Broken Promises (Cristiano Ronaldo)

Part 8

‘Here’s another daily delivery Clarissa’ Zulfiya informed her placing the bouquet of red roses on the desk closest to the door of Clariss’a office.

Three weeks had passed since the incident at the birthday party and every single day a bouquet of red roses were delivered to Clarissa; at work on weekdays and at home on weekends. She didn’t need to read the card to know that they were from Cristiano.

He had tried to comfort her and apologise to her after she had ran out of the kitchen but she had hurried into her car and had sped off before he had a chance to catch her.

He hadn’t done anything wrong to her and therefore his phone calls, texts and flowers were futile and frankly a waste of money in her eyes. However a part of her hated the fact that she distanced herself from him on the basis that his fiancée was a paranoid, selfish, egotistical woman who thought that Clarissa had ulterior motives despite her history with Cristiano as childhood friends.

She shuddered at the thought of trying to get Anselma to like her just so that she and Cristiano could keep their friendship alive. Besides, how was she going to get anywhere near Anselma to try and talk to her without being accused of trying to gain from Cristiano’s fame and wealth? If that had been her intentions she would have done it a long time ago and wouldn’t have wasted her time working hard to get to where she was today.

She sat at her desk, her head leaning on her palm while her elbow was propped up on the glass surface. She had to do something before she lost her best friend again; she nearly lost him when he left Manchester and the thought of losing him forever was unbearable.

As the thought crossed her mind she immediately sprung up from her seat, grabbed her handbag and jacket and swung her office door open which such enthusiasm, Zulfiya jumped in her seat.

‘Zulfiya, cancel the rest of my appointments for today, there’s something very important that I need to do and I’ll be gone for the rest of the day. With that she turned on her heel and headed towards the elevator.

It hadn’t taken her long to reach her destination as the streets of Madrid were deserted. She pulled up outside and gripped the steering wheel with both hands as thousands of thoughts raced through her mind as to what she was going to say.

She pushed the buzzer and looked into the camera above. Surprisingly the gates sprung to life without anyone saying a word, so far so good she thought to herself as she walked up the driveway, she had decided to leave her car parked outside in case she needed to make a quick exit.

Walking up the white marble steps she took a deep breath to calm herself down. Suddenly a beaming Cristiano appeared as the front door opened.

‘Clarissa! What in the world are you doing here?’ he asked genuinely surprised ‘Have you been receiving the flowers that I’ve been sending?’

‘Yes, and please stop, I don’t want you wasting your money’

‘In case you hadn’t realised, there’s no danger of my money running dry anytime soon’ he laughed, however he quickly stopped when he saw Clarissa’s expression.

‘I’ve actually come to see Anselma’ Clarissa informed him as she stood in the hallway taking in the vastness of the house.

‘She’s at a dress fitting for her wedding dress’ he replied, a hint of sadness in his voice at the fact that Clarissa wasn’t here to see him. ‘But you are more than welcome to stay and hang out’ he offered.

‘I. I don’t think that’s s good idea’ Clarissa shook her head and made a start back towards the front door.

‘No. Wait’ Cristiano had grabbed her arm causing her to stop. ‘Please stay, I’d really like to spend time with my best friend’

Clarissa turned to face him, the pleading in his eyes was overbearing that she found herself powerless.

‘Ok fine’ she sighed ‘But if Anselma comes home and tries to hit me again, I am blaming you’ she let out a little laugh.

‘Don’t worry, I would never let that happen’ he promised.

‘Would you like something to drink?’

‘No I’m fine thanks. How big is your house?!’ Clarissa exclaimed as she followed him into the kitchen.

‘Why don’t you come and see?’ he smirked.

He took her on a tour of the house; with every new room they entered Clarissa just stared in awe, she couldn’t believe how far Cristiano had come from that little humble house in Portugal to this magnificent palace.

They found themselves in the sitting room after an hour; two cups of steaming tea lay before them on a wooden table.

‘Aha! Here it is’ Cristiano exclaimed lifting a large photo album aloft.

Clarissa watched as he sat beside her and lay the album across their laps. She scooted closer so the book could lay flat.

‘Oh my gosh, is this what I think it is?’ Clarissa exclaimed, it had been years since she had seen this book and all its contents.

Her eyes scanned at the photos that were spread out before her, all the memories came flooding back. This was the photo album that she had put together for him before she had left for Manchester. It contained every single photo of the two of them together since the day that they had met.

They pointed and laughed as they recalled what was going on in each photo; birthday parties, trips to the beach and whenever they would stay football games in the front garden.

By the time they had come to the end of the book, the two had tears in their eyes; it was the last photo they had ever taken together; they were outside Old Trafford each holding a corner of a Manchester United jersey with ‘Ronaldo’ emblazoned  at the back.

‘It’s crazy how time flies’ Clarissa said, sadness evident.

‘It’s not too late to go back to the way things were’ and with that he turned to face Clarissa, his big brown eyes staring into hers, searching.

He lifted his left hand and tucked a loose strand behind her ear. His hand lingered and closely caressed her soft cheek feeling her warmth beneath his touch.

A flood of emotions came pouring back like a tsunami and before he knew what he was doing, Cristiano leaned forward.

‘Cris’ Clarissa turned her head so his lips met her cheek. ‘We can’t’ she looked into his eyes, a look of sadness and regret emanating from them.  

‘I know, I’m sorry. I guess I was trying to go back to the way things could have been if all this hadn’t happened’

‘It happened for a reason and I know that you don’t regret making your dreams come true.’

‘You were also part of my dreams’

A silence fell as Clarissa heard the words that she had longed to hear for many years but her heart sunk as the realisation hit her.

‘It’s too late Cristiano. You’re getting married and well we’ve not the same as when we were younger’

Cristiano nodded as he understood that there relationship would now only be as very best friends and frankly he’d rather have it like that than lose her from his life altogether.

In true Clarissa style she tried to relieve the tension.

‘So tell me, how are the preparations for the wedding coming along?’

‘Actually, there’s something about that I needed to ask you about’ he started.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘Clarissa… Will you be my Best Man?’