Just Friends

Part 15

"I cannot believe it!" Eleanor said through the phone. "This is like a dream come true for me."

"Your dream was for me to go out on a date with Sergio?" Aleana asked laughing quietly as she rummaged through the clothes hung on the racks at the clothing store she was currently in.

"Yes! That way when you get married, your whole wedding will be filled with cute football players and I can meet one and marry one." Eleanor said.

"You sound pretty mental right now to be honest, no one's talking about getting married."

"Fine, but if you do get married with Sergio, you need to give me something. For being like psychic, you know, since I would have basically seen the future or something." Eleanor rambled on.

"El, just shut up and get here faster. Everything I see is ugly and won't look good on me. I need help." Aleana pleaded and got a simple one word response from her best friend. Downtown Madrid was filled with beautiful boutiques, the ladies were determined to find the perfect outfit for tonight.

Aleana gave out a breath of relief when she saw El walking through the door. "My savior."

"I know you're like, obsessed with me." She said with a chuckle. "But we're on a mission."

"I know. This is what I'm looking for, something more formal than a shirt and jeans but less formal than a skirt and a blouse. Something that says I'm excited but I'm also like whatevs." Aleana said looking at her friend who just looked at her back with a confused look.

"That's a wide spectrum of options." Eleanor said with a sigh. "Let's get down to business."

The next few hours were like one of those scenes in movies. Clothes being thrown out of changing rooms. Going in and out of the stores. Credit cards swiping. Back in her apartment they put together the outfit.

"You look amazing." El said sipping her rosé. "You always look amazing."

"Do you really think so?" Aleana said smoothing down her jeans. "I feel like the sunglasses too much, I'm going to take them off."

"Stop overthinking this outfit you crazy lady! You look bomb, so get out there and tell him you're ready to leave." Eleanor said pushing her to the door.

As Ale opened the door, she saw Sergio sitting on the couch looking through his phone. Eleanor cleared her throat and Sergio looked up.

"Wow, you look- really incredible." Sergio said standing up.

"Well, are we leaving?" Aleana said with a small smile.

"Of course, yeah, let's-leave do that." Sergio said and wanted to face palm himself, word vomit at its finest. He opened the apartment door for her and watched her walk through.

"Hey! That booty is mine!" Sergio heard Eleanor yell behind them, he shot her a questioning look. "Oh don't act all innocent, I saw you checking her butt out. Now go!"

Sergio smiled shyly and caught up with Aleana, going down into the lobby. As they exited the apartment complex there weren't any paparazzi, but when they arrived at the restaurant the paparazzi had caught up with them.

Looking at the restaurant from her place in the car, Aleana turned to Sergio giving him a questioning look. "Sergio, are you sure this is the place? It looks pretty empty."

"Trust me."

Sergio got out of the drivers seat of his car and quickly went to the other side, opening Aleana's door. Dozens of paparazzi swarmed them both, but they quickly went into the seemingly closed restaurant.

"You're gonna have to close your eyes and trust me." Sergio said and Aleana didn't reply, she just did as she was told. "You followed my orders without any questions asked, not at all dominant. I like that."

"Stop it with your weird 50 Shades Of Grey fetish and take me wherever we're going." Aleana said wanting to open her eyes. After just a few moments and some stumbling steps Sergio finally told her to  open her eyes. "Oh wow, Sergio, this looks amazing."

"I really wanted to give this date a rustic feeling, something almost last minute."

"This IS last minute Sese." Ale said with a small laugh.

"Come over here." Sergio said pulling out the chair for her to sit in a small four people table, surrounded by fairy lights. "A couple of months ago, Cristiano and I decided to invest in this restaurant, as you can see it's not at all completed but just as it is right now, it looks amazing."

"I do have to admit, this is an amazing first date. It looks really well planned." Ale tried to soak everything in, every way she looked was beautiful. The restaurant was still filled with empty tables and just the foundation set but it all looked in place. "It is really amazing."

"I obviously know that it's not fully completed but I really think this is going to be an amazing experience. We have so many plans and they're actually coming together. We have this idea of a sushi bar inside what used to be the vault. This used to be one of the most important banks back in the day." Sergio's eyes glistened whilst talking about the restaurant.

As always, the conversation never stopped. Both would interrupt one another in the hopes of getting out as many words as they could, not because they were afraid the conversation would stop, but because they were afraid that they wouldn't be able to share as much as they wanted to. Laughter filled the room, it almost felt like the unfinished concrete walls could make the joyful sound resonate more.

"I cannot believe you did that, in a match!" Ale said, letting out one more huff of laughter.

"What was I supposed to do? The suspension was totally worth it. I could just see the anger in his eyes when I 'accidentally' stepped on his arm."

"I was a bit anxious for this date Sese, I thought it would be awkward and well uncomfortable." Ale admitted as Sergio looked deep into her eyes and let out another laugh.

"Ale we've been friends since I can remember, and let me tell you, it has never been awkward between us two. Need I remind you that we have been there for each other in the most uncomfortable and awkward times in our lives?" Sergio said taking her hand. "Anyway, It's getting very late. I don't want to sound like a total douche by suggesting that we should come back to my apartment. But I mean, we live in the same apartment."

Aleana nodded and grabbed her bag, they both exited the restaurant and not a single photographer was outside. "That's weird."

"I mean, I know you're pretty famous but even paps must go to sleep at some time. It's almost seven o clock, in the morning."

"Time goes flying by when we're together. Talking about being together, Eleanor said that if we get married she needs to meet all of your single friends."

"When." Sergio said opening the car door.

"When what?" Ale questioned.

"When we get married, not if." Was the last thing Sergio said before closing the car door and going to the other side to drive back to their apartment.