Through the Dark

I laid in bed lazily, scrolling through Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. Some of the team were coming over today for brunch so Leo could tell them that Anto was pregnant.

It’s been five days that Geri and I have been dating and it’s been great. Leo, Anto and Cesc are the only ones who know and I wasn’t planning on telling anyone soon since we didn’t want to steal the thunder from Leo and Anto.

I heard a knock on my door and I craned my neck to get a good look at the door. Geri peaked his head in and I smiled, beckoning him over. He sat down beside me and he leaned into give me a kiss when I turned my head the other way so he only got my cheek.

The look on his face made me giggle. He pouted and moved to kiss me again but I inched away from him so he was sitting there kissing the air.

“Ari…” he whined, jutting his bottom lip out. “No.” I giggled, about to walk out of the room when he wrapped his arms around my waist, carrying me towards the bed.

I yelped and giggled as he laid me down on the bed, kissing me all over my face except my lips. “Geri, stop.” I giggled. He winked at me and leaned over to kiss me on the lips but at the last minute, he pulled away, leaving me in shock.

“Come on, people are waiting downstairs.” He winked. I rolled my eyes. He beat me at my own game.

Just as I passed him as I walked out the door, he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a long passionate kiss on my lips before letting me go.

I giggled and we walked down the stairs together.

Most of the team were already here. The TV was on and Grown Ups was playing. I grabbed myself a plate and started piling food on it. I sat down on next to Anto and Daniella as we chatted quietly amongst ourselves.

After almost everyone was done eating, Leo turned down the volume of the movie and Anto stood next to him, barely able to contain her grin.

“So…our big announcement is—” Leo started.

“I’M PREGNANT!” Antonella burst out with a huge smile on her face. Everyone was quiet for a moment and then everyone just started cheering and hugging Leo and Anto at the same time.

I smiled and watched as my brother and his wife got crushed into hugs. “What do you want it to be?” Anna asked eagerly.

Andres and Anna had welcomed their very first child, Valeria Iniesta, into the world just a year ago and they were expecting a new baby boy.

Antonella giggled, “I want it to be a boy. But Leo here wants a little girl.” Anto smiled, leaning into Leo.

“We’ll be happy with whatever God blesses us with.” Leo smiled, making all of us coo at the happy couple. I felt Geri’s hand on my waist and I jumped, looking up at him.

“I’m real happy for them.” He breathed out.

“Me too.” I smiled, “I’m going to be an aunt!” I giggled.

The day went by quickly and before I knew it, everyone had already started leaving. Selena was leaving back to Argentina tomorrow so Alexis had to leave early so they could spend the rest of the day together.

Antonella and Leo were sitting on the couch muttering sweet words to each other while both their hands were on Anto’s stomach.

I’ve always wanted to be a madre. When Lucas and I were still together, we’d sometimes talk about settling down and having a family someday. If we had a little boy, he wanted to name him Javier and if we had a little girl, we’d name her Amelia.

Well, that plan went down the drain.

When my phone went off, I quickly picked it up off the counter to see a text message from Pep.

I had a mini heart attack as I fumbled to unlock the iPhone with trembling hands.

Pep Guardiola: Hola, Ariana! Did you have a good time at Switzerland? Call me as soon as you get this message. –Pep

I squeaked and quickly called him, sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs. Within the third ring, Pep picked up.

“Si?”

“Hola, Pep. It’s Ariana.”

“Oh! Si, Ariana. Listen, are you free tomorrow?” he asked me. “Yes, I am. What’s up?” I asked.

“So Jose, Sandro, Xavier and I have talked and you need an agent to take care of all your business deals, contracts and whatnot. Tomorrow, please come to the Barca office at 10:30.”

I grinned happily, “Sure! Thanks a lot, Pep.”

“You’re welcome, Ariana. See you tomorrow.”

I put the phone back down and sighed, leaning on the chair. “Nena?” Gerard asked. I turned to him and smiled.

He pecked my lips briefly before wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. Everyone was gone except for Cesc and Daniella so it was fine.

“That was Pep. I have a meeting tomorrow with my new agent.” I smiled, starting to get giddy that this was all coming true. I was a soccer player.

“That’s great, babe. Wanna go to lunch after that?” he asked. “Sure.” I confirmed. I gave him a peck on the lips before jumping off the chair and walking towards Leo and Anto.

“So what names do you have in mind?” I smiled.

Leo and Anto chuckled, “I’m six weeks along, I don’t think we need to be thinking about names so soon.” Anto giggled.

I shrugged and drummed my fingers on the stone counter. “I like the name Thiago, though.” Leo suggested, smiling at Anto. “Yeah, it’s really cute.” Anto agreed.

“And Thiago will love you guys forever.” Cesc added, leaning back onto the white leather sofa grinning at the couple.

“And for a girl?” Daniella asked, her head on Cesc’s chest. “I like Gabriela.” Antonella shrugged with a small smile.

About an hour passed and we were still talking about babies and if they would look like Leo or Anto or if they were going to be football players of have other professions.

Dani and Cesc had to head back home since Cesc’s parents were visiting for dinner. Gerard left too after a while since he was feeling a little bit sleepy and I knew I couldn’t tell him to stay since Leo wouldn’t approve of that.

I gave Geri one last peck on the lips before he got in his car and left. I walked straight to my room since Leo and Anto were having one of their serious talks on the couch and I didn’t want to interrupt.

I huffed and ran my hand through my hair as I changed into my pajamas. My life was changing so fast and it’s only been half a month.

I got signed to Club Femenì Barcelona, got a boyfriend, I was going to be an aunt soon and I was going to play my first game in just a month or two.

I pulled the blanket up to my chin and closed my eyes, drifting to sleep.
-
The blaring off the alarm made my eyes snap open. It was 9:00 and I had an hour and a half to get ready, get some breakfast and meet Pep and the rest at the office.

I quickly stood up and trudged towards the bathroom, taking a quick shower. I looked at myself in the mirror and frowned as I touched the skin beneath my eyes.

I got dressed, dried my hair and braided my hair into a loose fishtail braid before applying a little bit of concealer to my eye bags. I didn’t get much sleep last night, I kept waking up and feeling paranoid for some reason.

I shook the thought out of my head before grabbing my small bag and walking downstairs. Leo was awake and sitting down on the couch reading a small book about babies, making me smile.

I already knew he was going to be a great father.

“I’m going to meet my new agent and stuff. See you later, Leo.” I smiled, grabbing a banana for my breakfast and kissing my twin brother on the cheek. “Okay, have fun.” He smiled back, continuing to flip through the pages.

Miranda was going to give me a ride to the office since the office she was currently interning in was just 10 minutes away. Miranda had showed up three minutes after I walked out the door.

I smiled and hopped in the front seat, grinning at her. “Hola, chica.” She greeted, revving off into traffic.

“Hola, Miranda. You ready for work?” I grinned at my best friend who giggled at me. “Si, my best friend has a job playing football for Barcelona and I’m getting coffee for pompous assholes.” She joked.

“I thought you gave your proposals to them and they said they’ll think about it?” I asked, turning down the radio. She shrugged, “They’ll think about it also means no.”

I frowned and looked sympathetically at my best friend when a thought popped into my head: Miranda’s bosses will definitely look into her proposal if they knew that she was dating Ibi.

But Miranda was always an independent woman that never wanted to take help from anyone—not even her parents. She fought to get this internship and made her own arrangements.

I was too engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice Miranda asking me a question. “Oh, sorry. What was that?” I asked.

“Sergio. Sergio Ramos. Are you guys together now or something? Does he want to meet you again?” she asked.

Even though the club playing for her city was Barcelona, Miranda couldn’t help but fawn over the Real Madrid boys.

I shook my head quickly, answering her questions. “He’s all the way there and I’m all the way here. And I don’t like him like that. I just think he’s really nice.” I whispered back, my current boyfriend popping up into my head.

“I totally believe you.” Miranda giggled sarcastically. As I finished up my banana, Miranda stopped the car. I thanked her and threw away my banana peel in the trash before walking into the stadium.

I went straight to the office and looked around for Pep. It was a Sunday and not very many people were in the office.

“Ariana!” I heard. I quickly turned to see Jose smiling at me. “Buenos dias, Jose.” I grinned, walking over towards him. He led me to the meeting room and he pushed the doors open for me.

Pep, Xavier and a woman in her late thirties were sitting down at the meeting table, talking quietly amongst themselves.

“Hola, Ariana.” Xavier greeted. “Buenos dias.” I greeted back with a small smile.

“Ariana, this is Olivia Garcia. She’s your new agent.” Pep smiled, introducing Olivia to me. Olivia had warm brown eyes and blonde hair that was in a tight bun. She had a sincere smile and she seemed very nice.

“Hola, Ariana. Nice to meet you.” Olivia smiled, leaning over to shake my hand. I shook her hand back politely, “Nice to meet you too.”

We all sat down around the meeting table and Xavier started telling me about the rules about this club and what I had to do to stay at Femenì. Xavier was very nice but he was also very serious.

“Now, this contract indicates that you are a member of FC Barcelona and an official player of Club Femenì Barcelona.” Xavier explained, handing me a thick bind of papers.

After briefly flipping through them, he handed me a pen for me to sign. I inked the paper with my signature and smiled, handing Xavier the papers back.

He stood up and grinned, shaking my hand. “Welcome to the club, Ariana.”