Would You Fall Too?

50: Thinking Ahead

“On a scale of 1-10, how pissed is your coach?” Emilie teased as she peeked up from the kitchen table, her eyes watching as Sergio padded into the room, disposing of his phone onto the counter top. He’d been upstairs for a while, Emilie had caught snippets of the conversation he had been having with his coach when she’d gone to take a shower, and she knew that the older man was less than impressed that the defender had skipped out at such short notice. Spain were due to play their first match of the tournament in a couple of days and if had left little time for Del Bosque to come up with alternative plans.

“Well, he kept me on the phone for an hour” Sergio mumbled as he poured himself a cup of juice “And most of that was him yelling about how reckless and selfish I had been, but when I finally got a word in edgeways, he calmed down a little. I’ve been dropped for the first match but providing that I am back in France before the game in a couple of days, he might let me play the second” he explained carefully. He was a little surprised, he’d been more than expecting that Del Bosque would tell him to stay away, but he was pleased that he hadn’t. He knew that it was likely to be one of the last, if not the last, tournament that he had the chance to play in and he was glad that the coach had allowed him a shot at being involved.

“You’re going to go back?” Emilie posed, sipping on her mug of tea.

“I’ve not got many tournaments left in me, Em, and I’d like to go. Are you going to be Ok with that?” he posed gently.

Emilie nodded her head. The last thing she wanted was for him to give up his shot at playing for her.

“We could call your parents” Sergio suggested, not missing the look of trepidation that had filtered over her face “Or Isla. I am sure that they would be more than happy to have you stay with them whilst I was gone” he added as he sat down opposite her.

Emilie shook her head. “I will be fine here” she insisted gently.

Sergio offered her a look, a slight grin on his face. “Nena, it’s ok to admit that last night scared you too” he noted softly “I mean, we both kind of saw it coming, but it is still alright for you to say that it scared you” he insisted.

Emilie fidgeted a little in her seat, something which made him reach across the table, taking her smaller hand into his. “Emmy” he cooed.

“It scared the hell out of me, Sese” she admitted, her voice shaking a little “Seeing his face…” she spluttered.

“And that is why it is also OK for you to let me look after you right now. I know you want to be less dependent on me, and I love that, but humour me here. Let me call your madre and papa and let them come and stay for a few days, just until you calm down” Sergio noted softly. He knew she didn’t want it, she had made it more than clear that she wanted to be a little more independent, but he wanted her to take a couple of days, even if he couldn’t hang around. He wanted her to calm down.

Emilie offered him a slightly dubious look, but nodded, something which made him spare a muted sigh, glad that she wasn’t resisting it too much.

~#~
“Your papa has agreed that he and your mama will come over in a couple of hours” Sergio noted as he stepped into the living room, flopping down onto the couch beside Emilie who was staring at the screen of her laptop.

“Did he say how long they were going to stay?” Emilie posed, not lifting her stare from the screen.

“As long as you need them to” Sergio returned “What are you looking at there?” he posed.

Emilie lifted her head, her pale cheeks a little red. “Nothing in particular” she noted.

Sergio tilted his head. “Emmy?” he posed.

Emilie sighed. “Isla bought me a bridal magazine the day after you left” she mused “She said that she wanted to get a jump on things, even though I insisted that I wanted to take our time, but it did get me thinking about it. I was looking at smaller venues, possibly in Seville” she rambled, her cheeks growing warmer with every word. She didn’t quite know why she was embarrassed, they were engaged after all, but it wasn’t something they talked about a lot. They rarely used the word fiancé, preferring to stick with boyfriend and girlfriend, and it made Emilie slightly cagey. The last thing she wanted was to put too much on Sergio too soon.

Sergio was quiet for a moment.

“I am not trying to put a rush on you or anything” Emilie babbled “I was…we’ve not exactly talked about it” she added.

Sergio lifted his stare, studying her face for a moment before he reached out for the laptop, typing something into the search bar.

“Could you use words, Sese? It weirds me out when you’re quiet” Emilie noted.

“Look at this” Sergio noted as he placed the laptop back in her hands.

Emilie tilted her head and peeked down at the screen, her expression brightening a little at the sight of the webpage he’d bought up.

“I’ve thought about it too” Sergio admitted “And I thought I would be the one who was getting ahead of us, but I thought this place would be nice” he commented, tapping the top of the screen “I figured you’d like something small” he added.

Emilie smiled at the image of the quaint church on the screen before she flicked her eyes to his. “I was thinking both of direct families and a few friends, nothing huge” she admitted.

“A small ceremony, nothing too big, and a larger, but not massive, reception for all of the other relatives” Sergio contributed.

Emilie grinned. “Seville” she noted.

Sergio smiled. “I’d like that” he admitted “Any ideas about a date?” he posed, his large hand happily taking her small one.

Emilie thought for a moment. She didn’t want to rush, they’d only been together a year, but she didn’t want to drag it out forever either. A large part of her was excited by the prospect of their wedding. “Spring” she noted.

“Spring?” Sergio repeated “Like March or April?” he posed.

Emilie nodded her head. “Spring next year” she clarified “It’s about 10 months now and it seems like the right sort of time frame” she added.

Sergio mulled it over for a second before he leant towards her, kissing her temple lovingly as he mumbled about how good it sounded.
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Thanks to Luuuc_19, Jayme112234 and FootieJo for the comments :)