Break Down The Walls

Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, I got a phonecall from Emilio. I panicked when I saw his name pop up on my cell phone, because he never called.

“Hola. Emilio que pasa (whats up)?” I asked intentively.

“Hola querida. I just wanted you to know that I love you very much.” he said softly, and I felt my heart drop. Emilio used to call me all the time just to tell me he loved me. He hadn’t done this in the longest time.

“Emilio, I love you too. But why are you calling?” I asked curiously.

“Just because, I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I’m a real fool Sophie. Forgive me?” Emilio asked in a sad voice, and I just couldn’t say no.

“Of course baby. I understand.” I said quietly. I wanted with all my heart to believe him, but a small part of me could not.

“I’m working late again tonight, but how about at the end of the week we go out on a date?
Like old times, and after we can go to the club where we met. It’s Tuesday, but what if we went on Saturday?” he said, and I could hear him smile through the phone.

“That sounds wonderful.” I laughed genuinely, and felt something light up inside of me.

Maybe this was him changing, or maybe this was the start of our friendship rekindling…damn I sure hope so.

“Okay linda (lovely), I’ll leave you to work. Te amo (I love you).” Emilio said.

“I love you too Emilio” and hung up, with a huge smile on my face.

I went back to work, emailing a photo shoot company who requested taking photos of the boys and another time for a Nike ad I had to make sure that it wasn’t any rivals of the boys so the entire day would go smoothly.

Some 25 minutes later, I heard a faint knock on the door.

“Come in!” I called, my head still buried in files of information of the boys, trying to see who they disliked or had discrepancies with.

“Hola Sophie!” I heard a male voice called and I snapped my head up to see none other than Fernando Torres at my door.

“Hola Fernando, come in please.” I said, moving some papers to the side so I could focus my attention on him.

He closed the doors behind him and sat at a chair opposite of mine.

“I’m really sorry about this morning. We didn’t mean to embarrass you. And to be honest, we’re glad you aren’t very skilled at soccer…” he trailed off, looking down at his hands.

“Excuse me?” I asked questioningly. I thought that they only respected those good at soccer.

“Well as you know, you have a lot of admirers on the team. And you were just too perfect.
You not being good at soccer kind of showed us that you were actually human. Xabi had a whole theory on how you were a Brazilian robot and you were spying on our team…”
Fernando said laughing.

I laughed along with him. “Of course Xabi would think something like that.”

“Anyways, I came to invite you out to a club on Saturday. The whole team is going and we figured that maybe we could take you somewhere non-sports related. They just opened a new club and we have the VIP room and everything.” he said excitedly.

“Saturday, as in this Saturday?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“Si, in 4 days from now!” he laughed, his face still a huge smile. My mind instantly flashed to Emilio and our date.

“Oh, I’m sorry Fernando, but I already have plans on Saturday…” I said quietly, not looking him in the eyes.

“Oh what are you doing?” he asked warily, looking at me intensely.

“Dinner, maybe some dancing…” I said meeting his eyes which were curious.

“Oh, youre going out with your mother?” he said cutely, a childish grin plastered on his face.

“Uhh, not exactly…” I muttered, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“Dad?” he asked again.

“No.”

“Sister?”

“No.”

“Brother?” he asked

“No.” I responded once again, and we both knew what he was about to ask, and neither of us wanted the answer.

“Boyfriend?” he asked, his voice diminishing.

“Yes” I said quietly, afraid to meet his gaze.

“I see…” he said quietly, and when I met his eyes, they were cold and sad.

“I should go.” he said and stood up abruptly, leaving my office swiftly. I knew it was a matter of time before the whole team knew, and I wondered if they would still talk to me after they realized I was unavailable.

I didn’t understand why Fernando had been upset when he had found out I had a boyfriend, and it made me sad to see him upset.

What was this? I barely knew Fernando.

I shook my head, and got back to emailing.