GRAVITY | R. DIAS

• 12 •

December 7, 2023

On Thursday afternoon Martha's spending her free time again in the hospital, helping out a 6 year old boy named Ethan, with writing self-made Christmas cards. She watches with a smile on her face, as he tries to write down his own name, sticking his tongue out a tiny bit. He just learned how to write a few months ago and now he wants to write at any given opportunity.

"Miss Martha, how do you write your sister's and Martin's name?" he asks while holding a bright red envelop. The blonde teacher spells out the letters of each name and Ethan writes them down carefully. Ethan's a big football fan and even though he supports Manchester City, he's obsessed with Martha's brother-in-law. He often gives Martha gifts to hand to Martin and he may have gotten a signed shirt in return, which hangs proudly on the wall of his hospital room.

Suddenly a lot of commotion can be heard from the hallways. Martha stands up to have a look, but the door of the room already opens before she can reach it. Jack Grealish walks in with a big smile on his face and a Christmas hat on. Behind her Martha can hear a loud gasp.

"Martha Olsen? I didn't know you work here?" Jack exclaims when he sees the blonde girl standing in front of him.

"I do not actually, I'm only a volunteer. I help out the kids with school work, making it easier for them to get back to school one day," Martha explains while she feels Ethan taking a step closer to her and wrapping his arms around her legs.

Jack spots the little boy and immediately crouches down at the little boy's eye level. "Hey buddy, what's your name?"

The 6 year old looks up at Martha. "It's okay Ethan, you know Jack right? No need to be afraid," 

"I'm Ethan," the boy then whispers shyly. 

"Hello Ethan, nice to meet you," Jack holds up his hand to give Ethan a high five, which the little boy accepts after a little hesitation. 

"Can I give you a Christmas card?" Ethan lets go fully of Martha and walks back to his table, which has paper and pens scattered all over it. He starts searching for a suitable card, pulling out a light blue card, Manchester City's colour.

"That's a great colour that," Jack grins while taking a seat next to the boy. "Did you make them yourself?"

The boy nods. "Together with Miss Martha," 

The two boys start talking with each other. Ethan showing Jack his Ødegaard shirt, at which Jack makes a fake offended noise, and the little boy quickly reassures him he's a City fan. Jack then promises Ethan to get him a signed shirt of him to hang next to Martin's shirt. Martha in the meanwhile zones out a bit. It's great to see Ethan open up so easily to someone, he's usually a bit more shy to meet new people, but it helps that Jack's a famous footballer of course.

"Oi Rúben, look who's here," Jack suddenly calls out.

Martha looks at the door at the mention of the familiar name and there he is, the man Martha rather forget about, also wearing a hat and a big coat. His hair sticks out a bit underneath the hat, making him look extra soft and cute. Rúben catches her eyes while walking inside the room and stops in front of her. "Hi Martha," he smiles softly.

The blonde girl has to look away from his eyes, because she knows she will drown in them otherwise. He has a girlfriend, she knows that. Still Martha can't help herself, he's just so attractive. "Hello Rúben," she whispers.

"Jack, can you help pick out a card for Rúben too?" Ethan asks, unaware of the tension between the blonde teacher and the Portuguese ese footballer. 

"Of course, his favourite colour is pink," Jack grins cheekily, making Rúben look away from the girl in front of him. "It isn't. It's yellow actually," he says quickly.

"Just like Miss Martha," Ethan exclaims. "But I already gave her my yellow card," the little boy says disappointed.

Rúben walks up to the boy and crouches down next to him. "That's no problem, any colour is good," he smiles. "What's your favourite colour?"

"Light blue, like City," the boy answers.

"Is that so? Why do you have an Arsenal shirt then?" the Portuguese man grins.

"Miss Martha gave it to me. Ødegaard signed it,"

"Is Miss Martha trying to steal you away from us?" While saying this Rúben looks the blonde woman right in the eyes and Martha feels her breath getting stuck in her throat when he says Miss Martha. She swears she hears a bit of flirtiness in the way he pronounces it. But that can't be, right? He has a girlfriend, he shouldn't be flirting with her.