her roommates leaning against the wall, all smiling smugly and feeling satisfied.
“Don’t even say it.” Tobin warns them, pointing at them as she feels the blood rush to her cheeks.