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Felix stared at Ashley and then whispered to Zarine, "Isn't that-?"
"Yeah, it's Ashley," she admitted.
"Cristiano's ex?"
Zarine nodded glumly, "As she has been so kind to remind throughout the match."
He looked amused, "What crawled up her ass and died?"
Zarine gave him a look and burst out laughing, "You're gold, Felix. You know that, gold!"
He laughed, "Nah, I'm blonde."
"And you can make puns. Gosh, this is amazing-OH OH PASS IT TO CRISTIANO, GARETH! C'MON, MAKE THE SHIP SAIL!"
Ashley and a number of VIPs muttered sourly about this burst of misbehaviour but Zarine and Felix like the rest of the madly excited stadium were on their feet as Gareth dribbled the ball towards the goalpost. Flanked by Mascherano and Gerard, Gareth looked sideways and with his magnificent legs passed to Cristiano who was open. The ball landed neatly on his chest and then towards his feet.
"CRISTIANOOO CRISTIANOOO CRISTIANOOO. OMG ISN'T HE ABSOLUTELY FAB? C'MON BABE YOU CAN DO THIS!"
Flashing past a defender and jumping over a trip, Cristiano aimed for the goal and for one scary moment, the whole stadium went still, quiet, breathless. Bravo jumped towards it, his gloves inching for the ball and missing it by a few centimetres.
Zarine clutched at Felix's shoulder and screamed, "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. HE DID IT OMG."
"HE IS THE BEST. THAT GOAL WAS FANTASTIC," Felix screamed back, hugging her, their screams nearly deafening each other. They jumped along with the roars of the crowd.
On the field, Cristiano did his usual celebration and turned towards the stands, pointing towards the area where Zarine was sitting. She blushed scarlet, "Umm, he's pointing at me?"
Felix giggled, "He's dedicating the goal to you. You guys are so cute. Team #Zariano all the way, man."
Zarine wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye and waved back shouting (even though she knew he couldn't hear her from afar), "I love you, Cris." Just like all the times I've screamed the same line at my tv except now I'm actually here. HOLY SHITIM HERE AND MADRID ARE WINNING. THAT WAS #CRISTALE GOAL. LIFE IS PERFFFF.
After the goal, Madrid went all defensive against Barcelona and soon the clock was counting down the last ten seconds of the match.
Zarine was chewing in her fingernails with the excitement by now, her voice was all hoarse and her head felt heavy from the ninety minutes of pure exhilaration, "Ten seconds now-"
"-all Toni needs to do is run around with the ball for ten fucking seconds. C'MON BROTHER!"
"C'MON TONI JUST 5 seconds now!" Zarine cheered. 5...4...3...2...1 The whistle ran out piercing through the tension in the air and Bernabeu erupted with a collective roar.
She stood up and pumped the air, "AYEEE THEY WON. THEY WON OMG THEY WON. Holy shit that was quite something. I actually watched an el Clasico. I actually watched an el Clasico at Bernabeu. Cristaino scored MAAAN, THIS HAS BEEN SUPER COOL!"
Ashley swept past Zarine nearly knocking her over, "Some people are such cheap wannabes. Excuse me, I'm going to meet my Neymar now."
***
Cristiano tiptoed towards Zarine who was throwing her clothes into her suitcase at the speed of light and muttering to herself, "I'm going to be late. I shouldn't have gone to the victory after-party last night. Should have stayed at home and packed up my stuff-"
He put his arms around her waist sneakily and rest his chin on her shoulder, "I love how you refer to this place as home."
She relaxed against him, "Don't get cocky. It's just a figure of speech."
He kissed her cheek softly, his nightlong beard tickling her skin, "Come have breakfast."
"Nah," she smiled, "I am not a breakfast person. I really need to pack my stuff, it's strewn all across the house."
He frowned, "Babe, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and if you're not going to come on your own, I'll have to-" He picked her up, bridal style and carried her downstairs.
She screamed, "If you tear a muscle because of this, it's not my fault!"
"Have some faith in my biceps," he said, setting her down on a chair. "Now have some fruits."
"Fitness freak," Zarine grumbled as Cristiano picked up the newspaper. She watched as his expression turned serious and asked, "Anything interesting happening?"
He shrugged and handed her the paper, "You tell me?"
Her eyes ran across the page of unintelligible Spanish words and stopped at a picture. She choked. It was a huge picture of Felix hugging her in the stands. She looked at Cristiano, "What does it say?"
"Just the paparazzi going crazy as usual. Don't worry about it," he said, managing a watery smile.
"What does it say?" she asked again.
"Look, it's just a rumour gimmick. Don't waste your time thinking over it."
He doesn't look like he isn't wasting his time thinking about it. He looks like the picture punched him in the guts.
"Just tell me what it says."
"Fine," he sighed and read aloud the essence of the headline. "Cristiano's girlfriend spotted cozying up to Toni Kroos's brother. Trouble in paradise?"
She shook her head, "That's such a demeaning way of referring to us. Like I'm so much more than just your 'girlfriend' and Felix is so much more than 'Toni's brother'. Who's the writer of this piece? I'm totally going to write an email to him regarding his reductive view of people and gossip-mongering abilities."
Cristiano reached for her hand and squeezed it, "Calm down, Zarine. It's just a trashy article."
"I can't believe such a thing had to happen in my last hours here. Fucking crazyass reporters. I know not all of them are like that but still..." she grumbled.
Cristiano smiled at her, "You're adorable."
"And you're goals."
He blushed, "You mean, I score goals."
"That's the best part. You're goals and you score goals," she said seriously, contemplating the matter. "That's like a whole new level of pun-ship."
He caught her gaze and when he spoke his voice was thick with emotion, "Don't go, please."
[OH MY GOD WHAT DO YOU THINK ZARINE IS GOING TO SAY?
Also any thoughts on "trouble in paradise" #Ferine?
