God Of football

Chapter 1042: Brunch!

As quickly as the evening had approached, the morning arrived too.

The curtains hadn’t been drawn completely the night before, and through them, the California sun slipped through the gap in soft strips, laying pale bands of light across the bed.

Izan blinked awake, and for a few breaths he let his eyes adjust.

He looked slightly disoriented still from his sleep, so he lay unmoving for a while before looking beside him when he felt okay.

There, Olivia lay, hair sprawled half across Izan’s frame and the other half across the pillow.

A faint smile found him as he stared at her.

Luis de la Fuente had practically pushed him out of camp, insisting he stop thinking about football for once and now he was feeling a bit glad he had listened.

Carefully, he reached over and brushed a lock of hair away from her face before letting his fingers drift gently through it.

She stirred and grumbled.

"...Mm..."

Her nose wrinkled while she leaned more towards Izan.

"Sleep..." she mumbled, eyes still firmly shut while a chuckle escaped Izan.

"You should."

Olivia answered by shifting a lot closer still without opening her eyes, lazily resting a hand against his chest before going quiet again, the stirring replaced by her steady breathing.

He leaned back into the pillow, and for a while, he felt that the silence suited him.

...

The next time either of them opened their eyes was because his phone erupted somewhere on the bedside table.

The alarm buzzed insistently as Izan groaned before reaching over blindly until his fingers found it.

Silence returned, and gladly so.

He rubbed a hand over his face before finally climbing out of bed.

"I’ll be back."

Olivia answered with something completely unintelligible before burying herself deeper beneath the blanket, and he couldn’t help but smile at that.

After everything they’d done the previous day, he felt like he’d slept in a suit of armour.

He stumbled into the shower, and he was glad he did as the water washed away the remnants of sleep.

By the time he returned, dressed only in a towel around his waist, steam still trailing behind him, Olivia hadn’t moved an inch.

"...Impressive," he muttered as he glanced at the clock that was showing late morning time.

It got to a point where one got tired of sleeping, but it seemed that threshold didn’t hold the same for his girlfriend.

He smiled to himself, but before he could do anything else, a knock sounded throughout the room.

Izan glanced toward the door, thinking, "Who..." while he quickly pulled on the previous day’s shorts before throwing a plain white T-shirt over his head and making his way across the room.

The door swung open, and immediately, a voice started.

"How long did you intend to sleep? Anyways, Mom wants to know if you wanted to come for brun—"

Hori, taking her eyes off her phone, couldn’t finish.

The sentence died halfway out of her mouth as she stared at Izan, who also stared back.

Neither of them spoke until after several painfully long seconds had passed, and after that, Hori slowly leaned sideways to read the room number.

After checking to see that it was the right one, she looked back at her brother.

"..."

"..."

Without saying a single word, she simply turned around and walked away, and Izan didn’t either.

He just shut the door quietly, and then rested his forehead against it.

"...Yeah," he muttered before looking across the room.

What had just happened wasn’t going to stay quiet for very long.

Almost exactly five minutes later, Olivia finally wandered out of the bathroom, still drying her hair with a towel.

"Why do you look like you’re tired already?" she muttered with a smile as Izan glanced at her.

"I might actually be," he replied as she came forward, grabbed the same towel she was using for her hair before tossing it over Izan.

"You’ll be good with me," she said with a smile as Izan wrapped his hands around her waist, not bothering to take the towel off her head.

Hori was halfway through her iced coffee before she finally stopped and glanced up.

Her eyes drifted from Olivia’s hand wrapped around Izan’s forearm, to Izan himself, then back again.

"...Really?" she said, looking at Olivia, who looked back questioningly and with a teasing smile.

"What?"

"Let him have his space!"

"No."

"And why?"

"Because I like it."

Hori stared another second before looking at her brother, who was looking at an entirely different scene, with that scene being his mother.

"When did you come?" Miranda said without looking up from the menu.

"It’s honestly a little disheartening that you come without informing us, and then you come straight to your girl. This is why they say it’s not worth giving birth to boys."

"Like you would know something about that," Hori said with a smile as Miranda, acting shocked, pulled closer towards Hori.

"We are in this together!"

While she said that, she glanced at Izan, staring at him for what seemed like an eternity while he slowly lowered his menu.

"...No."

At that, Miranda’s mouth opened and then closed.

"I haven’t said anything," she complained while Izan shook his head.

"I do not need you to say it! It’s written all over your face!"

"What’s written over my face!?"

"The one that makes me money. It’s good and all, but not this time," Izan said as Miranda placed a hand against her chest.

"I am deeply offended."

"You’ll be more than okay by the end of this World Cup!"

"I might not."

"You definitely will."

Hori snorted into her drink as a second later, the waitress finally appeared, taking everyone’s orders before disappearing back inside, leaving the five of them beneath the shade that stretched over the terrace.

For a while, the conversation wandered without direction, and it was only after the food arrived did Miranda circle back.

"So..."

Izan looked up.

"So?"

"You came all the way here before the team."

"I did."

"Which means Luis actually let you do so."

"Did it look like I ran?" Izan inquired as Miranda rolled her eyes.

"He was the one who encouraged it, actually."

"...Seriously?" Hori said while leaning forward.

"He thought I needed a day away from football."

"And did you?"

Izan took a sip of his coffee before nodding.

"More than I realised."

Komi smiled quietly before reaching over and brushing a hand against Izan’s cheek, something he always tried to avoid but always failed.

"I thought so."

"I feel better," he said before she could ask.

"I can tell," Komi replied as the waitress came around again, this time with the food in tow.

Komi reached out, holding Izan’s hand in prayer and only when Izan finished saying grace did she finally begin eating.