Best friends... forever?

Chapter 16

"Ok, now, moving on to Betis' strikers" Pep says. "Their actual nine isn't playing that much, but you never know, we must have them all covered. This is one of his latest goals" he says, playing a video. "As you can see..."

"Holy shit."

"Everything alright, Rúben?" Pep asks him.

"Yes, yes. Just bit myself with the chewing gum" he says.

"I know it is almost lunch time, but let's not get into cannibalism, ok?" Pep chuckles. "So, what I was saying..."

"Mate, what was that about?" John whispers.

"I'll tell you later."

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"It was him" Rúben says to John as they sit to eat lunch.

"Who?"

"Betis' striker. He's the guy who was with Mila over the summer."

"Mila was with someone this summer?" Rodri says, sitting on their table.

"I thought you said she was with some friends she had just met" Bernardo adds, also sitting with them.

"Anyone else wants to join us?" Rúben says, rolling his eyes.

"Are you sure it was him?" John asks him.

"Positive. You know how much I stared at that photo. I even had dreams with it."

"Nightmares I suppose" John chuckles.

"Whatever."

"So, who is this guy Mila was with?" Rodri asks.

"Betis' striker. Fran something."

"Fran? Really?"

"Do you know him?" Rúben asks him.

"From the national team, yes. He isn't a bad guy, and he looks like her type."

"Mila has a type?" Bernardo asks.

"Tall, dark hair, brown eyes, tanned, with more muscles that you could thought possible, plays football, is from the Iberian peninsula, his name starts with R..." John says with a teasing smile.

"We don't look alike" Rúben replies, focused on his phone.

"You are prettier, but you do have things in common. Just like all the girls you dated these past two years, looked like Mila."

"They did, didn't they?" Bernardo laughs.

"I knew he was with her at the wedding!" Rúben says.

"Wedding? What wedding?" Rodri asks.

"One of the guys Mila met this summer was getting married a couple of weeks later, and he ended up inviting her. She said it was because they all had become good friends pretty quickly, but it was because she was going with this Fran. They took a photo on the same spot, look" Rúben says, showing them Mila's photo, and then Fran's.

"Maybe it was the perfect spot for photos. It doesn't mean they were together."

"Look at the sky. It looks exactly the same. She took his photo, and he took hers."

"Ok, so they went together to a wedding. That doesn't mean they were sleeping together or anything like that" Rodri says.

"Doesn't it? When they had just met?" John chuckles. "And look at Mila that day. It was impossible not to want to... Sorry, mate" he says when he notices the way Rúben is looking at him.

"They follow each other on Instagram and have been liking each other's photos. The friend's Mila was with in Cádiz also follow him. And they weren't at the wedding, it was just her."

"That does sound a bit suspicious..." Bernardo says. "She ditched us to attend that wedding. She had never done something like that before."

"I would have also ditched you all for a hot guy" John says.

"So what? She is single and had a summer fling" Rodri shrugs.

"One she didn't tell me about, and against who we are playing in a couple of days" Rúben points out.

"Well, you haven't been on speaking terms if we are being honest."

"So what? Again, she is single, she's allowed to sleep with whoever she wants. Since when are you the jealous type?" Rodri asks.

"Since our boy here fell in love with his best friend" John says, giving Rúben a pat in the back.

"Finally!" Rodri says.

"Bruno was right, then?" Bernardo asks.

"Do not tell a word about this to Bruno. I'm being very serious" Rúben warns him, pointing a threatening finger to his friend. "And what you do mean by finally?"

"Everyone with eyes could see that it was bound to happen. You basically were behaving like a couple, you just were missing the making out part" Rodri shrugs.

"They already gave that a try, didn't you?" John laughs, patting Rubén's back once again.

"But does she feel the same way?" Rodri asks.

"She does, but she's too scared to accept it and that's why she's shagging Spanish dudes and living at Ella's" John says.

"You aren't living together anymore?"

"It's just temporary while she makes up her mind."

"Which doesn't seem to be happening any time soon" John sighs.

"We went out to the cinema the other day" Rúben says.

"What? And you didn't tell me? How did that happen?"

"After the Men's Health shoot we started talking again, like face timing and all that, not just texting."

That day, after letting everything get out of their system, Mila stayed for the night, and in the morning, she asked him if they could try and slowly go back to being friends, see if things still worked before trying anything else.

"Well, that's something" John says. "Step by step."

"But why hasn't she told me about this guy? We've talked about the summer, her new friends, even our Champions League groups, discussing which teams were the toughest. And she never mentioned him" Rúben says.

"Maybe it meant nothing" Bernardo shrugs.

"Or maybe it did, and she doesn't want to hurt me."

"Rúben, mate, you need to talk with her about this before it gets nasty. Especially if things have started to go back to normal" John says.

"I agree" Rodri adds. "Communication is key."

"Ok" Rúben sighs, already dreading the idea of having that conversation with Mila.

What if she fell for that Fran and that's why she kept talking about getting things out of her system? What if she needed it to finally move on? And maybe that's why she wanted to try and be friends again. Because that's all she wants. Just be friends.