Back to us | Alexia Putellas

Shall we?

When I arrived back at the house from walking Nala I headed straight into the kitchen to find Eli, the smell of delicious food letting me know that it was where she would be. She was busy tidying up when I walked in, but she soon turned her attention to me.

"How was your walk? I bet it was nice to get out for a bit" She smiled.

"Yeah, it was good. Was everything ok with Ale?"

"Yeah, everything was fine. I know that things are bad right now, but they will get better. She just needs to get her head around it all" she said reassuringly as she made her way across the kitchen towards me.

"I know, I just wish that I could fix it for her..."

"Me too, but we can't, we just need to be there for her"
"How are you doing?" Eli asked, placing her hands on my shoulders.

"I'm ok" I faked a smile, desperate to show Eli that I could be there to look after her daughter and my wife when she needed me the most.

Eli immediately pulled me into a hug that seemed to last forever, which I needed more than I realized. After chatting for a while, she collected Alba from the living room and they both said their goodbyes to Ale before heading towards the front door. I walked them to their car to say goodbye, giving them both hugs and thanking them for coming to help. I waved to them as they reversed off the driveway, The relief that I had felt for the last few hours suddenly disappeared as I was on my own again to look after Ale. I loved Ale more than anything and wanted to help her as much as I possibly could, but I was exhausted.

I headed back inside and made my way to the living room. Ale was in the same place she had been all day, on the sofa watching TV and scrolling on her phone.

"I'm just going to go and have a shower, do you need anything before I go upstairs?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you" She said. More than a one-word answer, it's an improvement at least.

I headed upstairs and made my way into the bathroom, turning the shower on and waiting for it to warm up while I stripped from the tracksuit that I had been wearing for days. As I stood in the shower with the hot water running down my back, I could feel my eyes flickering shut, barely able to keep them open for a second longer. I finished washing my hair and climbed out, wrapping myself in my towel and making my way into our bedroom.

Once I had changed into some clean clothes and dried my hair I headed back downstairs to check on Ale and see if she needed anything. It was usually the evenings when she became restless and frustrated. She wasn't used to sitting around the house all day, she'd usually have been at training for a few hours before coming home to cook dinner and take Nala out for a walk, so she was understandably finding this difficult.

I sat down on the smaller of the two sofas and looked over at her, only to find that she was already staring at me. Her hazel eyes seemed different to how they had been over the last few days, they didn't look as dull... There was a hint of the sparkle that I knew so well.

"Come here you" She smiled across the room at me, patting the empty space next to her.

I stood up cautiously and made my way towards her, gently placing myself down next to her not wanting to hurt her knee. She reached across and took my hand in hers, intertwining our fingers as she rubbed her thumb along the back of my hand.

"I'm so sorry carino" she spoke softly, her voice calm as she continued to massage the back of my palm.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for" I reassured her, resting my head on her shoulder, the warmth of her body against mine making me relax for the first time in days.

"I have... I've been so in my head since it happened that I forgot about our date" She smiled, placing a kiss on top of my head.

I lifted my head from her shoulder to look up at her, the sparkle in her eyes was definitely back now as she smiled down at me, her hand gripping mine tightly.

"What date?"

Ale adjusted her position slightly, her other hand reaching to the left and rummaging under the cushion that was next to her, pulling out a blue and white box and placing it on my lap.

A pregnancy test.

"Shall we?" she smiled, squeezing my hand as we both stared down at the box.

My stomach suddenly filled with nervous butterflies, seeing the test in front of me made it feel real again after days of ignoring the situation. Deep down I think I knew what the result was going to be. I had woken up feeling nauseous every morning for the last week, my breasts had been aching... and my period was 4 days late. I had pushed all of these symptoms to the back of my mind, putting all of my attention on Ale because she needed me, but I couldn't ignore them anymore. This was really happening.

"I think I am" I whispered.

Ale's smile suddenly grew.
"Let's find out for sure then shall we?"

I nodded and went into the bathroom to take the test. I peed on the stick and set a three-minute timer on my phone before returning to the living room and sitting back down next to Ale, placing the test face down on my lap as we waited.

As the seconds ticked by every emotion was going around in my head. I was nervous about the result, scared that it could be negative, excited that it might be positive, and what that would mean for us as a family. The time felt like it was going by so slowly, the three minutes felt more like three hours, and when the timer on my phone finally rang out I felt sick.

"Can you look?" I asked Ale while squeezing her hand tightly.

"Yeah?" she asked, reaching for the test and waiting for me to answer before she looked.

"Yeah, I can't. I feel sick"

Ale turned over the test and looked at the result window before turning to look at me. The huge smile that was spreading across her face told me the answer before she did. The tears began to brim in both of our eyes as we stared into each other's.

"Isy!" she beamed before she leaned into me and captured my lips with hers.

"We're having a baby!"