After a long day at your internship, you were still stuck at your desk working. You were so focused on that, that you didn't hear your boyfriend approaching and jumped on your seat when he touched your shoulders to massage them.
"Sorry", he laughed. "You are so tense. Is this chair even comfortable? We might need to buy a new one".
The mention of buying things always made you feel weird. Since you got your degree, both you and Rúben decided that the best thing for you was to do an internship you had been offered. It was a great opportunity and meant you'd probably be able to get a better job in the future. But for the present, it meant that your salary was almost nothing.
It was definitely not enough to live in a city like Manchester. You wanted to continue your part-time job, but Rúben refused.
That's when you moved in with him and allowed him to be pretty much the one who financed your life. It wasn't exactly the strong independent woman lifestyle you had dreamt of, that was for sure. But you were working towards that.
Rúben never made you feel bad about it. Quite the opposite. He always reasoned with you to make you understand how your career was more important than your ego. Still, whenever someone made comments about it, it stung. And some of his friends loved to joke about it. You were still trying to find what was so funny about it.
"So what are we doing for the holidays then?", he said, grabbing another chair to sit next to you.
"Don't know. What do you want to do? Go to Portugal?"
"I would like that, yes. There is still so much you haven't seen and I want to show you all. Plus, my family likes you more than they like me so they'll want to see you".
You laughed at that. "Can't blame them for having good taste, babe".
His answer was a little pinch on your bum.
"Ok, so Portugal with my family and then maybe a week with my friends?", your smile dropped at that comment. "What?"
"Nothing. I just...maybe it's best if you go with your friends by yourself. I can stay with your family or come back here".
"No, I want you with me. Don't be silly".
But instead of answering, you just looked at the papers on the desk.
"Come on. You don't like my friends now?"
"It's not that. I just feel out of place there. Being the only woman and I don't know, they'll probably be the ones annoyed by my presence".
"They won't", he said firmly. "And if they are, too bad for them, I want you there and I'm the one paying for their holidays".
He probably didn't realize that this comment was going to hurt you. He was paying for your holiday too.
"Let's agree to a maybe. I'll go to Portugal with you and if I don't feel like going to that week away with you guys, I won't. And if I've changed my mind, I will go".
"I'll change your mind", he said with a big smile and gave you a quick kiss before leaving you to work some more before dinner.
**
As with most things, Rúben actually managed to convince you to do what he wanted, and in this case it was to come on the holiday with him and his friends. You weren't thrilled about it but you were more excited than you expected.
You all met at the airport, where a private jet was waiting for all of you. Being scared of flying, the size of the plane didn't actually help you. But thankfully Rúben knew about it and was by your side the whole time.
