Soccer imagines

•sergi roberto•

By fortheloveoffutbol

A deep sigh left my lips as I stared at the various papers spread out on the table in front of me. The plate of fresh, warm waffles had been pushed to the side along with my warm cup of tea so that I could fully focus my attention on the work in front of me.
Lunch breaks weren't really that much of a break. It was really just my way of disappearing from the office for an hour, putting myself at a table with food I barely touched and staring down at the work I had transported from my small office to a new workspace which was usually the quietest corner of a restaurant I could find.
Today's location was fairly quiet aside from the whining baby on the opposite side of the place that insisted on making a raucous. I looked at the young mother trying to pacify the loud child, a small sympathetic smile pushing my lips up.
Thank God that wasn't me.
The only yells and cries I had to hear was my boss yelling at me every morning in the various languages she had acquired over the years of her business travels. Thankfully for me I couldn't understand half of what she said so I usually escaped just by nodding my head and murmuring a pacifying 'yes'.
Lunch breaks were my escape from that and even though there was a child working to make sure I couldn't concentrate in silence, I welcomed that sound much more than I did the sound of my boss yelling in Russian.
My pencil danced over the page in front of me as I tried to will my mind to think of something to put onto the page. Instead I ended up making useless pencil marks along the edge of it.
"Well you look busy."
I raised my eyes from the page in front of me to the woman who was standing above me, her hands folded together. She looked to be older, about the age of my mother.
"Very busy," I admitted. "But that's my usual, normal day." I gave her a smile, expecting the woman to simply trot off and make her order and if she had already, maybe just disappear to a table of her own.
She didn't.
Instead she comfortably slid into the seat across from me, welcoming herself into the space without me having to invite her. Such a bold move.
I never deemed myself the approachable type. In fact my friends said I had a case of resting bitch face that made it hard for anyone to even want to approach me. This woman didn't seem to care how stale my facial expression was. She was deciding to engage me in more conversation anyway.
"Where do you work if I may ask?"
Realizing I couldn't easily return to my work, I dropped my pencil and gave her my full attention. "I work at the consulting firm downtown." That was all the detail I provided, figuring I didn't need to give company name, address and my boss's name in order to satisfy her question.
She simply nodded and smiled. "You seem like such a smart, hardworking woman. Very driven." She gave me this suggestive look before delving into a story that seemed to explain why she may have been sitting across from me. "You're just the type of woman my little Sergi needs."
"Excuse me?" I chuckled, more from confusion than amusement.
"Sergi. My son. He's actually supposed to be meeting me here but..." The woman looked down at her watch with disappointment as she read the time and mumbled, "Late as usual."
"That's men. They're no good with time."
Boy, did I have experience with that.
"Do you have a husband?"
I quickly shook my head no.
"Boyfriend?"
Again, another shake of the head. In fact it had been years since my last relationship but I didn't reveal that to the stranger sitting across from me. I didn't really have time to entertain a relationship. Work was my sole focus and adding in something or someone else was a recipe for disaster.
"Speaking of the devil..." Her eyes were no longer on me or the papers sitting on the table I had caught her sneaking curious glances at. Instead she was staring up behind me and when I turned, I spotted a young man with piercing blue eyes walking our way.
I assumed that was little Sergi.
He definitely wasn't all that little. I could tell even under the slim t-shirt he wore that he was toned underneath, his slender figure not betraying the fact that he was in shape. The natural curl of his hair had been pushed back which made it all the more easier to focus in on his eyes. They somehow made him look five years younger than what he probably actually was.
"Sorry I'm late." His voice was soothing in a weird way or maybe I was just entranced after having been stuck in an office all morning with people who definitely weren't nearly as attractive as this man.
He leaned down to his mother's cheek, giving her a quick kiss in greeting before standing tall and looking over towards me. His mother took the cue.
"Oh! This is my new friend who has been entertaining me in your absence. Uh..."
She realized then that we had skipped formal introductions. I didn't know her name and she didn't know mine but he jumped in to solve the problem for us both. "Sergi." He held out his hand which I took and gave a gentle shake. "Thank you for letting my mother bother you for a moment. I promise not to have her do it again," he joked with a smile.
"It's fine. No worries. A break from work is always welcomed."
Especially if it means speaking to you.
"I was just telling her how you need a nice girlfriend on your arm. He gets lonely sometimes, this one."
I chuckled as Sergi rolled his eyes, that smile still not disappearing from his face. "I don't need you playing matchmaker for me."
"Then who else will? You haven't been so good at choosing the right woman lately."
"Alriiiight. I think that's enough talking from you."
Sergi reached out to grab his mother's hand and help her stand I guess to save himself from any further embarrassment. I was actually enjoying this.
In a way, she reminded me of my mother always prying into my romantic life and trying to hook me up with the first decent guy she could find. According to her I was that desperately in need of her help.
My mother never picked the right guy.
Hearing a name called out for a completed order I assumed it was hers as his mother began walking to the counter after letting me know she was thankful for the company. "It was lovely to meet you!"
Left behind was Sergi who had watched his mother walk off to grab her food before turning to look at me. "I'm really sorry about that. She's talkative. Really talkative."
"Again, it's fine. Trust me. My mother does the exact same thing."
"Then you know how embarrassing it is then," he chuckled.
Sergi sat himself in the seat his mother had just left unoccupied, silently grabbing one of my pens off fo the table and one of the napkins as well to begin writing something on it that I couldn't decipher from my current angle.
"What are you writing?"
"My number. Incase you really are single and looking to help a lonely guy out." He dropped the pen and slid the napkin over towards me, his number and name evident on the napkin paper now as he grinned. Sergi stood up and looked to his mother before looking back to me. "Do with it what you want. I'll hope there's at least a text in my phone later." Confidently, he began walking away and towards his seat elsewhere to leave me back to my work.
I guess mothers do know best.