Keep Cool, Stay Tough

I blinked maybe a dozen or so times, but the time on my phone still read fifteen past eight in the morning. I picked my head off the pillow and checked my surroundings. Cristiano was snoring softly beside me, his arm draped over my bare stomach. The sunshine peeked through a slim crack between the thick curtains.

“I have never overslept in my life,” I murmured in bewildered amazement to myself, the realization leaving me washed in a strange, warm glow. I mean it wasn’t exactly snoozing until the late afternoon, or running two hours late to class or work, but fifteen minutes was a huge first for me.

As much as I wanted to stay in bed and let the day get ahead of me, I had a sociology test to take in less than two hours, and Cristiano needed to get to the training grounds sometime today. So as gently as I could I moved his arm away and rolled on top of him planting butterfly kisses everywhere my lips could reach.

“I’m awake,” Cristiano assured, smiling with his eyes still shut, his hands slid up my back warm and comforting, “Have you honestly never overslept before?”

“I am a chronic under-sleeper actually. I don’t sleep easily, and when I do I don’t stay asleep for long. Also, good morning boyfriend,” I greeted as I brushed his eyebrow with my finger and rested my hand against his warm cheek. How did he manage to look so amazing first thing in the morning?

“Good morning,” He greeted in return, his grin widening as his eyes finally fully opened.

“How are you not more exhausted more often if you sleep so terribly?”

“Coffee.”

He chuckled, “I should have guessed.”

“What time do you need to get to training?” I asked.

“Not until the afternoon, why?” Cristiano raised the eyebrow I had brushed, “What do you have in mind?”

“I think you can figure it out,” I bit on my lip and Cristiano immediately flipped us around, jumping two steps ahead of me as the realization hit him, making me laugh.

We didn’t properly get dressed and get out of the house until half past nine. I made it to class with less than five minutes to spare. Cristiano decided to stay around the campus and do some shopping nearby until I finished. There wasn’t a follow up lesson after the test so I was in and out in under an hour. Cristiano’s Lamborghini was easy to find. The windows were rolled down and I spotted Cristiano sitting inside tinkering around on his phone.

“You brought me coffee!” I exclaimed gleefully.

“Are you really more excited to see that coffee more than me, your boyfriend?”

“You got coffee from the really good café outside the campus, yeah I’m excited for great coffee,” I grabbed the cup the second I was properly seated, reveling in the aroma and warmth emanating from the takeaway cup.

He shook his head, “You’re addicted.”

“So we’re going to work together?” I asked.

“Unless you have other plans?”

I shook my head, “No, but I was wondering about something, what if someone sees us show up together? What do we say?” I asked with furrowed brows as I tried to figure out a reasonable pretense that wouldn’t come off as blatant bullshit.

“Listen Senna, I don’t want to hide my girlfriend in the shadows, it was one thing when we were friends, and we didn’t want people getting the wrong idea. Now the wrong idea is the right idea, and I want people to know,” He explained.

I opened my mouth to argue, but Cristiano stopped me to add, “And I would think you wouldn’t want to go that route again since the last time didn’t work out too well for you.”

“We’re not going to do that, not long term at least, I just…what if we could just wait it out just until you wrap up this season, and I finish my semester, and then we could do as much PDA as you want where you want,” I bargained.

“You know I will hold you to that,” Cristiano promised, “I’m not going to forget this conversation happened.”

“I have absolutely no doubt about that,” I smirked.

“Fine, how about with the last game of the season, we will make it officially official,” He specified, his eyes never leaving my face as I kept a smile securely planted on even though I was two shallow breaths away from a panic attack.

“Wow,” I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as Cristiano started the car, and immediately bit my lip, kind of hoping he hadn’t heard me.

“Yes?” He asked, “What’s ‘wow’?”

“The fact that we could actually make this work; that we are making this work, and it feels so easy and uncomplicated,” I wondered aloud, my voice in awe. I would never admit this to him, but I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I really hoped that that feeling would go away before the last game of the season, but Cristiano almost felt too good to be real.

“We have been making this work for months. We have been doing everything except the kissing part,” Cristiano reminded with an easy smile.

“I quite like the kissing part,” I conceded with a giggle.

“Yeah you know me too.”

***

If I got out of the training complex within the next twenty minutes, I would be cutting it close, but I would make it in time to catch my train to Barcelona. Martha was far too preoccupied with work for me to even consider disturbing her. Mina had yet to return from the hospital with James. Taxi services tended to take thirty plus minutes to just show up at the training complex, and it was already rush hour to boot. I sighed and scanned the field wondering where Cristiano was. If I could sweet talk anyone, he would certainly be at the top of the list. And then a voice pulled me away from my increasingly frantic thoughts.

“I need to talk to you.”

“I always need to talk to you, Sergio, my day is not complete until I’ve seen your face and heard your voice,” I countered with a sticky sweet smile. I hoped I could sweet talk Sergio into giving me a ride to the train station.

Sergio’s hand rocketed to the back of his head as he gave a sheepish grin, “Really, I mean I know what you mean, but–“

Something snapped as he shook his head as if he was coming out of a trance prematurely, “Nope, no, you are not going to sidetrack me, no, if I can focus and block Messi than focusing enough to ask you something should not be this difficult.”

“You can’t block Messi,” I muttered under my breath before I could hold back. In my defense, Barcelona was up against Bayern Munich in a couple of hours, and I still didn’t know if I was going to make it in time to catch the game live. Bayern Munich was the team that left Barcelona shell shocked with a 7-0 aggregate that still made my stomach clench at the memory.

Sergio’s eyes narrowed, “Low blow, Senna.”

“You’re right,” I gave Sergio’s arm a gentle squeeze, hoping I could still salvage the moment and ask him for a ride, “That was completely uncalled for. What was it you needed to ask me?”

“What the fuck is going on with you and Ronaldo?” He demanded.

“Why? What did he say?”

I was under the impression we had decided against going public with our relationship at least until he finished with his final games of the season, and I finished with my own final exams. If it had been completely up to me I would have shelved the coming out party indefinitely. There was still something that didn’t sit right with me about Cristiano rushing our relationship along. It hadn’t even been a full day, and he was already slipping up.

“I didn’t ask him anything. I’m asking you,” Sergio replied, and I mentally kicked myself for jumping to conclusions so easily.

“I don’t hate him,” I started uncertainly, but Sergio was looking past me already, and most likely tuning me out too. I turned around, following his line of vision, and spotted Cristiano jogging towards us accompanied by Karim, Marcelo, and Pepe.

Sergio waved Cristiano to come over. Cristiano threw me the briefest of glances and I gave a subtle shake to my head hoping he would understand and keep quiet.

“Is there something going on between you and Senna that I need to know about? I thought I heard Gareth mention something about seeing you two come in together,” I stifled a giggle when I noticed Sergio puff out his chest.

“We just arrived at the parking lot at the same time,” I covered readily.

Cristiano started laughing, it was distinctly reminiscent to the night we had where I had told him not to fall for me and this had been his same, exact reaction then. It kind of bothered me that I couldn’t tell if he had been acting then or if he was acting now.

“Do you not remember who my ex-girlfriend is? Or the one before that? I have a particular standard I stick to.” He reminded with a smirk.

Sergio looked horrified by his words as he glanced helplessly at me; regret obvious on his pained expression. I had my jaw clenched tight, eyebrows furrowed, and nostrils flared. If I hadn’t, I would have been doubled over from laughing so hard at Sergio’s expression. But still, talk about laying it on a bit too thick.

“Senna, ignore him, you are a…star, I would date you in a heartbeat if you didn’t have that stupid rule,” Sergio hastily covered for Cristiano’s asinine comment.

“Thank you, Sergio, I appreciate you saying that, and don’t worry I’ve learned to tune him out in times like these,” I reassured through a forcibly small smile.

“I was actually looking for you, Martha needs you in the clinic,” I nodded towards Cristiano, and I couldn’t even tell whether I was feigning my annoyance or not.

“For what?” Cristiano drawled.

I rolled my eyes, and Sergio not-so-subtlety jogged away without another word to join the loose circle of players kicking the ball to one another.

As soon as we were out of hearing and viewing distance I smacked Cristiano on the arm. He had his sleeves rolled up and the smack made an audible thump which left me distinctly satisfied.

“Ow,” Cristiano exclaimed rubbing at his arm, “Do I really need to remind you whose idea this was?”

“Yeah, but you don’t need to sound that convincing, my goodness,” I clutched at my heart with one hand and slapped at his exposed upper arm with the other, playing up the theatrics, “that was a real hit to the self-esteem.”

“You have absolutely no room to complain,” Cristiano laughed, “You are the reason we are still in the dark. If it was up to me everyone would know by now.”

“I can think of a way for you to make it up me,” I propositioned.

“Funny, I was thinking of the same thing.” He replied, pulling me close.

I fell into the kiss, enjoying the moment, but I could practically hear the clock ticking in my ear reminding me that I have a train to catch.

“Can you drop me off at the train station?”

There was a brief haze of confusion on his face before irritated understanding settled around his eyes and a scowl fitted itself on his lips, “You’re going to watch the match tonight live?”

“My dad invited me, and I’ve been meaning to go check up on him. Thiago’s going to be in town, I haven’t seen him in months, or even spoken to him properly in weeks. Barcelona’s in the semifinals of the champions league, hell yeah I’m going to go,” I was practically bouncing on the balls of my feet as the excitement returned in full force.

“Hell yeah you’re going to go,” He repeated with an arch to his brow, his tone flat, as he stopped walking and glanced at me. I could just make out his impassive mask slipping on.

“Okay, I’m a little overexcited, and I am a little nervous, and unless you help me out I’m stuck in Madrid because I’m really cutting it close, and James just had to slip and get driven to the hospital by Mina,” I ranted, “She was going to be my ride.”

“So Martha didn’t need to see me?” Cristiano jokingly asked in an effort to switch the conversation towards a different direction.

“Obviously not,” I grabbed onto his arm and led him away towards the locker rooms so he could get changed, and I could grab my bag I had stowed away. He could just say he had an afternoon interview he had forgotten about.

Honestly who was going to question Cristiano Ronaldo?