«Rules are there for a reason, if you can't fight what you're feeling, please shut the door as you're leaving. That's not the protocol said leave your heart at home.»
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She quickly walked towards Manuel Cortéz's office, almost stumbling a couple of times. He called her and said it was something really important so she stopped actualizing the season's numbers in her computer and almost ran to his office. Her fist knocked three times on his door and waited for him to let her in. Mr. Cortéz yelled 'come in' so she did it. He was sitting on his chair, his chin resting on his hand and his eyes looking at her over his glasses. Alexandra smiled at him and walked to be in front of him.
"You called me sir?" She brightly asked.
Manuel Cortéz nodded and took off his glasses. "Alexandra since you started to work here in the club I haven't had one single complain about your job. You're someone prepared, nice and the players really like you" Is he going to give me a job in the legal department? "Your job here is almost perfect"
"Almost?" Alexandra questioned and Mr. Cortéz nodded.
He opened one of the drawers of his desk and took something that looked like a rolled magazine or newspaper from it. Alexandra furrowed her brows and crossed her arms over her chest. Mr. Cortéz searched for something in the magazine and then extended one of the pages in his desk. Her eyes popped wide open as soon as she saw the page.
There were three pictures –clearly taken with a cell phone– of Antoine and Alexandra in their date. They were holding hands in one, laughing in another and the worst one, he was kissing her in the third one. Her mouth dried and her heart began to throb abnormally. She looked at Manuel Cortéz apologetically but this one was staring at her in every way possible but nicely.
"Almost" He strongly said and took the magazine in his hands to read the article. "In case you don't know what the title says; who is Antoine Griezmann's mysterious girlfriend? Then it says how you're Alexandra Westorn, daughter of Emiliano and Elizabeth Westorn" He read and glared to her. Alexandra felt her heart was about to jump out of her chest. "One of the first things I said to you Ms. Westorn when you got the job was how getting romantically involved with someone from the club was totally banned. I knew you were friends with some of the players and I didn't say anything because you weren't doing anything wrong but this" He shook the magazine. "This is wrong Ms. Westorn"
"I know is wrong and I can explain it" You can explain it? How the fuck are you going to explain those pictures to him Alexandra? I'm so screwed up!
"Please amuse me Alexandra" He motioned with his hand for her to go on. His gaze was getting her too nervous.
"I–" And she got tongue tied. What was she going to say if everything was more than clear in the pictures? "I don't know what to say" She finally admitted and looked down at her shoes. So, so screwed.
"Just what I thought" Manuel closed the magazine and took a deep breath. He massaged his temples before going back to her. "You're an excellent employee Ms. Westorn but rules are rules and you broke a big one so I have the duty to do something I'm not really pleased with because you never failed your job" Don't cry now Alexandra, don't do it. "You're fired Ms. Westorn. Please return your work identification. Your settlement payment will be deposited in your bank account"
Alexandra swallowed hard. She took off her work identification and placed it in Manuel Cortéz's desk. "Thank you for the opportunity Mr. Cortéz. For me it was really a pleasure working here with this club" So pleasurable that I fucked it up.
"Ms. Westorn just know that this decision needed to be taken. I need to stick up to the rules" She silently nodded.
There was nothing more for her to say so she left Mr. Cortéz's office. Even when she wasn't really showing how panicked she was, Alexandra was almost dying inside. She was unemployed, in Madrid. The first thought that ran through her mind was calling Antonio because well, he was her roommate but he was working and he couldn't deal with her shit. The second thought, well it was French.
She took her phone and quickly dialed Antoine's number. Alexandra was biting her nails as the tones went on.
"Antoine" She didn't even let him say hello as soon as he picked the call.
"Alex? Hey, what's going on?" He was clearly eating something. "Alex?"
She sighed and chewed the inside of her cheek. "Anto they know. The club found out about us and they fired me, I'm out" It was paining her more than it should have.
"What? Alex if this is some kind of joke you're playing with me I swear it's not funny" She wished it was a joke.
"It's not a joke Antoine. Someone took photos of us in the date and sold them to a newspaper or magazine, I don't know. They fired me and I don't know what to do" Alexandra hated to admit it but all she could think about was how her father was –at some point– right.
"Where are you?" She heard he was taking his keys.
"Walking out of the stadium right now"
"I'm picking you up, stay there" Alexandra knew that wasn't a good idea.
"Antoine–"
"Alex, we need to talk about this" He interrupted her. "I'm part of the reason you got fired so I'm going to be there for you"
It's not like she could fight him so Alexandra gave up. Mr. Cortéz would suffer a heart attack if he saw Antoine picking her after she got fired for dating him.
The security guards from the entrance stared at her strangely as she held tightly a box full of her belongings and waited for Antoine outside of the stadium. If Emiliano knew about this he would be telling me 'I told you Alexandra', ugh. She shook her head, probably remembering her father –who indirectly told her she didn't deserve to be part of the Westorn family anymore– wasn't a very good idea.
The world suddenly got a bit better when Antoine's car stopped in front of where she was standing. Alexandra got into it as quick as she could and stared at Antoine. He had a concerned expression on his face.
"Alex I am really sorry, this shouldn't be happening. I should go and talk to Manuel Cortéz about–"
"No, don't do that" She cut him off. Her hand searched for his, Antoine laced their finger together and lifted her hand to place a kiss on it. "Someday was going to happen, we knew that. Maybe it's not the right time but you know, there's always a way for things"
"I am here you know" He gave her a small grin.
Alexandra nodded. "That makes this a lot better" She was still having her own personal battle in her mind. "Can you take me to my apartment? I need to think about a lot of things"
"Mon amour you know you can count on me, right?" Simeone was right, it did affect her more than me, he thought. Antoine hated to see her like that and he hated it even more knowing he was the reason she got fired.
She leaned towards him and stroked his cheek. "I know Anto and you have no idea how much it means to me"
She gathered her lips with his in an attempt to feel better. This time what she was feeling wasn't what she always felt when he kissed her.
-
Alexandra rummaged all the papers that were on the center table, searching for that small piece of paper with the most important number at the moment. She couldn't stop herself from reminding every single word her father told her in the restaurant the night of the date, especially now that she was unemployed. It was like Emiliano Westorn was tormenting her and she couldn't take it, not anymore.
"Thanks God" She mumbled as soon as the small piece of paper fell from an envelope.
When you were Alexandra Westorn and your father told you everything wrong you were doing with your life and you get fired in the same week, it could be reasonable that the ideas weren't as clear as they were before.
She doubtfully stared at the number in her hand and with the guts of the old Alexandra Westorn she took her phone and dialed that number. Her fingers exasperatedly patted the sofa as a female voice indicated her that the international call was in the way.
"Alexandra Westorn" The male voice said surprised. "Didn't expect your call Ms. Westorn" Neither did I expect I would make it this soon.
"Hello there Mr. Harrison" She held one of the cushions so stiff her knuckles began to turn white. What am I doing?
"It's a pleasure to hear from you Alexandra; I'm suspecting this call has something to do with the job offer I made to you a few weeks ago" She nodded and then mentally scolded herself for that. He can't see me.
"Yeah, I–" She didn't exactly know why in hell Antoine's beautiful smile popped in her mind. You could see the pain in her face. "I changed my mind" Alexandra tried really hard to not sound like if someone was torturing her. "I've been thinking about it and I believe working for your firm is going to make me grow up as a lawyer" She lied.
"Oh my, these are wonderful news" She wanted to chuckle in ache. Wonderful news for you. "My wife is going to be so happy with this, she wanted you in our firm so much and now she's getting your services"
"I feel honored to hear those words" Maybe Chicago Alexandra would've jumped all over her room if she heard Lauren Reeves wanted her in their law firm so badly. This Alexandra, well, this Alexandra still had Antoine's smile in her mind and her expression was pretty much the same she had when Han Solo died. So painful. "I don't know if you want me to go to Manchester or you prefer to send me the details"
"Let's do this; my wife and I will set up a meeting with you here in Manchester, I'll send you the details. We'll help you to settle down here in England and everything you need" As much as she hated it, Alexandra knew there was no other choice.
"Great" She didn't mean to sound like she was meeting Donald Trump or something like that. "I guess we'll keep in touch Mr. Harrison"
"You won't regret your decision Alexandra"
I hope so.
They ended the call. Alexandra ran a hand through her hair and deeply sighed. That was it, she was going to move to Manchester and leave everything that attached her to Madrid behind and she hated that. She hated that her father's words had such an effect on her after all she did to free herself from her parents. She hated that Manuel Cortéz found out about her relationship with Antoine and fired her.
She hated how leaving Antoine was making her heart ache so much.
Took the job offer from H&R, I guess I am traveling to Manchester. Her fingers quickly typed a message for Antonio.
Her leg moved nervously as she waited for him to answer. She stared at the three dots that indicated he was already writing and grew more anxious. The three dots disappeared and appeared and so on, indicating her that he was re-writing his answer. She didn't expect him to use emojis if she was being honest.
Luke Skydumber:
YOU WHAT!? I thought you didn't want to work for them
You should see her face.
Luke Skydumber:
Wait, what about Antoine? I thought you guys were good?
A paining chuckle came out of her mouth.
I guess you meet the right person at the wrong time. She pressed send and stared at the shiny screen of her phone. There was no going back for her.
-
I'M BACK (calm down Angie hahahaha). Sorry for the delay but I was in the middle of a retreat in a mountain yesterday (not really a retreat to be honest).
So while I was drunk in the middle of the woods, I started to think deeply about a few things like why is the DCEU so mean to tease Jason Todd in two freaking movies and still give us nothing about if we're getting his dead in the big screen or Batman beating the Joker for that (I know you guys don't care about this but is v important for me).
Also I thought about the fact that I've been reading a shitload of AU stories (football related, comics related -Ivy and Harley in college are adorable, okay I'll stop-, tv show related etc) and I'm really tempted to make an AU College story but I don't know, I think I'll fail hahahaha.
For a moment I also thought about giving up the writing fanfiction thing (I was really drunk) hahahaha. But I won't do it, not yet.
That's it. Just to remind you guys, Protocol has five chapters left (ouch). This story was supposed to be finished before the next season started oficially but oops.
Also, sorry for the lack of "Westmann" in this chapter.