Lifeline (Marc Guiu)

Chapter 33

Marc had heard Alicia mention her brother a few times but not often. Her relationship with him was good, but they also barely saw each other since her brother lived in Denmark. It was so odd for Marc to imagine having that kind of relationship with his sister but Adrià, Alicia's brother, was much older than her so he guessed maybe the age difference caused them to not be as close.

Whatever the case, Adrià and his family were going to visit London and so that meant Alicia asked Marc if they could stay in his house while they were there.

"Of course. They are your family. They are always welcome here".

"Thank you. I can't wait to see my little niece, actually. We bonded a lot during Christmas".

"That's sweet. Let's hope we can all spend Christmas together this year".

They thought it would be nice to go pick them up at the airport so Alicia missed a few classes that Friday. She could blame her brother for being a bad influence.

It was her little niece Laura who ran towards Alicia the moment she spotted her waiting for them at the airport.

"Hey there, little one! Was the flight good?"

"Yes", told her the three year-old. "It didn't scare me".

"That's so brave. And let me introduce you to my boyfriend Marc. Marc, this is my niece Laura".

"Hi Laura. No one told me you were the prettiest girl in the family".

Alicia shook her head at those words, laughing. Because everyone agreed Laura looked exactly like Alicia did when she was her age.

Adrià and his wife Ella joined them and Alicia introduced them to Marc. It was so funny to see how relaxed her brother was about Alicia dating a guy and living with him. Fermín was better at doing the whole overprotective big brother performance for sure.

Once they were back home, little Laura wanted to go see the big garden and play there so Marc obliged and started to show her how to kick the ball. Alicia was inside the kitchen getting some drinks ready for everyone when she heard a scream and run to the garden to find Laura trying to kick Marc while she screamed at him.

"Don't let me win!"

"Ok! Ok!", told her Marc, laughing so hard he could barely stand. "I won't. I'm sorry".

"She's very competitive", said Adrià, laughing at the scene in front of him.

"She didn't get that from me".

"Ali, do you remember being her age?"

"No?"

"You were worse. You would throw all the boardgame pieces at us if you lost", reminded her Adrià and Alicia pretended like she didn't remember that...but she did.

So everyone had been warned of the menace Laura could be if they decided to play any games. But also Marc was a little shit sometimes and liked to annoy her because the tantrums she threw were adorable. Even if it was way too early for kids, it made him imagine a future in which he had his own daughter or son getting mad at him for letting them win while playing a game. And seeing how strong the family's genes were, he was expecting his daughter to be a mini Alicia like Laura was. Alicia was also a copy of her mum.

"I have to confess we chose this weekend to visit because it was a home match", said Ella while they were on their way to Stamford Bridge. "I've always been a Chelsea fan".

"Really?", asked Marc. "You should have told me so I could have asked for a shirt for you or something".

"It's ok. We'll buy some merch at the store".

"I did get a shirt for Laura so you don't need to buy that".

"You did?", asked Alicia. "Tell me it has uncle Marc written on the back".

"I told them to put her name".

"Shame", sighed Alicia.

Laura spent the whole match asking why uncle Marc wasn't playing and saw they all were relieved to see him be subbed on in the 66th minute. It would have been a lot better had Marc scored a goal but Laura saw him celebrate the one Neto scored and probably thought it had been Marc who scored it anyway.

After the match, they all waited for Marc to come back from the dressing room and he took them back to the pitch so Laura could play there with the other children who stayed after their matches with their parents. Ella was also having the best time and kept asking her husband to take photos of her. Alicia just spent her time drooling seeing how good Marc was with Laura.

"You're only 20, Alicia", she told herself. "Don't even think about it".

"Ali!", yelled Marc. "Come play with us".

And so she did. They also took lots of photos while they were there and Alicia sent them to her parents immediately. Knowing her mum, those would be hanging on the walls next time Alicia got back home. Her parents felt so bad about missing so much of their first grandchild's life. At least they got the photos to look at.

"We should go home", said Adrià. "This one is about to take a long nap".

And he was right. They all could tell how tired Laura was and she fell asleep the second she got to the car. Once home, she woke up and insisted that she wanted to watch TV with uncle Marc. But soon she was asleep again, hugging her now favourite uncle.

"I can't blame her", said Alicia. "Cuddling Marc is the best".

"Don't say that in front of your brother", told her Ella, laughing. But she didn't know it was someone else who she couldn't say that to.

Speaking of her other favourite couple, Victoria had asked Alicia to send her photos with her little niece, since she wasn't going to post them online to protect the child's privacy. So she sent a few to their group chat.

[Vicky 😽]: Aliiii, she's your twin 😍

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: everyone says that.

[Fermín 💃🏻]: don't get any ideas.

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: ❓

[Fermín 💃🏻]: we don't need a mini Alicia anytime soon.

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: you don't want to be uncle Fer? 😜

[Fermín 💃🏻]: in 10 years maybe.

[Vicky 😽]: is that how long we'll wait too?

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]:🍿

[Fermín 💃🏻]: no because we're older.

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: 🙄🙄

[Vicky 😽]: imagine if our kids dated! 😍

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: ❓❓

[Vicky 😽]: go back to your boyfriend and don't make any babies!

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: will try not to 👍🏻

[Fermín 💃🏻]: celibacy is a good way to prevent those issues.

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: don't overdo it, Fer. Not even my real brother would say that 🙄

[Fermín 💃🏻]: give me his number to give him a call.

[Alicia 🧘🏻‍♀️]: bye nerds! Go tell each other how much you loved each other today 😘