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Chapter Text

‘And here’s your keys to your apartment. You were made aware right, you're sharing??’

Caroline nodded her head, seeing the woman’s concerned look drop, smiling instead.

‘Ah good, really busy this year, especially with the amount of overseas students like yourself.’ She looked at her computer a little more. ‘Although I can see you’re not actually sharing with one, you’ll be sharing with a Spanish fifth year, a lovely one as well.’

Nodding her head and offering a curt smile, the Norwegian grabbed her keys, thanking the accommodation officer, going out the door to find the correct block.

Finding her block, she trudged up the three flights of stairs to come face to face with apartment 810, the place she’s going to live for the next year. Staying in university accommodation while trying to finish her PHD honestly wasn’t her ideal situation, even when it was only university controlled studio apartments. Even less so when she found out she would have to share a room with an unknown person.

She would have preferred to find a place to rent, but Barcelona was a lot more expensive than she realised and lacked places with one year rent options, so she found herself propping the door open with one bag and pulling a suitcase and three more bags into the room instead.

But on the bright side, she only had a year of her PHD left and to get to spend it in sunny Spain was exciting, even if she didn’t know who she would be sharing a space with for that time.

By the looks of things, Caroline was pleased. The kitchen was tidy, clean surfaces, as was the bathroom. She walked into the bit she was most nervous about, the one bedroom section of the apartment, but was pleasantly surprised to find a spacious room with two beds on each side and a window in the middle.

The second bed that was already occupied, Caro was pleased to see, was made and the floor was clear. What really drew the Norwegian in was the photos above the bed. Loads of them, some of scenery, some with people, so many in fact that Caroline couldn’t actually work out which was her roommate.

She’s never actually seen a picture of her roommate, in fact she didn’t even know her name. The decision to come to Barcelona from her university in Oslo was a bit short notice, leaving not much accommodation left and not enough time for every relevant email to be sent her way.

Caroline supposed she would meet her at some point, so for now she started to unpack her stuff, making her bed, putting her clothes away, and putting her own photos up.
The Norwegian just about finished as she got a text from Ingrid asking to meet. She’d met Ingrid through the university back in Oslo. They’d both gone there for their undergraduate, meeting through playing 6-a-side football. They’d gotten on well, and as Caroline was making the decision on whether to come to Barcelona, it was Ingrid she had turned to.

She arrived in Barcelona two years ago, on the same university program that Caro had. Ingrid had liked it so much that she’d stayed after finishing, and was now very happy living in Barcelona in a tiny two bed apartment with her best friend, Frido. Currently, she was the one person in the entirety of Spain that Caroline actually knew.

Caro grinned when she saw Ingrid’s smiling face, as she sat down in a coffee shop with her coffee. They talked about the journey from Oslo to Barcelona, the university that Caroline would be starting at later in the week and Caro couldn’t stop Ingrid as she showed her pictures of the new cat she and her friend had recently got.

‘Oooh, actually, speaking of Frido, she wanted me to ask you a question.'

Caro’s brow furrowed, having never actually met the Spaniard and really having no clue what she would want.

‘Well, me and Frido play in a 6-a-side league on Wednesdays and we’ve just had someone drop out and we were wondering whether you would be willing to come and play. For a little bit anyway, until we find someone to permanently replace her.’ Ingrid smiled hopefully at Caro, who wasn’t entirely expecting that question.

‘It’ll be just like in Oslo, you, me, Guro, Ada, Maria - playing against Maren and Fran. It was so fun! It’s genuinely not much different to then really, everyone knows each other and it’s a good laugh, not too serious. Pleaseeee.’

Caroline sighed, no one, not even her, could really say no to Ingrid, ‘fine, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my PHD then I’ll come.’

‘Yayy!!!’ Ingrid was suddenly wrapping her arms round Caro, pulling her into a hug, who sat there and awkwardly patted her on the back.

‘Honestly it won’t interfere with studies, I’ve been a part of the team for nearly two years now and it’s only ever been good for me to get out there and do some exercise at the same time, and hey!!’ Ingrid’s eyes lit up as she realised, ‘you could also meet someone there! You never know.’

Caroline sighed; throughout the time she’d know Ingrid, the woman had for some reason been obsessed with finding the older Norwegian a partner. Or at least a date to go on. Caroline tried when she first moved to Oslo in her first year of university but she had been on some disastrous dates and ever since then had battered away any suggestion of going on another. But it seemed, even here in another country, Ingrid would try and set her up with someone.

‘We’ll see.’

‘It’s not a no!!’ Came the response and Caroline affectionately rolled her eyes.

They parted soon after, Ingrid sharing the details of the 6-a-side before leaving so that Caroline could note it down.

She walked back to her apartment, deciding it was in fact a good thing to say yes to. She knew she was painfully shy and struggled to fit in with others, so at least if she could see Ingrid each week, she would be making time to see other people too.

Chapter Text

Wednesday came, and Caroline got the bus down to the complex where the games were played. It had been a strange week for her, for starters she hadn’t actually met her roommate yet. The Norwegian thought she’d been in the apartment however the bed was still made like it was when she first moved in so she couldn’t be sure.

She had gone to two classes and they’d been good, she didn’t have a lot as a PHD student but it was useful to know that the ones she did have she’d be able to understand them. She started to learn Spanish about a year ago, having always wanted to visit Spain at some point, although her final year in the country hadn’t been on her plans.

The Norwegian was still getting used to the weather, getting off the bus in only a thin sweatshirt instead of her usual thick winter coat like in Oslo. She walked into the complex and quickly saw Ingrid standing with some friends dressed in the same shirt as her.

Ingrid saw her and came running over, ‘You came!! Oh I’m really excited for this, it’s going to be just like Oslo!! Come and meet Frido and the rest of the team and we’ll grab you a shirt.’ ‘Guys, this is Caroline, my friend from Oslo I was talking about!!’

Caroline couldn’t help but smile as Ingrid excitedly pulled her over to her friends, ‘This is Frido.’

A tall woman with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail held out her hand, smiling, ‘Hey, I'm Fridolina but you can call me Frido, everyone else does. It’s so nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you.’

‘Yeah I really hope you are as good as Ingrid says you are because we really need something up top, I can’t do it anymore,’ A woman standing next to Frido, bouncing a ball up and down with her feet went to introduce herself next, but was interrupted by a blonde woman standing the other side of her.

‘God Patri, calm down, you're going to scare her away. Hi I’m Alexia, please feel free to ignore Patri, we do most of the time.’

‘Hey!’ Patri said, kicking a ball towards Alexia, who expertly trapped it with her feet. Caroline was impressed. ‘Lordy you lot, she’s not going to want to play with us after this, hi, sorry I’m a bit late, I’m Marta.’

Caroline turned slightly to see the woman who had just appeared next to Alexia.

Oh

Oh.

Now she was pretty.

Quite tall, muscles and hair in a bun. Smile on her face she held her hand out to Caroline, who just stood there for a second before coming to her senses, reaching out her hand and shaking the Spaniard’s. ‘Hi I’m Caroline, nice to meet you.’

‘We’ve seen the videos of you that Ingrid’s shown us, so I’m sure you’ll fit in great with us. Don’t worry, we don’t take it too seriously,’ finished Marta with another smile.

‘And that is why we’ll never make it to the cup final this season if you have that attitude.’ Patri loudly exclaimed, turning on her heels and walking to the side of the pitch. Caroline smirked as someone behind her threw a ball at the Spaniard’s head. She watched it bounce off and Patri turned around, painting her finger at each person, before giving a hard stare and going to sit down.

‘Here’s your top, pop it on, the game’s going to start in a few minutes.’ Caro turned to see Ingrid holding out a red and blue striped shirt. ‘Hope they didn’t scare you off, they can be a little loud, and they’re only joking about, most of the time. The three Spaniards have known each other for years, and Frido came to Spain about two years before I did and met them really quickly.’

As Ingrid talked, Caroline’s mind began to wonder, finding Marta standing next to Alexia in front of her. Side profile towards the Norwegian, she was doing keepy uppys with a ball and Caro couldn’t help but think she was exactly her type. The winger was tall herself so always preferred if the women she liked were near her height, and it seemed Marta was only just a little shorter than her. Plus there was no doubting the Spanish woman was attractive.

She was brought out of her staring by Ingrid poking her in the arm, ‘hey you, we’re up.’ Both stood up and walked into the cage to play Caroline’s first game in two years. She thought as she took her place that she’d better not let Ingrid know about what she thought about Marta, god she would never hear the end of it.

//

‘Oh my god!’ Patri jumped onto Frido’s back who just about caught her, ‘that was incredible!!’

‘I told you it would be great!’ Ingrid swung her arm around her fellow Norwegian’s shoulders. ‘And you were incredible!’

‘Ing’s right Caroline, you played really well. Especially if it's been a while since you’ve played.’ Frido turned and smiled at her with Patri still on her back.

‘Thank you, I really enjoyed it.’

Alexia walked past her, going to help Patri get off Frido’s back, ‘well don’t get too comfortable, we’ve got a break now and a game after, so have a drink. But well done, the balls you put in were great.’

The Norwegian looked and saw Ingrid’s beaming face at the comment from Alexia, a player that Caroline had heard about her footballing ability, and the fact she was known throughout Barcelona for it; she smiled as Ingrid let go of her and instead attached herself to Alexia, pulling out her phone and catching up to Patri and Frido.

Caroline walked a little slower behind the group, watching them, thinking that her year may be looking up. It wasn’t necessarily going bad, but these girls seemed nice, and she loved football a lot so it was nice to play again with girls that seemed nice. It was a plus that they were good at football, that's for sure. She’d been in slight awe of Alexia as she scored two goals, and Patri’s through ball for one of the others was incredible. Frido could cross one second and the next she’d be blocking balls in her own box and Ingrid was still the same incredible defender she was in Oslo, defending with a grace that Caro could only dream of. And Marta.

Caroline had to catch herself a few times when she’d just been gazing at Marta play. She put in inch perfect tackles and seemed so sure of herself on the pitch in a way that left the winger a little amazed. Well, also the fact that Caro thought Marta looked good playing football, like really good. The Norwegian was realising that she might be nursing a little bit of a crush that she would have to unpack later.

‘They’re right, you were really good’ Caroline turned and blushed when she realised it was the Spaniard talking, ‘thanks’

‘No like really good, makes me wonder, ever tried to take it anywhere else?’ Marta replied, taking a seat on the floor, leaning against the railings.

‘It did cross my mind once.’ Caroline sat down next to her, surprising herself that she wanted to continue to talk to the Spanish woman. ‘I used to play in a team before I went to university. We were quite good actually, but my love of space, that’s what I’m doing my PHD on, won out in the end and I ended up going to uni in Oslo and stopping. I found I missed playing so joined a 6-a-side, which is where I met Ingrid,’ looking forward to smiling at her fellow Norwegian currently giggling at something on her phone with Alexia.

‘Fair play. Ingrid mentioned you are going through uni, me too actually. What year are you in?’

‘Final year PHD for me, what about you?’

‘Nice, Fifth year in Biology. I learned from Ingrid that Spanish unis work a little differently from Norwegian ones, so to put it in your perspective, I am also in my final year.’ Marta gave a lopsided grin and it caused butterflies in Caroline’s stomach

‘Congratulations.’

‘Thank you, it’s been long, especially seeing everyone finish and go out and find an actual job,’ nodding her head to her friends sitting in front of her, ‘whereas I’m still here, in university and even still living in university accommodation, which is not for the weak I can tell you that.’

‘Wait, what you living in university accommodation’ Caroline’s eyebrow rose, turning her head and looking fully at Marta who looked back at her with wide brown eyes.

‘Yeah in one of the duo studios. I was meant to have one to myself this year but at the last minute someone had to move in. Not that I’ve met them yet actually, I’ve only just got back to Barcelona from doing two week placement away and not yet been back. Came straight here from the airport.’ Marta explained her situation and raised her eyebrows at Caroline breaking out in a smile.

‘Ha no way. I also live in university accommodation. I moved in last week!’

Marta’s eyes lit up and matched the Norwegian’s smile, ‘Really, that’s incredible cause I don’t really know that many people living there this year and with you there, that’s great, we have to hang out. If you want to, of course.’

Would she want to?! Caroline was shocked, she never usually was the type of person to make friends with others easily, and if she did, it usually took time. But sat here with Marta on the side of a pitch, she felt completely at ease. It was something about the Spaniard that completely drew her in. Well the fact that she was really hot probably had something to do with it, but even then, Caroline didn’t hesitate in nodding her head and saying yes.

‘Nice. We will chat after, cause the game’s gonna kick off in a few.’

Chapter Text

The game finished and the team won comfortably 5-0. Caroline got two goals and an assist, and she came off the pitch smiling, laughing with Ingrid and Frido about something the Swedish player did in the game. She started to pick up her stuff on the side of the pitch and turned around to Marta coming towards her.

‘You taking the bus? I take it you live where the other PHD students live on campus?’

‘Yeah, I do’ and Caroline smiled as she saw Marta break out into one of her own and they walked out of the cage, making their way to the complex carpark.

‘Nice I do as well, we can get the bus together. Ingrid and Frido live across town near Alexia so she drives them back and Patri lives with her girlfriend about 10 minutes away. Does that sound ok? Or I mean you know are you going home with Ingrid I hadn’t even thought about that cause if you are that’s fine. She’s your friend and I am going to shut up now.’ The Spaniard stopped talking and gave a cautious smile to Caro, raking her hands through her hair, before putting it back in a bun.

Caroline giggled at Marta’s blushing face, ‘Yes, I will get the bus back with you.’

The defender’s face visibly relaxed as she grinned, ‘Nice, lemme get my stuff outta Ale’s car.’

She ran off towards Alexia and Ingrid upon seeing her come up beside her, turned around to see Caroline walking up to her.

‘Hey you going to be alright getting home? I forgot to say I get a life back with Alexia to the other side of town and it’s dark now.’

‘Yeah I’m fine. I’m going home with Marta.’

‘Really!!’ Ingrid’s face lit up and her voice a whisper, ‘oh my god I mean she is exactly your type so that doesn’t surprise me but what does surprise me is that you’ve done something about it so quickly!’

Caroline’s face went bright red, ‘no!! I didn’t mean that you dodo!! I mean we were talking and it turns out we live in the same uni accommodation block, so we’re getting the bus back together.’

Ingrid’s face changed and her voice turned back to a normal volume, ‘Oooh that makes sense yeah I forgot she did actually. Well in that case, let me know when you get back again, thanks so much for coming, you were amazing.’ The Norwegian gave Caro a hug and did the same with Marta by passing her to Alexia’s car. The other three waved at her, shouting their thanks and Caroline turned to see Marta smiling at her.

‘You ready?’

Caroline smiled back, ‘let’s go.’

///

‘And she then took another oyster and ate that one instead!’

Caroline broke out into laughter again as Marta finished her story about a time her, Alexia and Ingrid had had a bad experience with oysters. They’d been swapping stories since they’d left the carpark of the complex; although it had started off with stories about Ingrid, they’d soon brought up other people and kept the conversation going with ease the entire way back to the accommodation block.

Marta grinned at her before digging her keys out of her bag, ‘Well this is me,’ tilting her head back to the building behind her.

Caroline took a sharp look up at her from digging out her own keys, ‘What? No way, I’m also living here.’

‘Wow, we are closer than we thought, what floor?’

Caroline followed Marta through the door before replying, ‘Floor 3, and what I don’t get is that it doesn't correspond to the number of the apartment I live in; it is very confusing.’

‘Yeah no I agree but also me too!’ Marta excitedly turned round and grinned at Caroline, who was following her up the stairs, thinking the Spaniard looked adorable.
She carried on talking and Caro kept watching her so didn’t clock how far down the corridor she came face to face with apartment 810 and Marta putting her key into the lock.

‘This is me, which one are you?’

///////

Holy shit she had a problem.

It was 6.30 in the morning. Caroline’s alarm had woken her up at 6 so she could get ready for the day but she’d spent the last 30 minutes in bed going through everything in her head.

After they’d got in last night, Caro kept quiet, not really sure what to make of the situation and if Marta noticed anything she didn’t say. Not much time passed until Caroline excused herself and went to bed. Surprisingly she fell asleep quickly, but now she was up, and she was overthinking the entire situation.

This was the issue with getting out of the house, not focusing on her studies. She should have never agreed to meet up with Ingrid, let alone agree to come along to her 6-a-side games. Maybe she would have realised the mutual connection to Ingrid in a few weeks of living with Marta. That would have been easier than meeting her before she knew she was living with her.

Not just living with her, if Caroline were to turn her head to the left she would see the still sleeping Spaniard in her own bed, dead to the world and completely unaware of the turmoil going on in her Norwegian roommate’s head.

But because Caro had met her before, back when she was just her friend’s friend that she was meeting for the first time, she was able to think about how attractive she found Marta, how she would have probably gone to bed that night thinking of her, which was all completely inappropriate things to think about when the person was asleep less than ten feet away from her!

Caroline sighed, she couldn’t believe she had got herself into this mess, especially when her studies were so important, she didn’t have time for distractions.

Getting out of bed and trying her best to keep the noise to a minimum, she got dressed and slipped out of the apartment before Marta woke up.

And that’s what happened for the next month. A routine of Caroline getting up early and leaving before Marta even opened her eyes and Marta returning from her day when Caroline was already asleep in bed.

Caroline didn’t exactly offer much in the way of conversation and kept herself to herself. She tried not to think about Marta at all, and she didn’t attend another football game either, telling Ingrid she needed to focus on her studies and leaving it at that. The Norwegian was confused, as she thought Caro had had a good time at football but knew Caroline well enough to know when the girl needed some space.

Ingrid was confused about Marta though. Every week now when football came around the Spaniard would play but decline any suggestion of a beer after the game or meeting up during the week. She and the others speculated about what was going on but Marta was her own woman and if she needed any help, Ingrid knew she would ask.

As for the Spaniard herself, to be honest, Marta was a little confused. She’d loved the first time Caroline came to football, she’d loved the Norwegian’s calm presence and her skills on the pitch and had enjoyed their conversation off it. Marta was the type of person to talk to anyone really but there was something about the conversations she had had with the Norwegian that made her want to find out more about her.

She had been thrilled when they arrived at the apartment and learnt they were living together and she thought Caroline had been feeling the same. But when a month had passed and they hadn’t spoken more than a few words to each other since that day, she had started to wonder if it was in fact her that had done something wrong.

Marta spent hours thinking about, in the lab when she was supposed to be thinking about microscopes, it was Caroline in her head instead as she replayed their conversations over and over again in her head.

Whenever football came along, despite only playing one game with the Norwegian she’d spend each game looking up expecting to see the winger in front of her, instead seeing Claudia, Patri’s girlfriend, instead. Claudia was good, really good even, but it still hurt when Marta looked up and saw her there instead of Caroline.

It hurt even more when she’d get home and see the sleeping figure of Caroline across the room, having spent another day not talking to her and wondering what on earth happened.

After a month, Marta realised she had to do something about it. She met Ingrid for lunch in the city, because she was the only person who even knew anything about Caroline.

‘Caroline? Is she the reason you’ve been down recently?’

‘I mean yeah.’ Marta shrugged in response. ‘We had some great conversations when she came to football a month ago, carrying on to when we got back, and then we realised we were going to be living in the same apartment and I haven’t heard a word from her since. I thought we got on well and I liked her. I was excited to live with her and it seems like I got it all wrong.’

Ingrid’s heart broke a little as she listened to Marta. She didn’t know another person who was as loving or as caring as the Spaniard was for other people and to see her so downtrodden about Caroline was sad to see.

‘Ok the thing about Caroline is she needs time to process things. Back when I first met her in Norway, it took weeks for her to talk to anyone. She came because of her friend Guro and she basically didn’t leave Guro’s side for two months. She eventually came out of her shell and we got to know her better and you know, here I am years later, talking about her to you. But remember, she’s moved to a new country, with a new language in quite an important part of her PHD and knowing her she probably loved talking to you at football. But because of everything else, she’s gone into her shell. She might just need some help getting out of it.’

Marta smiled gently, as Ingrid had been talking, a plan had formed in her head. If Caroline just needed a little help, well that’s something the Spaniard could definitely do.

She started by leaving little sticky notes around the apartment. At the start they just said things like ‘good morning!’ or ‘hope you had a good day!’. She would always sign them with an M and a x, and through the next week she started to see Caroline replying to them. Soon they ended up having whole conversations just via sticky notes stuck around their shared living space.

Then one day, after Marta had been leaving notes for three weeks, suddenly Caroline appeared in the kitchen when she was there making her lunch. She sat down and they ended up having a conversation about their studies. Marta was over the moon and grinned stupidly for an entire two days after it had happened.

One of those days was a day she turned up to football and the girls took the mickey out of her for smiling so much, even though they were pleased she was. The Spaniard didn’t see it but Ingrid stood smiling, pleased that she had taken her advice.

Over the next few weeks conversations between the two became more common. Caroline, although she still got in her head about Marta, had started to realise that maybe friends were ok. She’d struggled in the weeks after the football game. Moving all of a sudden to a new country with a new language had caught up with her and she did her usual of clamming up and going into hiding.

But in a difference to what had happened before, Marta had given her space and started with the sticky notes. Caroline smiled so much when the first one appeared, although she was a little confused at first. As more appeared, she felt the need to respond to them, wanting to thank the Spaniard for giving her the space and the time she needed, even if she felt terrible that she basically blanked her after they’d had such a good time.

When she’d eventually got the courage to talk to Marta, even with the most basic conversation about their studies, Caroline was thrilled and caught herself several times the next day smiling, thinking about Marta.

Even with the time she'd spent not talking to anyone the Spaniard had been far from her mind. Mostly she’d felt awful that she’d not been more communicative with her, but there was a small part of the Norwegian that reminded her at least once a day of a bit of a crush she had on the woman. That caused even more guilt in her, Caroline didn’t even know if Marta liked women.

However, around a week after conversations had returned between the pair, they found themselves sitting at the table having a discussion about politics, ending on talking about Swedish politics, which Caro knew about as she was interested in the topic as a whole and Marta knew from Frido.

Caroline blushed as Marta brought up Magdalena Eriksson, a Swedish politician who the Norwegian always thought was very pretty. She was pleased when Marta talked in detail and with such emphasis supporting the relationship Eriksson was in with Danish business woman Pernille Harder, making Eriksson one of the only out politicians in Europe.

Caro was pleased on a base level, she didn’t want to live with someone who was homophobic, but also on a personal level; the Spaniard had some strong opinions on the subject and she could just be a very passionate ally but the Norwegian did wonder if there was something else there.

Chapter Text

Two months into her being in Barcelona, Caroline met Ingrid for coffee. She hadn’t seen her in several weeks and was starting to feel bad about it, but Ingrid being Ingrid didn’t seem to care and wrapped her up in a hug when Caro walked into the cafe.

‘I am so pleased to see you!! I have so much to tell you about my cat, he is a nightmare but oh my gosh he is the cutest thing in the world!’

Caroline instantly felt so much at ease, sat in a cafe with her friend, laughing over stories of a chaotic cat.

Once their coffees had come, Ingrid put her phone down and looked at Caroline. ‘Ok, time to get serious for a second, are you ok? You haven’t come to football again and I thought you liked it?’

Caroline looked at Ingrid’s concerned face and sighed, ‘To be honest with you, I’ve struggled a little bit. Meeting Marta then finding out she’s my roommate should have made me really happy, and it did, mostly. But I over thought it and it all became a bit too much. Instead of talking and opening up like I should have, I went within myself because that was the easiest thing to do. And I feel awful because she was so nice to me that day and I just didn’t speak to her after. But then she started leaving me these notes and they were so nice and we started having proper conversations and it’s been lovely. I’ve enjoyed getting to know her but part of me still feels bad about it.’

Ingrid watched with a gentle smile on her face as she saw Caroline’s face light up as she talked about Marta. She had her suspicions about what was going on there but she first had to deal with the first factor. ‘I think you need to have a proper sit down conversation with her, explain to her what happened and I’m sure she’ll understand. Marta’s a lovely person and by the sounds of it, she only wants to get to know you and be a friend to you.’

Caroline sighed, she did feel better sharing her problems with Ingrid, a person she trusted completely and it was the push she needed to have a proper conversation with Marta.

She walked away after the coffee date with a new sense of confidence and she now had a plan.

She wanted to make it up to Marta for essentially ignoring her for a month. It started with getting information from Ingrid about Marta's favourite restaurant, which she booked a reservation at a time she knew Marta wasn’t in the lab a few days later.

The morning of, she wrote instructions on a sticky note to stick in a place she knew the Spaniard would see because she had an early morning class to get to.

Then at 8pm she stood anxiously outside the restaurant, hoping beyond hope that Marta would turn up.

She did, turning the corner just as Caroline turned around.

The Norwegian’s mouth dropped open; Marta was wearing clothes Caro had never seen before and she looked incredible. Hair curled and pinned half up, half down with a little bit of makeup on that made Caro’s stomach flutter with not just nerves.

Taking a big breath, she tried to shove down those feelings, she couldn’t think of that, not when she had important things to say to the Spaniard, who had reached her.
‘Hello, you look nice.’

Caroline blushed at Marta’s words. ‘Thank you, you too. You ready to go in?’

The Spaniard nodded her head and the pair went inside. Having been shown to their seats and ordered, Caroline watched Marta sit back in her chair and suddenly had a funny feeling she knew what was going to come out of the older student’s mouth.

‘So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?’ Caroline somewhat relaxed as she saw that easy going smile of hers that the Norwegian was getting used to seeing on her face.

‘Well, I felt really bad about the past few weeks and I wanted to say sorry. I hope that’s ok.’ Caro smiled an uneasy smile but let out a hum as Marta reached across the table to hold her hands.

‘You don’t have to apologise for anything, but I’m glad you’re talking to me.’

‘I made this reservation because I wanted to explain properly.’ Caroline carried on not sure where this confidence came from, considering the amount of stressing she had put into the situation, but sitting across from Marta gave her a sudden sense of calm she hadn’t felt in a long time. Trying to not think into why this was too much, she continued.

‘I’m sorry for the fact that the night after the football, I basically ignored you for a month. I got in my head that night and over-thought things and it all got a bit much and I decided the best thing to do was to not talk to anyone. I know that was the wrong thing and I am sorry for doing it. I’m shy a lot of the time and I struggle to connect to people so when I met you that night and you were so nice to me, it threw me for a loop and I didn’t know what to think. I’ve regretted doing it ever since, and I’m sorry if you ever thought it was something you did because I promise you’ve only ever been nice to me.’

Caroline took a deep breath and looked up and was pleased to see Marta looking right back at her, smiling gently.

‘I was more concerned than anything. You seemed so chatty at football and seeing you the exact opposite ever since made me worry it was something I’d done or said.’

Caroline internally sighed, as that was exactly what she had been worried about, but didn’t say anything as Marta kept going.

‘I didn’t know what to do really so I just left you work through anything you needed to. Then after a while, I talked to Ingrid and she confirmed that you just needed some space and that you would talk to me eventually.’

‘You spoke to Ingrid?’ Caro raised her eyebrows, she didn’t know that.

Marta smiled softly again and blushed, ‘Yeah I wanted to make sure you were ok and if there was anything I could do that would help.’

‘Huh, well thank you. I appreciate that.’

Marta looked across the room and saw their waiter coming with their food, ‘no worries, now are you ready to taste some of the best crab you’ve ever had?!’

Their food came and the pair had a great time, it was like the first time they’d met. Conversation flowed and Caroline’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much. She remembered exactly why she found it so easy to be in Marta’s company and found herself wishing the past two months had never happened.

When the food was cleared away, Caroline sat studying Marta and a thought came to her.

‘You know when I moved in, the lady at the desk that gave me my keys said you were really lovely.’

Marta chuckled, ‘really.’

Caroline raised her eyebrows, ‘Is that surprising?’

The Spaniard shrugged her shoulders and smirked, ‘I mean kinda, I used to date her daughter and it ended kinda badly. I was never entirely sure what her mother thought of me, even when I was dating her daughter, even less so now when I only see when I have to go to the front desk.’

‘Oh, ok,’ Well that confirmed the theory the Norwegian had about her roommate.

Marta smirked again and leaned forward a little, ‘why do you ask? Do you disagree with Ana from the front desk?’

Caroline went bright red and started to stutter out something before looking at Marta properly and finding her grinning.

‘I’m only teasing really, sorry. But I think you could be quite fun to tease.’

This only made Caro blush harder, though she didn’t say anything because Marta carried straight on.

‘Shall we make a move then?’

The pair made their way out of the restaurant, pausing for Marta to put on her jacket outside. Once she’d finished, she held out her arms.

‘Hug?’

Not really one for physical affection but finding that Marta looked just so darn cute, Caroline nodded her head.

Stepping forward, Marta wrapped her arms around the Norwegian. Despite being smaller, the Spaniard took Caro in her arms, holding her close, allowing her head to rest on her shoulder and smiling when she heard a sigh.

‘Well,’ Letting go and holding out her arm the Spaniard grinned, ‘let’s go home.’

Caroline chuckled at how ridiculous Marta was being, but still linked her arm with hers and found herself giggling all the way back to their shared accommodation.