"SURPRISE!"
Aina Cerdà stopped dead in her own parents' doorway.
"AH—"
Both hands went straight over her mouth.
Beside her Olivia had jumped about half a foot and was now laughing with a hand on her own chest, and behind them, in the hall, two boys were standing there looking extremely pleased with themselves.
Aina spun round.
"Did you two know about this?"
Mateo shook his head, laughing.
"No."
"You did."
"We did not."
"PEDRI."
Pedri put both hands up and shrugged, which was not a denial, and did not look like one.
"Hey, baby."
Oriol got to her first and got both arms all the way round her and lifted her about two inches off the floor.
"Papá."
"My girl."
"You did all this?"
"Your mother did all this."
And Nora arrived, already talking, already apologising.
"Sorry, sorry, it is a bit shabby, we did not have any time—"
"Mamá."
"We only knew properly yesterday evening, so we did what we could—"
"Mamá."
Aina had turned round and was looking at the room.
It was, objectively, a rushed job.
Somebody had strung a line of coloured bunting across the wall above the dresser and it was not level. There were balloons taped at the corners of the doorway, eight of them, in three different colours that did not go together. A banner had been handwritten in marker on the back of what was very obviously a piece of wrapping paper.
The dining table had been pushed against the wall and covered with everything Nora could produce in half a day, which was an enormous amount, and there were two extra chairs brought in from somewhere that did not match anything else in that room.
And in it, standing around, were the people.
Her grandmother in her chair. Her uncle and aunt. David and Isabella. A few others.
Small. Loud. Warm.
Aina let out a breath.
"It is perfect."
"Ha." Oriol clapped his hands once. "Good. That is good, then."
Then he turned.
"And Olivia."
Olivia looked up.
"This is as much your celebration as it is hers."
"Oh—"
"Yes." Nora came over with both hands out. "Yes, we heard the news. Congratulations, my love. Genuinely."
"Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma'am."
"HAHAHA."
"Ma'am."
"She called you ma'am."
"I like her."
"Right."
Núria's voice cut across all of it from her chair.
"Enough of that. Let us get started, I am hungry."
It was now two days since Barcelona had won the Champions League.
After a day of eating and sitting on a floor with his friends, and a dinner party in a garden with strings of lights over it, and, well, last night, Mateo King found himself standing in his uncle's farmhouse on a Monday morning.
Because Aina had come to see her parents before flying back to the United States.
"Grandma, I am so tired."
Aina had folded herself into the chair next to Núria's and was leaning sideways into it.
"My back is killing me. I had to get up at four to start packing."
"Four?"
"FOUR."
"Ohh, my poor baby."
Núria put her cup down.
"Come here. Turn round. Let your grandmother do it."
"Oh my God. Thank you."
"You have been sleeping badly."
"How do you know that?"
"I can feel it. Here, look. Feel that."
"That is my BACK, Grandma."
"Exactly."
And a few feet away, Nora had cornered Olivia entirely.
"Okay, but walk me through it. Properly, from the start."
"The rollout?"
"Yes!" Nora had both hands together. "Yes. The rollout. How does it actually work?"
She was genuinely, visibly thrilled.
"Because I have no idea. Do they just put it on the internet? Is that it? Is there a party?"
"HAHAHA. There is a party, actually."
"THERE IS?"
It had been twenty-three minutes since the four of them walked through that door, and every single one of them was already absorbed into it.
That is the thing about a small house with too many people in it. Nobody stays in the group they arrived with.
Pedri had ended up by the window with Oriol.
"So it is all fine, then? The leg, the—"
"Yeah, it is fine. Everybody is fine."
"Good, good."
"Oh." Pedri looked up. "Actually, we have got a documentary coming out later today."
Oriol's eyes went enormous.
"I KNOW."
"HAHAHA."
"I already know. I have told them at work that I am not coming in until the afternoon."
"Seriously?"
"It premieres this morning. I have got the whole thing planned. I am going to sit down in that chair, put my feet up, get a drink, and watch it on the cable."
Pedri stopped.
"Cable?"
"Yes."
"Ehm."
Pedri pulled a face.
"I do not think it is going out on cable, sir. I am fairly sure it is going straight to streaming."
Oriol blinked.
"Streaming."
"Yeah."
"On the—"
He gestured at nothing.
"On the streaming."
"Hold on."
Pedri was already getting his phone out, thumbing back through a group chat.
"Yeah. Here. It is exclusive to Netflix."
There was a silence.
Oriol Cerdà stood there looking at a fixed point somewhere around the middle of the room, with the expression of a man whose entire morning had just quietly collapsed.
Pedri looked over at the corner.
"Is that a smart TV?"
"A what?"
"That one. Is that one smart?"
"I do not know what that means."
"Okay." Pedri was already standing up. "Come on, let me set it up for you. It will take two minutes and then it will be ready when it drops."
And Oriol's whole face came back on at once.
"Ohh. Good. Good, good, good."
He was already moving.
"Yes. Come. Let us go and do that. Right now."
Over on the other side of the room, Mateo was with his parents.
"HAHAHAHA."
He had a hand on his own head.
"Wait. Wait, are you being serious?"
"That was exactly my reaction," Isabella said, laughing.
"He said it to the whole restaurant?"
"To the whole restaurant. On a microphone."
"HAHAHA!"
And David just let out a long sigh.
"I was lost myself, honestly."
Mateo's eyebrows came down.
"Hold on. So what did you do?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"I let it go."
"Papá."
Mateo sat forward.
"Why would you let that go?"
"Mateo—"
"No, seriously. That is not right. Why would a man stand there and give away free drinks in your restaurant, on your stock, without even asking you first?"
David sighed again.
"He says it was the spur of the moment."
"So?"
"And, honestly." He shrugged. "If I had been standing there, I would have done exactly the same thing."
"It is not about that." Mateo was shaking his head. "It is the principle, Papá. If he can do that once, he can do it again. He works for you."
And Isabella, behind her cup, was nodding.
"I have already told him," David said. "I have told him very clearly that it is the last time he does anything like that."
"But—"
"Hey."
David put a hand on his son's shoulder.
And his voice came up, and he tapped him on the chest with the back of his other hand.
"If a couple of bills is what I have to pay for my son winning the Champions League."
Isabella had already started laughing.
"Then forget the drinks. I would have given away the entire shop."
"HAHAHA!"
"Papá."
"THE WHOLE SHOP."
"Speaking of which." Mateo grinned. "Your restaurant has been popping lately, ehn?"
And David King straightened up.
"Well."
He adjusted his own collar.
"True. True."
He turned slightly to one side, and then to the other.
"It is doing alright, I suppose."
Isabella had a hand over her eyes.
"Okay."
Mateo was laughing.
"Okay, okay. That is enough."
A few more minutes went past like that.
And then Aina glanced at her watch.
"Oh."
She looked again.
"Oh."
She caught Olivia's eye across the room and tapped her own wrist, and Olivia's face changed, and she got her phone out.
"Mamá."
Aina stood up.
"We really need to start going."
"Oh."
Oriol turned round from the television.
"Already?"
"Our flight is at eight."
"Ohh. Okay. Okay."
And then he started patting his own pockets.
"Right. Hold on, let me get my keys, I will drop you—"
Aina and Olivia both froze.
And Aina turned her head and looked at her mother.
Just looked at her.
And Nora, who has been reading that face for nineteen years, caught it in under a second.
"They are fine."
"What?"
"They are fine, Oriol. They drove here, did they not?"
Oriol stopped patting his pockets.
"Yes, but—"
"Papá." Aina put a hand up. "We are fine. Honestly."
And David cut in from the other side of the room.
"Yes, let the boys take them. I am sure they can manage it."
He gestured at the table.
"And it gives us time to get back to what we were talking about before."
"Do not worry, sir." Pedri had stood up. "I will make sure they get there safely."
Oriol looked round at all of them.
And slowly lowered his hands.
"Okay."
There was a round of goodbyes after that, and it took a while, because it always does.
And then the four of them were in Pedri's Cupra with the doors still open, and half a family standing round it on the gravel.
"Remember to call when you land."
"I will, Mamá."
"As soon as you land."
"As soon as I land."
"And—" Oriol leaned down to the window. "Make sure you use those, ehm. The things. The neck things."
"The pillows."
"The neck pillows. Because you always complain about—"
"I KNOW, Papá."
Aina groaned and let her head fall back against the seat.
"Mamá. Papá. I am fine."
Both of them stood up straight at the same time.
"Okay."
"Okay, okay, fine."
"Fine."
Then Nora bent down again.
"And remember your father and I are coming over in a few weeks anyway. For the school visit."
"I know, Mamá."
"So it is not long."
"I know."
Aina looked across at Pedri in the driver's seat.
"Okay."
She let out a breath.
"Let us go."
She turned back to the window.
"Bye."
She was waving now, at all of them.
"Bye, Papá. Bye, Mamá. Bye, Grandma."
Núria raised one hand from her chair by the door.
"Bye, Uncle David. Bye, Aunty Isabella."
"Bye, my love!"
"Safe flight!"
"Text us!"
And then Isabella leaned down and looked past Aina into the back seat.
"You too, Olivia."
Olivia looked up.
"Do not be a stranger. When you need a break from all that pop-star business."
"HAHAHA!"
"OHHH!"
"Isabella!"
"I am serious." She was smiling. "We would be very happy to host you again."
And Olivia smiled at her.
"Thank you."
Then she leaned forward toward the window herself, waving.
"Byeee! Bye, everyone! Thank you for everything!"
"Bye, Olivia!"
"Come back soon!"
"Okay, bye!"
Aina was still going, still leaning toward the glass, one hand up.
"BYE!"
And the car pulled off the gravel.
She stayed turned round in her seat.
Watching out of the back window as the farmhouse got smaller, and the little group of people standing in front of it got smaller, and her father was still waving, and then her mother put a hand on his arm, and then the track turned.
And they were gone.
Aina sat back round the right way.
And faced forward.
And did not say anything.
For about six seconds.
Then she sniffed.
Then she sniffed again, harder, and put the back of her wrist up under her own eye, and her chin went, and a couple of tears came down before she could get to them.
"Ohhh."
Mateo's voice came from the front seat, entirely delighted.
"Oh no. No more tough woman, ehn?"
"MATEO."
Olivia gasped and punched him in the arm.
"HAHAHA. What? I am only playing."
"You are horrible."
"I am PLAYING."
And Pedri reached back with one hand off the wheel, without saying anything at all, and rubbed the top of Aina's head.
She let him.
She wiped her face with the heel of her hand and sniffed again and looked out of the side window.
"I am fine."
...
"Yeah, do not forget us."
Aina had the phone up in front of her with Olivia leaning in from behind the seat, and four faces crammed into one frame on the other end of it.
"We will not forget you."
"You will."
"We WILL NOT."
"You are going to America and you are going to forget all about us."
"Balde."
"I am just saying."
"Oh, oh, oh."
Balde shoved his way to the front of the screen.
"Olivia."
Olivia stretched her head further into the frame.
"Yeah?"
"Your album."
"Yeah?"
"When it comes out—"
And Fermín shoved him sideways out of shot entirely.
"Do not worry." His face filled the screen. "We are going to be the first people in the world to stream it."
"HAHAHA."
"The FIRST."
"He has already set an alarm."
"I have already set an alarm."
"He genuinely has."
"Alright."
Pedri's voice came from the front.
"We are here."
He was leaning forward over the wheel, looking up at the signs.
"Let me find somewhere to park."
They all looked out of the windows at the same time.
And Aina turned the phone back to herself.
"Okay."
She let out a breath.
"Seems like we have got to go."
"Ohhh."
"Byeee!"
"Bye, guys!"
"Safe flight!"
"Text when you land!"
"Bye, Olivia!"
"Bye!"
"Bye, boys."
"BYE!"
And Aina handed the phone back over the seat to Mateo.
And Balde's voice came out of it immediately.
"Argh."
"What?"
"Who passed the phone to this one now?"
"HAHAHA!"
"From seeing beautiful faces." Balde shook his head at the camera. "To THIS."
"OHHHH!"
Both girls were gone. Pedri was laughing at the windscreen.
Mateo just rolled his eyes.
"Bye."
And cut the call.
He looked over at Olivia.
She had a hand over her own mouth and her shoulders were going.
"It is not that funny."
"HAHAHA."
"It is not."
Olivia shook her head, trying to stop, and completely failing to.
And then Mateo started laughing too.
He reached over and took her hand.
"So."
He tilted his head.
"Are you ready?"
Olivia turned and looked out of the window at the terminal.
At the glass, and the people, and the enormous letters over the doors.
And she let out a long breath.
"You know what is funny?"
"Hm?"
"I did not even want to come here."
She was still looking out of the window.
"When my mum first said it. I did not want to come. I actually argued about it."
Then she turned round and looked at him.
"And now I wish I had more time."
Mateo smiled.
"Barcelona will do that to you."
And Olivia looked at him, at his face, and she did not smile straight away.
"It is not Barcelona."
It took them a while to find a space.
That airport is busy at the best of times, thousands of people moving through it every hour of every day, and for whatever reason that morning it seemed to be running at about a hundred and twenty percent.
But they had fifteen minutes before boarding opened and nobody was in the mood to waste any of them.
Mateo and Pedri covered up properly before they got out. Caps down low, masks up, hoods. Loose clothes that did not tell anybody anything.
Two more young men in an airport. Nobody would have picked either of them out of that crowd.
"Enjoy your flight."
The woman behind the desk stamped the second boarding pass and slid both of them back across the counter with a smile.
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
"There is a private lounge if you would like to wait, it is just through there on the left."
She tipped her head.
"Although if you want to go straight through, boarding should be opening in just a few minutes anyway."
"Ah, okay."
"Thank you so much."
"Safe travels."
They picked up the passes and turned round.
And their boyfriends were standing about twenty feet away by a pillar, hands in pockets, both of them entirely unrecognisable.
Aina snorted.
"They look like they are here to rob the place."
"HAHAHA."
They walked over.
"So?"
"Yeah." Aina waved the boarding pass. "We are all checked in. They said boarding is basically open already."
"Already?"
"Yeah."
"Ah."
And Mateo was not really listening.
He was looking at Olivia.
At her standing there in front of him with a bag over one shoulder and her boarding pass in her hand, talking about gate numbers.
And he reached up and pulled his own mask down.
"Mateo."
Olivia's hand shot out.
"Mateo, what are you—"
"It is fine."
"It is NOT fine, there are—"
"It is fine."
He had it down under his chin now, and she had given up on stopping him and had instead reached up and pulled the front of his cap further down over his eyes with both hands, which made him laugh.
"There."
She adjusted it.
"At least be sensible about it."
And Mateo looked at her from under it.
"I could not let you leave without seeing that smile."
Olivia's face went.
"Oh my God."
"What?"
"You are so—"
"I am just being honest."
"HAHAHA."
She was laughing, and then she stopped laughing, and she just looked at him.
At his eyes, which she had liked from about the second day.
At the way he was looking back at her, which was the actual thing. Not the face. The looking.
"So."
She shifted her bag on her shoulder.
"I—"
"You."
She startled slightly.
"Hm?"
And Mateo tilted his head.
"You said goodbye to everybody except me."
"Oh."
Olivia's mouth opened.
"Ehm."
"Why?"
She did not answer straight away.
She came a step closer, so that there was not very much room left between them at all, and she looked down at the boarding pass in her own hand.
"I do not know."
"No."
Mateo shook his head.
"No, you do. Tell me."
"I do not—"
"Tell me."
She looked up at him.
"You know why."
"Tell me."
And Olivia Rodrigo said it very softly.
"Because you are the only one who could change my mind."
Neither of them said anything after that.
They stood there in the middle of an airport with several hundred people moving around them and neither of them moved at all.
Hazel on brown.
And then Mateo leaned in and kissed her on the top of her head.
He stayed there for a second.
And when he pulled back his voice had gone quiet.
"I am going to miss you."
And Olivia smiled up at him.
"I am going to miss you too."
"Mm."
Mateo cleared his throat and looked off to one side.
"Well. Obviously."
"Oh, here we go."
"I mean, I know you will."
"Here we GO."
"Knowing the effect I have on people." He shrugged. "Honestly, I would not be surprised if you actually got sick. Physically ill. On the plane."
"HAHAHA."
"It happens."
Olivia scoffed and hit him in the chest with the back of her hand.
"You are unbelievable."
"No, you know what."
Mateo caught her hand.
"So that you are not on the next flight straight back here. Tell me the things you like about me, and I will do the opposite of all of them."
"HAHAHA."
"Go on."
"Okay."
Olivia thought about it for exactly one second.
"I like that you are alive."
"..."
Mateo blinked.
"Wow."
"HAHAHA."
"Wow. You."
"What?"
"YOU."
"HAHAHA!"
And Olivia shook her head at him, still laughing.
"You really do talk too much."
And she stepped in and kissed him.
He startled for about half a second.
And then his eyes closed, and one hand found the back of her neck, and the bag slid down off her shoulder and neither of them did anything about it.
A few feet away, Pedri and Aina were not doing anything different.
"Oh."
Olivia came off him suddenly with her eyes wide.
Mateo blinked.
"What?"
"Oh no."
"What? What is it?"
"I did not say goodbye to Mr Francisco and Mrs Manuela."
Mateo stared at her.
And then started laughing.
"That."
He put a hand over his own eyes.
"THAT is what made you jump?"
"I feel terrible!"
"You pulled off me like something had—"
"Mateo."
"HAHAHAHA. Don't worry when next i see them i would inform them of why you couldn't come see them yourself "
And she started laughing too, and could not stop, and had to hold onto his arm.
"Boarding is now open for LEVEL flight two-two-four to Los Angeles. Passengers travelling on flight two-two-four to Los Angeles, please proceed to Gate—"
And everything went quiet.
Aina went first.
She had her arms round Pedri's neck and her face in his shoulder for a good ten seconds, and when she came off him she was already wiping her own eye with the back of her wrist and laughing at herself about it.
"Do not."
"I am not saying anything."
"You are looking at me."
"I am not looking at you."
"Bye."
"Bye."
She picked up her bag.
And she walked toward that gate, turning round twice, waving both times.
And Pedri stood there with one hand up.
And when she finally went through and out of sight, he kept it up for about two more seconds.
Then he put it down.
And the smile went with it.
Olivia was last.
She got her bag back up onto her shoulder and pulled the strap across, and looked at the gate, and then looked back at Mateo.
And neither of them said anything, because everything that was going to be said had been said about four minutes ago.
She smiled at him.
The whole thing. All of it.
And then she turned and walked through.
Mateo King stood there with his hand still half raised.
And after a moment he let it come down.
A hand landed on his shoulder.
Pedri did not look at him. He was still looking at the gate.
"So."
He gave the shoulder a squeeze.
"Just the two of us again, ehn."
And Mateo let out a breath through his nose and smiled at the floor.
"Yeah."
He nodded.
"Just the two of us."
And the two of them stood there for a while in the middle of a busy airport, not saying anything at all, with their caps pulled down and their hands in their pockets, watching a gate that had already closed.
A/N
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