Keep Cool, Stay Tough

“So what did you guys talk about?”

“Does it really matter?”

“What, I can’t be curious about what your ex-girlfriend had to say to you?”

“I never asked what you and Fabregas talked about or did when you flew off to London,” Cristiano pointed out.

“You already knew the finer points,” I scoffed off his logic easily, “I told you why I was going to see him way before I actually went.”

“Anyway, she’s dating that actor from ‘The Hangover…’ she told me the name, but I forgot,” Cristiano returned, already bored with the topic I had brought up.

“Fat Jesus?” I asked with furrowed brows. Somehow I couldn’t picture the two together, and anyway that actor was married from what I remembered reading somewhere.

He smiled, “No, the other one, I guess he was kind of the leader of the pack in the movie…the good looking one I guess.”

“Oh, she’s dating Bradley Cooper then? How’d that happen?” Now that I could kind of see, but still, it seemed like Cristiano wasn’t the only one dating away from their usual type.

“Call me crazy, but I did not ask for details.”

“Were you jealous that she’d moved on?” I asked, half joking, but still curious to see how far he’d let me push his buttons before he snapped.

“I honestly couldn’t care less,” He serenely insisted. Clearly I had a long way to go before I would see Cristiano snap. I could only marvel at his patience at this point.

“Did you mention me?”

Cristiano wasn’t the only one bored, and I had just downed a large iced coffee and could not get my right knee to stop bouncing or my thoughts to stay stuck in my head.

“Did you want me to?”

I shrugged, and played up a sense of indifference I didn’t quite feel as my eyes roamed around the cool confines of the car, “Oh, I don’t care; I just thought that since she mentioned her new boyfriend…”

He smirked, of course he noticed the farce, “I did, Senna, of course I did. I told her I was dating some crazy girl from Barcelona with an intense caffeine addiction who didn’t even support Real Madrid.”

I laughed, “How did she react?”

“She was surprised I wasn’t dating another supermodel actually.”

“I’m sure she’s not the only that’s going to be surprised.”

“My family is happy I’m not.”

“I’ve been in your car for over five hours already, please tell me I have time to freshen up before I actually meet them,” I asked with a pout. I still couldn’t quite grasp the idea that I was on my way to Lisbon.

“We can sneak in through the back way; it leads directly to my room. That should buy you some time,” Cristiano reassured.

“What did you tell my dad? How is he so okay with all of this?” I was still surprised at how accommodating my dad had been, and how quickly he became acclimated to having a Real Madrid player show up and ask to take a mini-vacation to Lisbon with his daughter.

“That’s between him and me,” Cristiano repeated yet again. He had been much more talkative on the topic the night before. It seemed that now that he had me where he wanted me he could keep mum about his talk with my dad.

“Are we there yet?”

“Almost.”

I took in a deep breath, my heart thumping like crazy against my ribcage as we drew closer and closer to Cristiano’s family estate in Lisbon. Apparently they had a much larger, much more secluded luxury mansion in a city called Geres that was another three hour drive north from here, but the family had gathered in Lisbon and wouldn’t be in Geres until summer was officially underway.

“Okay, I can do this,” I reminded myself quietly. I don’t know exactly what we were right now or what he had told his family, or what he had told my family for that matter. There was no label dangling over our heads as far as I was concerned. And he seemed to be in agreement with that. The most action I had gotten out of him in the last twenty-four hours was a stiff hug and a demure kiss on the cheek. Both of which were under the supervision of my dad and Joie.

“You have nothing to be nervous about,” Cristiano comforted.

“You are bringing a strange girl to meet your family for the first time; I think certain assumptions will be made,” I pointed out.

I turned my body so that my back was pressed against the hot glass of the car’s window and I watched him, “What are you trying to change with this trip?”

He hit a red light and glanced at me, his eyes lingering on me as he visibly struggled to bring about the right words, “I’m not trying to change anything. I just want a few days in Lisbon with you before you leave for Chile or Barcelona or wherever else you have plans to go this summer. I want some time with you outside of Spain before you run off on me again.”

”As if you’re not going to be globetrotting yourself,” I answered with a stiff nod towards him. I readjusted back to my original position as I attempted to bounce the conversation away from our relationship status. I regretted asking him that question the moment it had left my lips.

“Exactly, so we won’t have this summer to spend with each other, so every day leading up to the end of May counts.”

I couldn’t argue. He had a point. As frustrating as things had gotten, I didn’t exactly relish the idea of being on opposite ends of the world when things were left so incomplete between us. Maybe we really would be able to figure things out while we were here.

“Ok, so here’s how we do it then, Cris, so we don’t go crazy.”

“Shoot.”

“At least for this week I want things back to the way they were before…” I trailed off searching for the right bookmark in our relationship to refer to until it finally occurred to me, “Before the Sevilla game.”

“So…friends?” He tried very hard to mask his disappointment, but I noticed his lips twitch downwards.

“Yes.”

“And then?”

“And then…we have the summer to do whatever with whomever, and then when we’re both back in Spain we’ll talk then and go from there.”

I still hadn’t told him about my plans to stay in Madrid. I don’t know why I was putting it off, but even know I still felt no inclination to mention Fernando’s job offer that I had accepted.

Cristiano didn’t argue the matter. I felt irritated with myself for having such a crude knack for maintaining grudges, but I was trying to move on, and I could only hope that he saw the effort I was putting in. Just like I could so clearly see the effort he was putting in.

And then mansion came into view.

“Whoa,” I breathed out, pulling my glasses to the top of my head and I leaned forward as Cristiano slowed down the car.

“You should see the one in Geres.”

“Still…freaking…whoa,” I emphasized with a low whistle.

Cristiano grabbed my bag and led me inside the house through a glass door that he mentioned led straight into his room.

“You guys made it!” A voice boomed in the silence making me jump.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“Hugo, Elma, really?” Cristiano asked with a raised brow.

“We saw you guys driving up,” Hugo explained.

“We knew you would try to sneak in,” Elma added as she pointed towards her younger brother.
Cristiano was on the verge of shifting the blame on me, but was cut off by his sister.

“I’m Elma, he’s Hugo, and you must be Senna,” She greeted; her smile was almost perfectly identical to her younger brother’s.

“It’s very nice to meet you both,” I replied, and extended my hand to shake hers.

“We’re a hugging family,” Elma corrected and pulled me into a tight hug, “I have heard so many great things about you.”

“Your brother is a flatterer,” I blushed as I turned to hug Hugo who planted a light kiss on my cheek, “I just hope I can live up to the hype.”

Elma squeezed my shoulder with a reassuring smile, “You already are.”

The two siblings left us alone in Cristiano’s room, making us promise not to take too long to get cleaned up on their way out.

“So there’s a guest room across from my room,” Cristiano mentioned quietly.

I nodded, feeling a little strange about the arrangement because regardless of all else, I did miss his touch, “I’m probably going to take a quick shower.”

“There’s a private bathroom,” He added.

I took my bag off his shoulder, “I’ll see you in a bit then.”

After a refreshing shower, I braided my damp hair and reapplied my makeup before going on a search for Cristiano in the huge house. Seriously, you needed a map to navigate all the hallways and rooms the place held. Eventually I finally started hearing lively conversation and the signature smell of Cristiano’s cooking, another minute later and I was in the massive kitchen.

“You clean up well,” Hugo complimented with a booming laugh. Cristiano had his back to me, and his attention fully set on the pots and pans sizzling and boiling on the stove. His brother was leaning against the fridge holding onto a bottle of beer. He offered one to me, and I shook my head with a smile.

I did a flustered little curtsy in the flowing emerald summer dress I was in instead and replied, “Thank you.”

“So in case Cristiano has not made this apparent, I am completely and utterly useless in the kitchen. I’m going to play with the kids outside,” I announced making Cristiano’s shoulders shake with laughter.

“I’ll join you in a bit,” Cristiano called over his shoulder as I let myself into the sprawling backyard. I introduced myself to the kids, some of them shouted their names back at me before one of them kicked the ball towards me, and just like that, I was part of their game.

Cristiano finally came outside, and we kept the game going without really paying attention to the score. While we were outside, Cristiano’s other sister and mother had arrived, and dinner was ready to be served. Cristiano introduced us, and I honestly could not tell if his mother liked me or not. During dinner she made sure I tried everything on the table, and asked me questions about my family, school, and work. Cristiano couldn’t stop smile all throughout dinner, and I took it as a positive sign, relaxing little by little.

I didn’t ask, but I got the feeling that Cristiano hadn’t mentioned to his family that we were staying in separate rooms. We bid each other good night on opposite ends of the hallway after watching a movie in the living room with the family. I fell into a restless sleeping waking at the top of every hour it seemed like by the temptation to join Cristiano in his bed.

The next morning, Cristiano knocked on my door about twenty minutes after I had returned from my morning jog at a quarter to ten.

“Oh good, you’re not sleeping,” Cristiano walked inside without waiting for an invitation.
“I just came back from a jog actually.”

“Right, that explains the sweatiness,” Cristiano gave me a once over before pressing on,
“Anyway I have this appearance to make at Circuito Estoril today and if I don’t go Jorge might actually keep his word and kill me.”

“Okay,” I laughed, “What time do you think you’ll be back?”

“No, I was wondering if you would come with me. It’s fast cars and free food,” Cristiano enticed with a wide smile.

I returned the smile, as the conversation in the car ran through my mind, I had an entire summer without him ahead of me, and he was right, every day counts, so I heard myself say, “Okay, I’ll come, it sounds like fun.”

“Excellent, get dressed, we’re leaving in fifteen minutes.”

My jaw dropped as I waved at myself, “This takes more than fifteen minutes to pull together.”
“I’m sure you can manage with fifteen minutes just fine, even if you came like that you’d still be the most beautiful girl there.”

“I’m going to be the only girl there, aren’t I?” I asked.

He laughed, “I’ll be in the front yard patiently waiting.”

I grinned, “I’ll be quick.”

I had packed my bag under duress and had thrown in nothing but shorts, bikinis, and a few dresses in varying length. I frowned, wishing I had asked Cristiano more questions about where we were going. Sifting through the duffle bag I finally pulled out grey shorts and a plain white tank top that I could pair with the black sandals I had borrowed from Joie.

We left the house about a half hour later, and didn’t arrive until an hour after hitting the road. Cristiano more or less avoided any question I had about the event we were going to. Eventually I gave up asking and put the volume up on the radio instead.

“Are you sure it was today?” I asked as I looked around the empty car lot, “By the looks of things we aren’t the only ones running late.”

“I’m sure Senna, it’s a pretty exclusive event,” Cristiano answered, hurrying me along.

We walked into a dark tunnel on the side of the building and I didn’t hear much commotion except for the occasional exchange in Portuguese that I couldn’t understand.

“You’re late,” A strange, mustached man in aviators and a fire-retardant jumpsuit shouted as soon as he saw us approaching.

“I’m sorry, Lukas,” Cristiano apologized.

“Is this Senna?”

“This is Senna,” I announced before I could stop myself, too caught off guard by Lukas’s impatient nod in my direction to even think to keep quiet. Cristiano snorted beside me.

“Well let’s see if she lives up to her namesake, shall we?” Lukas asked as he turned and signaled for us to follow after him.

“What?” I asked, “What does he mean? Cris…what?”

“Shh, we’re late,” Cristiano whispered with a smile as we walked behind Lukas.

“Does this mean…no, but how..no…seriously? But what?” Too many questions were bubbling out of me and I didn’t know which thought to complete and which one to neglect so everything was coming out halfway and incoherent.

“NO FREAKING WAY!” I squealed when I saw the line of shiny exotic parked cars glistening beautifully under the sun.

“I thought you might like this.”

I jumped up into his surprised embrace, wrapping my arms around him as tightly as I could, as we fell backwards until we hit a wall, “Words won’t…they just can’t justify how much I love this, Cris.”
“Come on,” Cristiano ushered me along, “We can’t keep Lukas waiting.”

We needed to sit through a three hour class that explained safety precautions and every possible worst-case scenario that anyone could ever possible think of. None of it deterred me, I kept my focus, learned all of the ins and outs of each car waiting outside for us, and before I knew it, Lukas was pointing towards a dressing room where Cristiano and I had our helmets, jumpsuits, and other accessories waiting for us.

“I’ll race you,” I called and jumped out of my seat with Cristiano shouting ‘no fair’ as he ran after me.

“It honestly feels like an episode of ‘Top Gear,’ I feel like The Stig is going to jog by any moment now,” I mused. Cristiano gave me a blank stare, but Lukas laughed.

“So what I’ll it be?”

I waved towards the black Bugatti Veron, “Obviously the Bugatti.”

“You certainly get charmed by speed,” Lukas laughed again, “How about the Ferrari F12 or the AUDI R8? In this setting they’re the safest for first timers.” Lukas steered me away from the car that had immediately caught my eye…and frankly my heart too.

“Definitely no to the R8,” I decided and started walking towards the F12. I stopped and found Cristiano watching me still rooted to the same spot.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I thought I’d just watch for now.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, come on!”

“Ok I really didn’t think this through,” Cristiano half-laughed, half-groaned as he finally caught up with me.

“How’d you make all of this happen?” I waved my arms around me before we slid into the red Ferrari.

“All I have to do is smile in front of these cars, take a picture, and post it on Twitter at the end of the day,” Cristiano explained, “Jorge organized it.”

“That’s it?” I was astounded.

“That’s it.”

“Are you ready, Senna?” Lukas shouted.

I revved the Ferrari’s engine in response making Lukas grin and give me the thumbs up. Cristiano groaned again beside me.

“Just for the record, Cris, I didn’t crash Leo’s car that night,” I confessed, “I’m a great driver.”

“What?”

Lukas waved the flag, and I pressed my foot on the pedal making the tires screech as the car went from zero to sixty in a little over three seconds. Cristiano’s shocked question hung in the air unanswered as I switched gears and the car continued to pick up speed.

After the Ferrari, there was Cristiano’s Lamborghini Aventador, which I was genuinely surprised to see after I had parked the Ferrari.

“Are you sure?” I asked, uncertainly as I eyed the car that I had fantasized about test driving since the first time I had been a passenger in it.

“I trust you,” Cristiano replied.

I opened my mouth to say something, too many replies occurred to me, so instead I grinned before I sat inside and adjusted the seat to my significantly shorter height, and Cristiano followed suit without griping as much as the first time.

“You did better with the Lambo,” Lukas shouted past the dying roars of the car’s engine after we returned from the lap.

“I prefer the Lamborghini,” I answered with a smug smile.

“Okay, I need to hit the circuit to wipe that smile off your face,” Cristiano’s competitive spirit finally made its appearance.

“Do it,” I insisted with a haughty laugh, “You won’t beat my time.”

“Yeah, you probably won’t,” Lukas agreed, “She’s definitely deserving of her namesake.”

Immediately I reached out to high-five him, making Cristiano roll his eyes.

“Lunch break,” Cristiano declared.

“Oh, I’m not hungry, I want to keep working my way up to the precious,” I pointed towards the Bugatti still glistening teasingly a few paces away.

“Lunch break,” Cristiano repeated his voice going flat.

“Fine,” I sighed and followed after him to a table sitting under the shade of a wooden gazebo where an array of sandwiches, salads, drinks and crisps were waiting.

“Aren’t the guys going to eat too?”

“There’s a buffet table set up inside too,” Cristiano answered.

I waited for Cristiano to bring up my confession that I made in the Ferrari, but he didn’t. I couldn’t help assuming that his thinking was in line with mine, and today shouldn’t be tainted with talks of past mistakes. We talked cars, joked, laughed, and ate.

Maybe it was the euphoria of a day spent on a racetrack, or it was the contentment of a full stomach, something prodded me to reach out across the table and hold his hand.

“I told your dad I loved you,” Cristiano blurted, “I told him you made me see things differently, I told him that even if you stayed in Barcelona I would fight to keep my relationship with you, even if it went back to a friendship, I would fight-“

“I’m not staying in Barcelona,” I cut him off, gripping on tighter to his hand, and watched the emotions dance across his face from surprise, to confusion, until finally settling on joy. I explained about getting a new phone on Saturday and how Fernando had blown up said phone with texts to call him, and about the new job I would be starting in August.

“You’re staying in Madrid?” He squeezed my hand, his eyes lit up.

I nodded, my eyes never leaving his as I laughed and added, “And if that doesn’t say I love you too…”

“No, that definitely tops mine, that’s…I’m just so happy and relieved, it’s like I don’t even care you’ll be working for the enemy.”

I rolled my eyes, amazed at how wide my smile could go, how much exposure my teeth could have, “So dramatic, my goodness!”

“Now we just have to deal with two months apart and we’ll be in the same city for the foreseeable future,” Cristiano summarized as if it sounded too good to be true.

“Seems so,” I replied.

Lukas jogged up to our table and nodded towards the current light of my life with a cheeky grin, “So you think you’re ready for a go in the Bugatti? Because I think you are.”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve been ready!” I squealed.

“We’re not done eating!” Cristiano called, but I was already laughing and grabbing the keys from

Lukas before jogging towards the Bugatti. I could hear Cristiano jogging to catch up with me, and I sped up even though I knew it was a matter of seconds until he caught up with me.

I came to a sudden stop, and turned around. Cristiano slowed to a walk until he was close enough for me to snake my arms around his waist.

“So does this mean no more running off?” He sounded skeptical.

“No more running off,” I promised, pulling him towards me by his shirt for a real, proper, lose-my-breath kind of kiss.