🎶 Little Freak — Harry Styles 🎶
I used the weekend to get things more or less finally settled in my new flat. The girls loved their new room and I often stopped whatever I was doing just to watch them play for a few minutes. Barca played on Sunday evening and after putting the girls to bed, I switched on the TV with a glass of wine in my hand. I had calmed down a bit after the car ride a few days ago and Pedri had sent me a nice message apologising - maybe I just had to loosen up a bit and not be so distant. Maybe he would understand me and my life situation a bit better.
18th minute and my man shot a goal. Wait a minute, not my man, I mean, my boss. He did his usual goggle celebration and I thought that asking him about why he did that would be a nice icebreaker for the next time we'd have to see each other.
This next time was already on Thursday as his agent Hector and I would be attending that night's Europa League game against Manchester United.
"How's it going with Pedri?" he asked as we watched the warm-up.
"Could be better on a personal level, but I think on a professional level it's going pretty well" I replied sincerely.
"He can be a difficult character. There's a lot of pressure on his shoulders - and his body isn't the strongest, that also affects him mentally." he tried to explain and my mind involuntarily wandered to the time I had seen him naked in his bedroom. That man had muscles and abs like no guy I had ever seen before, "not the strongest" my ass. Rodri had been strong but he was more the chubby type when it came to his stomach - I loved that however, he just really appreciated my cooking!
The game started, but Pedri went down shortly before the end of a goalless first half. Hector got up looking quite concerned and watched on as he was subbed off, not looking too well. Chants with his name filled the stadium and when he walked off, people stood up to clap for him, so I did the same. At half-time, Hector made his way downstairs with me to go see him and we found him in the physio room with guys around him examining him. Gavi was there as well as Lewandowski, checking in on him. When they saw us, they said bye and walked back to their teammates to focus on the second half.
"What's it looking like?" Hector asked the doctors and physios swirling around Pedri.
"Hamstring. Will be a longer one" one of them replied and Pedri just laid there, covering his face with his hands.
"Shit" Hector mumbled.
"Draw up a statement and we'll talk tomorrow about media stuff he can do while he's out" Hector told me and I pulled out my phone to do what he said.
"I'm here by the way" Pedri huffed annoyedly.
"Can you drive him home? Settle him in? Check if he has everything to eat and stuff." Hector told me and I nodded.
"I'm still here. And I don't need a babysitter" Pedri said again, his tone even more annoyed than before.
"Pedri, I will drive you home, you don't have a car now anyways" I told him nicely, hoping that he wouldn't fight me on this. And to my surprise, he actually didn't. When the medical staff was done with him and Hector left, he changed into his normal clothes and one of the physios accompanied us to my car. The game was in full swing which meant that there were no fans or whatsoever lurking and we made it out of the stadium very easily.
The car ride was silent and at some point, I pulled out the AUX cord and held it under his nose.
"Peace offering?" I asked, alluding to the start of our last quarrel. His lips formed a soft smile, the first one tonight. He took it and started playing some Spanish hits, me softly humming along to those I knew. We arrived at his house, not having spoken a word, both too afraid that we could say something that would start a dispute once again.
He was able to walk, with a slight hesitance in his step though and made his way inside to slump down on the couch. I immediately made my way to the kitchen to get him an ice pack that he put on the injured area before putting some pillows under his leg to elevate it. Then I went to the kitchen once again to check his fridge... and was left astonished to find it completely empty.
"Um... do you... normally eat at home?" I asked, trying to phrase my question so that he couldn't feel personally attacked.
"Uh... I'm... not really good at cooking, maybe also too lazy..." he muttered, scrolling around on his phone.
"Pedri! You're a world-class athlete! Nutrition makes up a third of your performance!" I exclaimed.
"My brother cooks when he's around!" he said, hoping to somehow weasel his way out of the conversation.
"And how often is he around?" I asked, crossing my arms and raising my eyebrows.
"Maybe a few times a week..." he muttered.
"First thing I'll do tomorrow is find you a chef. Thankfully you make more in a year than I ever will in my lifetime so you'll be able to afford it" I teased him, with a grin on my face so that he knew I was joking and wouldn't go all aggressive on me again. He rolled his eyes but his lips curled up in a small smile.
"Until then, you'll have to survive my cooking. I'm going to the supermarket now and get some food for you to survive the next few days. Do you have any particular wishes?" I asked. He just shook his head and I nodded, making my way outside again. This was going better than expected, I was really tiptoeing my way around him as I could imagine his mood was down the drain after getting the diagnosis of not being able to play for probably two months.
I returned half an hour later with two bags full of groceries and quickly unpacked them and stowed away everything and hoped to have done it right. Then, I whipped up an omelet with spinach and tomatoes, it was the quickest and healthiest thing I could think of and hoped he would appreciate it.
"You want to eat on the couch or shall I set the table?" I asked as I appeared in the living room.
"I'll eat at the table. Wouldn't want you thinking I'm barbaric or something" he replied and slowly stood up.
"You eating at a dining table won't change my mind about that!" I chuckled and walked to the kitchen to get his food.
"Ok. Can you manage alone from here on? I'll be back tomorrow morning to drive you to the training center for your medical tests. We can pick up Gavi on the way" I said and he smiled.
"Yeah, I'll manage. Thanks for... everything" he replied and shot me a small smile too. For some reason, that stirred something up in my stomach, but I blamed that on my sexual drought of the past year. Every handsome man being nice to me would currently have that effect on me, right?
