THE ARTICLE HAD GONE WONDERFULLY, BUT THEY HAD BIGGER PROBLEMS. They lost their next match, 2-0, meaning that Ted had still not one a match. This was not very good because the public was being a lot harder on him, claiming that he was dragging the team down. As if the Carlisle woman did not have enough to worry about already, Rebecca was holding a fundraiser for underprivileged children, like they did every year, and she had Willie running errands for her left and right.

"Hey, boss," Ted greeted as he stepped into the office. Rebecca was in a robe because the Commercial Manager was helping her decide what dress to wear to the benefit. Willie was fairly certain that most of the things, including this, were not in her job description, but she was happy to do anything to help out. If the Welton woman asked her to do something, she did it without question. "Ooh! Pajama Friday? Wish I woulda known. Oh, you're gonna get a kick outta this story. When I was seventeen—"

The woman cut him off swiftly before he could go into too much detail about whatever the hell he was talking about. "Ted, let me just stop you there before you tell me a folksy anecdote about you and pajamas. Sorry, was there anything you needed? 'Cause I'm really..."

"I was wondering if me, Roy and Jamie could all sit at the same table tonight. Is that possible?" he questioned with raised eyebrows. Willie assumed that it had something to do with the fight that broke out between the two men after the last match. In Roy's defense, the Tartt man was being an asshole to Sam.

Rebecca leaned over so that she could take a look at the board where they had mapped out where everyone would be sitting. She nodded. They would just need to switch a couple of players around, which would be fairly easy since they all got along except for Roy and Jamie. "Yes."

"Great!'Cause I got some fences I need to mend, and I think that might do the trick," he explained.

"Ted, I just said yes," she reminded him, gesturing to the Carlisle woman on the couch who got up and moved some people around. She and Colin had already been sitting with Roy, so she moved Ted and Nate over and switched them with Sam and Isaac. She then swapped Keeley and Jamie for Richard and his date. Rebecca pulled out a long and stunning black dress, looking it up and down with an unsure expression. "Oh, God, that one's absolutely beautiful, but... I don't think I can get away with that anymore."

Ted began his rambling again. "Sure you could. Fashion's all about confidence. If I didn't have any confidence, I never would've worn pajamas to my prom and ended up in jail the rest of that night. But you don't wanna hear that story, so I ain't gonna tell it. You know what? I'll get outta your hair. You're probably all revved up because of the big shindig, right?"

"No, no, no. I'm absolutely fine. I mean, even when Rupert and I were running the gala together, I did most of the work myself, and now, I have Willie. So, uh, I'm not revved up at all. I'm actually, really, feeling quite mellow," the Welton woman responded, but she was breathing heavily, which did not make her argument very convincing.

"Good afternoon," Higgins greeted as he came inside. He informed them. "We have a huge problem. Our musical guest, Robbie Williams, has canceled."

Willie approved a flower order on her laptop for that night while they sorted that out. She had no clue who Robbie Williams was, and for a second, she thought it was a nickname for Robin Williams until she realized that he was neither a musical performer nor alive. After a moment of problem-solving, Ted began exiting. "You got this, Higgins! And Rebecca's grateful for all your hard work! Bye, Willie! See you tonight!"

"Bye, Ted!" she shouted back.

Rebecca pulled out the next dress and scanned it. It seemed to be an old dress because when she held it to her collarbone, it fell about three inches above her ankles, and the proportions were all wrong on her. "Oh, that definitely does not fit anymore."

"It's stunning though," Willie pointed out. It really was. It was a red dress with off-the-shoulder sleeves. The fabric wrapped around the rest of the body before falling loosely to the ground after the hip. There was a long slit up one side, and the entire dress was silky and beautiful.

The taller woman raised her eyebrows at her Commercial Manager who was eyeing the dress like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. "Do you like it?"

"Of course," the girl responded. How could anyone not like it? It was elegant but also sexy. WIllie knew that she could never ever afford a dress like that, at least not in that lifetime. It was absolutely enchanting. "It's beautiful."

"It would look great on you. Here, you can wear it," he boss informed her, tossing the dress over to the seated girl. She smiled at the shocked face as she caught it, allowing the satin to run through her fingertips.

Once she snapped out of her almost-trance, Willie shook her head aggressively. She could not possibly take that, and even if she did, there was no way that she would be able to pull it off. "Oh, I couldn't."

"Sure, you could," Rebecca assured her with a curt nod, her eyes flitting back and forth between the dress and the girl. It would definitely look amazing on her, so unless she had a good reason to not wear it, she should have it. "Do you have a dress already?"

"Well, no, but—" she started. She was planning on borrowing one of Lois's party dresses or something for the gala that night.

Rebecca cut her off before she could say another word. If the girl did not take it, it would hang on that same rack until she decided to give it away."Then, take it. It's too small for me. I have no need for it anymore. Take it, even if you don't end up wearing it."

"All right, then."

《❂》

WILLIE WAS EXTREMELY NERVOUS AS SHE WALKED ONTO THE RED CARPET. She knew that they really did not want to take any picture of her, but that did not make her any less nervous. Colin went before her and allowed all of the photographers to snap excited pictures of him while he had his fun in the spotlight.

"You boys all right? How's my suit? All good? Yeah?" he asked them, turning to each side and showing off his suit as the brunette girl laughed behind him. He grinned, hoping that he made her a bit less nervous because of how ridiculous he sounded. He reached out and grabbed her hand, escorting her onto the carpet that kind of matched her dress. "This is the lovely Willow Carlisle, our Commercial Manager."

Once they were inside, they found their table and sat down. Jamie and Keeley appeared at the same time as Roy, and the Jones girl giggled slightly once she realized that they were sitting at the same time. "This is gonna be so uncomfortable."

"I'm switching tables. Willie, switch my table," the Kent man grunted out, looking over at the brunette woman who was smiling mischievously up at them. Keeley laughed a bit at the girl's almost evil expression.

"No, no, no. Hey. Come on back here," Ted told them, approaching with Nate and stopping either of them men from leaving and getting them to sit down. "This is my doing. I parent trapped y'all. Take a seat. Now, listen. You two knuckleheads have split our locker room in half. And when it comes to locker rooms, I like 'em just like my mother's bathing suits. I only wanna see 'em in one piece, you hear? So we're fixing this. Tell me what's the biggest issue you got with each other. Go."

Roy answered first, and he did not seem like he was having a hard time thinking about what to say. "He's a piece of shit."

"If his brain was on fire, I wouldn't piss in his ear," Jamie replied swiftly, confusing pretty much everyone at the table. It was certainly an interesting comeback, to say the least.

"Well, hey. You don't need to be best friends to be great teammates," Ted explained. He was right. They did not really need to be besties for the resties, but it would certainly help if they could get through a practice without them screaming at each other constantly. "Think about Shaq and Kobe, right? Lennon and McCartney. Heck, even Woody and Buzz got under each other's plastic."

Nate raised his eyebrows at that part, and even though he knew what Ted meant, he felt the need to question, "Wasn't Woody made out of cloth?"

"Oh, Nate," Colin sighed, shaking his head, and Willie elbowed him in the side. Roy had informed her the other day that he had been bullying Nate for a while, but before she could kick his ass, the Kent man assured her that he had it handled.

"I appreciate you, Nate, but now's not the time," the Lasso man told his plus one in a not-so-hushed whisper. "You know what all those dynamic duos had in common? Mutual respect. Y'all gotta find some common ground. So who wants to get the ball rollin'?"

Keeley was the first one to raise her hand once it was apparent that neither of the footballers were going to say anything. "I do. Willie, that dress looks absolutely stunning on you. You look gorgeous."

"Thank you, Keeley. You look great too, like always. Nate, that's a very nice suit. I think you look chic," the brunette woman told the man sitting across from her. She had never seen him in anything other than his Richmond uniform which consisted of a pullover jacket and sweatpants.

"Oh, thank you. It's actually only the second suit I've ever owned. The first one was my suit when I was a naked baby," Nate responded, and they all looked at each other in confusion. "Sorry, it's funny when Ted says it."

"Well, the term 'birthday suit would have helped you a ton there, yeah. Come on, let's try this again, all right? Hey, Jamie. You wanna go?" Ted asked the man who was too busy glaring at Roy to do much of anything.

He shook his head slowly. "Pass."

"He's a piece of shit," Roy repeated when it was his turn, which was not a very productive use of a time to complement each other. He really had nothing else to say about the man. Willie rolled her eyes. Even she could have thought about something nice to say to Jamie, and she hated his guts. Colin leaned back in his chair with a grin, and he looked like he was really enjoying the show.

"You're gonna stick with that, huh?" Ted asked, and he finally stood up and clapped his hands together. "Okay. Here's an idea that's gonna help a little or hurt a whole lot. Who needs a drink?" Every single hand at the table shot up.