A Manchester Affair (Rúben Dias)

Chapter Seven

September turned out to be a stupidly busy month. Matches every 3 or 4 days meant everyone was exhausted.

Lucía still managed to hang out with Rúben more than she expected at first, but she guessed those were the perks of literally living in the same place.

There weren't other dates outside of their apartments, because of how busy the schedule was. But he definitely went out of his way to try and make every one of their meetings feel like one.

The more time they spent together, the more comfortable she felt in his company. The walls she had built around her were falling slowly, which was exciting. Maybe she could finally really be there for him. But he wanted more and he wanted it now.

Their conversations started to be longer. He would talk about his family, his childhood, his time in Manchester, ...everything. There was no part of his life she didn't know something about. Lucía, on the other hand, still couldn't open up completely to him. Anyone could see she was just sharing the surface details. Winning a gymnastics competition aged 7, moving to Germany when she was 18 or that one anecdote she always told about her first night out in Amsterdam. It wasn't the same, at all.

But she could see the progress. The problem was that Rúben wouldn't be able to see it. And his frustration was obvious. So to the already big fear of potentially falling for him, and maybe being hurt again, she had to add the fear of him getting tired of her and moving to someone else who was emotionally available now. Who knew how long she was going to make him wait?

And then came the Manchester derby. The preparation for it was unlike anything Lucía had seen since arriving at United. The distance between the teams had been huge in the last couple of years, and the results from last year still stung. So the players and the staff were taking this match extremely seriously. It almost felt like a final. But there would be no trophy afterwards. Though bragging rights sometimes felt like one.

"Check her for microphones!", said Rapha when she entered the canteen.

"Pardon?"

"Don't you live with the entire City squad? We need to check that they aren't using you as a mole".

Everyone laughed at that, including her.

"They can try but they won't be getting anything from me. I'm loyal".

And she was honest. Lucía and Rúben had even decided not to mention the match to each other.

Something else she occupied her time on was meeting Claudia. They had visited each other's houses, gone shopping and watched movies, just to name a few things they did together. It was great to have a female friend in Manchester to talk to. She loved all her other friends but there were certain things only a girlfriend could understand. Boy talk was one of them.

Claudia had tried to get her to talk about any potential guys she might like. But Lucía kept telling her there was no one. It was much easier than trying to explain something she herself didn't understand.

"Well", said Claudia while they were having a coffee break in the middle of their shopping spree. "You could meet some of mine and Diogo's friends and maybe you'll find someone you like".

"Yeah, maybe", she said, not wanting to say that she had technically already found one of his friends and that she liked him, very much.

**

When Sunday arrived, she sat next to Scott on the bus on their way to the Etihad. But when they arrived there, he got out first and she waited for a couple of seconds. She had learnt from her time at Ajax that being seen too many times in a row with a player just meant rumours being created. And she could do without those.

Today felt like a big day. But what she didn't know yet was that it wouldn't just be a big day because of football.

On her way to the pitch, she saw Pep and ran to say hello to him.

"Hey!"

"Oh, hi! I was hoping I could see you before the match and wish you luck", he said, after a quick hug.

"Same. Good luck, rival!"

"We'll go back to being friends in two hours, right?", he asked, laughing.

"We'll see".

"You and your fraternizing with the enemy...", said Scott, shaking his head.

"Blah blah blah".

"You're such a brat", he said to her, putting his arms around her shoulders and leaning down to repeat the word brat in her ear. To anyone looking from far away, it might have looked more like a kiss.

She couldn't control the laughter and when she finally got free of his grasp, she ran to the pitch so he wouldn't be able to catch her again.

Had she turned around just for a second, she'd have seen Rúben looking at them both. And not liking what he was seeing.

**

Saying that the match was bad would be an understatement. Not only did United concede more than once in the first half, again, but Varane got injured too, which was too much for Lucía if she was honest. Given what her job was, she ended up caring more about an injury-free match than about clean sheets.

But it wasn't until the second half that she was really worried about what could happen. Scott managed to score one for the team. Not that it was going to matter much, since they were already 4-0 down but he nonetheless did a little gesture towards her when he walked past the bench. Not the right mood for a big celebration, but the fact that he remembered dedicating the goal to her made her smile.

Rúben had not started the game, which had surprised Lucía. He didn't mention it to her but she guessed that was part of their not talking about the match deal. And during the second half, he was warming up a couple of times, just in case. It was then that Scott ran for the ball and got out of the pitch and bumped into Rúben. Scott made a quick gesture with his hand as if to say sorry, but it was for nothing. Lucía couldn't believe it when she saw Rúben pushing Scott and making him fall.

The referee ran towards the both of them to separate them, and so did their teammates. No one understood Rúben's anger but Lucía had an idea why he was acting like that. And she was not happy about it.

The match ended with a terrible result for United and she was dreading going into the dressing room and facing the players and Erik.

"Friends again?", said Pep when they hugged.

"Don't talk to me for a couple of weeks".

And that only made him laugh.

When the players were approaching the tunnel, she tried comforting them. One of the last players to get there was Scott.

"Your neighbour is a fucking dick", he said to her, which made her close her eyes and sigh.

"It was a very intense match".

"Don't excuse him. There was no reason for him to do that. He wasn't even playing and his team was humiliating us. And when I asked him for an explanation, he just looked at me as if I was supposed to read his mind or something. What an idiot!"

"Yeah, it wasn't his finest moment".

Erik's post-match talk was so brutal for the players but so sad for Lucía. She could tell how much he was hurting after that result and it made her hurt too.

When she finally got the chance, she got out to get some fresh air and saw Rúben getting out of his dressing room as well.

"Hi".

Hearing her voice, he turned. He shook his head. "Not here".