Love Will Find A Way

Part One - Chapter Thirteen: Alexis Comes Home

Things seemed to progress well after Nicole and Cristiano had said I love you, the footballer had nearly ‘secretly’ moved in with the brunette and it had been four months since she had started her chemotherapy.

Nicole rolled her eyes as Cristiano and Sergio tried to convince her to come to the last match of the year before the holidays against Ponferradina for the Copa del Rey; she finished loading the washing machine and looked at her boyfriend who was pouting at her.

“I’ll think about,” she said making Cristiano smile and wrap his arms around Nicole’s waist.

Nicole shook her head trying to figure out why it was so important that she attended the game, she knew that he wanted to show her off but with the chemo she worried what people would think.

The couple had recently been talking about allowing the press to see them out and about; since Nicole was getting cabin fever from being stuck inside the apartment, since the press had discovered where Cristiano had been staying recently instead of at his own home.

“Por favor Nicki, I really want to show you off,” the forward begged shooting Nicole his puppy-dog pout making her laugh and kiss him; it had also come to the press’ attention that Cristiano hadn’t been seen with Irina or any other women for that matter in the last three and a half months.

“Fine, though I don’t see the importance of it,” the brunette muttered, Cristiano heard her anyway and quickly pressed a kiss to Nicole’s lips as Sergio appeared from the living room; he rolled his eyes as he watched his cousin and Cristiano kissing and opened her fridge to get himself a drink.

“Can’t you two do that somewhere else?” he asked making Nicole look at him with a smile, she knew why he was annoyed and she felt sort of sorry for him; she couldn’t remember the last time he had been in a serious relationship.

Cristiano rolled his eyes at his team mate but let go of Nicole anyway as he leant against the kitchen counter, he knew he could only go so far with Nicole while Sergio was there without the Sevillian attempting to murder him.

“You won’t be saying that when Alexis gets here,” Nicole chimed making Sergio splutter on milk he was drinking.

Cristiano raised an eyebrow at Nicole who grinned back at him, she knew he didn’t know much about her room-mate since she’d been gone for months.

“Alexis is coming back?” Sergio asked as he tried to clear his throat, making Nicole smile at her cousin, she nodded her head while Cristiano looked between the two cousins wondering why Sergio seemed nervous about this Alexis’ return.

***

Nicole sighed as she sorted out Alexis’ bedroom for her return, she had missed her best friend who’d spent a year in Rome on some sort of internship for a magazine and now she was finally coming home.

Jessica had also come around to help with William, who was excited about spending time with Cristiano; he didn’t even seem to notice how uncomfortable the footballer got whenever he spoke with him.

“So does Alexis know about your leukaemia?” Jessica asked knowing how private Nicole was about her illness and her life right now; the brunette didn’t want to tell anyone anything and it made it difficult to get details about her relationship with Cristiano.

“Of course she does, she’s my best friend,” Nicole said, the two were spending as much time together as they could since they didn’t see a lot of one another; Jessica was due to head to Milan for a few weeks with work and Nicole spending a lot of time in hospital because of her Chemo.

“So when does Alexis get here?” Jessica asked making Nicole sigh as she stopped working on what she was doing and looked at her friend; she didn’t know what it was but she couldn’t wait to have Alexis back, she seemed to understand when the brunette didn’t want to talk about something.

“Around five so we have a couple of hours and Cristiano wants to get lunch,” Nicole said making Jessica nod before looking at her weirdly; she knew that the brunette was very secretive but there was something about the footballer that seemed to make her even more private than before about her life.

Jessica was happy for her friend but she couldn’t help that she worried for Nicole’s safety especially after what had happened with Jesse.

***

Nicole laughed as Cristiano leant back against her front door once they had returned home; they had been stalked by several paparazzi during their lunch and they’d barely escaped when the press realised she was his new girlfriend.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Nicole told him making Cristiano sigh and glance at her, she knew that he was worried about how he would feel about this; they had been worried about how the media would take the news and it was clear that this was only the beginning.

“What did I do to deserve a woman like you?” he asked making Nicole smile and wrap her arms around his waist, Cristiano did the same and rested his head on hers and closed his eyes.

He couldn’t believe how relaxed she was about all of this, any girlfriend that he’d had in the past had always fussed about the media attention but not Nicole.

“Maybe you were good in a past life,” the brunette replied with a shrug making Cristiano smile, the two stood quietly listening to each other’s breathing before someone behind them cleared their throat making Cristiano tense; he hadn’t been expecting anyone to be in the apartment and it worried him.

“Is there a reason Real Madrid’s star player is in our flat Nicole?” a voice with an Italian accent said making Nicole smile as she turned and looked at the person who spoke; leaning against the wall behind Nicole, stood Alexis who had her arms crossed in front of her.

Nicole rolled her eyes before glancing back at her boyfriend, she knew that her friend was only teasing her about all of this; the brunette had told her everything since she knew it was going to end up in the papers sooner or later

“Surely you heard about it from William,” Nicole teased innocently making Cristiano open his eyes, he looked at the woman across from them knowing who it was.

Alexis snorted as she nodded her head, she was surprised that William had a bit of a thing for the footballer more so than his own girlfriend.

“Of course, I did that boy wouldn’t shut up about it… I think he’s more in love with your boyfriend than you are,” she said making Nicole smile as she slipped out of Cristiano’s arms and into Alexis’.

The brunette had missed her best friend and she hoped that now she was here that everything would get better.

“I’ve missed you… Italy wasn’t the same without you” Alexis said making Nicole squeeze her tighter while Cristiano slipped into the kitchen leaving the two women alone.

He knew that they needed time to catch up, since it had been clear that his girlfriend needed her best friend especially with everything that had happened in the last four months.

“Although I thank you for the eye candy,” Alexis said as she watched Cristiano leave.