When Gavi's phone buzzed with texts from Pedri that he was coming home soon, Robert sprang into action. He dressed in a hurry while Gavi begged for one last kiss which Robert couldn't deny. Pulling away from Gavi's lips was pure torture but Robert couldn't afford to get caught. He promised they would get together soon.
On the drive home, stopped at a red light, Robert checked his phone and saw a text sent from his wife almost two hours ago. 'Are you coming home soon or still partying with the guys?'
He didn't respond. Partially because he was already on his way home anyway.
But mostly because he just didn't want to.
It was almost 3:00am when he got home but the first thing he did was head to the downstairs bathroom to take a shower.
Afterward, he quietly climbed into bed and was relieved that Anna was sound asleep.
His eyes remained open, staring at the dark ceiling. In ten years of marriage he never once cheated on his wife. Sometimes she darkly teased that one day he would leave her for one of his young screaming female fans. He insisted he never would. And in a way he was right.
To his surprise, he didn't feel as guilty or ashamed as he thought he would. Maybe it was because his mind was utterly overtaken with Gavi. How sweet his kisses were, how delightfully sinful his body was. Just the memory of being inside him was enough to get Robert hard again. Maybe he could rub a quick one out so he could fall asleep soon.
Although Robert was quiet, his wife still woke up. He abruptly stopped his movements but she half-laughed, half-sighed, having already figured out what he was doing.
"All that dancing got you worked up, huh? Hope you weren't checking out any pretty girls," she murmured as she moved closer to him.
"I didn't. At all," Robert answered truthfully.
"Good," she replied before reaching over and replacing his hand with her own.
Getting together with Gavi again proved to be a little more difficult than initially thought. Robert's routine was so defined that anything out of the ordinary was sure to rouse suspicion. And they couldn't exactly go to Gavi's apartment since Pedri was usually there.
Robert remembered his agent saying he knew someone who owned several properties, including furnished apartments for clients to hold their discreet business. Robert, desperate and seeing no other way, asked for the use of one such apartment. His agent raised a concerned eyebrow. "I thought things were good with you and Anna. You both seem so in love still, after all these years."
"We are," Robert asserted. "I just... need some time alone. Away from my family."
His agent smiled at him in a way that said he knew Robert was full of shit but was letting it go. "I'll let my friend know and he can set you up. Just be careful, alright? The last thing I need is your name in the papers for all the wrong reasons."
Having secured a place, the next step was how to fit it into their schedule.
The lie was more elaborate than it needed to be. Since Robert couldn't use the excuse that he was staying late at training all the time (Anna knew his body could only take so much), he told her the club was having him partake in external physiotherapy sessions to keep his muscles and body in shape. He also mentioned that they were going to run tests and do research into athletic longevity, a.k.a. his excuse for why the sessions would be running closer to three hours. He looked up the name of an actual practice that did such a thing and booked himself one appointment to at least hold up the pretense of the lie. Of course, after that initial session he never went back. But Anna had no reason to doubt that this was where he was going three or four evenings a week.
