Shoulder to Shoulder

Elena woke to Juan pressing soft, closed-mouth kisses to her shoulder. The fact that the room was still bathed in darkness confused her.

“Why are we awake?” she asked, absentmindedly pushing her fingers through Juan’s hair without opening her eyes, not wanting to get up.

After one more kiss, Juan answered, “We have to go to the airport. We’re going to New York today.”

At that, Elena shot up, almost falling off of the bed in her sharp movement, much to Juan’s amusement. It was 5am, and their flight was 8am, so they wanted to be at Heathrow around two hours before take off.

A quick shower and a change of clothes later, and Elena was ready to go. The pair sat in the taxi on the way to the airport and she practically buzzed in excitement.

Once they were at the airport, Juan ferried her through to the First Class Lounge. Elena couldn’t help but be confused. When she asked Juan of their destination, he said they were flying First Class. Her mouth dropped open. First class? Elena had never even flown Business Class before, she could hardly believe it.

No matter how many times she asked, Juan kept reassuring her that they were indeed flying to New York in the First Class part of the plane. With a complimentary champagne flute of freshly squeezed orange juice in hand (she’d turned down the champagne, never mind that she was pregnant - it was 8am!) she and Juan sat at a table and awaited their flight to be called.

“Do you always fly First Class?” Elena asked, looking up from her copy of Empire magazine.

Placing his free copy of Mundo Deportivo down on the table. “Yes, mostly. I only travel to and from Asturias alone, so I usually book First Class.”

Eagerly eating the strawberry that was placed on the rim of her juice, Elena nodded. “I can’t say I blame you. If I had the money, I wouldn’t fly any other way. This is awesome!”

Elena was still in complete awe of First Class as they stepped on to the plane. She’d always quite liked flying, being able to just zone out and read a book, watch a film or listen to music were some of her favourite things to do.

When they’d been directed to their seats, Elena had a window seat, whereas Juan was in the row in the middle. However, their seats were adjacent to one another, so they were able to talk if they wanted.

While waiting for the cabin crew to do the safety demonstration, Elena couldn’t help but try out all of the buttons in the board next to her. Though she did spend quite a lot of time moving the blind up and down, and she could hear Juan’s breathy laugh coming from behind her, but Elena didn’t care.

“You’re excited like a small child!” he laughed at his girlfriend.

“If you think I’m bad now, wait until you take me to Times Square. I’ll be like a kid in a candy store!” she promised.

Most of the flight passed by rather uneventfully. Elena spent most of the time watching films through the interactive in-flight entertainment. When it came time to eat, in her pod, there was an ottoman that doubled as another seat, so she and Juan ate together.

Though towards the end of the flight, Elena began to feel a little queasy. She didn’t tell Juan though; she didn’t want to worry him unnecessarily.

The feelings of sickness couldn’t keep her down though; Elena was ecstatic that they were finally in New York City.

“Are you okay, querida?” Juan asked as they sat in the back of the cab on the way to their hotel. “You look a little bit ill.”

“I’m fine Juanín, really.” She rested her hand on his forearm, and nuzzled his neck. Actually Elena did still feel nauseated, but she was sure it was going to go away soon; her morning sickness had started a couple of weeks before, so she knew she’d be fine.

Elena didn’t even know what hotel they were staying at, Juan hadn’t told her and when they’d hailed the cab, he handed the driver a piece of paper with the name and address on it as opposed to verbally telling him where they were going. Juan had said he wanted it all to be surprise for her, that the holiday was her birthday present and he’d taken care of everything. He’d put special emphasis on the ‘everything’ part, which made her wonder what he had planned for their trip.

When the taxi pulled up to the London hotel, Elena was once again stunned. It was right in the heart of Manhattan, the red brick building was impossibly tall and the front was covered in three panels of ivy. It was beautiful. She stood on the pavement looking up in wonderment, not paying attention to anything around her until she felt a tug on her hand. Juan stood next to her, waiting for her to fall back to reality.

“You got us a suite?” Elena asked in the elevator, she hadn’t been aware that it was possible to be in awe so many times in one day, but this trip had proved it to her.

Juan nodded silently, one hand still holding Elena’s and he used the other to smooth down his hair.

As they looked around the suite, the bellhop put their bags into the bedroom. “This view is incredible.”

The pair stood by the window, the views overlooking Central Park and it was truly breath taking. As they absorbed the view, Elena’s stomach began to gurgle again. And without even giving herself a chance to think, she ran off in search of the bathroom. She didn’t even pay attention to Juan calling her name, Elena just needed to find the toilet.

Just in time, she found the bathroom, and without even marvelling at the beauty of the room, she dropped to her knees and emptied the contents of her stomach in the bowl. Weakly pulling the handle and causing the toilet to flush, she felt Juan’s warm hand in between her shoulder blades, rubbing softly.

“Just morning sickness,” she said pre-emptively before he was able to ask.

Juan looked worried; he’d never actually seen her with morning sickness before (Elena’s actually did occur in the morning, contrary to what she’d read online). Usually when she threw up, he was at training or she was at home and Lila had to hear her throw up.

Getting to her feet, Lila brushed off her leggings. “I’m fine, let’s go and have some fun!” she said in response to the unsettled look on Juan’s face.

“But are you sure you’re fine?” he queried, when she took the complimentary toothbrush and toothpaste and began brushing her teeth to rid her mouth of the horrid taste.

She smiled at him and his worry, “I’m absolutely fine - it’s been happening for a few weeks, it’s normal at this stage of pregnancy. Once I throw up, I’m fine for the rest of the day.”

“For a few weeks?!” he shrieked. Elena had been pretty good at telling him everything that was happening due to the pregnancy, but it had slipped her mind. After an apology and a minty fresh kiss on the cheek, they showered and changed clothes, before leaving to do some exploring of the Big Apple.