Somewhere Only We Know • Ruben Dias

Chapter 21: Make a Move!

🎶 Lover (Remix) [feat. Shawn Mendes] — Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes 🎶

"You're actually playing Liverpool next" I mumbled with a half-full mouth from a crepe that Ruben had bought me from some food truck in Liverpool's city centre.
"You mean I'm brave to show my face here?" he chuckled as we walked down the streets next to each other.
"You are very brave. I should still thank you for wanting to beat up Ed" I replied and looked at him with dreamy eyes that I hoped he wouldn't notice. Because even if every girl denied needing one, we all love it when a knight in shining armour shows up.

"I wish I was braver sometimes" he mumbled and I laughed.
"When are you not brave?" I asked, thinking he was joking, but he just shrugged, looking at the ground.
"Come on, you can tell me" I chuckled, poking him in the ribs, but he just looked up at me with a serious face, which I wasn't quite used to. "Ok, what am I missing here?" I asked.

"Nothing" he mumbled as he continued walking and looking at the ground.
"I won't push you, because I hate it when people do that with me. But when you're ready to open up, you can talk to me" I sighed and he just nodded.
"Thanks for not pushing. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not" he replied quietly.
"Well, you never know until you try" I said and shrugged, a bit bothered that he didn't trust me enough to open up.

We walked back to his car more or less in silence and started the drive back to Manchester.
"Thanks for bringing me tonight, it was great" I told him, hoping to lift the mood.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it" he replied and patted my thigh once, slightly hesitating to do it a second time.
"You can leave it there" I said quietly and his eyes left the road to meet mine for a split second, looking a bit shocked. Great, why the hell did I always have to be stupid and ruin everything?!

"Ok" he said and put his hand just slightly above my knee. I grinned and looked down onto my lap, noticing that he was trying to hide his grin too. There was a comfortable silence in the car, underlined by soft music playing from his stereo. I saw my street approaching soon, but was too shy to ask him to skip this address. I didn't want to push myself on him, I still didn't know if there was more to... everything or if he was just being nice to me because he pitied me for what happened with my ex.

"Ok then..." I mumbled as the car stopped and I unbuckled my seat belt.
"Uh... yeah..." he muttered and we both didn't quite know what to do.
"I'll... see you around" I mumbled and he nodded awkwardly.
"Yeah... see ya" he replied and after looking at each other weirdly again, I opened the car door and walked to my door. He waited and before getting inside, I shot him an awkward wave which he returned. Fuck, this was so weird.

Thankfully, my parents were nowhere to be seen and going upstairs to my room felt like a walk of shame, for some reason. The next morning at work, Laura found me even before I could start rounds.
"Hey! Ines and I are going out for dinner tonight, you want to join?" she asked friendly, with her usual Spanish good mood.
"Oh... I wouldn't want to intrude..." I mumbled, still weirded out by yesterday night.

"Intrude what?" she asked and furrowed her eyebrows.
"Erm- you know, you're... WAGs and... I'm not..." I muttered and she snorted out a laugh.
"Ouch, this feels as if you're degrading us" she chuckled and I smiled awkwardly.
"It's just... I don't know why you would want to be friends with... me" I replied and she stopped in her tracks.

"Because you're funny. And nice, and kind. And a million other positive things that we haven't discovered yet because we still don't know you well enough" she replied and I smiled at her shyly. "I know what's going on here. That Ed guy made you believe you're not good enough. But you are. You're a great doctor and a great girl in general. So you're coming out with us. 8 o'clock at Hawksmoor" she continued before she patted my shoulder and left again.

And there I was, at 7.45, parked around the corner in my worn-down and unwashed ugly yellow car, dressed up somewhat fancy, checking my balance to see what I could even afford tonight. I was usually confident in heels, but as I walked the short distance, I probably looked like a baby deer staggering around for the first time.
"Hi, table under... I guess Degener?" I asked the hostess who was confused by my nervousness.
"Follow me, you're the first" she replied and I nodded, looking at the food on the tables along the way, praying that the burger was somewhat in my price range, because it looked amazing.

I didn't dare to take out my phone while waiting for Laura and Ines because I didn't want any of the restaurant guests thinking I was a phone addict or something. Gosh, I cared so much about people's opinions.
"Hi, oh gosh, sorry, have you been waiting for long?" Ines asked as her and Laura arrived at the table and I stood up to greet them.
"No, don't worry, just a few minutes" I replied and we all sat down. The waiter brought around the menus and I was surprised to see that it wasn't actually that expensive. I could even do with one or two glasses of wine.

"So, how was date night yesterday?" Ines asked with a mischievous grin after we had ordered.
"Are you asking because of the Instagram picture or because Ruben told Bernardo something today at training?" I asked back.
"Both" she replied, grinning and I sighed.
"I'm so confused. Does he like me? Is he just pitying me? Am I moving on too fast? Am I ready for something new? Am I ready to have my heart broken in case things go south?" I asked, putting my head in my hands, oversharing once again.

"He likes you" Ines and Laura replied in unison.
"You're not just saying this to set him up?" I asked, kind of questioning their loyalty, because they obviously knew Ruben way longer than me, I wouldn't even blame them.
"We're saying this because I can't stand seeing a man drooling after a girl without doing anything, I genuinely believe their dick shrinks if they do that for too long" Ines replied, taking a sip from her wine glass.

"Look, I get that it's scary and I get that you've still got wounds that need to heal. But there's no rule book on how you should do that. And if being with someone who makes you feel good patches those wounds up, then so be it" Laura replied.
"I hate doing a move, I think that's a man's... thing" I mumbled.
"You're so old-fashioned" Ines chuckled, rolling her eyes jokingly.
"He won't do one, he doesn't want to push you after everything that happened. You just show up at his tonight, kiss him, you'll have bombastic sex and live happily ever after. Ouf, this wine is strong" Laura said, looking at her fourth glass of red wine already.

"If this goes wrong, I'm putting the blame on Bernardo" I threatened them with my index finger.
"What? Why my husband?" Ines asked.
"Dunno, he seems like someone I could easily blame" I joked and Ines slapped the back of my head lightly as we all burst out in laughter.

It was the two glasses of wine. It was definitely the two glasses of wine. I remembered the downstairs code of Ruben's apartment building, but now I stood in front of his door with shaky legs and hands. My heels weren't going to hold me for much longer like this.
"Soph- what are you doing here?" Ruben asked and my eyes popped out of my head when I saw him in what was his sleeping attire, shirtless with some grey sweatpants.

"I-" I stammered, ready to turn around and leave, telling him this had been a mistake. He still looked at me with his puzzled face and my nerves were even worse than before. "Can I come in?" I asked, stalling some more. He still looked confused, but nodded, opening the door for him to get inside past him.
"You want something to drink?" he asked me, but I gathered up every ounce of courage that I could find in my body and took a step closer to him, connecting our lips.