Consistent Love

Chapter 7

Ana’s POV:

If you were to define a long written list of the worst days ever then there is a high expectation of chance that my name and current situation would be right at the very top of that specific list. After being drowned in the memories of coming face to face with my ex-boyfriend Marco after many years apart prior to his sudden departure back when we were teenagers, I would have thought that that would have been enough bad luck for at least one day. But no, not only has that happened to me already today, I am not faced with another dilemma. That being that I have been forced to attend a meal with him and the rest of the German national team. And who has taken me as their date? Manuel Neuer, Marco’s team-mate and a close friend of his. But to top things off even further, Manuel is completely oblivious and does not have the faintest of ideas over my past with Marco. I am not the sort to keep secrets like this from people that I am becoming reasonably close with but when the secret is as big as something like this, I am not left with much of a choice.

Some of you may now be thinking that I am acting completely childish and stupid over this matter, but to me this is not to be the case at all. I can assure you on that strongly. As after the time that I have spent with Manuel recently and the phone calls that take place near enough every night, if I all of a sudden tell him about things with Marco then my one fear is that he may just simply walk away from me for good. Not wanting anymore to do with me and what we have blossoming at the moment as I have left out a vital piece of information about myself and past, whereas Manuel he had been completely straight with me since the very beginning from when we started to get to know one another. The fact that I am now going to have to try and remain as calm and composed as possible through the duration of the meal is going to be one tough challenge for me. Will I be able to go through with it? I do not know. But the one and only thing that is playing on my mind repeatedly at this moment in time is: what if I fuck up everything good that I have in my life over just one night?

Of course I could have brought out my inner bitch to try and avoid attending this meal but for a reasonunknown to me, I chose not to. I could have just told Manuel that it was ‘far too soon’ for him to start introducing me to his friends anywhere out in public when it is not just the two of us. But no, that was not to be the case for me what so ever as I stupidly decided to go along with what he had in mind instead of doing the normal thing and persuading him to cancel at the last minutes so we could spend some time far away from Marco and just in one another’s company without any awkward situations to present themselves in front of us. I allowed my niceness to get the better of me as now I am just seconds away from facing my nightmares.

“Are we ready to go in there then?” Came the distinct sound of Manuel’s voice from beside me as it finally brought me back to the faze of reality again. On turning my body to face the direction that he was coming from, I immediately noticed as a large smile had propped itself up against his lips as he looked down at me, his hand resting on my uncovered knee just as it had been for the duration of our long drive here to the restaurant. “I know you don’t want to make an entrance so if I were you then I’d hurry up and get those legs moving inside of those doors.” He laughed. And as much as I just wanted to turn back at the last minute, I knew that I had to go ahead with this. Whether or not I wanted to attend, I really was not left with much of a choice as if I did not budge then the likelihood is that Manuel would start asking me questions.

So with a silent sigh escaping from my lips I soon and quickly nodded my head at his words. Removing the hand that he once had on my knee before slowly getting myself out of his parked car just across the street from the quiet little restaurant that we are scheduled to be attending that I expect for it to have Marco already inside with the rest of the team, bracing myself for what was about to unfold in front of me. “Just get it over and done with Ana.” I said to myself in an almost whisper while taking deep breaths in and then out to control the nerves. “Get it over and done with and then you’ll hopefully never have to see him again. He’ll be your past and you can finally move forward without him crossing your mind again.” I again went on to say but just after letting the last word escape from my lips, I felt a warm and comforting arm wrap itself around my waist. And I have to admit that it did startle me a little.