Cristiano's Love [Sequel to Change of Heart]

Chapter 1

Cristiano didn’t get to sleep more than 5 hours seeing how he was suffering from jetlag as well as being up half the night talking to Annabelle on the phone.  However, for some reason he felt super refreshed.  The first thing he did was reach for his phone to text Annabelle.  He couldn’t help but break out in a grin when he thought about her.  He saw that Irina had texted him but he ignored it.  After he sent his text, he waited a couple of minutes for a response but when she didn’t he decided to get out of bed.  It was still early after all.  She was probably still sleeping.

~*~*~*~

Annabelle awoke to her phone vibrating under her head.  Groggily she answers the phone and hears Rafaella’s voice.

“Oh my god Bella, you finally picked up,”

“Huh?” reluctantly, Annabelle sits up in bed and rubs her eyes, still trying to wake up.

“I’ve been calling you all morning.  We’re worried about you… Where did you end up going?” at her question, Annabelle finally sobered up and remembered last night’s events.

“I’m staying at a hotel,”

“What hotel?  I’ll come get you,”

“No, it’s okay.  I really need some time to think things through.  Thanks for worrying Rafaella, but I want to be alone for a while,” Annabelle didn’t wait for her to respond before she hung up on her.  She expected Rafaella to call back but to her relief, she didn’t.  She felt her phone vibrate again and noticed she had several text messages from Neymar through the night.  All saying sorry and asking where she was and that he was worried about her.  Annabelle felt her heart hurt.  She missed him so much but every time she thought of him, she remembered Bruna.  She was hated that the media called her Neymar’s first love and from the way she waltzed into his house last night, it confirmed that they were a serious item before Neymar dated Annabelle.  She ignored the texts and then saw that Cristiano had texted her as well.

C – Hope you slept well last night.  You snored in my ear pretty loudly. =P

Annabelle blushed at the text.  He had really stayed up with her on the phone until she fell asleep.

A – I do not snore!  And yes, I did.  Thanks for last night. =)

C – Of course!  I hope you’re going to talk things out with Neymar?

A – Not yet.  I need to think things through.

C – Alright.  Do you have any plans today?  I can come get you and you can stay with us for now?

Annabelle thought about his offer.  The Portuguese national team was indeed staying closer to São Paulo than anyone else she knew.  Her brother and the Spanish national team were at least 5 hours away and quite frankly, she didn’t want to stay in the hotel all week.  After a long internal argument Annabelle accepted his offer.  He replied with a smiley emoticon and told her that he’ll come pick her up later in the day after practice.  So for the remainder of the day, Annabelle moped.  She either stared out the window or browsed the news on her computer. 

Before long, she had wasted most of the hours away and then realized that Cristiano would be picking her up soon but she was a mess.  Annabelle took a quick shower and changed into a fresh summer dress.  She was just finishing up her make up when Cristiano called her to tell her he was waiting for her in the car downstairs.  Frantically, she packed up her stuff, did a quick sweep around the room before leaving to check out.  He had wanted to come in to get her but she convinced him to stay in the car.  The last thing they needed were the paparazzi going crazy spotting Cristiano picking her up.  She quickly tosses her bags into the back of his small sedan before hopping into the front seat.