The Perfect Combination

"Good morning" I greeted Lia as she made her way to the counter to get her breakfast.

"Mmmmm" was her grumbled response.

"Rough night?” she just nodded her head as she began to chew her bacon. After a few minutes of silence she asked.

"Where’s Fernando?" I groaned at that, annoyed about the fact that she was thinking about him while she was with me.

"Practice with the team"

"Oh yeah. At least one of you is still allowed to train with their teammates" she joked.

"Hey Jose did not ban me from training, he just suggested I take some time off to get my head right" I explained.

"That’s usually the advice I give to employees before I fire them" she continued.

"Real Madrid would never fire me"

"You seem really sure about that buddy" she joked as she saw me begin to doubt my position with the club.

"Yes I am" I stated a little louder than I had intended.

"Jees, I’m joking Sergio" she answered back, obviously shocked by my aggressive manner.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell" I offered apologetically.

"It’s OK. My joke wasn’t that funny anyway. I know how serious you take your career." she replied. "So you wanna go shopping?" she said as she changed the subject.

"Uhm you know…" I began while searching for excuses not to go shopping with her.

"Oh come on Sergio" she began nagging. "I’m not shopping for me it’s for the twins"

"Using those two innocent people to get what you want?" I asked accusingly.

"Me? Never!" she said with an innocent face. "Sooo… will you come with me?"

"Yeah whatever. But just to be perfectly clear, are you going to be using the pregnancy excuse every time you want me to help you with something?"

"Of course I will." She answered matter-of-factly as she made her way upstairs.

An hour after we had that conversation about going shopping, Lia finally made her way downstairs wearing a pair of jeans, sneakers and an AC/DC t-shirt. She wore no make-up and to me she looked like the most beautiful woman I had even seen.

Not that I found her attractive or anything. She obviously had that pregnancy glow that was making... you know what never mind. She looked nice and that’s all that matters.

"Finally" I exaggerated as she got to the foot of the stairs.

"You try finding jeans that fit you when you look like an elephant" she snapped as she walked out to the taxi that would take us to the city Center.

I followed behind her after I had locked the door with the spare key Fernando gave to me. Once I got into the backseat of the taxi I began apologizing to her for the second time today.

"Lia…"

"I know" she interrupted me. "You’re sorry and so am I"

"Why are you apologizing?" I questioned, confused as to why she felt the need to offer me an apology.

"It’s not your fault that I’m getting fat…No actually it is your fault but anyway. I shouldn’t blame everything bad that happens to my body on you. So no matter how many body comments I make, you are not allowed to apologies. Understand?" she said sternly but with a smile.

"Understand" I grumbled as I let her rest her head on my shoulder until we got to our destination.

Once we got to London city Center, we paid the cabbie and began walking around looking for clothes. Now, Lia had initially said that the point of this shopping trip was to find clothes for the twins, but from the floral dresses and the high heels I quickly got the feeling that she was spoiling herself as well.

When we got to the sixth shoe store in the area, I began to realize that she wasn’t as happy as she was when we first got here and she had started rubbing her stomach a lot more frequently.

"Something wrong?" I asked concerned as she sat on the sofa inside the store.

"I think something’s wrong" she whispered out.

My eyes grew to the size of saucers as I began to contemplate the worst but tried to remain calm for her sake.

"Why do you say that? Are you feeling some sort of pain"

She nodded before she said, “It’s my stomach, I’m feeling a lot of pain and I’m scared that I’m losing the babies”.

Trying to remain as cool as possible, while also not trying to freak Lia out I asked her.

"Do you mind if I touch your tummy. Maybe I can guess what’s happening?"

Once again she nodded her head and I saw her eyes turning glassy, indicating that she was on the verge on tears.

I put my hands on her stomach for a few minutes just to feel the sharp pains she was feeling but then my breath got stuck in my throat as I realized what the pains she thought she was experiencing truly were.

"Sergio did you feel that? I’m so scared" she said with panic rising in her voice.

"Calm down Lia", I instructed, as I put her hand next to mine on her belly. "The pains you are feeling", I started explaining. "They aren’t a bad thing. In fact it is a really really good thing".

"How can you say that?" she asked shocked at my suggestion.

"Lia, it’s because the sensation you’re feeling in your stomach… is our children’s kicking"

She took in a deep breath when I said this and questioned.

"How do you know it’s kicking? It could…"

"Well for starters Mirian’s pregnant and I touch he belly all the time when her kid kicks and when Daniela’s mom was…" I began rambling before Lia interrupted me.

"So everything is OK?" she asked in a happy tone.

"Yeah bug. Everything is just fine" I answered using her nickname.

After Lia’s freak out session she asked that I take her back to Fernando’s place to rest and eat without everyone watching her. When we got to the guest room that he had given her and she was happily eating her Pizza, she asked me.

"Have you thought about names yet?"

"Not yet." I smiled as excitement about impending fatherhood began to take over. "You?"

"Nope. All I care about right now is that they come out healthy and then everything else will work itself out."

I made my way from the chair in her room to sit next to her on her bed to give her a hug.

"What’s that for?" she asked slightly confused.

"For giving me the two biggest gifts a man could ask for"

"Well it’s the least I could do after what you did for me" she admitted.

"Lia"

"Yes"

"Does this mean that you’ll let me help you raise them?"

She smiled before answering “It means that no matter what happens between me and Fernando, you will always be our children’s dad”.

I smiled as she said this, satisfied that I had earned enough trust to assure her I would make a great dad. Yet somehow I was still not satisfied because in that moment I realized that I didn’t want Fernando to have a role in her life.

I wanted her and our children all to myself because....I’m in love with Natalia Ramirez.