Salvation • Pedri

Chapter 13: Winner Winner, Boss at Dinner

🎶 Out Of The Woods (Taylor's Version) — Taylor Swift 🎶

Pedri POV

It was Tuesday and I was set to have dinner at Isa's place tonight, but was completely stressed out as I had absolutely no clue of what to bring as a gift. After finishing my physio, I walked into the canteen where my teammates had already arrived to have lunch.
"Guys, who has experience with kids?" I asked as I sat down at my usual table with Ferran, Eric and Gavi.
"None of us?" Gavi replied confusedly.
"Who is it that's pregnant? The blonde one from Twenties or the short brunette one from Bling Bling?" Ferran asked and I shook my head disgustedly.
"No one! I'm going to have dinner at my PA's tonight and I wanted to buy something for her kids. You know, a guest gift" I explained and the guys broke out in laughter.

"What's so funny?" I asked and opened my arms.
"Just get them a kid's kit and sign it" Eric said.
"That's what she expects me to get them because it's easy" I huffed annoyedly.
"Oh, you want to impress her" Ferran nudged me and wiggled with his eyebrows.
"No, I just want to show that I put in effort" I shot back.
"My Mum knows a nice kid's store where she usually buys all the presents for our relatives, I can ask her the name" Gavi said.
"Thanks, that would be greatly appreciated! See, that's the constructive advice I wanted" I growled at Ferran and Eric.

"Just admit that you want to impress her" Eric chuckled.
"Fine! What's wrong with wanting to impress people? We do it everyday! In training we want to impress the coach so that he starts us, on the pitch we want to impress the fans and journalists, our parents..." I said, but Ferran quickly nodded and cut me off.
"Ok, ok, ok" he chuckled, still not fully buying it.

"You want Sira to come with you? Girls are usually better at this type of stuff" Ferran offered.
"Are you stupid?! If someone pictures us together they'll make up theories about you guys expecting!" I exclaimed, how dumb could he be?
"They will still make up stuff if you go alone though" Gavi chimed in.
"Isa usually debunks stuff like that for me, she has a bunch of finstas to clarify stuff. She'll then make up that she was the shop assistant and I just bought a present for someone" I replied.
"Wow, she really has everything under control" Eric said and I just put on smug smile. She had, she was great.

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"...and remember: best manners tonight. Sofia remember to leave your elbows off the table and Blanca we always chew with our mouth closed" I heard Isa shout as I was standing at her door, trying to shake off the nervousness. I laughed, but remembered to take my elbows off the table and only chew with my mouth closed myself.

I finally gathered the courage to ring the doorbell and after a few seconds, Isa opened the door.
"Hi" she said with a bright smile on her face.
"PEDRI IS HEEEEEERREEEEEE" the older girl shouted with a deep voice and Isa laughed. She and her sister were dressed in matching dresses, hair perfectly combed.

"I am! And this is for you!" I said and extended one of the bags I held in my hand to her.
"Really?" she asked with wide eyes, while her sister was looking at me suspiciously from around the corner.
"Blanca! Come say hello!" Isa animated her and the younger girl slowly walked towards me. I crouched down and held out the second bag I was holding. She mumbled a quiet hello and took the present diffidently before hurrying to her sister and looking at her opening the present.

"Mama! Look!" Sofia shouted and held out the children's photo camera I had bought.
"Wow! Is this... you went and bought something for them?" she asked me surprisedly with a huge smile on her face. Bingo.
"Uh, yes, if you don't like it you can go change it, I don't want to interfere with your education, the receipt-" I started blabbering, but she cut me off by hugging me. Oh my God. Her body fit mine perfectly, feeling her breasts on my torso, her waist... STOP. No, no, she was my assistant and older and a mother. Thankfully, she pulled away after a few seconds.
"Mama, piano" Blanca said excitedly, having opened the present with a piano book in it.
"This is going to get loud" Isa chuckled.

"Ok, let's go to the table, girls, on your seats" she instructed and the kids ran to do as their mother said while she went to the open kitchen to check on the food.
"Oh... and this is for you, for when the kids are in bed" I chuckled and gave her the very expensive bottle of wine I had bought.
"Mhm, that sounds amazing, we can open it tonight" she said and smiled.
"Um... better not, I'm here with my car..." I muttered.
"Oh... then maybe next time" she mumbled quietly. Shit, I should have just said that I could call a taxi. But maybe dinner will be awkward and I'd want to disappear. Urrrrgghhh. Got it, if dinner went well, I'd go downstairs and say I have a problem with my car and we can drink the wine and if it went badly, I will just drive home. Gosh, I'm such a genius.

"Can I help?" I asked and she gave me two plates of Caprese salad cut into small pieces that I assumed were for the kids as she took two plates with normal sized pieces out for us. We sat down and started eating, Isa animating her daughters to tell me something about their lives. Blanca even had the courage to tell me she had had a bath today. Then, Isa brought out the main course and I was overly baffled by how much effort she had put into cooking. Did she always cook like this or was I... special? I hoped it was the latter.

"Thanks for cooking something healthy" I said as I chewed on the best salmon I had had in all my life.
"Oh, it's not that different than cooking for kids, don't worry. They should be eating healthy too" she chuckled and Sofia rolled her eyes, which made me laugh - what a sassy, cute girl. I was almost full when Isa brought out dessert, banana bread apparently. Oh my, I'd have to do some extra workout tomorrow. The girls snatched a piece each and giggled and talked with each other while Isa told me about her school and uni times - she seemed to be very clever and I learned how she met her husband. Her eyes lit up when talking about him and I felt for her, I couldn't imagine how she had been able to deal with it.

"Um... I'll bring the girls to bed now, but I don't want you to feel like I'm kicking you out" Isa said and laughed nervously. She was definitely kicking me out.
"Oh, um... don't worry. I'll just... get home" I replied and smiled, but her face fell a bit, or did I imagine that?
"Ok, then... girls say good night!" she said to her kids and Sofia and Blanca walked over to me.
"Good night Pedri!" Sofia said and hugged me unexpectedly.
"Good night!" Blanca added and hugged her sister - she had tried to wrap her arms around me too but they were still too short.
"Wow! Good night, sweet dreams and always do what your mama says" I chuckled, hoping to earn some plus points.

"Good night Pedri" Isa said and hugged me to give me two kisses on my cheeks. Why was I feeling so sad about this goodbye? I walked down to my car and sat inside, ready to get my plan into action. But what if it took her hours to get her kids to sleep? Were they good sleepers? Why hadn't I asked about their nighttime routine at dinner? No, thank God I hadn't, that would have been so awkward.

But something inside me pushed to go back upstairs after 20 minutes of debating what to do and knock at her door, not wanting to ring the bell if the kids were already asleep. To my surprise, it opened up, revealing a very confused looking Isa.
"Pedri?"