Chapter Three: No boxes

Of course, the boxes of her personal possessions she had shipped from London had not arrived. As she wandered around the sparsely furnished, plainly decorated, boxy space she now had to call home, Eve heard Lucia’s voice in her head saying ‘is Spain’ repeatedly.

After training and a much needed shower, she’d been escorted to a plush office where she had met the club chairman, and after a picture of her shaking his hand had been taken, she'd been given the keys to an apartment that was apparently a twenty minute drive away. Someone had offered to drive her there to show her the way, but she’d had enough of people, of having to make conversation, and of smiling, pretending happiness. When she'd insisted she'd be fine, they had handed over the keys to a rental car - a very nice rental car - that would be hers for the duration of her stay at Real Martinez. 

The drive had been simple at first, even if it was on the opposite side of the road. Eve had slowly and steadily made her way down a nice, wide carriageway without any issues. It was only when she had reached the town that it became nightmarish. The roads narrowed, the turns were sharper, and every other driver on the road seemed to want to honk their horn at her. The sat nav had sent her around what looked like the exact same roundabout twenty times before she’d eventually found the address. 

The building was smart and modern, and there had been a parking space assigned to her apartment. At least she had clothes. The club had given her a huge duffel bag full of Real Martinez gear she could wear - she just needed to sort some underwear. She could pretend she was on holiday. It was absolutely okay. There was even a cute little balcony. She opened the double doors that led to it and stepped out. The heat was not so intense now and the sun would be diving behind the mountains in half-an-hour-or-so. A small table and two chairs had been provided. She plonked herself in one of the chairs to admire the view and tried desperately to focus on the positives; and she was succeeding until the other empty chair began to make her uncomfortable. She and Kate had been on some memorable holidays. Football had never allowed them much time off. They were both always called up for international team duties when they weren’t playing for Hanmore, but they’d made the most of the rare weeks and weekends off they were given. Their trips to Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and the beaches of Greece and Jamaica had been lovely. Well, she’d been having a lovely time; maybe Kate had been pretending.  

At least they’d never holidayed here. The only time they'd ever been to Spain together was as part of Hanmore's Champions League Squad - when they'd been ferried from plane to hotel, to stadium, and then back to plane. 

A knock at the front door startled Eve out of the past and she rose to answer it quickly. Maybe it was her shipment from London and Lucia's 'is Spain' was wrong. 

However, there were no removal men on the other side of the door, only Lucia Perez herself. She was holding out a tupperware container, the contents of which looked inviting. 

‘I have too much, so…there is restaurant on corner, good, if like Tapas. Not English food, no fish the chips.’ 

Eve’s thoughts were jumbled and confused. Where had Lucia come from? How did she know where Eve lived? Was it Paella in the tupperware container and was she supposed to take it? Why was she talking about the restaurant on the corner, was she being asked out to dinner?’ 

They looked at each other for a few moments before Eve reached out and decided she was supposed to accept the food. ‘Thanks.’ 

‘You stuffs not here?’ 

‘No.’ 

‘Is Spain.’ 

‘Yeah. Spain.’ Eve nodded. ‘Is Spain.’ 

Then Eve said ‘well’ to fill the silence at the same time as Lucia said ‘so’.  

Lucia took a step back but then pointed past Eve and into the apartment, towards the balcony. ‘I am there.’ 

Eve was confused again. Did Lucia want to come in, and onto her balcony? The girl didn't even seem to like her. Nevertheless, Eve stood back to let her pass, but Lucia already had a hand raised in goodbye and was headed back down the hallway in the direction of the lifts. 

‘It smells great, thanks again,’ Eve called out, but it was too late. Lucia was already gone. 

There was at least china and cutlery in the tidy little kitchen. She hadn’t even thought she was hungry before Lucia had knocked on the door, which was crazy considering she hadn’t eaten anything on the plane and had trained since. Now though, as sweet and spicy aromas filled the air, Eve’s stomach began to protest and growl. She emptied the food out onto a plate and took it onto the balcony to eat. It was good and was gone in less than ten minutes. Momentarily, life didn’t feel so bad. The town was glowing now, lights and candles came on and below her balcony, gentle music was playing. It was just a girl and a guitar, maybe coming from the restaurant that Lucia had mentioned earlier.  

It was a pretty view.  

Her phone beeped and Eve retrieved it from her pocket to see another message from Poppy. 

Don’t go on your phone Bab. No Insta k? 

Eve Flinched. She loved Poppy dearly, but it was the wrong advice. Eve hadn’t even thought about Instagram; her brain had been too busy working out the details of her new life to even think about social media. Now, of course, she needed to know exactly why she was being warned away from it. 

She tried to resist, her forefinger hovered over the app. With a deep breath, she opened it, thinking she would rather know than not know. 

And there they were - Kate, her ex-girlfriend, and Sam, her ex-teammate and supposed friend - now happily together and not shy about it. The post was entitled ‘August’ and there was a mixture of pictures to scroll through of the happy new couple on holiday. Though the last picture was one of them in a car, headed in for Hanmore’s first training session of the new season. Eve had blocked them both already, but she followed enough women’s football accounts that the photos popped up anyway, having being reposted over and over again. She could have blocked a hundred users and still seen them. The pictures had spread far and wide. Sam was beloved by Hanmore fans. She was a cocky, loud character, aggressive on the pitch but talented and funny too. 

Her fans were plenty, they found her on-pitch antics funny and celebrated her numerous yellow cards. Eve had also once laughed along. She’d drunk with Sam, ate with her, put her arm around her when they’d lifted trophies and hugged her consolingly when they’d lost big games. They had been friends. She initially put the phone down but then picked it up again, drawn as much as she dreaded reading them, to the comments section of one of the posts. It was like having a scab that she couldn’t help but pick at, even though she knew it would make the wound worse. 

After reading a hundred versions of ‘oh, they're together now? they’re so cute.’ Eve put the phone down, stood up and considered - though not very seriously - throwing herself off the balcony. Only when she was standing up did she see that there was someone opposite. It was a small, private estate, and the building across the way was the same as hers. It was entirely the sort of place that a football club might house two new players in, and so she was not that surprised to see Lucia Perez, also sitting out on her balcony. Eve realised what Lucia had meant earlier when she had pointed and said, ‘I am there.’ She had seen Eve, across the way, and brought food. Now though, Lucia looked entirely unaware of anything about her and was staring into the darkness, thoughtfully, her legs crossed at the ankles. her feet resting on the chair opposite.