Banter (ch. 7)
Series: Banter
Pairing: Roy Kent x f!Reader
Summary: The morning after.
A/N: It’s official, y’all! New season coming this summer! It would be insane for me to think that updating this fic had anything to do with the promo photos being released, but… I do feel like I sort of manifested that.
(Ch. 1) (Ch. 2) (Ch. 3) (Ch. 4) (Ch. 5) (Ch. 6)
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“Mornin’,” Roy’s gravely voice greets you as you roll over to see the normally very stoic if not outrightly grumpy man… smiling back at you?
You didn’t know it was physically possible for the man’s voice to get any deeper than it already was, but Roy Kent’s sexy morning voice proved you wrong.
“Hi,” You replied with a smile as you stretched your arms back over your shoulders.
“Last night was…” You trail off, at the risk of sounding overly trite.
“Good, really good,” Roy finishes for you as he reaches under the covers to pull you close.
“Yeah,” You reply with a small laugh as you press your lips to Roy’s. “We should do it again sometime,” You add lightly. “Are you free right now?” Roy asks as the hands currently tracing the skin above your hips move just a tiny bit lower. “Very funny,” You reply as you
“For breakfast,” Roy replies as his brow furrows. “Get your head out of the gutter.” “Yeah, I should be free after I have delicious morning sex with a very handsome, retired old footballer,” You tease before you preoccupy yourself and Roy for the next hour or so.
-
Your early morning rendezvous ended up taking up all of your free time that morning, so you had to skip out on breakfast and make your morning meeting with Keeley a coffee date so that you could shovel a pain au chocolat into your mouth before you collapsed from hunger.
“Sex on the first date? You slut!” Keeley hissed in absolute delight as she cackled. Clearly pleased that all of her scheming had paid off in droves.
“Keep your voice down, you incorrigible blabbermouth,” You hiss as you lean over the table to shush her.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Keeley apologizes as she matches your stage whisper with her own.
“There was just so much… build up, all that tension,” You replied. “It was insane. I haven’t had that much sexual chemistry with someone in a long time.”
“So it was good?” Keeley asked.
“Kind of insanely good. Multiple orgasms, I went down on him, and then he did this thing with his mouth–”
“Alright, we get it, we get it!” Keeley cut you off before you could detail the whole night in play-by-play.
“I’m happy for you,” She adds. “Like, so happy for you. You deserve this.”
“Aww, thanks, Keels,” You reply with a grin.
“So are you two dating now?” She asks curiously. “I don’t know, we haven’t talked about it,” You admit. You’d gotten so caught up in everything, the date, then everything after, that you hadn’t had a single moment until now to process much of what had happened, and what it all might have meant.
Casual fun? Exploring sexual chemistry? Something more?
Was it even normal to settle on a label this early on? Even if they’d had sex, they’d only been on one official date. It’s not like you wanted to marry him or anything.
You didn’t want to think about any of this. Not with your latte sitting in front of you, maybe two sips drunk out of it. “You’re right, way too deep,” Keeley replied when she saw the existential look on your face.
“So what did you want to meet about?” You ask, quickly changing the subject before you can truly spiral. “I don’t think someone has ever sent me a Google Calendar invite after 10pm.”
“Sort of a last-minute project, I got a call last night from one of Jamie’s personal sponsors, Rolex. They’re supposed to do a photoshoot tonight, but the photographer called out at the last minute. Any chance you could fill in?” Keeley asks as she looks at you with those wide, hopefully puppydog eyes that you can never say no to.
Not that you would even consider saying no in this situation. “For Rolex? Of course,” You reply almost immediately. You’d be insane to refuse such a great job. “I will make myself free.”
“Amaze! I’ll call them right now!” Keeley shrieks excitedly as she leaps out of her chair.
You made a dent in your coffee while Keeley stepped outside for the call.
When she came back, you were feeling much more caffeinated and much more alive.
“Okay, we’re all set. They’re going to send over the brief and the contract. We’re starting at the stadium, and then heading to the Shard tonight,” Keeley tells you as she sits back down, all without ever looking up from her phone as she taps rapidly. “Eeeeeeik! I’m so excited!”
“You’re brill, Keels, thank you for thinking of me,” You tell her as you grab her hands across the table and squeeze them tightly.
“Of course! You’re the best photographer I know, it was a no-brainer,” Keeley replied. “Go grab your equipment, I’ll meet you at Nelson Road this afternoon. I gotta make a few more calls for tonight.”
“Alright, love ya,” You tell her as you both stand and squeeze each other tightly before you grab your bag and head out.
-
You got to Nelson Road way too early. You were worried you’d be late, and didn’t want to make a negative impression on the Rolex reps. But now you were here, and no one else was yet, so there wasn’t much for you to do.
You were wandering the hallways, trying to kill time, when Roy came out of one of the doorways and stopped in his tracks when he noticed you further down the hall.
“Are you stalking me?” He asks after a moment.
“You wish,” You reply as you make your way over to him. “What are you doing here?” He asks curiously.
“I’m working a shoot with Rolex and Jamie Tartt,” You tell him with a gesture to the camera bag slung over your shoulder.
“You’re early!” Keeley shouts from down the hall before Roy can respond, both of you instead turning to watch the little blonde stroke towards you. “I didn’t think you’d be here for another hour or so!”
“I got nervous,” You admit.
“Well, let’s head out to the field and set up. I think the Rolex people will be here any second, and we can talk through everything with them before Jamie’s done with practice,” Keeley tells you.
“Okay,” You reply with a nod.
“The plan is to shoot here when he’s sweaty and kitted up, a sort of post-match look. And then we’ll head to the strand while he cleans up and changes for the debonair James Bond vibe.”
You nod, you’d figured as much from the brief that the Rolex people sent over.
“Cool, I have my night shoot gear in the car for later, but I should have everything I need for here in my backpack.”
“Why the fuck would anyone want Tartt to represent their brand? Don’t they want to sell their products?” Roy grumbled beside you. “Woah,” You reply as you whip around to face him. You’d almost forgotten he was there.
“Jesus,” Keeley replied. “Tell us how you really feel.”
“I feel like Jamie is a dick,” Roy doubled down as he crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s why people like him,” Keeley replied with a shrug. “He’s a footballer. Most of you are dicks, it’s what people like about you.”
“And I love money,” You add, trying to diffuse the situation. “And if Rolex wants to pay me, I’ll shoot whoever they pick. No questions asked.”
“Amen, sista,” Keeley replied. “Let’s head out there. See you around Roy,” She adds with a little wave to Roy.
“I’ll text you later?” You say/ask Roy as you let Keeley drag you off.
“Yeah,” Roy replied as he watched you go.
-
Jamie was a bit of a dick. If you were being honest.
But he wasn’t worse than the Rolex reps.
Seriously, where did they get off on micromanaging her through every single shot?
She had worked her fair share of corporate gigs, so she knew the deal. Marketing reps or whoever else always had a need to get their two cents in.
“Can we make sure that the light is catching the watch?” One of them, the balding one asked as he peered over your shoulder so closely you could smell the cheese and onion chips he’d had with his lunch on his breath.
“We absolutely can,” You huff. As if you are so incapable that you can’t do the basic job you were hired for.
“Jamie! Can we get some movement? Maybe some juggling?” You ask him as you stare at him through squinted eyes. He’s too stiff, too… fake as he stands there, ball in hand, smizing right down the barrel of your camera.
“Are you sure?” He asks after a moment.
“Listen to the professional, Jamie!” Keeley calls out from where she’s fielding concerns from the other rep about whether or not the colors of Jamie’s jersey clash with the watch.
“Yeah, give the ball a few touches, pretend we’re not here,” You tell him with your camera at your side. “Or are you telling me you can’t even get to ten touches any more?” “Ten! Please,” Jamier scoffed as he dropped the ball to the ground before quickly tipping it back up into the air with his toe. “Try a hundred.” “I’ll take that bet,” You reply as you pull your camera back up to your eye with a grin. Now we’re talking.
Your shutter clicks rapidly as Jamie grins, ball a loft in front of him, arm somehow perfectly placed in front of him, watch glinting in the golden hour light.
You couldn’t have planned a more perfect photograph.
You grin as you look down at the photo you’ve got.
“I think we’ve got the perfect shot,” You say as you encourage everyone to step around to where your laptop is propped up, and take a closer look at the final shot.
“Brilliant!” Keeley crows as she squeezes a hug out of you from behind.
“Woah,” Jamie mutters. “I look fucking magestic.”
“We’ll need a few alternatives in case the team doesn’t like this one,” The non-bald rep intones as he peers at the laptop. “But this one is my favorite,” He adds with a smile as he claps you on the back. A little too hard.
“Of course,” You reply with a nod.
The rest of the shoot is equally brilliant and infuriating, once the team is happy with your alts you move on to the Shard. There’s a car service to take you all downtown which is lovely.
But then there’s a hiccup as the reps seem to have forgotten they aren’t at Happy Hour and are already pissed by the time Jamie shows up with Keeley. Which is probably a blessing in disguise because it means that they’re mostly just shouting their ‘tips’ for the shoot at each other and leaving you and Keeley alone to work with Jamie to get some baller shots of him on the View deck, with the London skyline lit up at night behind him.
Very debonair.
You and Keeley pack the reps into a taxi heading (hopefully) home. Along with saying goodbye to Jamie before Keeley turns to you with a sigh.
“Drink?” “After that? I’m going to need a few,” You reply as you head over to the pub around the corner.
“Christ, it really is amazing the way pretty much every man in the world is a total jagoff,” You intone into your cocktail as you sit at the bar with Keeley.
“I can’t believe there’s still so many guys like that out there,” Keeley muttered.
“If you’re going to mansplain my job to me, at least be professional about it? I mean if we’d shown up drunk…” You trail off. Knowing that there was no way you’d ever work again if you were that unprofessional. “I know babes, I wish I could only ever work with women from now on,” Keeley replied. “I’d love to never have to speak to a man again.” “Amen to that,” You say as you clink your glass against Keeley’s. “I know you don’t really mean that,” Keeley replied.
“Yeah,” You admit. Thinking of the only sometimes-dickish man who decidedly put his dick to good use last night.
“Are you off for a repeat with Roy?” Keeley as she peers at you curiously over her drink. Clearly living vicariously through you.
“I dunno, I haven’t texted him all day,” You tell her with a shrug. But now that she mentions it… It certainly would make you feel better. “But now that you mention it…” You add as you pull out your phone.
-
You: Just finished work. What are you up to?
Roy: You’re finally done with fuckwit?
You: Aww were you jealous?
Roy: Desperately.
You: What have you been occupying yourself with while you miss me?
Roy: Who are you? The cops?
You: How embarrassing is it? I’m picturing you drawing NSFW furry art
Roy: My yoga group is catching up on Lust Conquers All
You: Awww
Roy: Don’t mock me
You: It is fantastic tv
You: How wine drunk are you?
Roy: Sober enough to consent
You: Come by when you’re done?
You: (Location sent)
