Journey

49

Jucinara's POV

"Okay we gotta get one of these." I say as my wife drives us in our rented Lamborghini Huracan Performante back to Barcelona after we drove to the Montserrat mountain range.

Christen and I were purposefully left off the June friendly roster for the national team and now we're spending the next 3 weeks traveling around Spain and Portugal.

After we moved into our new home, Christen and I packed our bags, came over to Spain and hiked the last 120 Kilometers of the Camino De Santiago trail over five days.

Now that we finished hiking, Christen and I are spending around five days in and around Barcelona.

Today we rented a Lamborghini Huracan Performante then drove from Barcelona up to the Montserrat mountain range and spent a couple hours visiting the Abbey of Montserrat, the Montserrat Art Museum, and exploring the Montserrat Natural Park.

Now we're driving back to Barcelona to explore the town some more by driving around it.

"What do you think Nalu?" I ask as I look at the puppy in my arms then Nalu yips and smiles as she hangs her head out the window.

"I'm glad we bought Nalu proper footwear." Christen says.

Nalu seemed to have fun on the 120 Km hike.

"I don't think she would've been able to walk as much as she did if she didn't have her shoes." I say.

Nalu walked for 6-10 miles at a time while the rest of the time she would ride in my backpack.

After we finished hiking, Christen found a doggy spa place and booked Nalu for a whole day treatment while Christen and I had a spa day of our own.

"Nalu pop your head in." I say when I see more cars coming towards us.

Once Nalu's head is in the car, I roll up the window.

"There we go." I say then Nalu lays on my lap. "I'm glad Emma has an apartment building here in Barcelona."

Spain does not recognize service dogs for psychiatric disabilities meaning a bunch of hotels wouldn't accept us as their guests so we are staying in the penthouse apartment of the apartment building Emma owns in Barcelona and we'll be doing the same thing in Madrid when we visit there in a few days.

The rest of the time we're renting Airbnb's.

"Same." Christen says. "I still can't believe psychiatric service dogs aren't recognized here."

"Me either." I say. "But a lot of countries don't allow psychiatric or mental health service dogs."

I guess mental health is more stigmatized around the world than I thought.

"Hell, Japan doesn't even allow service dogs for mental disorders, autism, emotional disorders, epileptic disorders, or PTSD." I say.

"Well that's fucked." Christen says.

"Yeah it is." I say.

"Wait so you would've had to turn down the 2020 Olympics if you were on the team and had Nalu?"

"Probably." I say.

"Well that's bullshit."

"Mhmm." I say as we reach the outskirts of Barcelona. "Hey Chrissy?"

"Yeah baby?" Christen says.

"If the APL wasn't a thing, where do you think you'd be playing?" I ask

"Well Audrey was always gonna start Atlético Los Angeles so I'd probably be in LA." Christen says. "But I've always loved playing in Europe so maybe somewhere over here."

"Oh."

"Why do you ask?" My wife asks.

"Do you think we would have ended up together if the APL wasn't a thing?"

"I do." Christen says. "I think we probably would've started dating around the same time as we did."

"Yay." I softly cheer causing to Christen to chuckle then I sit quietly as my wife navigates the streets of Barcelona until we eventually we arrive at the rental place

When we get to the rental place, Christen and I grab all our stuff, get out of the car, then Christen takes the keys back into the rental place while I wait outside with Nalu.

Once Christen's done all she needs to do inside the rental place, she comes back out then we walk back down to the apartment building we're staying in.

"Where would you have played if the APL wasn't a thing?" Christen asks.

"Well since I was on the national team I most likely would have came to Europe." I say. "I was at my wits end with the NWSL and was ready to leave."

"Yeah the NWSL sucked." Christen says.

"That it did." I say. "Some of the NWSL teams in the APL still suck."

*cough* Portland Thorns, Houston Dash, Chicago Red Stars, North Carolina Courage *cough*

"That's what you get when white men are in power." Christen says.

"Which is why I'm glad our owners a woman who actually cares about her players." I say.

"Yeah." Christen says. "Audi would knock a bitch out if she has too."

"I thought she was at the Portland Match."

During our Home match against the Thorns, the thorns owner tried to get into the stadium.

Because he's a cunt who's covered for abusers, Audrey banned him from her stadium which pissed him off and he acted like the male version of a Karen and tried to force his way in.

Audrey was five seconds away from kicking the Portland owner in the dick and beating him to a pulp.

"Lucky you're Dad was there to stop her." Christen says.

My parents we're coming to the game to sit with me in Audrey's box to watch and my Dad saw the confrontation so he quickly backed up Audrey.

"I wonder if he'd ever wanna be the team's head of security." I say.

"Is he leaving SWAT?"

"I fucking hope so." I say. "The SWAT leadership don't treat him right."

"Still?" Christen questions.

"Yeah." I say.

My dad went to the LA Times after the LAPD failed to terminate a group of racist police officers despite having audio recordings of their racist ways.

The racist cops we're fired, but my dad was demoted from team leader of his squad because he went to the media.

He was only demoted for like 6 months, but the fact that my dad had to go to the media to get the racists fired is fucked.

It's also fucked he got demoted, but I'm not surprised considering the history of the LAPD.

"But enough about that." I say. "I smell something amazing."

"Yeah I smell it too." Christen says.

"Dinner?" I question.

"I'm down." Christen says.

"Alright." I say. "Then let's go eat."