Never Let Go (Of Me) • Ferran Torres

Chapter 19: A Summer Goodbye

🎶 You Belong With Me (Taylor's Version) — Taylor Swift 🎶

Ferran had kept his promise and after his return from Japan, we started not only hanging out more, but also texting more, which eventually turned into hour-long late-night-calls. He was staying in Barcelona for two more weeks to work out and just focus on his plan for next season and he had also told me that he was seeing his therapist now almost daily. We'd also see each other almost every day now, if I had a shoot after work, we'd just grab dinner at his place and if I didn't, I'd come to his place already in the afternoon and we'd play with Milo and just talk for hours.

"I work the late shift all of next week, so I'll only finish at 9pm" I told him before I stuffed an avocado Maki into my mouth that he had ordered in today.
"So your mornings are free?" he asked. Was he trying to still find time to hang out with me?
"Yup, I start at 1pm" I replied.
"Would you want to come and work out with me one morning?" he asked and I raised my eyebrows.
"I wouldn't last two minutes" I chuckled.
"You can admire me for the rest of the time" he teased me and I hit his shoulder lightly.

And so there I was, very nervously ringing the bell of his house on a Monday morning, wearing some workout clothes, my normal ones for work later packed in an FC Barcelona paper bag as I had no real bags except for my one suitcase I moved to Barcelona with and my crossbody bag I used every day, from morning until nighttime.
"Good morning!" Ferran greeted me with a bright smile and I wondered where he took all this energy from, I was still half-asleep at this hour.
"Could I have a coffee please?" I asked, half-yawning as we made our way inside.

"I have something much better. Protein shake" he replied and proudly handed me a bottle with a disgusting looking liquid in it.
"This will taste as shit as it looks" I mumbled and took a very small sip. Yep, I had been right about this. "Ew" I commented and he rolled his eyes.
"Don't be dramatic, drink it, it will give you some energy" he replied and I looked at him with a disgusted face. "You look cute like this" he chuckled and ruffled my hair, making my turn red like a tomato.

"Let's go!" he exclaimed and clapped his hands together before hurrying downstairs to where his home gym was set up.
"I can do the treadmill, I'm good at running" I immediately offered when I saw which other torture machines he had.
"Boring" he scoffed jokingly. "But fine, you'll have more time to drool over my strength and muscles" he said proudly and flexed his biceps.
"You wish. I'll just be picturing Gavi instead of you" I teased him again because I knew it would wind him up.

"Again with Gavi!" he huffed annoyedly as he sat down on his weight bench.
"You could be a nice friend and give me his number" I continued in my pursuit.
"He's not interested in you" he quickly said and I grinned because this was just too much fun.
"Oh really? Do you talk about me with him?" I panted as I was on my second kilometre while he was lifting those awfully heavy looking weights.
"Would you tell me if you talked about me with Sara or Dan?" he asked through gritted teeth and I shrugged.

"Dan is concerned that you guys will put him under pressure to dig out other pretty friends of his to bring along" I sighed.
"I'm sure that won't be hard for him" he chuckled and I threw my small towel at him. He finished with his weights and walked over to the treadmill to bring me back my towel, or so I thought. Instead, he threw it over my head so that it was covering my face and I almost lost my balance at running.
"Ahhh... fuck" I panted as I finally managed to take it off and throw it on the floor again, only to find him now leaning onto the handles from the other side.

"It's getting hot in here, isn't it?" he asked as he pulled off his t-shirt and I almost forgot to breathe.
"I'm not pulling the same shit" I bantered back and he just laughed. Why was his laugh so beautiful and perfect?
"Has Dan proposed yet by the way?" he asked as he finally moved away to do some exercises on the floor.
"Nope, they're flying out to Greece on Saturday, he's taking a gamble and proposing on the first evening" I told him.
"Ohhh guy's getting straight to the point! You think she'll say yes?" he asked and looked up to me.
"Definitely. He'll pull some romantic sunset shit to ask her and then they'll spend the rest of the week having galactic sex" I replied and giggled.

"That's so cute..." he mumbled and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. The whole breakup thing still seemed to take a toll on him, maybe he really had thought that Sira was the one... And now my pathetic ass was hanging out with him instead, for what? Maybe I should go...
"I should-" I started, switching off the treadmill, but he started to say something himself.

"I was thinking of getting a new tattoo - sorry what did you say?" he asked.
"Oh... I... didn't want to be a burden for your workout, you should concentrate you know? Come back stronger and... stuff" I rambled nervously.
"No, I like it. It's fun to have someone to talk, makes the time pass quicker" he said and smiled. Oh great, I was just a pastime then.
"Um... ok... what were you saying? Tattoo?" I mumbled, to change the topic.

"Yeah, like a crazy one. I've thought of something like a phoenix, you know... he rises from the ashes... and stuff" he rambled, scratching a spot behind his ear.
"Oh! Where?" I asked.
"On the back, on my shoulders, like... here" he said and pointed at his skin.
"Wow... This big? From shoulder to shoulder?" I asked, a bit baffled.
"You're not a fan of it, hm?" he asked back and I pressed my lips together.
"It's just..." I started and laughed. "I always imagine a tattooed person as an 80-year-old granddad then with his skin all wrinkled and that tattoo on it" I chuckled.

"Yeah, but I'll be with my loving wife then anyways, so who cares?" he replied with a grin on his face.
"You're that confident someone will be able to stand you for a whole lifetime?" I teased him, but regretted it because I didn't know if it would hurt him. "Sorry" I mumbled quickly.
"I'm not a broken glass figure, Cata, you can make fun of me. Eric and Pedri do that all the time" he replied and stood up from his exercises.
"Yeah, because they're men. They never are sensitive... But I - I wouldn't like to hurt you" I told him sincerely.
"And that is why I like spending time with you... and being with you" he said as he stepped closer to me.

He was so... under his eyes I melted every time, my body was automatically and magically drawn to him, I had never felt this way.
"Your friends are surely jealous already" I chuckled nervously, trying to crack a joke to cut the tension I was feeling under.
"Yeah, of me. They'd never get such a pretty girl to even talk to them" he replied and tilted his head to shoot me a look as he walked towards the gym room's door.
"Your best friend is Pedri. He surely can pull more and better girls than you" I said and slapped him at the back of his head.

"Ouch" he hissed, faking to be offended and putting a hand on his heart.
"And Gavi can always have me" I added as a cherry on top.
"I'm seriously starting to think you're hanging out with me only to get close to him" he huffed annoyedly and I hugged him from behind.
"I would never" I whispered and leaned my front onto his back for a second. It was such a beautiful second but I didn't want to let my feelings slip and get ahead of me. He didn't need to know that I was only hanging out with him because I a) didn't have any other friends and b) had an enormous crush on him.

"I'm finally driving back home this weekend for the holidays" he announced and my heart broke a bit that our time alone and without his usual football stress was coming to an end, but I smiled brightly at him nonetheless.
"That's great. Your family and friends will be so happy to see you again and spend time with you! Say hi to Joan and Pablo for me... even though I'm not sure Joan likes me" I chuckled nervously.
"He's just... very protective, don't take it personally" he replied and waved it off, but I hated people not liking me.

"Then I guess I'll see you again in a month" I said, trying to sound happy for him, but in reality, I was just sad. A whole month alone, three weeks of which I wasn't working and just melting in a city that just didn't feel like home yet.
"Yeah... with full sails into the new season!" he replied happily, flexing his biceps once again. What a show-off this guy.