Falling for the unloveable

Rehash the past/catfight

"Hey baby" he greets, kissing me and then ruffling Diego's hair who peaks out of my neck.
"Hey little man, causing trouble I see"
"I saw butterfly" Elias chuckles.
"Was it as pretty as ris ris?" Diego shakes his head, his shyness disappearing.
"Ris ris is the prettiest" my heart squeezes.
"She sure is" I'm sure the blush on my face is crazy as I push Elias away gently.

"Get back to practice"
"I am, I'll see you after though" nodding in agreement I watch him walk backwards with a smile before he starts running along with his team plus a grumpy sunshine who just had his ass handed to him by coach.

"Now Iris, I wanted to talk with you" running away is a bad option, a terrible one, not even imaginable. Yet I think I'm gonna do it.
"You and Elias are obviously..." he clears his throat his voice portraying his uncomfortableness. "Together" Jesus this is awkward.

"Try to keep him focused on football, he has talent. Too much to waste." He's straight to the point, I'll give him that. "I hope you know I'm not trying to be a distraction" his head shakes,
"no I know you're not" nodding I wait for him to speak again. "But you have a lot of power over him" my eyes narrow a tad, straying to find the source of this conversation.

"I'll try my best to keep him on track" coach nods stiffly and I take that as the end of our talk.
"Wait one last thing" I face him again, having been only half way through turning away.
"Aidan mentioned your chocolate cake" oh god.
"It's my granddaughters birthday and I haven't been able to find a decent baker" okay that is not where I expected this to go.

"You want me to bake her one?" My voice is a mixture of surprise and intrigue. Aidan must have really liked what I baked.
"If it's possible"
"I don't know I'm really not that good-"
"No need for modesty Aidan is a harsh critique especially of cake as I've learned over the years" he holds his hand up, stopping my arguments and I sigh. Giving in.

"When do you need it for?" I swear I almost see a glimpse of a smile but he removes it before I can confirm. I was probably imagining because coach is known for his lack of emotions.
"A week on Wednesday" that's doable. A pain in the ass but doable. "Okay, you can write down what you want but I can't draw or anything like that so it'll have to be plainly iced" I warn him, and he nods.
"Of course, thank you" forcing up a smile i nod back. "No problem" before either of us can speak or walk away as I was planning to do, miss young's voice calls out,

"Hey coach stop stealing my student" my favourite student is what she really meant but I'll let that go. "She's a pain in my ass" he grumbles with a scowl aimed at my teacher which makes me smile for real this time. "I've got to go-"
"Yes go on, get off of my field" yep there's the infamous coldness. "Alright bye coach" I wave, turning and walking half of the way back to the girls before putting Diego down.

He automatically grabs my hand and totters by my side. "Spill the beans Iris what did he say?" Miss young bombards me as soon as I'm close enough to her. "He said that being nosy is a sin" she rolls her eyes as I fall into a space beside her.
"You're the one that insisted on seeing my new puppy" she deadpans.
"Puppies are cute. Sue me"
"Don't tempt me"
"He asked if I'd bake him a cake for his granddaughter's birthday" I finally confess.

"Why would he ask you?"
"Apparently Aidan loved the one I made not long ago and coach heard about it" Mal and Kim nod like that makes sense while miss young shrugs.
"Now show me those puppies"

——————————

"Iris?" I hum, still sleepy after only just waking up from a nap I took with Elias. I'm still lying on his chest with my eyes closed shut, trying to block the outside world out.
"We never talked about what you said at Bailey's  party" my body stills at his reminder but I didn't need it. I'd been purposefully ignoring the inevitable conversation and I had even deluded myself into thinking he'd forgotten about it. Clearly he hasn't and he's no longer satisfied with letting me pretend.