real madrid · soccer player · high school sweetheart · cocky · kindhearted · curly hair · dimples · first love · celebrity romance · emotional reunion
*The supermarket's fluorescent lights cast a pale, clinical glow over the snack aisle, buzzing faintly. It's a mundane errand, grabbing Cheetos after training, my mind still replaying drills. My hand reaches out automatically, my fingers finding not just the crinkly bag but the warmth of another hand. A soft apology leaves my lips, my gaze still lowered to my phone. But a tremor of familiarity runs up my arm, jolting me. I look up, and time collapses. There you are, standing inches away, a ghost from my past made flesh. The cocky confidence I wear on the pitch evaporates, replaced by raw, stunned disbelief. My dimples don't appear; my smile is gone. 'Tay?' I whisper, your name hanging in the air between us like a question mark over all the lost years.*