I had forgotten what it felt like to travel without Jordi in tow, every flight that I had taken in the last year had been with him. When he was tiny it was easy because he would just eat and sleep on my chest, but as he got older and more mobile, traveling became a lot harder. He was a very active little boy and sitting still for more than ten minutes was his idea of a nightmare, even before he could crawl he would cry if Ale and I sat with him in our arms for too long. So today everything felt relaxing. Jordi was at home with my parents for the weekend and Ale was taking me to Amsterdam for two nights.
"Champagne?" The air stewardess asked once we had settled into our seats on the plane, a cheerful smile on her face as she stood in the aisle holding a tray of drinks.
"Could we have two orange juices please?" Ale quicky answered, as she reached across and took my hand into her.
"Of course, I'll be right back with those"
"You could have had a champagne" I reassured her.
"Isy...cariño. I know that I can have a drink if I want one, but I don't. I want to have what you're having"
"Ok" I smiled, squeezing her hand and momentarily resting my head on her shoulder.
"Here you are" the stewardess said as she arrived beside us holding two flutes of fresh orange juice.
Ale took the two glasses from her, thanking her as she did before passing one to me with a smile.
"Cheers to being child free for the next 48 hours" she giggled as she raised her glass towards me and clinked her glass against mine.
"And the amazing uninterrupted sex we are going to have" she continued, leaning in and whispering into my ear this time as her free hand came to rest on my thigh.
"Ale..."
"No one can hear me cariño, anyway, I don't care if they do. I can't wait to have you all to myself. Jordi always seems to wake up the moment that I get my head between your-"
"Stop"
"You won't be saying that later" she smirked over the rim of her glass as she took a sip of her drink.
I don't know why I was surprised when we arrived at our Hotel for the weekend. Ale had booked us into a suite in a hotel on the canals of Amsterdam. It was huge. A king size bed filled the bedroom, a roll top bath sat in the middle of the bathroom and a sofa and armchair sat in the cosy living area. Ale has always spoiled me on our trips away ever since we first started dating all of those years ago.
Our first weekend break was to Paris, she booked us into a 5-star hotel with a view of the Eiffel Tower and even after talking about what we wanted to do whilst we were there for weeks we spent most of the three days together in bed.
Our last weekend away together was before Jordi was born, I was seven and a half months pregnant, six weeks away from giving birth and fed up. My ankles were swollen, I got out of breath from just standing up and leaving the house was the last thing on my mind. I was scared, excited and obsessively nesting throughout the whole house.
"I've got too much to do" I brushed Ale off as she brought up the topic of a weekend away.
"There is nothing left to do cariño"
"We're having a baby next month Ale..."
"The hospital bags are packed and ready, you've washed, folded and put away all of the baby's clothes, the nursery is ready, we've made plans for mama to look after Nala whilst we are in the hospital. Everything is ready"
"I'm not ready though, I still need to-"
"You need to stop and rest and the only way that you are going to do that is if we go away for a few days" she said softly as she look a few steps toward me and rested her hand on my growing bump.
"I don't want to go anywhere"
"We won't go far, maybe just down the coast to that new hotel you wanted to try?"
"I don't want to leave Barcelona, what if I go into labor while we are away and we are miles away from the hospital and our doctor" I started to panic, my anxiety about the situation bubbling over.
"Shhh- come here- We don't have to leave town, but please let me organize something so that you can have a rest"
"Ok" I agreed reluctantly, resting my head in the crook of her neck as she held me close.
The next morning we packed our bags into the car and left the house with Nala sitting happily on the back seat. I had expected to be booked into a local hotel or an air bnb, but instead we pulled into Eli's driveway where my mother in law was waving happily from the doorway.
"I thought Nala was coming with us?" I asked as Ale climbed out of the driver's seat and collected Nala from behind us.
"She is, we're going to stay with Mama for the weekend"
"We are?!"
"If you're ok with that? I just thought that we haven't seen her much recently and she's so excited about becoming an abuela... it will be good for all of us to spend some time together before the baby arrives. Plus, I know that you'll listen to her when she tells you to sit down and rest"
"I love you"
"It's a good job really, because you are carrying my baby"
"This bed feels like heaven... can we just stay here all weekend?" I sighed as collapsed backwards onto the hotel room bed.
Ale was stood at the foot of the bed watching me with a smile spread across her face.
"What are you smirking at?" I asked as I lifted my head slightly to look at her.
"My beautiful wife"
"Is she here? Because I just feel like an exhausted mother who needs to sleep for the next three days"
"You always look beautiful"
"Always?"
Ale nodded. "Mmmhmm"
"Do you know when you looked the most beautiful to me?"
"No" I smiled, my cheeks flushing not only due to her compliments, but also that living way that she was looking at me.
"When Jordi was placed onto your chest straight after he was born..."
"I looked awful... I hadn't slept properly in months, my face was swollen and I had just spent 10 hours in labour. I was a sweaty mess"
"You looked perfect then and you still look perfect now"
"Are you going to join me on this giant bed or just stand there being soppy" I joked, sitting up and reaching out for Ale's hand.
"I mean it Isy... you might not always feel it, but you are perfect. You're the best Mami to Jordi and the best wife I could have ever asked for"
"Well I'm glad to hear it, because I'm the only wife you've got"
"You really can't take a compliment can you?" She laughed slightly, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Not when there is something else I want..."
"What are you talking about?"
"I want my wife to join me in this giant bed so we can have a nap like we used to before the whirlwind named Jordi came into our lives"
"I can do that" Ale smiled, stepping forwards and climbing up the bed towards me, immediately wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
We cuddled in bed for a couple of hours, both of us slipping in and out of slumber with our arms wrapped around one another. Nothing more happened yet, we just enjoyed uninterrupted time with each other like they used to.
"What do you want to do tonight?" I asked as we both woke up a few hours later, my head resting on Ales chest.
"I thought that we could go out for dinner and have a little walk, but if you want to stay here instead then we can do that"
"No, dinner sounds good"
After a few minutes we both eventually climbed out of bed to get ready. We showered, changed out of the clothes that we had slept in and into something nicer before putting the finishing touches on our hair and makeup.
"I'm just going to call my parents before we go, see how they are getting on"
"They said they would call if they needed anything"
"I know, but I just want to see Jordi. I miss his little face" I pouted in her direction, holding up my phone to show her the background picture which was Jordi sat on the subs bench in his full kit after our champions leagues semi-final win.
"Isy..."
"Do you not want to see our little boys face?" I asked in a teasing tone, the sarcasm clear in my voice.
"Of course I do, but I also want to go and have dinner with my beautiful wife" Ale wrapped her arms around my waist from behind, resting her chin on my shoulder and kissing the crook of my neck repeatedly.
"We can do both..." I smiled, before loading up my dads contact and FaceTiming him.
"I knew you'd call" he said as soon as he answered the call.
"Hi dad, where's our little boy?"
"He's just having his dinner, give me a second" he explained, sitting down at the dining table and flipping the camera around.
"Here he is! Your mama's are missing you Jordi, they love you so much they can't even go 12 hours without seeing your face"
"Hola my little love" I smiled widely at the screen, my heart doubling in size as I saw our son.
"Hi Jordi boy, we miss you"
Jordi wasn't interested in us at all, too occupied with the spaghetti that sat in front of him, wiggling his fingers around in the tomatoey sauce before licking it off.
"How's he been dad?"
"Good as gold, we went to the park earlier and played on the swings didn't we my boy? How's Amsterdam? What have you two been up to today?
"Sleeping, but we're going to head out for dinner in a minute. We just wanted to check in and see how you're all doing first"
"We're fine, now please go and enjoy yourselves"
"Say bye bye Jordi" Dad smiled as he turned the phone to Jordi who looked up at the camera and briefly waved before turning back to the pasta in front of him.
"Bye bye little man. We'll see you in a couple of days"
"I love him so much" I pouted once the FaceTime call ended.
"Me too"
"Like... we are in Amsterdam right now, we can see the canals out of our window, but all I can think about is that we aren't going to be there to kiss him good night"
"I know... but you still get to kiss me goodnight" Ale teased, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively as she took a step closer to me.
"You're such an idiot" I laughed, gently pushing her chest.
"Do you not want to kiss me goodnight?" She asked, trying to act offended, but the way she was looking at me was telling a different story.
"I want to do more than just kiss you goodnight" I flirted, reaching for her jacket and using it to pull her closer to me.
"Oh really?!"
"Mmmhmm" I nodded before reaching for the back of her neck and pulling her lips down to mine.
"I want the amazing uninterrupted sex that you promised me earlier" I mumbled against her lips, eliciting the reaction of her hands gripping my waist even tighter.
"I've booked a table..." She breathed against my lips as she pulled away slightly.
"You better not be making promises that you can't keep Alexia"
"Oh trust me, I will be keeping that promise over and over and over again, but I've booked a table at a really nice restaurant and I'm hungry so I think that we should go and eat"