Paradise In Portugal {Cristiano Ronaldo}

4. Paparazzi

I smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Adelina Alvez."

"Such a beautiful name," he said with a small smirk.

I blushed and sipped on my water.

"This is very surreal to me," I confessed. I never thought in a million years, would I be sitting with one of the best footballers in the world.

"Why?" he asked. "I'm just an ordinary guy."

I smiled and nodded in agreement. Time went by just conversating and getting to know each other. Our boys were still having the time of their lives, goofing around. Once our food came, we dug in and continued to laugh about the silliest things.

"I can't believe that happened!" Cristiano laughed.

"It's true. There was mud everywhere," I said, laughing.

Our laughing session was cut short, when a few paparazzi came up and started swarming Cris with questions.

"What brings you to Portugal?" "Are you two dating?" "Is she the reason you're here?" "Is she your new girlfriend?"

"Woah, guys!' Cristiano yelled out. "Please, I'm trying to have lunch."

They kept on insisting answers for all their questions. I started getting a bit uncomfortable, so I sat up and walked over to the boys and made sure no one bothered them. The paparazzi suddenly turned our way and swarmed with more questions.

"Is she the mother of Júnior!" "Are those your other children?" "Why keep them a secret?"

Suddenly, they started flashing photos.

"I'm so sorry," Cristiano apologized, as he lead us out of the restaurant.

He quickly handed our waiter some cash to pay for the food we never finished, and for the inconvience. The manager ended up calling security to escort us out to our cars.

"It's best if you come with me, it'll be more safer. They won't be able to follow you home," Cristiano explained.

I nodded and let the boys into the backseat.

The security guards walked away as soon as we closed the doors, and went back to the restaurant to keep the paparazzi from coming out to following us. Cristiano took the opportunity to reverse out of the parking lot and head straight home.

"I am so sorry about that," he apologized again.

I shook my head, understanding what had happened. "It's okay, don't worry about it."

I looked over at him and could easily tell he was bothered. I felt a bit bad that he had to go through this on a daily basis.

"Does that happen a lot?" asked Carlos.

Cristiano looked into his rearview mirror and smiled. "Yes, but it's okay. I'm used to it."

But I could tell he was lying. I looked back at the boys and smiled. "Are you guys okay?"

They nodded and continued conversing amongst themselves.

Before we knew it, we had arrived to Cristiano's house. It wasn't as big as I thought it'd be. It was a nice, small, comfortable house in a calm and quiet neighborhood. I was sort of impressed that he didn't have a huge mansion on the coast line. I smiled to myself and climbed out the car. The boys exited out and ran after Júnior into the house.

"They're becoming great friends, aren't they?" Cristiano asked, as we walked into the house.

"Yeah they are," I said.

As soon as we took a couple steps in, Cris's phone started to ring.

"Sorry about that," he said, answering the call.

"Ola?" was the last I heard before he walked into another room.

I had stepped further into the living room, analyzing the beautiful room. The boys had gone off into the backyard to play, leaving me alone in this room. As I walked around, I noticed multiple sweet photos of Cristiano with Junior and who I assumed was his mother. I smiled and continued to admire the adoring photographs. I began to realize that no photo had included Junior's mom. It made me start to wonder, what happened. Although, it was none of my business to know.

When Cristiano came back into the room, I had already seated myself on the couch. He took a seat next to me, slumping onto the cushions.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Not really, no," he admitted, sitting up.

"What's going on?"

Cristiano sighed. "It's just... Even when I'm trying to get away from the fame... It always ends up following me wherever I go."

I couldn't say anything about it, because I had no idea how to respond to that. I had never been in his position, so I didn't know what good advice to give. But it seemed like he didn't care what I said, he kept ranting on.

"I..I actually came back to Portugal for Junior. I was too busy caught up in work, that I began losing quality time with him. And that's not what a father is supposed to do..."

"You should never put your children after business and work," I finally said. It was something I could relate to.

"My ex-husband," I started. "Never had time for the boys. He was always out for meetings, late nights at the office, business trips.... It just became too much to handle, especially when the boys kept asking where their dad was..."

Cristiano listened carefully. I felt him analyze every single word that slipped from my mouth. It felt odd opening up to someone you just met; a complete stranger. But in a way, it still felt comfortable and safe.

"So it was a little too late, but I finally filed for divorce," I said, taking a breath out.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but he sounded like a jerk."

I giggled, and so did Cristiano. "Yeah, he was..."

Cristiano just smiled at me. He then looked down at his hands, that were bound together like prayer. "So, I bet you're wondering what happened with Junior's mom?"

Yes, I was... But I wasn't going to say that... I would sound like a creep, I thought. I just shook my head. "Not really..."

Cristiano gave out a small chuckle. "I just assumed since they thought you were his mother.."

"Oh," I said quietly.

"Um, me and her dated for a while. But it never worked out. It wasn't until a drunken night, that we 'reconnected' per se, and things just happened," he explained. "Couple months later, she tells me she's pregnant. Long story short, she wasn't ready and didn't want him, so I took sole custody and she hasn't been around since."

"Wow, I'm sorry to hear that," I said, feeling a bit bad for the way that happened.

"Nah, don't be," he said. "I love Junior, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Well, Junior is very lucky to have you as his father; even though work gets in the way sometimes, you still have much love for him," I admitted.

Cristiano just smiled at me and looked at me. "And Carlos and Josue are lucky to have you too... You're strong, and very brave for doing what you did."

I blushed a little and I didn't know whether it was from the compliment or the butterflies in my stomach that had just surfaced. All I could do was smile at his honey brown eyes. He caught me staring, because he smiled back and bit his lip. His gaze moved from my eyes to my lips, as I slowly bit my lower one. He gave me a playful smirk as he carefully leaned in. I caught myself leaning in too, listening to what my gut feeling was telling me. It wasn't until our lips were merely touching, when we heard the front door open.