For The Love of The Game

“Were you sorry last night when you left with him? Because from those photos, it looked like you two were set on having a good time. Hijo de puta portugués ... después de todo lo que ha hecho” (Portuguese son of a bitch…after everthing he’s done…) Nando trailed off, hanging his head. I reached over to grab his hand that was on the counter, but he pulled it away, glaring at me whilst giving me ‘side-eye’, his eyes narrowing. I felt like they were arrows piercing through me, I couldn’t believe I hurt him so much.

“Why didn’t you do something if you cared for me so much. How was I supposed to know?!” I was growing upset at the way he was acting now. He ran his hand down his face before slamming his fist on the counter in frustration. “¡Fernando, tranquilo!”

“No me diga ‘tranquilo’. Tranquilo. ..pfft tranquilo. ¡Quizá si usted no dormía alrededor de yo no tendría que preocuparse por permanecer tranquilo!” (Don’t tell me to ‘calm down’. Calm down…pfft calm down. Maybe if you weren’t sleeping around I wouldn’t have to worry about staying calm!) He emphasized the word ‘tranquilo’ in an eerie way every time he said it, causing me to fall back into myself from how serious he sounded. But he had no right to say I was sleeping around, it was one time, and not just anyone, but my ex-boyfriend! My jaw dropped at his last statement.

“¡Usted no tiene råzon de hablar conmigo como eso! ¿Quién piensa usted que es? ¡Usted NO es mi hermano!” (You have no right to talk to me like that! Who do you think you are? You are NOT my brother!) I let out a frustrated sigh as I turned to him to continue my rant. “You have no idea how upset I am at myself for what I did Fernando. I just couldn’t find any control in myself, and I let things get out of hand. On top of it all, I’m feeling these emotions and having these thoughts that I haven’t been able to block out, I’m going crazy, I just don’t know what to do with myse-“ I was cut off by a soft pair of lips colliding into mine. My eyes grew to the size of saucers as I felt Fernando’s hands cup my face before they slowly fluttered shut. I grabbed him by the back of the neck, pushing his face harder against my own as I tried to deepen the kiss. After a few moments we both pulled away, gasping for air. I looked at him, shocked, before we both grabbed each other’s faces again and crashed our lips together for a second time. Nando pulled away and started to trail kisses down my neck. I suppressed a moan before groaning out. “Room.”

We reluctantly separated, Fernando taking me by the hand, pulling me towards the elevators. Once inside, we weren’t alone, there was an elderly couple getting off two floors after us, so we had to keep ourselves under control, but the looks he was giving me made me want to take him right there in the corner, not caring if people were around. I licked my lips hungrily as the elevator dinged, letting us know we’d reached our floor. We both ran out, Fernando slamming me against a wall as soon as we were out of the confined box. I huffed as he started to pull my shirt up. As hard as it was, I pushed his hand away and tugged him towards my room, only having him stop and look at me with a questioning look. I rolled my eyes before answering his stare. “Sergio’s in your room, I have my room to myself.” He smirked before following me. I pushed the key card I had left at the top of the molding of the doorframe in the slot and smiled as the light turned green. Shoving the door open, Nando pushed me in, only to slam the door shut behind him with his foot as he picked me up and slammed me into a wall, once again. He held me by my legs as I wrapped them around his waist. He pulled my shirt up, laughing a bit. “What’s so funny?” He shook his head before replying and tossing my shirt to the floor.

“You look ridiculous in Sergio’s trainers.” I swatted his shoulder before he carried me over to the bed, dropping me down, allowing himself to pull his shirt off, stopping mid way as he stared at me, his smile falling.

“Nando?” I questioned before he let his shirt fall back on his body. He came over to the bed, dropping on to his knees on the comforter. I scooted over a bit to give him room, he crawled over and moved my arm out of the way to trace over my waist. I closed my eyes, hitting myself mentally for forgetting about Cris’s handprints on my body. I quickly got up before Fernando could touch me anymore and grabbed my shirt off the floor, throwing it on and pacing in front of the door. “This was a mistake.” I mumbled under my breath. Fernando sat up shocked watching me as I paced back and forth.

“¿Hizo que a usted?” (He did that to you?) Fernando asked in disbelief.

“No es lo que parece.” (It’s not what it looks like.) I answered quickly. Fernando shot up off the bed, grabbing my shoulders to stop my pacing before kneeling down in front of me. He slowly lifted my shirt up as I attempted to push it down, but failed. He swatted my hand away, placing his hands over the handprints, gripping my hips gently.

“Le dolió.” (He hurt you.) I shook my head, trying to get his hands off.

“¡No! El no significa…” (No! He doesn’t mean to…) I trailed off as Fernando stood up, engulfing me in his arms.

“Karmen, this isn’t a joke.”

“I never said it was! He doesn’t do it on purpose, you’re going to hate hearing this, but sometimes we just get a little intense.” As I had predicted, Fernando flinched back at my statement. “He hasn’t done this in a few months, but last night, he got carried away.” Fernando shut his eyes, letting out a deep sigh.

“We have a friendly against Portugal in two days, I will let him know that I’m not happy with him.”

“Fernando, you will not! If I see you on the wrong side of the pitch just so you can do something, or if I hear about commotion in the tunnel, I will never talk to you again.” Fernando shrugged as he sighed in defeat.

“You shouldn’t worry about me then, wait till Sergio hears about it, he’s the one that doesn’t need to leave his position to get to Ronaldo.” My eyes widened remembering that Cristiano being a left winger and Sergio being a right back meant a sure collision between the two, one I didn’t want to witness.

“Sergio can’t know about this! I don’t want him to know about this!” Fernando held his hands up defensively.

“I won’t say anything about this…but he’s already furious for other stuff that I can’t stop his reaction too.” I ran my hand down my face remembering the talk Sergio and I had before Fernando ran into the room…Sergio was already thinking of how to get Cris on the pitch, and if he wasn’t going to be on the same side, he had other defenders that would take care of things for him. Fernando slung his arm around my shoulder as he led us out of my room and towards the room he shared with my brother.

“Don’t think about it cariño, what happens, happens, you can’t control the things that happen on the pitch, sometimes there are just…accidents…” He trailed off as he kissed my temple, opening the door to his room at the same time. We walked in, Sergio lying on his bed watching the television. I looked up at Fernando with a worried expression as he smiled towards my brother. Sergio looked over, a smile appearing on his face.

“Looks like you two worked things out. Karmi, what’s wrong?” I quickly turned to him, placing a smile on my face.

“Nothing, just…excited for the matches to start.” Sergio smiled; patting the same side of the bed I had been sitting on earlier, wanting me to join him. Nando dropped his arm, kissing my cheek before I walked over to Sergio.

“Good, you had me worried for a second there.” Fernando headed into the bathroom, announcing that he was going to take a shower. I took Sergio’s arm in my lap again, tracing his tattoos as I wondered what was to come from the next two days, wishing that I could just forget about Cristiano all together and fully give my heart to Fernando.