control - Alexia Putellas

39.

tick. tack. tick. tack. ☕️✍🏼

After the elevator doors had closed, Alexia took a deep, shaky breath, a mixture of relief and trepidation welling up inside her.

Sparkling hazel eyes flutter shut as she took another deep inhale, and she felt her heart accelerate as she became aware of the significance of what had just happened.

She had defied Jorge, Spain's head coach, one of the people who held authority over her professional career, and whose will she hadn't opposed for years.

As the elevator ascended the top floor of the modern hotel in Wellington, Alexia couldn't shake the overwhelming feelings that had been building up inside her throughout the day.

So much had happened in those past 24 hours.

The heartbreaking defeat against Japan. Entering the round of 16 in the World Cup. Erin holding her in this far-too-small single bed of her hotel room. The blonde's beaming smile during their hike along the Tora Coastal Walk in southern Wairarapa. The crystal clear, azure waters at Stony Bay. The tarnished windows of the camper after it had started to rain. That incomparable sensation Alexia felt as she relinquished control to Erin. The ride home, so calm and relaxed, yet so clarifying. The confrontation with Jorge.

That Alexia was overwhelmed was probably an understatement.

Yet, despite it all, the two time Ballon D'Or winner regretted nothing of what had happened today.

She couldn't suppress the delighted smile on her tender lips as she approached the door to her junior suite, wanting nothing more than to be held by the stunningly beautiful blonde tonight.

The perfect way to end this special day.

So Alexia was stunned to find herself at the door a couple of seconds later, when no one answered the door after knocking twice.

Before she knew it, the smile on her lips vanished, replaced by a sad, sorrowful expression on her otherwise flawless visage.

The fear that Erin had left, was growing.

And her suspicion was confirmed several seconds later, when Alexia lowered her gaze and noticed the room card on the ground in front of her, highlighted by the dim light of the never-ending hallway.

When she saw the card, the scratched white card with the emblem of the hotel printed on the front, Alexia felt her heart break.

And it hurt as she perched down, reaching out to pick up the key to her room, her backpack slung over her shoulder as she swiped the scratched plastic card through the reader to let herself in.

And the midfielder was surprised to find the dimmed light by the lounge corner of her suite switched on, a dark silhouette sitting on one of the stools, barely visible.

But even in a crowd of a thousand shadows, Alexia would recognize her.

Erin.

"B-Bonita... I... you're still here", Alexia stammers, relieved, nervous, and confused, all at the same time, as she shuts the door behind her, setting the backpack aside.

She could feel the tension immediately.

Erin's voice, soft and tinged with a hint of vulnerability, breaks the silence, "Of course, I'm still here, love... I didn't plan to stay here in the first place, but... I couldn't leave without talking to you"

Leave?

Taking a hesitant step closer, her emotions swirling inside of her as she processes the blondes honest words, nervously fiddling with her fingers, Alexia stammers, "I... I thought you had left. When I saw the card on the floor, I-"