The Meeting

Let the Games Begin

I thought of telling Leah that I wanted to marry her one day. It was all I could think about as I drove her to the airport to meet her teammates before the Olympics. I decided against it, in fear of scaring her away. We had only moved in together a few months ago, I was getting carried away. Instead, as I kissed here goodbye, I told her that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, hoping that she would know that for me, that entailed marriage.

It was hard, being away from Leah again. I struggled to adjust to life without her presence every day. Leah struggled too, on her third night away she sobbed on the phone to me, telling me she had performed poorly in training and the only thing she wanted to do was feel safe with me again. Our lives, as professional athletes/singers are often envied by others. We are able to do something we love for a living, we earn exceptional money and we are recognised in circumstances when others aren't, but this is the other side of it. The pressure of underperforming, the feeling of worthlessness when you know you could've done better and being away from the people you love for long periods of time.

I travelled to Bordeaux for Leah's first group stage match. She told me she didn't expect me to attend them all but when I refused to miss a single one, the smile on her face was enough for me to know she wanted me there. After the last tournament Leah was part of, she received the most disgusting hate, I wanted to be close by incase anything like that happened again. I travelled with Amanda, travelling economy as we often did. I didn't see the point in flying private when there are so many people in my country in poverty. At the boarding gate, I took pictures with some younger fans and recorded a video for the son of a wife and husband who had been to a few of my shows.

We boarded the plane and I took a selfie of myself and Amanda, posting it to my story and tagging Leah.

@leahwilliamsonn we are on our way ✈️

It was never awkward between Amanda and I. We talked the entire time, she was funny and very motherly which I liked. It had been a long time since I'd felt a mother's love and I felt like Amanda knew this and tried to give me that, without being patronising with it. We had some lunch and headed to the game, taking our seats in crowd, patiently awaiting our first glimpse of Leah. As the team came out I could see Leah had her game face on, I smiled to myself knowing that this girl with the hard face on right now would whine during the night when I turned away from her or stopped tickling her back.

We watched as Leah defended every ball that came her way, creating space for her teammates to run and shooting the most precise passes to those playing along the wing. The feeling in my heart as I watched her play, so passionately and so happy to be a part of this team, was like no feeling I'd ever felt before. I could see Amanda smiling at me out of the corner of my eye, knowing that she was smiling about the love I had for her daughter.

The game finished 3-1. Leah immediately lost her game face, a sparkling smile appearing as she celebrated with her teammates and hugged members of the other team. I could see her searching around the crowd for us, trying not to make it obvious. We knew she wouldn't be able to come to us, we were so high up that it would be impossible but when our eyes met, she blew us a kiss each and made a heart with her hands. That was enough for me.

Amanda and I explored Bordeaux, getting dinner in a restaurant filled with people who had enjoyed the game. We headed back to the hotel and managed to have a quick FaceTime with Leah who was clearly exhausted from the game. We headed to our separate rooms and I scrolled through my pictures with Leah, unable to stop the grin on my face from appearing as I wondered how I had gotten so lucky, having Leah was the best thing about my life.

I opened my Twitter to see my timeline was full of tweets about today.

Alex Ryan being in the crowd to watch Leah in the Olympics is the cutest thing I have witnessed

Did anyone else notice that Alex was sitting with Leah's mum today? Adorable

Leah blowing Alex a kiss after the game, I can't cope with these two

Apparently Alex Ryan flew to France with Leah's mum today. I need content🥺

Protect Alex and Leah at all costs!!!

And that's when I saw it.

Daily Mail: Grace Murphy confirms relationship with fellow athlete Paula Goldman in loved up Instagram post.

The smile on my face must've increased by at least 50%. Grace had found it. Grace had found her person, she had found her Leah.

I put my phone down, cuddled into Leah's teddy and fell asleep. Knowing that I shared the same ground as Leah tonight, knowing that Leah had won her first game and knowing that Grace was no longer alone.