My neighbour Rúben

Chapter 5

"Rúben!" Julia screamed when I opened the door.

"Hello, little one" he said, picking her up with those arms of his. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you!" she said. "I'm Queen Elsa and she is Anna."

"Oh... Is that why you are wearing those braids? I like them."

"Thank you" I said, feeling my cheeks getting warm. Why was I blushing? We had been able to have a proper conversation earlier, and now...

"So if you are Elsa, and she is Anna... Who am I?"

"Kristoff! He is Anna's boyfriend."

"Is he?" Rúben said, looking at me with a cheeky smile before putting Julia down. He was giving me a cheeky smile. Me. Because Kristoff is Anna's boyfriend and I'm Anna and he is Kristoff and...

"He is! You'll see, we are watching "Frozen" tonight! And we have popcorn, and chocolate, and gummy bears!" Julia said, grabbing his hand and taking him to the kitchen. "Look!"

"Can you eat any of this? You probably have to follow a very strict diet to look like that" I said, my eyes going all over his body, something that he definitely noticed. "In shape I mean. For football."

"I can eat some popcorn, don't worry. And if I eat too much, I'll make sure to burn it tomorrow during training" he replied, this time with the same smirk from when we first met. Oh, dear Lord.

When we sat down on the sofa to watch the movie, Julia was between us, the popcorn on her lap. While I had my arms crossed over my chest, trying to not freak out, Rúben was feeling himself at home, one of his arms stretched over the back of the sofa, his fingers just millimeters away from my neck. My exposed neck because of the braids. If he moved just a bit, he could touch it, and I would probably melt just as Olaf does in the movie.

Thanks to Julia's constant comments I was able to stop thinking about it for a while, but during one of the songs I looked at him and he was... singing? Rúben Dias... was singing... "Love is an open door"? What? And he also sang "Let it go". Word by word. He said he was a Disney fan, but this? This was unexpected.

"Can we watch "Frozen 2" now?" Julia asked when the movie ended.

"It's bed time."

"But it's a Friday! C'mon, please" she said, looking at me with puppy eyes.

"We'll leave it for next Friday."

"Will you come?" she asked Rúben.

"If I can I will."

"Yay!" she said, giving him a hug. "Anna can't be without Kristoff."

And what was Rúben's answer to that? Another smirk. While looking at me.

"Let's go get you changed, Julia" I quickly said, getting up from the sofa.

"Rúben, can you take me flying to my room?" she asked him, already climbing into the back of the sofa.

"Wait, Julia." But before I could say or do anything else, she was jumping, Rúben catching her and making her fly as if she was Supergirl.

"Look, I'm flying!" she giggled. "To my room!"

"Ready for landing?" Rúben asked her when the three of us made it there.

"Ready!"

"One... Two... Three!" he said before throwing her into the bed, Julia bouncing when she landed, her laugh echoing around the room.

"Again!"

"You already landed, it can't happen again. Now it's time to get changed."

"Boring" she pouted.