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‘I found my way here,’ I reason. ‘I had no idea it was so big.’

‘Has my towel slipped?’ he jokes. ‘Oh, you mean the stadium…’

His joke catches me off guard, making me snort. His eyes are up there, Brooke, focus.

‘Has anyone given you the tour?’ he asks.

I shake my head.

‘Not yet.’

‘I can do it,’ he says. ‘I’m here, and I’m not busy.’

‘Oh, you don’t have to do that,’ I insist. ‘But that would be great. I’m so intrigued already. I was trying to take in all the info on the wall.’

‘I should probably throw on some trackies and a T-shirt,’ he says. ‘There are two rooms off this one. Pick one, go have a look inside, and I’ll catch you up when I’m not naked.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ I say. ‘I’ll choose… this one.’

‘I’ll meet you in there,’ he tells me.

I choose the door on the right, nervously walking towards it – as though it’s a decision I could have got wrong – and step inside.

Annnnd I’m in their bathroom. In front of me there are four large baths – I suppose they need to be big, to fit these guys in. The floor is wet, which must be from Eddy just now. I follow the water around a corner, which leads me to a huge shower area. The walls are tiled in a modern shade of grey, with shower heads on each side.

‘No prizes for guessing which room this is,’ Eddy says as he joins me.

‘It’s massive in here,’ I blurt. ‘You could have parties.’

‘Stranger things have happened,’ he says with a smile. ‘The toilets are in there, I’m sure you don’t need to see those. Then we have the baths, and in here…’

He lifts a hatch on a large silver piece of equipment. Inside it’s full of ice cubes.

‘We all hate this,’ he says. ‘Ice baths are an acquired taste.’

‘I’ll bet,’ I reply.

He runs a hand through his hair, getting the last of the drips out. As promised he’s dressed, wearing a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms and a Leeds Lions T-shirt. To be fair, if he had done the tour in the towel, I would have struggled to concentrate.

‘So, back out into the changing room, you’ll see we each have our own space, with storage, a seat, somewhere to keep our things. This is mine.’

I step closer, looking at his things. I notice a pair of enormous headphones resting on the seat – the kind that cover your entire ears and make it clear you have no interest in being approached by anyone.

‘Is that how you prepare for a match?’ I ask, nodding towards them.

He picks them up.

‘Yeah, it helps me get my head in the game.’

That makes sense. I wonder what he listens to – he doesn’t exactly scream heavy metal to me, but I can’t think of anything that could better psych me up so that I could run into walls of men.

‘I’m so curious,’ I confess. ‘What do you listen to, to get powered up?’

Eddy smiles.

‘Well, now you have to tell me,’ I insist. ‘You’re smiling like it might be embarrassing or something…’

‘I’m not embarrassed,’ he insists.