Teenage Dream • Fermín Lopez

Chapter 41: A Night at the Zoo

🎶 Todo Contigo — Álvaro De Luna 🎶

Barca was playing against Porto next Tuesday and Carlos was currently bugging me to go with him. He should have gone with Fati, but she had an important exam coming up and went to study with her friends. I loved going to the stadium and watching Fermín, but we still hadn't told my brother about us and I hoped that I wouldn't let it slip. We still had to discuss about how to tell him and Fati as well as our families.

It was a nerve-wrecking game, Barca winning by just 2-1, however with Fermín benched. But all the other midfielders, except for Gavi, were back from their injuries and in an important CL match it was obvious that Xavi played his top-tier players like Frenkie and Pedri rather than the young academy players. But they qualified for the round of 16 and that was the most important thing tonight.

When I was back at home, I saw that Fermin texted me.

Fermin ⚽️❤️
How about I pick you up Thursday after work and we go on a date? 👩🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏼

Clara ❤️
I'm in 🥰
Where are we going?

Fermín ⚽️❤️
Zoo?

Clara ❤️
Aww that's romantic!! 😍

Fermín ⚽️❤️
Thx, I googled "romantic date ideas"

Clara ❤️
How to ruin my thoughts of you being romantic in 3, 2, 1...

Fermín ⚽️❤️
😂😘

And indeed, when I left work on Thursday afternoon, he was already waiting for me across the street with his Cupra that he usually drove to training now that he had gotten the sponsor's car.
"Hello, pretty girl" he said as I got into the passenger seat and leaned in to give me a kiss.
"Hey sexy guy" I chuckled as we pulled away for a second. He kissed me again and I pushed my tongue into his mouth, his hand moving higher up my thigh. It rested on my jeans' button but he decided to move even further up, slipping it under my blouse and cupping my right breast over my bra, letting a moan escape my mouth.

"I'm all for it, can you just drive... somewhere else? We're just across from work and I wouldn't want someone from there to see me... like this" I chuckled as I leaned my front against his. He laughed a bit and gave me another kiss before starting the engine and driving. It wasn't that far but we had to navigate the whole center through evening traffic which was a bit annoying. We finally arrived at the zoo's parking lot, I noticed a sign that it closed at 16.30 - and it was 17.45 now.

"Fermín... it's closed" I said disappointedly. I had looked forward to it, how could he have not checked the opening times?
"You really think I'm dumb?" he asked and shot me an are-you-kidding-me look before pointing at a huge poster next to the entrance.

A Night under the Stars
30th November 2023
open until 23.30!

"Oh wow..." I mumbled. "So you didn't just google 'romantic date ideas', you had a whole own thinking process!" I exclaimed and dropped my jaw.
"Of course, you really think I'd treat you like a basic girl? You're my Clarita and I gotta step up my game" he said and hit his chest with his fist. I blushed so hard that I looked as red as Charles Leclerc's Ferrari car probably and leaned in to kiss him.
"Ok... now it's my turn to say not here, there's kids!" he chuckled as he pulled away and pointed at some kids hopping out of a car that had just parked next to ours.
"Guess you'll have to come over later then" I said as I stroked my thumb over his lips and looked at him as seductively as possible.

Fermín bought our entrance tickets and the first animals we saw were orang-utans. Of course he couldn't restrain himself from commenting: "Hey, look they have more of you here!" with me shooting him a glare.
"Next date, you're going out with one of them, curious how you will 'step it up' then" I said annoyedly, imitating his words from before. He just laughed and slung his arm around my shoulder before kissing my cheek. Thankfully, the next animals were gorillas and I could exchange the "compliment".
"Look! Their pecs are almost as big as yours!" I shouted, groping his chest at which he only laughed, hugging me as tight as possible.

We continued our walk through the zoo, as it got darker and stopped for a quick bite as we were halfway through. Fermín had to go for a pretty disgusting looking salad as it was the only thing they had that he could eat according to his diet and he envied my Nutella crepe heavily.
"Boohoo, poor you, earning millions" I commented sarcastically to tease him about his diet.
"I'm far from earning millions" he huffed.
"How much do you earn?" I blurted out, but immediately realised that it was very personal to ask. "Sorry, I didn't want to-" I quickly said, but he waved me off.
"You're my girlfriend, of course you can know. It's pretty public anyways so... 15k a week" he admitted and my eyes popped out.
"That's so much more than I earn in a year" I said, my jaw dropping. "Ok, to be fair I work 8 hours a week with no special education, but still!" I continued, still shocked.

"Ok, so can we establish that you just never feel bad whenever I'm paying for something? It's not that I don't think you couldn't afford it but... I very much would love to treat you with nice meals and cool stuff, I can afford it and to be fair, I'm not spending it on you, but on us and that's an investment that's worth it in my opinion" he said and my heart melted. I just put my hand in his and nodded at him before giving him a quick kiss.

We continued walking on the trail as Fermin told me about how he signed as an Under Armour athlete, which was going to be announced shortly before Christmas. Talking about Christmas, he was bursting with pride as he dropped the news that El Campillo's football school was going to be named after him in a small ceremony the day before Christmas Eve. I was jumping up and down when he told me, I was so proud of him and everything he had achieved that tears shot into my eyes as I hugged him tightly. He laughed at my reaction but engulfed me even tighter in the hug. This felt like so much more than just a hug, it was a promise of everything that was to come and I was ready to do everything to support him on his career path - it was surreal to think he was one of the future bright stars of football, I still only saw that small boy from El Campillo in him, that loved his mother's strawberry cake, who played hours of football outside, no matter the weather, the boy whom I had trusted with my most intimate possession.

"I love you" I blurted out and he stopped walking to look at me in a mix of shock and surprise. Shit, I had jinxed it, it was way too soon.
"I love you, Clara" he said as his lips curled into a smile and he closed the distance between us to kiss me under a sky full of stars. It was a rare sight for a big city like Barcelona, but today the sky was clear and the stars were shining brighter than usual.

"We need to tell Carlito" Fermin said after we had finished our walk through the zoo and had returned to his car.
"We do. How about we all have dinner after the game on Sunday?" I asked. They were going to play Atletico at home and as I knew my brother, he would definitely go, probably with his girlfriend.
"Sounds good, I'll text the group chat" Fermín said before planting a kiss on my cheek and starting the engine.

OG19 🫡

Fermín ⚽️❤️
Yo guys y'all coming to the game on Sunday, right?
Shall we grab dinner afterwards?

Clarita ❤️
Yesssss sounds good! 👌🏼

Carlito 🧡
Ok

Fati 🐙
I'm in!!! 😊😊😊