Harbinger Of Glory

The hotel that the Wigan team settled on was the Meliá Milano, sitting close enough to the San Siro that on a clear morning, you could feel the proximity of the place without seeing it.

At the same time, it was close enough to the training facilities the club had arranged that the logistics had been straightforward when the liaison had sorted it.

None of that mattered to Leo at three in the morning.

What mattered the most at that point in time was finding the door handle in the corridor and getting through it without making too much noise, which he managed.

Then he turned to find that Jake had come through behind him and left the door sitting open at a forty-five degree angle before making it approximately two metres into the room and dropping face-first onto the nearest bed with his side bag still slung over his shoulder.

And as if that wasn’t enough, his shoes, too, were still on.

Leo looked at him for a moment, then walked back to the door and closed it as the corridor disappeared behind the soft click of the latch.

He pressed his palm over his face, held it there for a second, and then pulled his phone out and typed the same message to both Noah and Sofia, talking about his arrival before moving on to the next chat, Vittoria’s.

He looked at the screen for a moment and then typed, I’m in your city, and set the phone on the small desk beside the bed.

He sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled off his sneakers one at a time, setting them to the side, and then shrugged the jacket off his shoulders until a white t-shirt and joggers were the only things remaining.

And that was enough.

He dropped back onto the bed, closed his eyes and was gone before he’d finished the thought he’d started.

Like time was when one wasn’t looking, the first rays of daylight reached Leo’s room, but that wasn’t what woke him up.

An incessant, unrelenting buzz vibrated the bedside desk as Leo surfaced from sleep slowly and with some resistance.

But then his whole body announced itself at once.

His left ankle suddenly felt much more sore than it had been, but that wasn’t all, as a sharp pain flashed through his head, almost like a brain freeze in the next moment.

”Goodenss,” he muttered as he pressed his fingers to the side of his head.

The recovery session before the flight had done something, but not enough, and the mattress had done the rest of what it could.

He reached for the phone without fully opening his eyes, and on it were several missed calls from Vittoria spread across the last forty minutes, and the call pattern showed a loss of patience as the time between each missed call reduced until there was none.

He turned his head to the left, where Jake was still in the same position he had fallen in some 6 hours ago.

The side bag had somehow migrated slightly down his arm during the night, but had not made it off entirely.

Leo sat up slowly, collected his toothbrush and a few other things from his bag, and padded toward the bathroom, but before he could reach it, his phone rang again, which he answered this time.

”You cannot,” Vittoria said, ”get me excited and then just not reply.”

Leo’s mouth curved despite himself.

”I was asleep,” he said as he applied some of the toothpaste to his brush.

”You texted me at three in the morning.”

”And then I went to sleep. I knew you’d be sleeping, but I just wanted to let you know.”

”Leo.”

”Vittoria.”

The call halted for a moment as she seemed to accept whatever was going on in her head.

”Are you actually in Milan?” she said, not entirely believing it since Leo had told her that they’d be in Dortmund at least a day longer.

”Come and see,” Leo said, and switched the call to video.

He walked to the window and held the phone up, angling it toward the view outside, the morning light on the rooftops and the particular skyline of the city doing the confirming for him.

On the screen, Vittoria’s expression shifted.

”That’s Via Galvani,” she said quietly, half to herself.

”Whatever it’s called,” Leo said, bringing the phone back to face him, while on her side, she tried to keep her face neutral, but the slight excitement couldn’t go amiss by Leo’s keen eyes.

”What are you doing today?” she asked, while coughing a bit.

”Not much,” Leo said. ”We played a full game yesterday and travelled through the night. Most of the lads are going to need the morning at least.”

She hummed and glanced at something off-screen briefly.

”I have a lot on today anyway, so I’ll leave you to it.”

”Okay.”

”Rest properly,” she said, but didn’t end the call until Leo replied.

”I will,” Leo said, pulling the toothbrush out of his mouth before inserting it back in.

When she seemed satisfied, she ended the call, leaving Leo standing with his phone by the window for a moment, and then he turned and went to the bathroom.

The shower was hot and long, but it did little to really ease him.

He came out and dressed in the team joggers, moving quietly around the room lest he wake the sleeping giant on the other bed.

After deeming everything fit, Leo picked up his key card from the desk, checked he had his phone, and slipped out of the room, pulling the door behind him until he heard the latch catch.

The corridor was quiet, and as he stood in it, he, for a moment, considered going for a run, weighed it against what his body was currently telling him, and decided against it.

He took the lift down instead before making his way towards the lobby, and then the dining area where the food for the players was already set.

”Leo,” Nolan said as he approached from behind.

”I was just about to call the boys down so they could come eat, but I guess you could do that for me,” he said before leaving, not giving Leo a chance to reject him.

Leo watched Nolan go and considered just sending a text to the team group, but with how things were, he wondered how many of them were actually going to see the message.

Left with no choice, we walked back towards the lift and began checking the rooms that belonged to his mates in the group chat!