Grace's dream was a career in the fashion industry. But while she's finally pursuing that dream, her personal life remains a nightmare. Will she be able to escape an abusive relationship? And will she be able to find happiness and maybe true love?
"Did you know I'm really lucky?", says Rúben while we are relaxing on the sofa.
"Ok. Any particular reason why?"
"Because I'm dating you".
"You only realize now?", I say, laughing
"Look".
And then I see what he is looking at on his phone.
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Citywags Grace Wells, 24, fashion journalist. The Londoner and our Portuguese defender made their relationship Instagram official just this summer, but everyone suspected they had been an item for months before their announcement. What do you think of this couple? We love them 💙
-user4957: Damn, Dias is a really lucky guy!
-user9572: She's hot.
-user8362: He's hot too.
"Of course, they had to post a swimsuit photo", I say, rolling my eyes.
"It's a great photo", says Rúben, liking it. "Also, I took it".
"Rúben, don't like their photo".
"Why not?"
"Because it's weird. And it'll encourage them to post more".
"We literally have fan pages on IG", he shrugs.
Yes, we do have fan pages. I can't believe that someone created a page to post photos of both of us. It's a bit strange to see people so interested in my relationship with Rúben but they seem harmless so far. Just posting about how great we look together. I sometimes interact with the one that's the most active. They seem really nice.
"Are you free on Sunday?"
"Yes. But you already know that. I'm going to your match".
"I mean more after the match".
When I look at him, I see him looking nervous.
"Ok. Still free. Why?"
"My parents are coming to visit", he says, finally looking at me.
"That's nice".
All the other times they visited, I found an excuse to not meet them. It's not that I don't want to see them but I'm too nervous about it. But we've been dating for 5 months now. I can't keep on saying no.
"I'm taking them to dinner after the match. Do you want to come?"
"I'd love to", I say, and his surprised expression hurts me a little. I know he wanted me to meet them a while ago and postponing it so much was not ideal for him.
"Great. I'll book a table for 5 then. My brother is coming too".
"Yeah. Good".
"They'll love you, Grace", he says, squeezing my hand. "Stop worrying".
Easy for him to say.
**
At the match, I sit with Ines like I always do. We can finally share that we are both here now that everyone knows about Rúben and me.
"Let's go get a drink", she says at half-time.
We keep on bumping into people on our way there. Ines being the social butterfly she is making our moving around the stadium slower. I really wish I was more like her.
"Ines?", I hear someone say and when we both turn, I freeze. It's Rúben's parents.
"Hi", says Ines, looking from them to me. "It's too late to hide, sorry", she whispers, making me laugh.
When they get closer and look at me, they seem to recognise me.
"Grace? We expected to meet you after the match".
"Hi. It's really nice finally meeting you".
"It is", says Rúben's mum, smiling at me.
"We were going to get a drink", says Ines. "How about we do that and then we can all sit together and chat".
Having Ines there helps massively. And we seem to get on well, which is encouraging. They keep asking me about my job and found it funny that's how I met Rúben. He had told them about the interview being made by me, but I tell them a bit more about those first weeks after we properly met.
Once the match is over, we all go to meet Rúben and the rest of the boys.
"This is where we were supposed to meet then?", asks Rúben's brother.
"Yeah. But it happened a bit earlier".
"But it was all great!!", exclaims Ines before spotting Bernardo and running to him.
"She always does that".
Rúben is walking behind him, typing on his phone. When he looks up and sees me with his family, his eyes go wide.
