Sure Thing • Gavi

Chapter 30: Cross-Examination

🎶 Counting Stars — OneRepublic 🎶

Gavi POV

Today was the day. Tonight, I would be meeting her parents, in fact it would be the first time I would be meeting potential in-laws, as Vicky was my first girlfriend and I had no clue about how the hell I was going to convince her father that I was the best man for his daughter. With a thousand thoughts running through my mind, I just laid there awake, with the sunlight streaming through the window, waiting for my girlfriend to wake up.

She started shuffling next to me just a few minutes later and opened her eyes, meeting mine immediately.
"Were you staring?" she growled jokingly.
"It's cute when you drool in your sleep. You must have been dreaming about me" I chuckled.
"Mhm... especially your abs... and you hitting my g-spot again and again last night" she hummed and I grinned. I had been still pumped from the game and wanted to give her everything, and apparently I had been good at it.

"Plans for today?" I asked her, even though I wasn't ready to face her family at all.
"Just us two. Whatever you want." she said and laid her head on my stomach, looking up to me.
"What? Don't you want to spend time with your folks?" I asked.
"We're already meeting them tonight and I can still spend tomorrow with them. I haven't seen you all week, I want some time with you too" she said and smiled softly. God, could she be any more perfect for me? I was about to drop the L-word, but she had already stood up and gone to the bathroom.

It was still very warm in Barcelona, so we decided to spend the day out at sea on my small boat. We both were definitely summer people and already dreaded winter and the cold. Eventually, we did have to go back to start getting ready for tonight's dinner and I dropped her off at her place before driving to mine to put on some fresh clothes. I tried my best to dress nicely: I ditched my usual t-shirts for a white shirt, whose first two buttons I left open, and some navy trousers. Then, I pulled out a pair of loafers, that I had never worn, instead of my usual white trainers, taking some style inspiration from her brother. After brushing my teeth for the third time, I took a deep breath, took the keys to my Audi and drove back to Vicky's apartment to pick her and Kike up.

I rang the buzzer downstairs and she picked up saying "Come upstairs, I'm not ready yet". I did as she said and went inside her apartment, whose door she had left open as she had hurried back to the bathroom apparently.
"Hey! Can you fetch my wallet? It's in the first drawer of my nightstand" she shouted and I went over to look for it.
When I opened it, I immediately found it next to a green box with the Rolex logo on it. My curiosity got ahead of my and I opened it - what I saw inside made my eyes pop out. It was a Pearlmaster, one of the brand's most expensive models, covered in diamonds. I had once gone to a jeweler with my teammate Ale Balde, and watches like that, they started retailing at 100,000$.

"Did you find it?" she shouted, interrupting my thoughts.
"Yeah! Got it!" I shouted back and quickly closed the drawer. She always told me she only lived off her salary and then she randomly has a watch worth probably double of what she makes in a year.
"Ok, let's go. You alright?" she asked after coming out and seeing the distraught look on my face.
"Yeah, yeah let's go." I said and kissed her on the temple. I didn't want to ask her about it as I shouldn't have been prying and her parents were on my mind enough already, so we just picked up her brother and drove to the restaurant I had chosen.

The owner had given us a table at the back and us three were sitting there, waiting for the arrival of her parents.
My leg was bouncing under the table and I quickly turned to look at her as she put her hand on it, to make it stop.
"It's going to be alright. They don't hate you." she said and smiled at me softly.
"Any last minute tips? And please get your hand off my leg, I don't want to stand up and have to greet them with a boner" I said and she quickly put away her hand with a horrified look on her face.
"Just... pay attention to your table manners, they notice that a lot" she said and then nodded towards the entrance, where a couple had just made its way in. So those were her parents. They were a good-looking couple, she looked exactly like her daughter, only 20 years older and her father was very tall and handsome. They had really good genes and were also impeccably dressed on top of that.

"Hi!" her Mum said excitedly and hugged her daughter while the Dad was shaking hands with Kike.
"Mum, Dad, this is Pablo, my boyfriend" Vicky said with a huge smile on her face. Her smile was so beautiful, I looked at her adoringly, but quickly snapped out of my trance when I realised I had to greet her parents.
"It's a pleasure to meet you" I replied and shook her mother's hand before doing the same with her father, who had a very unimpressed look on his face.

We sat down and they waiter brought out the menus, which we studied in silence.
"Shall we have starters?" I asked into the round, but was just met with a glare from her father.
"Yeah, let's do it." Vicky said, trying to ease the tension a bit.
We all ordered and I found it funny that her Dad and Kike went for the same dish, while Vicky and her Mum both went for the salmon. It was nice to see them as a family, they reminded me of us... they just looked... there was something about them but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Congrats on the win yesterday, by the way, you played really well... As far as I can say at least" her Mum chuckled and I grinned.
"Thanks. It would have been cooler if you would have actually seen me scoring or something, but then... I'm just a midfielder" I replied.
"You were the best" Vicky said and stroked my arm.
"And you look even better off the pitch" the Mum said and I blushed. "I saw some TikToks of you on our way here - you've got quite the female fanbase" she added and winked, now making me turn dark red probably. The Dad just rolled his eyes and I was losing my patience with him. I really hoped that I could control my temper tonight, he was frustrating me like an opponent player that I couldn't manage to tackle.

The food arrived and there was some light smalltalk going on, it was mostly her Mum asking me stuff about my childhood and my family. Her father, who was sitting next to me was mostly silent or talking to Kike about his new job and my frustration was rising. After the 50th time of him rolling his eyes at something I said, I snapped.
"Look, I know I'm not the son-in-law you probably envisioned, but I'd really like to know what your problem with me is." I said sternly and everyone's eyes were on me.
"Pablo, you are a great footballer, no doubt, but there's just a lot that comes with it and I don't want my daughter to get hurt. You're young and I think we can all agree that men mature way later than women. I just don't think you know what a serious relationship means" he replied.
"With all due respect, but I think I do know what it means to be serious about something. I moved to Barcelona when I was 11 to pursue my dream - and I worked hard for it. I knew I couldn't just sit there, dream and wait for things to fall into my lap. I worked hard, being the first to arrive and the last to leave at trainings. If I hadn't been serious I certainly wouldn't be where I am now." I said with a stern tone.
"And that's exactly my point. You've grown up so fast, how do you know that one day you won't just snap and think you have to do everything you've had to miss out on? Partying, hooking up, fooling around?" he asked and in some way, I could understand him, so I softened my tone a bit.
"Ok, I get it. Sir, I'm being really honest with you here. There's three things I love in life: my family, football and your daughter. And my parents taught me to cherish and value what I love, so I will do everything in my power to make her happy for as long as she lets me." I said and he smiled at me for the first time ever. I looked around the table and was met with a swooning face from the mother and shocked looks from Kike and Vicky. Oh, fuck. I had dropped the L-bomb in the most unromantic way.
Well done, Pablo, great.