Just Friends

Part 5

Ale and Sergio had been invited to one of Paqui's regular family dinners, and everyone had to be there. Ale and Sergio had arrived at the Ramos' household a few minutes late (more like twenty minutes late) and they both knew that Paqui would not be happy about it.

"You knock." Sergio said pushing Aleana closer to the door, him almost hiding behind her. "She likes you better."

"No, you knock. She's your mom!" Ale said pushing him back and taking a few steps away from the door.

"No! She's going to yell at me, she won't yell if she sees you first!" Argued Sergio.

"Well I'm not moving from here." Aleana said crossing her arms.

A smirk appeared on Sergio's mouth as he knocked on the door and gave Aleana a quick kiss, surprising her. When Sergio saw that Ale's eyes had widened he knew that was the moment he had to push her up to the door, she wouldn't be as stubborn now since she was too distracted by the fact that he had kissed her.

Paqui opened the door to see Ale with a surprised look on her face and rosier cheeks than normal and Sergio with a proud grin.

"You two, just get in here. We could hear you fighting like children all the way to the kitchen." Paqui said fully opening the door for both of them to come in.

"Do you need help with anything?" Aleana asked Paqui, looking over to the already plated table.

"Maybe I needed help with something, about twenty minutes ago." Paqui said rolling her eyes, Aleana gave her a shy smile. It wasn't awkward between Ale and Paqui, she had been like her mother for half of her life. José Maria and Paqui had been Aleana's parental figures since her parents had passed away in a plane crash right after she had arrived from graduating from the University of Oxford.

"Everybody! Get seated! The special guests have arrived!" Paqui said, her voice dripping sarcasm.

Everyone rolled their eyes as they saw Sergio and Ale coming into the dining room. Everything went smoothly, until Ale couldn't keep her thoughts inside of her head anymore.

"What the hell were you thinking outside?" Aleana said in a whisper, trying to keep her exterior calm and not wanting to bring attention to the conversation they were having.

"What are you talking about?" Sergio said cutting into the steak that was on his plate.

"You know what I'm talking about." Aleana said pinching his leg underneath the table, he almost jumped out of his seat.

"Sergio, are you feeling alright?" Vania asked.

"Yes I'm fine." Replied Sergio with a fake smile before turning over to Ale. "If you're talking about the kiss, don't worry about it. I was just trying to make you face the wrath of my mother."

"You can't just go around kissing people." Aleana said.

"Don't act as if you didn't like it." Sergio said smiling coyly taking another bite of his food. "You kiss really well, by the way, you still kiss the same as before."

"Of course I kiss the same you idiot, it's not like I had a mouth transplant." Aleana said rolling her eyes.

"Would you like to tell the whole family what you're talking about?" José Maria said looking over at Sergio.

"Oh nothing, we're just talking about Sergio's upcoming match." Aleana said kicking Sergio's leg under the table.

"Yeah, we were." Sergio said smiling over to his father.

After that, dinner went on and at the end Miriam, Aleana and Vania got up and helped with the dishes. It was kind of a tradition, the ladies would gossip while cleaning the dishes and the men would clean up the dining room.

"So, Ale, what were you and Sergio doing that got you here so late?" Vania said giving a little push.

"Don't even think that!" Ale said laughing.

"There is so much sexual tension between you two, you could cut it with a knife." Vania said smiling drying off a cup.

"Could you two not talk about my brother like that!" Miriam said giving them a disgusted face.

"Yeah, let's not talk about that." Ale said rolling her eyes.

"But talking seriously, would you ever consider dating Sergio?" Miriam asked. She absolutely adored Aleana, they knew each other since they were babies  and she would love for Ale to date Sergio or even become her sister-in-law in the future.

"We've already dated." Aleana said trying to avoid the question as she gave Vania another plate to dry off.

"I mean, actually date. You guys dated for like six months." Miriam said.

"You guys were each other's firsts. We mean like actually date now that you've both had more experience and different dates." Vania helped Miriam and finished her sentence.

"How do you guys know that!" Ale said turning around to face the women.

"What do you mean? That you were each other's first?" Miriam said furrowing her eyebrows.

"Obviously that!" Aleana said in a whisper-yell. "If you say it a bit louder maybe the neighbors will hear you."

"Everybody knows. I mean after Rene found a cond-" Vania said almost laughing.

"Let's not talk about this." Aleana said cleaning off the last plate and leaving. Talking about her nonexistent relationship with Sergio made her so uncomfortable.

The sound of the door closing made René and Sergio stop talking. They saw Aleana head out of the kitchen and go to the backyard.

"Let's talk about this later." Sergio said standing up. René had also been asking Sergio questions about Aleana.

Sergio saw Aleana outside and went to go hug her from behind, but Ale moved.

"What's wrong?" Sergio asked with a confused look on his face.

"Sergio, everyone thinks that we're dating, or should be." Aleana said. "It's kind of annoying."

"I'll talk to my family about it." Sergio said turning over to look at.

"Don't, they just talk about it because they think it's the best for both of us." Ale said with a sigh. "I just don't understand why they think that. We're friends and that's it."

"Aleana, you know that the reason we're only just friends is because you want it to be like that. You know that I love you, you're my best friend. I'm not telling you that I'm in love with you or anything like that. I'm just telling you that if the opportunity presents itself for us to start something other than a friendship, I'd be willing to take that opportunity." Sergio said looking at her in the eyes, soon after that, he left.