Oblivion {James Rodriguez} {Book ONE}

the news

James' POV

"Oh, I didn't see you there." I muttered nervously.

"It's alright," my coach, Carlo Ancelotti chuckled as he walked closer to me.

"Pass," he nodded at the ball held in my hands. I did as I was told. He halted it, and passed it back. I recuperated.

"You came to train all by yourself?" He asked me as he stopped my pass.

"I had nothing better to do," I admitted.

"No wives? Children?" Carlo asked, lifting his eyes from the ball to look up at me seriously for the first time.

"No," my answer came out quiet. I didn't want to tell him that I did in fact have a child, but I lost her in a custody battle to my bitter ex-wife. I'm pretty sure he was aware of the story, but didn't want to question it further. I was glad.

"That's frankly what I came here to talk to you about..." He halted the ball and kicked it forcefully so it flew back to the bench area.

"You want to talk to me about wives and children?" I smirked slightly to myself as we both started to walk to the benches. The sounds of my Nike trainers and his posh shoes scrunched against the grass as I waited for his reply.

"Yes, actually." Carlo answered as we both sat down next to each other on the bench. The stadium was stretched out right in front of us, and once again I found myself entangled in its immense beauty. I couldn't wait to come back to L.A, only just for this stadium. And maybe someone else...

"Why, though?" I quizzed, feeling confused.

"Almost every single player in our team has got a wife and kids, in worst cases only a fiancée. But you..." Carlo started off.

"What's the problem with that?" I asked. Not in a rude way, or anything, but I still didn't understand why my personal life bothered him so much. It wasn't like I let football and personal relationships mix together.

Carlo was painfully right, though. Almost everyone in the team is engaged or already married with kids. It never really bothered me, but now I could see that it has alarmed my coach for a while.

Iker's got a lovely wife, Sara, and their son Martin.

Varane has a complicated relationship with some French model named Camille, but their situation is so blurry that I didn't even bother to ask anymore.

Ramos has Pilar, a gorgeous model, and their kid.

Bale has Emma and a beautiful daughter named Alba, Kroos has Jessica and their son Leon, Cristiano has Irina and his adorable boy... The list could go on.

It was only me that was the odd one out. I used to be a part of the game when I was married to Daniela, but those days were completely over now.

"At Real Madrid, we like to hold responsible images for the players, because there are millions of fans out there who look up to this team." Carlo said.

He was right, we were role models to thousands of people around the world, and we were made well aware of it. That's why any small incident will not only ruin your career, but it will plague the club's reputation as well.

"So in order to create that image and enforce it, we usually prefer our players to be engaged in a serious relationship." Carlo dropped the bomb.

Mia immediately flashed into my mind.

"In that way, the fans and general public would see that our players are not just a bunch of young men getting paid a crap ton of money to fool around and get wasted," Carlo continued once he noticed my stunned silence.

"We want them to think that you guys are decent, responsible players with families to support and reputations to manage. Yes?" He tried to coax a reply from me, as I was silent since the entire time he was lecturing. It's not that I disagreed, I just couldn't find the right words.

"So, what do you want me to do?" I finally spoke up.

Carlo looked dead into my eyes.

"If you don't find a partner soon, James, we'll get ‏one for you."