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"Mate, there's a misunderstanding. We all thought Jude Wopschall was a man."
The color drained from Marco's face in horror, and not because of what his friends thought this whole time. Marco was more worried about Jude and how she would feel about it.
Everything was quiet for an instant which felt more like an eternity to Marco. Instead of a negative reaction which would have been understood from Jude, she merely shrugged her shoulders and said to them, "Yeah...I get that a lot."
Embarrassed, Mats began in a stutter, "Its not that y-you look like a man or a-anything. We just- had never seen what you looked like-"
Jude stopped him with a polite smile. "And my name doesn't really help me. Nor my hair. But I had to get it cut because some little boy in my neighborhood thought it would be funny to put gum in it." Grabbing a strand of her long brunette hair, she told them, "These are extensions my mom got for me because I wanted to impress Marco's friends."
"And Marco would never use gender clarifying words when he talked about you." Pia pointed out. At the time, they thought it was because he was still embarrassed or learning to cope with his sexuality. "He always just called you Jude."
Marco gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I really like meine liebe's name, so I try to say it as much as I can."
After seeing the way Jude took everything so well, that was when the other realization hit him slowly. All the support his friends were offering him, the fact that his family always called Jude his partner. To him, Jude was a perfectly normal woman's name. But he recalled the summer in which he met her. He also thought she was a boy because of her name. He never thought that the same confusion would happen with his family and friends.
As though in disbelief, he asked the small group of friends surrounding him and his date. "So...this whole time...you thought I was in love with a man?"
Mats answered the question with a nod of his head. "Her name is Jude Wopschall." The dark haired Borussia Dortmund footballer pointed out.
"Its a unisex name!" Marco shouted.
"Hey Jude," Mats called to get her attention. Jude almost feared he would start belting out the lyrics to the song she was named after. Instead, he asked her for something else. "When are you going to give us some more free pastries? I've been spending a lot of money on them."
"No more pastries for you, Mats." Marco laughed. "You're going to get fat."
Mats' jaw dropped as he feigned being offended by Marco's words.
"How dare you say that to my little Matsy?" Pia played along. " He's not fat. These are love handles."
"Pia!" Mats was laughing now. "You're not helping."
From behind him, Jude placed her hand on Marco's shoulder gently, pulling his attention to her. "Liebe, maybe you should introduce me to the rest of the team. They're still staring at us with their jaws dropped."
He nodded in agreement and led her to the rest of the team. One by one, he introduced her to him, clarifying that his date was named Jude Wopschall, and that she was a woman.
When the introductions were through, they all sat down for dinner, where his family sat waiting for him. He had invited his parents, his sisters, and their husbands. And now he was glad to have done that.
He reached their table and helped Jude sit down. Then he sat in the chair beside her.
Before his mother could even say anything, he beat her to it. "Jude is a woman, mom."
"We all thought she was a man. Her name is Jude." His mother confessed.
"We thought you were gay." His sister added.
Marco shook his head. "I'm not. But I think that if Jude really had been a man, I may have still fallen in love with her. She is the most amazing person I have met. She and her mother have been through so much on their own."
"I would have supported you two either way." Manuela reached over their table to grab her son's hand with a warm smile.
Since he knew there had been confusion in the media, with his friends, and with his family about his sexuality, and his girlfriend, Marco figured it was the same for the rest of the world. They probably thought he had other preferences as well.
Marco got his cellphone out of his pocket and swiped his thumb over the screen to get it into camera mode. He clicked on the front face camera and moved closer to Jude, who's expression looked confused on his cellphone screen. "We need a picture to let everyone know you're a woman. We need to clear all of this up." He said to her.
Jude nodded her head and smiled for the camera.
Marco took the picture and opened up his twitter page. He clicked on the box to post a tweet and added the picture, with the caption: just for the record, @judewopschall is my GIRLFRIEND.
-
this is the final chapter of this story. the next bit will be the epilogue. i'll post it right after, because im impatient. so thank you so much for reading and supporting this story. i had so much fun writing it. honestly, i think it was one of the stories in which i had the most fun just because of the whole plot.
have a blessed day!
-clary xx
