When Cristiano opened the door after having a nice long chat with Zarine, he found Gareth and James nearly glued to it with their ears against the door. He groaned, "Guys..."
"It was Gareth's idea," James tried to defend.
Gareth scowled, "No, it was his."
"Was not."
"Was."
"GUYS, STOP ARGUING!" Cristiano glared at both of them.
The two guys immediately stopped arguing and walked inside the room as if nothing had happened.
"So..." began James, shooting Gareth a meaningful look.
"So..." Gareth started, "we were wondering..."
"-why you didn't ask Zarine on a date?" James finished.
Cristiano laughed nervously, "That's a very good question."
"And we're waiting for a good answer," Gareth said. "Because I remember you telling me that if you like a girl and she likes you back, you shouldn't leave her waiting for forever."
"Yeah, and judging from your subconscious flirting you really do like her and she doesn't seem like the girl who would talk to you if she didn't like you. She pretty much dropped everything to talk you and she cheered you up after the loss," James pointed out.
"Guys, it's difficult to explain..." Cristiano trailed off.
"Try," Gareth ordered.
"I-er-I may have forgotten to tell you something about Zarine," Cristiano said. "Just a little something."
James gasped, "She doesn't like my accent like your bitchy, gold-digger ex didn't like it!"
Cristiano said, "No, James, of course not. Zarine probably likes your accent. You can ask her next time and I already apologised a million times for Ashley's behaviour and you guys tried to set me up with Ashley, remember?"
"Yeah, sorry about that," Gareth grinned. "Our matchmaking skills suck."
"Yeah, so, you were going to tell us something," James said, hasty to get back to the original topic.
Cristiano swallowed, "See, I can't very well take her on a date because she doesn't live-er-nearby."
"She lives in Barcelona?" James asked, crinkling his nose in disgust.
"Eibar? Gareth asked hopefully.
"She doesn't live in Spain," Cristiano finally said. He had been dreading telling his friends that Zarine gave long distance a whole new meaning.
"Oh Portugal, then?" James asked. "You could go meet her on Sunday and still be back for practice."
"Wait, you said she talked to you in English so that means..." Gareth began.
Cristiano took a deep breath, "No, she doesn't live in the UK."
"Then?" Both of them asked getting uneasy.
"India," Cristiano cracked a smile. "It's a seriously wonderful place. I've been looking it up online. And I've been seriously thinking about ways in which I could take her on a date but it's just I don't want to ask her to do something she won't like because she's sarcastic as hell and she'll slay me and oh shit I have no idea what to do but I really want to be with her. I was going to ask Arbeloa for advice because he's the love guru..."
"She lives in another continent!?" asked James, incredulously. "And you didn't tell us. Wow, you do realise you've given long distance relationship a whole new dimension."
"I know, it's-"
"And gosh, Cris, stop rambling," Gareth said. "When did she tell you this?"
"Right at the start," provided Cristiano, helpfully.
"We need a core team meeting," Gareth said, grimly.
[ #ZARIANO NEEDS TO HAPPEN SERIOUSLY
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