Chapter 19: Healing

                                    

                                          

🎶 Unsteady - Erich Lee Gravity Remix — X Ambassadors, Erich Lee 🎶
"Mum, Dad, I'm fine, really" I reassured my family for the 50th time. Ruben had been nice (or maybe stupid) enough to call my dad and that resulted in me having my parents and two brothers ogling my bandaged and swollen nose since the moment I returned from surgery.
"Have I lost the bet now?" Alfie asked and I took the TV remote from my nightstand, ready to throw it at him.
"Maybe not yet, but now that she has a new nose she'll make him break under her charm" James told Alfie and I was ready to scream.
"Get out! All of you! Now! I need rest!" I shouted and pointed at the door, which flung open in that second, revealing Ruben.
"Oh... Is this a good moment? I brought... something edible, that soup they gave you looked disgusting" he said, while all my family was looking at him.
"Yeah, um... We'll leave now" Mum announced and pushed her sons and husband out of my room.
"I might kill you for calling them" I grumbled at Ruben as I opened up the paper bag from Five Guys. This man was unreal to even exist, he was too perfect, it was unfair.
"What else was I supposed to do? They're keeping you for one night and your parents would have been worried if they hadn't heard from you" he justified himself.
"I know" I sighed. "Thanks" I added gratefully, but then he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of me.
"DELETE THAT NOW!" I shouted.
"No way, you look hilarious. I'll put that in a collage for your kids one day" he chuckled and I leaned back.
"We'll still be friends then?" I asked and he put away his phone, looking at me once again with that unreadable face.
"Sure. If you don't ghost me again for some douchebag guy" he replied and I tilted my head.
"I think I'm done with guys for a long time" I groaned, when my door opened again.
"Hey! I just wanted to check up on you" Laura said as she got inside, followed by her boyfriend.
"And... I'm just here" Rodri added. "Not that I wouldn't want to check up on you, I'm glad that you're ok, it's just that we don't know each other, hi- I'm Rodri" he blabbered.
"Maybe not such a great time to have all your teammates meet me. I swear if Bernardo walks in-" I started, looking at Ruben, but in exactly that moment, guess who walked through the door.
"I'm so jealous that you got a free nose job" Ines whined and ran over to my bedside while I was furiously looking at Ruben that was greeting his teammate.
"What? You were gone for an hour! I was bored and called up some friends!" he justified himself.
"You could have played Candy Crush or something!" I countered. But then I looked at the room and for the first time in years, there were people except for my family that... cared, felt like friends.
"Fine. You all can stay, but visiting hours are over soon. Just... tell me stuff that will get my mind off things" I sighed and everyone sat down somewhere in the single room they had giving me - perks of working here. We all started to exchange funny stories - it was mostly the guys telling embarrassing things about Ruben, but for once, he didn't seem to care, he even laughed with them.
"Hey, Soph, I'm here to check up on you- oh" my fellow intern Sarah said as she got inside the room with my chart. But she hadn't quite expected to find the room full with Premier League footballers and their gorgeous girlfriends.
"I'm all good, thanks. But I think I'll need 500 of Ibu for the night" I told her.
"Yeah, sure, I'll bring that around. And... I heard what happened with Ed - I'm... I'm sorry, really" she said sincerely and I just pressed my lips together as I nodded at her.
Bernardo and Ines eventually decided to leave as they couldn't leave Carlota behind forever, and also Rodri and Laura decided to join them in making an exit.
"Thanks for being here tonight..." I mumbled at Ruben, who was unsure if to leave too or not.
"Of course. I'm glad I was there" he sighed and walked to my bedside. He debated on taking my hand, but I just extended it to him as he was taking too long to decide.
"You should rest" he whispered as we looked deep into each other's eyes. His hand holding mine was sending me into overdrive and the heat in my body ached for me to have sex with him, right here, right now, on this hospital bed.
"Stay?" I asked quietly, not wanting to let go of him.
"The nurses will be pissed and give me a hospital ban" he chuckled.
"As if. Just tell them that they look beautiful and they'll forgive you and your ridiculously handsome face everything" I countered.
And to my surprise, he laid down next to me, putting an arm around my shoulder. He started telling me a story about him playing football as a little kid but his soothing voice released all the tension in me and let me drift off into a deep sleep after all the action of today. When I woke up the next morning, Ruben wasn't next to me anymore, but he had left a note that he had gone to training and would pick me up when the hospital would release me, which was going to be sometime in the early afternoon.
Time passed in between doctors and nurses coming to check up on me and HR insisted they were being overly generous with giving me three whole days off. Well, I wasn't going to complain because in the end, I was still an intern.
As promised, Ruben arrived around three-ish and I had already gotten all my paperwork done so I was free to go. Thankfully, he had parked in the underground garage and we didn't meet too many people that could have recognised us - even though Ruben had gone undercover by wearing a baseball cap (very creative). He loaded me into his car as if my whole body was broken from head to toe. If he weren't so damn perfect, I would have started to be annoyed.
"Home?" he asked.
"Actually, can we go to yours for just a bit? I'm not ready to face my brothers yet" I whined.
"James texted me to ask how it felt replacing him" Ruben chuckled and I snorted out a laugh.
"So... you've been bro-zoned by the bro himself" I giggled and now Ruben shot me a glare. After a short ride, we arrived at his apartment and he directed me towards the couch on which he placed a million pillows that I had never seen around before, in an effort to make me feel comfortable.
"I'm alright, I haven't got a broken back" I chuckled as I laid down.
"Just enjoy the princess treatment and stop acting tough for a second, alright? It's ok to get pampered from time to time" he replied and I sat up.
"But it feels as if you're only pampering me lately and to be honest, I don't deserve it because I treated you like shit when I got together with... Ed" I muttered.
"Then you won't like what comes next" he chuckled and walked to his bedroom to get something. "I hope they're still good, they're a few days old by now" he said nervously as he handed over a paper bag that made my jaw drop.
"Oh my gosh! From Laduree! I'll heal in a second" I swooned and pushed that first macaron into my mouth, which had a pistachio taste. "Mmmhh... That sugar I taste... You sure you don't want one?" I asked, batting my eyelashes at him, acting innocent.
"I'm fine, thanks. I prefer tasting this at the end of the season" he replied and walked over to a shelf to fetch some gold medal which he bit into.
"Poser" I huffed at him, but we both laughed.
"And this... is more personal" he said as he handed me a second bag. I unwrapped the box and papers inside, until I found a perfume flask with my name on it.
"Did you...?" I gasped.
"I created it, yeah. Didn't want to third-wheel all afternoon with the couples so I had some time on my hands, you know?" he blabbered.
I took the cap off and sprayed some on my wrist and oh my... this was the best perfume I had ever smelled. Tears were pooling in my eyes and my nose was hurting from all the emotions I was showing on my face.
"No! Are you having an allergic reaction?!" he asked concernedly and plunged next to me, making me laugh.
"No, you idiot. This is the nicest thing someone's ever gotten me. I don't deserve this" I whined and wanted to wipe my nose but remembered that I couldn't, which made me only cry more.
"You deserve so much more, Soph. And until you can't see it yourself, I'm going to show you" Ruben whispered and pushed a strand of hair out of my face to tuck it behind my ear.