Chapter Text
She shouldn’t have looked. It was only a digital sticky note on his open Macbook calendar- in clear view of anyone who happened behind his desk- but it was still private. Still not something meant for her to see. The small blush-colored square caught her eye and Rebecca read it without thinking. And then she re-read it, very much on purpose, and nearly dropped the papers she’d come to retrieve from Ted’s desk; the slim file suddenly lead between her manicured fingertips.
Under Thursday’s date, the night after their next away match, it said ‘Becca, 7pm :)’. She felt something- nothing she would dare try and put a name to- warm and prickle at the back of her neck as she swallowed unnecessarily and leaned in a fraction closer to the screen.
She stared at the little shape, lone and pink, among all the other yellow and green ones in Ted’s busy week, wondering. She wasn’t attending the match- a business conflict- and Ted had offered her a post-match review at the Crown & Anchor.
“Just us?” She’d asked, a few days ago.
“Imagine so, Beard and Nathan’ll probably be too hung-over. Besides,” Ted had paused, and scuffed his shoe on the carpet in her office, and almost hadn’t met her eye as he went on. “I like talking the game out with you- ‘specially at the pub- gives me perspective, and I know you’re not gonna watch it back the whole way through after a long day of meetings. Not without alcohol and chips to steal from my plate.”
Rebecca had rolled her eyes and smiled, knowing he was right.
“7 okay for you, Boss?”
She’d nodded, and that had been it.
It could be a typo , she rationalized, still somehow standing there- still clinging to the professional side of her brain- but then, no, it was capitalized. So, on purpose then. Interesting. And the little text smile. Rebecca blushed and bit into her lip, stopping her own pleased smile before it started to mirror the tiny parenthesis.
She tried, in vain, not to fantasize how it would sound if he called her that out loud- low and lilting. The warm prickly feeling returned. And then she tried even more hopelessly to not follow that thought- to not contemplate even for one second the intimate context that nickname might be uttered in such a manner- as a tiny frisson of arousal coursed her spine. She shook it off instantly, blushing harder, and stepped back from his desk. She looked around for a distraction; anything else- the sports posters- Coach Beard’s dry erase board with all the inscrutable markings she could never make heads or tails of.
Christ Rebecca! Stop it! Tidy your mess. She shook her head, reigning herself in. Fucking hell woman, it’s like you’ve never had friends before or something!
Though, being fair to herself, six years was a long time to go without real friendship, and she’d been starving in a way she hadn’t even known until Ted, and Keeley too- had swooped into her life. With the return of Sassy and little- not so little now- Nora; Rebecca was realizing she had forgotten how fulfilling it was to feel known, to be seen and loved- for herself.
She looked back, smiling faintly, just for a second- to make sure she hadn’t hallucinated the whole thing in her compassion starved brain. Nope, still there. Still adorable. Nobody had called her that since before Sassy. Once ‘Stinky’ had caught on, there’d been no need for ‘Becca’ anymore. It felt familiar and soft and childlike, and so so comfortable- like warm sunshine, or being beckoned into open arms with a smile.
She marveled. How did he do this? Keep doing this? Discovering things about her that she had forgotten about herself. Such tiny, crucial things. Biscuits. He couldn’t possibly have known- and yet- somehow he had guessed. He was a constant surprise, her Ted. Her Ted? She pursed her lips and imagined how loudly Keeley would be squealing if she’d heard that thought. A grip, Becca- get one. Ted is my gaffer. Ted thinks of me like a sister, a close friend, nothing more. Nicknames are normal. It’s cute. Leave it alone.
She tapped the edge of the manila file on his desk, punctuating the train of thought, and ducked her head slightly as she turned to leave before anyone noticed her lingering in his office. The steady blush in her cheeks softened to the warm pink of Ted’s happy little note as she pulled the door closed.
And if anyone asked- That little flip in her stomach when she and Ted locked eyes in the crowded pub later that week? Well, that was just excitement from their massive away win. Obviously.