Never Let Go (Of Me) • Ferran Torres

Chapter 21: He's Taking Me Where?

🎶 Friendships — Pascal Letoublon 🎶

On Monday, Ferran's football camp kicked off and I was mostly responsible for bureaucratic stuff at the kids' check-in and helping here and there with taking care of them, especially during the extra-curricular activities. On the third evening, we were doing a beach barbecue and I was currently trying to start the campfire over which we could grill the food.

"Why is no one of the guys helping you?" Ferran asked, slightly bothered and I just furrowed my eyebrows.
"Because I said I would do it. You don't think a girl can start a fire alone?" I asked, slightly offended.
"What? No! I just- yeah, sorry." he mumbled and the flames finally started to get higher, just as I wanted. "Wow... Where did you learn that?" he asked, sounding impressed.
"I was a scout for ten years" I simply replied and shrugged.
"That's so cool. You have no idea how attractive it makes girls to actually have something in their brain" he said and patted my shoulder before walking away and engaging in chitchat with some of the campus participants, leaving me there behind with a dark red face.

And on Friday, after the final tournament and me helping with handing out medals and certificates, the campus ended and we celebrated that by having dinner with Ferran and his friends in a nice restaurant in Valencia. I had warmed up to everyone, or better said, everyone had warmed up to me by now, except for Joan. But tonight fate had made me sit next to him and I was determined to find out the reason for his disliking of me.

"Hey... How was your day?" I friendly asked him.
"Good and yours?" he asked back a bit monotonously.
"Yeah, it was fun. Nice to see all those kids so happy just playing football and meeting Ferran" I chuckled, trying to ease the tension.
"Must have been nice for you too to meet him again" he muttered and put a fork of spaghetti into his mouth.
"It was. He's being a really good friend and I hope I'm being one too after his heartbreak" I replied, to make it clear in which area me and Ferran were currently moving in.

"Yeah, I bet. Waiting patiently to strike your shot, hm?" he asked and there it was, exactly like I had suspected.
"That's what you think I am, a gold digger?" I chuckled and he shrugged. "I won't change your mind about that anyways, if not with time, so I'll just let you stay grumpy for however long as you want" I replied, having no energy for arguing to prove that I wasn't what he thought I was.
"He's flying you to Miami. That's some pretty weird behaviour for Ferran and it's what rich dudes do when they want to impress girls" he replied dryly.

"Sorry what is he doing?" I asked shocked.
"You must have been really sly to drop wanting to go to Miami and bam, he does it for you" Joan replied and raised his eyebrows somehow challengingly.
"I didn't know about Miami or anything up until now. What a great friend you are to ruin his surprise. Can't you just be happy for him that he's starting to get over Sira?" I scoffed at him and stood up to go to the loo to not let anyone see the pathetic tears I was about to shred.

I leaned onto the sink and cried it out, it wasn't really much, but still. Yeah, it was true, I enjoyed it when Ferran would pay for meals every time we hung out and drove me back and forth with his car so that I wouldn't have to spend money on a public transport ticket, but I wasn't a gold digger. I'd hang out with him even if I had to pay for a of that, because the time with him was worth all of that and so much more. He was everything, he made me so happy.

"Cata, are you inside?" I heard his voice from outside the door.
"Y-yeah, just a second" I exclaimed and quickly fixed my face and hair before opening up.
"Here you go, sorry for making you wait" I said friendly and was about to walk back when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me dangerously close to his chest.
"What did Joan say to make you cry?" he asked seriously. Shit, I had hoped to cover up the crying but he just... saw straight through me.
"Nothing, forget it. He's just looking out for you" I replied, not wanting to get in the way of their friendship.

"Cata..." he warned me.
"You're taking me to Miami?" I asked and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
"He spilled it?" he asked angrily.
"Said you were doing it to impress me" I said more jokingly and stuck out my tongue to tease him, hoping the argument would move away from Joan. That guy would come around eventually.
"Ugh the surprise is ruined now... Great friends that I have" he scoffed.
"Ferri... You shouldn't have..." I whispered.
"Listen, it was my... Sira holiday week but since that was canceled... I wanted to do something fun! And you deserve that too after how your past months went down. We'll just have fun together! And I can enjoy some anonymity in the US rather than my every move being filmed by crazy fans if I show up in Ibiza." he sighed.

It wasn't exactly the most charming thing to be used as the replacement for your ex on his holidays, but I knew that he hadn't meant it like that. His free days were limited and he had to please his family and friends with the little time he had that there wasn't left much for him to do whatever he actually wanted.
"But... it's crazy expensive and... how the hell did you get a visa for me?" I asked.
"I sneaked into your room and stole- borrowed your passport to get it" he explained and my eyes widened. My passport was stored next to my underwear, great. Maybe that was the reason he was bringing me along.
"I'm pretty sure it would require a signature..." I continued.
"Yeah, I sneaked the form into all the papers I made you sign for the camp for insurance and stuff. You really should pay more attention to what you sign" he chuckled.

"But now we have to get back or Joan will tell everyone that we were snogging in the back of the restaurant" he chuckled and I laughed too. He went to the loo himself now while I returned to the table to sit down next to his friend again.
"I'll make sure to send you lots of pictures from Florida" I told him and pressed my lips sarcastically into a fake smile.