For The Love of The Game

I walked through the tunnel from the field to the back locker room. All the players had already left, all but the one I was waiting for, wondering what was taking so long, I walked in, seeing an empty room with full rows of lockers. I could hear a shower on in the distance, so I decided to wander in that direction. “Fernando?” I called out, hoping he would answer me. The water shut off and I heard his voice ring through.

“Regreso aquí Karmen.” (I’m back here Karmen.) I smiled and walked into the shower area to see Nando with a towel, loosely wrapped around his waist, his hair dripping wet. I bit my bottom lip and swore under my breath.

“Mierda.” He smirked and walked towards me.

“Karmen, you’re blushing.” My hands shot up to my cheeks, covering them. Fernando placed his hands on my wrists, pulling my hands down and leaning in to whisper in my ear. “I like it when you blush, it’s cute.” To which I just grew redder. He let out a little chuckle and took my hands, wrapping them around his neck while he wrapped his around my waist. I took one hand and ran it through his wet hair, not caring that I was probably getting wet from our bodies touching. He leaned forward, kissing me, causing me to moan into the kiss, giving him free access to deepen the kiss.

“Karmen! Karmi, Karm, Karma, Karmenita, Karrrrrrrrmen! You’re dreaming again, and whoever it is is making you blush and smile in your sleep!” I rolled over in bed, smacking away Sergio’s hand as he kept poking me while saying my name in different variations to get me to wake up.

“Go away!”

“You have to get up and get ready, we have to leave for the airport soon.” I opened my eyes slowly to see his face mere inches from mine. I jumped up screaming at how close he was, only to smack my face right into his. We both grabbed our noses in pain.

“Lo siento Sergi.” He nodded his head and sniffled, holding the bridge of his nose as if he was aligning it to make sure everything was okay.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?” I nodded and rubbed my nose before tossing the comforter off of my body. “Get ready, They’ll feed us on the plane.” He left my room, closing the door behind him while I went ahead and got ready for the day, glad that my bag was already packed.

+++

I headed downstairs to see Sergio already carrying his things out to the garage to put in his car. I followed him outside, bringing my luggage with me. He took it from me, kissing my cheek before walking to the trunk and putting it with his own bag. I ran into the house real quick, grabbing my purse and a water bottle before going out and locking the door, joining Sergio in the car. I slept on the ride to the airport, not bothering to talk to Sergio knowing that his CD’s were keeping him entertained. I was woken up again by being poked in the side. I flinched back, grabbing my ribs as Sergio laughed. “Don’t you have a better way of waking people up, idiota. You could gently shake me or something, stop with the poking!” He just smiled and pointed at my window. I turned towards it only to jump in my seat, finding Gerard Piqué’s face and palms plastered to the window, with a huge grin. I held my hand over my chest as I watched Addison pull him away from the window and mouth the word ‘sorry’ as she waved for me to come out. I slowly looked over to Sergio, who was silently laughing at my reaction, then back out the window. I reached over and unbuckled my seatbelt, opening the car door to get out. As soon as I was standing, I was up in the air as Geri picked me up in a huge hug.

“Addison told me about your new job so I had to come say hi when I heard you’d be around! How’s everyone back in Manchester? Cristiano doing okay?” A the mention of his name, the smile that had come to my face from seeing Geri again slowly dropped, not for the first time since hearing Cristiano these past few days. Gerard’s smile faltered as he looked from me to Addy, confused, then to Sergio who had just gotten out of the car and was getting our things. I saw Addison try to shake her head without me noticing and just look back at the plane, but I still saw her. Gerard realized that it wasn’t something I wanted to talk about, so he put me back down on my own feet and threw his arm around my shoulder, changing the subject. “How long will you be staying? You have to stay for a few weeks once everyone gets back from Austria!” I looked up at his tall stature, half smiling.

“Of course Geri, how many games do you plan on staying for?” His smile grew as Sergio rolled my carry on bag over to me, placing the handle in my hand as he held his.

“Every game, I’ll be watching from the VIP stands with Addison, I have to.” I smiled at his excitement. I hugged Addison once Sergio and Gerard started talking to each other and we walked to the plane together.

“Sorry about Geri bringing up…you know.” I shook my head.

“It’s fine, I’m guessing he doesn’t read the tabloids that much?” She shook her head no.

“He doesn’t believe them so he never bothers looking at them. He knows that if anything was true, his friends would tell him soon enough, because if it’s not about his friends, he’s not interested anyways.” I liked the way Geri thought. We boarded the plane, only to be bombarded by Megan who ran over to us before we could get to our seats.

“Thank goodness you two will be on this flight as well, none of the other girls are coming early and I can’t stand being around all this testosterone!” We laughed and headed to the back to our seats, saying hi to the players who bothered to greet us as we passed by. Thinking of Cristiano and how I was probably going to see him soon got me to think of Fernando for the second time this morning, those damn dreams again. I hadn’t seen him on the plane yet and we were bound to leave in a few minutes. I was a bit worried. Just then I heard a click behind me. I looked back to see a door open and Fernando walk out, slowly closing the door behind him. Oh, he was in the bathroom. I smiled as relief swept over me. Fernando finally looked up from the door, ready to head back to his seat, but then noticed me and smiled, walking towards me and taking the empty seat across the aisle from me.

“Did Sergio wake up on time?” He asked, smiling.

“Yes, he actually woke me up.”

“I told you you didn’t have to worry about him. Are you ready for Austria?” I smiled and nodded.

“Yes, but for now, I think I’m going to sleep, I’m still tired.” He got up and ruffled my hair, then kissed the top of my head. “Alright. Dulce sueños mi querido.” (Sweet dreams my darling.) I leaned back and shut my eyes hoping to catch some rest before we landed as he walked up front.

+++

I had a bit of trouble trying to sleep at first because I just kept thinking of what I was going to do when I saw Cristiano. I couldn’t deny that I still loved him a lot, no matter what he had done to me, but I also couldn’t help the recent feelings I had developed for Fernando that were constantly growing every day. After letting those thoughts keep me from sleep along Sergio’s talk that he had with me about Fernando liking me, I was finally able to sleep, luckily no dreams of Nando this time around everyone. Megan woke me up as the plane was landing by shaking me gently. “I wish Sergio would wake me up like that.” I replied as I opened my eyes, she just smiled and fastened her seatbelt as the light came on indicating to do so.

The airport was big, but not as huge as Barajas was. It was cloudy outside, and that made me feel dreary, leaving the sunny weather in Spain to come to a country that wasn’t as warm and welcoming always upset me, but I’d gotten used to it living in England. Even though the sun wasn’t shining outside, I pulled my sunglasses out of my purse and placed them on my face, knowing the paps would be around for the team. I didn’t need to be in the papers anymore than I already was, so the extra precautions were necessary in my eyes. I messed with my hair a bit, making sure that it looked alright and that it would cover my face if need be. Once the plane landed, I walked up to Sergio, who was ironically with Fernando. Megan and Addison did the same with their significant others. We walked off the plane to camera flashes and reporters. The boys smiled and waved as people called out their names to get their attention, I just kept my head down and continued to walk into the terminal, until I heard something that made me stop in my tracks and almost cause Puyol and Iniesta to collide into me. They looked over from the cameras just in time to move around Fernando and I. Nando had stopped to see why I wasn’t walking, while Sergio was a few steps ahead of us, so he didn’t even notice. “¿Karmen?” I swallowed the lump in my throat as the commotion that had me stopping got louder and more frequent, that was when Fernando had noticed it as well. The Portuguese team had arrived at the same time as the Spaniards, and half the reporters and paps had left the Spaniards who were already getting ready to walk out of the terminal to photograph and speak with the Portuguese who were just entering the terminal, right where I had froze. I heard them call his name again as if they needed him to notice them like they needed air…the way I used to need him. “Cristiano!” One of the photographers by Fernando and I called out as Nando clicked his tongue, tsking the attention that was about to be brought towards us. He threw his arm around me and tried to get me to move, I eventually did, but couldn’t stop myself from turning towards all the noise to catch Cristiano’s smirk towards the cameras, his eyes wandered towards the oncoming journalists, the ones that had just left Fernando and I, to see me. Our eyes locked, and I saw his smirk falter, but never fall, I knew there was just one thought running through his mind now; that I was standing with Fernando and that something was probably going on between the two of us. Fernando looked back as well, glaring at Ronaldo. Ronaldo pushed through the photographers, not caring that he was leaving his team at the moment. He called my name but Nando whispered in my ear in Spanish to keep walking and to ignore him. When I started to slow down Fernando looked at me, knowing that if I stopped, the media would have a field day before the matches even started.

“Venga en Karmen.” He whispered again and I nodded, walking a little faster in my heels as the tears started to fall under my sunglasses, thankful that no one would see my eyes. I looked back one last time before we left through the sliding doors; Cristiano was standing back, hands at his sides, his eyes pleading for me to come back. I slowly shook my head from side to side, causing him to run his hand down his face in frustration. Sergio was standing outside with one of the cars that was supposed to take us to the hotel.

“Venga aquí Karmen.” Fernando dropped his hand from around my shoulder and I walked into Sergio’s arms, resting my head on his chest. He sighed deeply and I could feel him shaking his head. “I just heard they were here. Sit in the car, Addy and Megan are in there with Iker and Gerard, we’ll talk at the hotel.” I nodded and obeyed his command knowing that he was just in ‘big brother’ mode right now. He helped Nando put the bags in the trunk and the two of them finally got in and the car left for the hotel. I sat between Addison and Megan, who each link and arm with mine. Addison ran her hand down my hair in a soothing manner before tucking my hair behind my ear to whisper something.

“Megan and I have already planned for us to go out tonight while the boys have a team meeting, I’ll make sure we have so much fun that you forget about Cris.” A small smile came to my face as I turned to Megan who winked at me. I was grateful that they had chosen to come on the trip, knowing now that I would need more support than I thought.