Another Night

Chapter 17 - She's Out

It's two days before the Semi-Final and people are anxious.

I had done all I could around the island to make everyone happy and there was only one thing left on my check list. Marco.

After dinner, I headed back to my room but not before asking Marco if I could go over to his room in about ten minutes.

He agreed.

After I knock on the door, I'm greeted by a weak smile from Marco.

"Hi," I say as he gestures for me to come in.

"Hi," he says back as he closes the door.

I go in for a hug instinctively and he barely hugs me back.

"Sorry," I shake my head. "I've missed you too much."

"It's okay, I've missed you too."

"Okay," I start. "I've had this speech that I've been wanting to tell you for so long. Marco, I really like you. I like you... more than you'll ever know and it hurt a lot that you didn't believe me at first and even when you did, I think, you didn't want anything to do with me. Regardless of what you think, I felt terrible and guilty and I didn't tell you to prevent you from feeling that same way- except for the guilty part- and I can fix what I did wrong, but you didn't give me the chance-"

"I know, that's my fault and I was wrong for doing that."

I didn't have anything to say to that.

"Well," I say. "The rest of my speech is irrelevant now."

Marco chuckled.

"I'm really sorry," we spoke at the same time.

"It was torture without you," Marco shook his head. "I'm sorry I overreacted and that I didn't give you a chance, but I now know what happened and that you wouldn't do that to me, right?"

"Right!" I exclaim. "I would never do that to anyone, let alone you."

I inched closer to him and knelt down to get to his level since he was sitting on his bed.

"I missed you so much," I placed a hand on his jaw. "Can we move on from this?"

"I'd like to," he nodded. "But I think I've missed you more," he said making me chuckle. "I sure missed that smile of yours."

I didn't say anything but rather kissed him with so much passion from all the time we spent apart.

"That hat-trick you made means thirty bucks," I joked.

We spent some time together in his room after that and I told him about the Colombian national team and James and Kat and he told me about the past couple of days and the ones I missed and then we just got to talking for what felt like hours.

"Come to my room after midnight," I say as I run my right index finger over his chest in a pattern.

"Anything for you," Marco spoke before leaving a kiss on my forehead.

"I should get going," I groaned and Marco groaned along with me, making me chuckle after.

I finally got up a bit later and left to avoid any further suspicions, but to my surprise the fun was over as soon as I opened the front door of the villa.

"Just who I was looking for," Joachim smiled at me. "And right where I knew you'd be."

Marco's POV

I was set to meet Mara after midnight in her room, but to my surprise when I made it to her doorstep, Joachim was sitting waiting for me.

"Let's talk," he spoke before pointing over at the kiosk by the pool.

"I had my suspicions when she left," Joachim kept on speaking as I stayed silent the whole time. "But when Colin sent her back to the island, that little look you guys gave each other, that confirmed it all," Joachim looked back at me. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I don't have to say anything for myself," I glared at him. "Where is she?"

"She is long gone," Joachim looked at me in the eyes. "I said no distractions."

"Do you think I planned on this happening? That I wanted to find a girl I really like at the world's most important tournament? You know how I always put my career first-"

"Then why didn't you this time?" Joachim gets angered. "You are costing a nation their game because you are thinking with the wrong head."

"Do you think this was just sexual?" I get offended.

"What were you going to do in her room after midnight? Two nights before the Semi-Final?"

"I was going to spend some time with my girlfriend because I never get to!" I exclaim. "What Mara and I have is far from just sex."

"You aren't supposed to spend time with your girlfriend. You aren't supposed to have a girlfriend here with you on the island. The last Group Stage match, your emotions are shown on the pitch, Marco! Look at how badly she distracted you, you didn't even score once!"

"What about the match after that? I scored a hat-trick! She didn't distract me at all, if anything she motivates me to be the best I can be for her, for myself! I saw her at that match and all my fury wiped away because she was back in my life! She means so much to me how could you do this to me?"

"She said it was just a fling," Joachim doesn't flinch.

"That's a lie," I bite.

"Then why didn't she put up a fight if she liked you as much as you say she did?"

"Her career was on the line-"

"And yours wasn't?"

I sit back down.

"You know damn well there's a power imbalance to this. You had no right to this to me-"

"Oh, I had every right! And it's not just to you but to the team. You're not going to have some kind of special treatment just because you decided to fuck around with the staff!"

"What did you do?" I stand up and get to his eye level.

"She's out."