‹ Prequel: A Summer Romance

Forgive and Forget

Sixteen

Sitting in the chilly stands at one of the number of pitches at Melwood, watching her brother playing against their biggest rivals, the Everton U21 squad, Elina rubbed her mitten clad hands together as she watched the Liverpool goalie take care of a free kick. This, attending games that weren’t inside a heated building in the dead of winter, was something she utterly hated. But being a good sister, and because they often came to her basketball or volleyball games, she sucked it up.

Since becoming a big sister in her teens, she’d grown to learn how to dress for days like this, to be able to sit in stand for hours without completely freezing her ass off.

Reaching up and pulling her knitted hat down further over her ears, her blonde locks falling over her shoulders, she jumped slightly at the voice coming from right next to her.

“Your shoes, are very pink.”

Quickly glancing over, she smiled slightly and rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “What are you doing there?”

“I was around,” Fernando shrugged innocently as he stepped even closer and sat down in the chair next to her, leaning back against the plastic back of the chair.

“Yeah, and I'm the Queen of Sheba,” she replied sarcastically, she knew that due to their match the previous day, they didn't have practise that day and practise or rehab were the only reasons for them being at Melwood.

“There’s football,” he only smiled at her.

“There’s a football on TV,” she reminded him, but still engaged him in conversation. “And then you don't freeze your toes off,” she added under her breath, a cloud of smoke giving away that she’d spoken.

“Nothing beats watching it live,” he pointed out, knowing she felt the same, she had after all said those very words to him when he’d last invited her to a game at Anfield.

“True,” she agreed, ignoring the way her fingers were fidgeting. They always did that when she was in close quarters with him, something she was thoroughly annoyed at, they were friends, nothing else, there was nothing to get nervous about.

Yet her body never seemed to agree with her.

“And you shouldn’t be freezing your toes off in those shoes,” he commented, eyeing the pink UGGs she had on her feet, loose-fitting jeans tucked into them. “I mean, they’re furry and everything.

“I don't,” she conceded with a soft sigh. “But every other joint in my entire body hates me,” she frowned slightly. “I mean, I can take the cold and two feet of snow in the streets but this wind, it’s absolutely hateful,” she complained, ignoring the amusement that was shining in his brown eyes as he looked more at her than the game taking place on the field before them.

Only laughing softly, he reached out and wrapped his arm around her, giving her a sideways hug, smiling as she ducked her head slightly, avoiding his gaze.

“Warm enough?” he couldn’t help but tease her as he leaned back in his seat and locked back out over the field where the same rivalry he’d only experienced once was out in full force.

“Yeah, I'm good,” she refused to look at him as she moved her feet up to rest on the back of the chair in front of her, only to hiss slightly as she bent her right knee.

“Are you okay?” he asked concerned, seeing the fleeting pain across her features.

“It’s just my knee,” she tried to brush it off, but the look across his face told her, he wasn’t going to just let it go. “You know I played basketball and volleyball when I was younger,” she began. “It was a volleyball game, I went up to smash the ball and then I landed wrong. And I tore some ligaments in my knee and as they were healing, I tripped going down some stairs. Tore my ACL clean off,” she blushed slightly, glad that her cheeks were already red from the wind. “I had surgery on it, but not everything healed properly so now it hurts occasionally, mostly when it’s cold.”

“That’s where the scar on your knee is from,” he nodded understanding, treasuring every little new piece of information about her that she let slip.

“Yeah, a few of them,” she confirmed, only to curse under her breath as Simon’s shot went wide of the goal. “He’s better than that,” she commented, for a moment forgetting just who was sitting next to her.

“He was stressed, the defender was getting closer and if he waited, the chance would have been gone,” he reasoned, having watched the same thing she did.

“Of course you’d say that,” she smiled softly, glancing slightly at him from the corner of her eye.

“He’s a striker, like me,” he pointed out humorously. “We got each other’s back.”

Shaking her head slightly, she unconsciously leaned slightly closer to him, silently wondering how the hell he could be so warm. She was used to this kind of weather, he wasn’t, he from Spain, he should be the one freezing, not her.

“So why are you really here?” she questioned, turning to look at him as the players were trudging off the pitch after the ref had blown the whistle for halftime. “A U21 game with a team where you know practically no one isn't exactly considered fun,” she pointed out with a slight smile.

“I was here for an interview with the LFC website, and I saw your car in the parking lot,” she said honestly, knowing it was better than lying, that would not be a good thing considering their history...

“How did you know it was my car?” she frowned slightly, there were a number of different silver Audi SUVs that frequented that particular parking lot.

“You have a mascot with a Sweden football jersey hanging in the backseat window on the passenger side,” he reminded her with a smile.

“Yeah, yeah, I do,” she couldn’t help but smile slightly.

It was weird, but knowing that he noticed things like that, remembered things like that and a million other things she seemed to know about her, felt strangely nice.
♠ ♠ ♠

Elina